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Our 9 week itinerary, Are we trying to do too much? all opinions welcome!

Tomhamish

motodop
Posts: 21

Hi

Me and my girlfriend are arriving in bangkok on the 15th of June and flying out again on the 18th of august. (around 9 weeks of travel)

(side note: where i say the number of days we are going to stay somewhere, this is only a rough estimate, this itinerary isn’t set in stone and i understand that sometimes ‘less is more’ in terms of planning)

The basic plan is a SEA loop, including:
Thailand (obviously)
Cambodia
Vietnam
Laos
in that Order.... so....

arrive in Bangkok, 2-3 days

Cambodia....
bus to Siem reap for 3 days
on to Phnom Penh for 1 day
kep- 3 days
sihanoukville- 3 days (possibly including an island)

Vietnam....
then on to HCMC 2-3 days, (+1 days travel)
up the coast to Mui Ne 2 days
then..
Dalat 1-2 days
Nha Trang 1-2 days
Hoi an 2-3 days
hue 1-2 days
and Hanoi for 5 days including halong bay trip

Laos....
and on again.... luang prabang 2 days
(Side note: not sure how to get here from Hanoi, we were thinking about going south in vietnam and crossing from Vinh, if anyone knows of the best way to get from Hanoi to LP please let me know)

Vang Vieng 2-3 days acting like typical Backpackers and going tubing!
Boat to Huay Xai (+1 day travel) and on to...

Thailand again
Chang Rai 2-3 days
Chang Mai 2-3 days
Train down to Bangkok (+1 day travel)
train to Surat Thani (+1 day travel) and on tooooo.....
Ko Tao 3-4 days
Ko pha ngan 3-4 days
Krabi 1 day
Ko Phi Phi OR Ko Lanta for 2-3 days

then up to Bangkok again for our flight home!

All in all we have 64 days to play with, having added up all of those days (taking the larger value each time) its come to 58 days, which leaves us with a 7 days buffer period just incase we are ill, or there are problems with bus routes, or we love somewhere loads and want to stay for longer.

This route is obviously subject to change, we may consider cutting out a few of the locations in Vietnam to have more time somewhere else. And of course you never know who you may meet backpacking, our plans are free to change at last minuet should we want to head off to some random island with a group of people or something.

What does everyone think? are we trying to do too much? or does this sound like a good route taking in most of the sites in the countries we are visiting?

sorry for the long post!!

Tom

#1 Posted: 20/4/2011 - 04:00
caseyprich

som tam seller
Posts: 672
Located in:
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In Hanoi you can book a 24 hour sleeper bus that will take you to LP. If you're short on time or tired of traveling I suggest you fly - the scenery is nice, but for a lot of that time it'll be dark and you won't see anything anyway.

How will you get from Cambodia to Saigon? You could go through the Delta - skimp a few days somewhere else and cross into the Mekong Delta via boat trip - hang around for a homestay, I hear it is wonderful. I've only spent a short time in Can Tho but thought it was great fun.

Ko Tao 3-4 days
Ko pha ngan 3-4 days
Krabi 1 day
Ko Phi Phi OR Ko Lanta for 2-3 days

With islands, I always think less is more for sure - that way you really get into the chill feeling that is what the beach is all about. I spent 2 weeks in the Ko Chang area and visited three islands, spent a few nights on each one and that was good. However, you're going to a totally different set of islands for just 2-3 days. Maybe better to see which islands are best in the season your traveling and stick to that archipelago.

You've got a lot of travel time between these places - I usually count a full day when I'm going from somewhere to another. So, though the mini-bus from Saigon to Can Tho was only 5 hours, by the time we got out of the hotel to the bus station, tickets, traffic, ferry, checked into the hotel . . that day was just about dinner in Can Tho. Keep that in mind.

#2 Posted: 20/4/2011 - 12:34