Thailand, laos, vietnam, cambodia

After years of putting of traveling I have decided its time to actually get on and do it and facing my fears of doing it alone.

I booked myself on a volunteer project to work with Elephants in Thailand for 3 weeks.
After this i am thinking of traveling up to chiang khong and crossing over into laos.
I didn't really want to plan to much and just go were i fancy going at the time but I am finding this hard to work out what type pf flight to get.

I was thinking of traveling around laos, then vietnam and down to cambodia.
I want to travel overland as much as possiable as i feel you get to see more and experiance more that way.
I have found a few activites in laos that i would like to do like the gibbon experiance and exploring a few caves so far. i would probably look at doing a few main activites in each place.

Does anyone have any idea on how long you think i should give each of these country when travling overland?

Is it better to see all of laos i want to see then fly over to hanoi and work my way back down vietnam and then cross over into cambodia?

or is it possable to zig zag a little from laos to vietnam or do imigration they frown upon that?

I was then thinking of flying back to bangkok from cambodia and traveling down to singapore via the train maybe doing a bit of diving along the way.
I have got a budget of around 5k for this leg of my trip do you think this would be anough when sticking to traveling overland?

Hope this thread makes sense quite new to this, any advice would be great

Thanks

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Hello Gemma - I agree with Deb it is best to make your arrangements on the ground, getting around is very cheap and easy, quite comfortable as well compared to Africa or Central/South America. Asia is also extremely safe. I travelled around the world last year (solo) and spent 5 1/2 months in SE Asia, going to Malaysia, Sabah (Borneo), Indonesia, Malaysia then overland through Thailand, Cambodia, up the length of Vietnam, Laos and back to Thailand.

Two weeks seemed plenty for Cambodia, outside of Angkor Wat (get 3 day pass min) there didn't seem much to see, though I am sure some would disagree. Everyone loves Laos, beautiful country, nice people and few touts. I just scratched the surface in 3 weeks. Vietnam is a bit less accomodating of tourists but interesting (Hanoi and Hoi An especially). Locals can be agressive, be prepared for touts and be extra vigilant with your bag. The beaches don't compare to Thailand, I would travel through southern Laos if I were to do it again instead of Southern Vietnam. I really enjoyed Indonesia, it wasn't originally in my plan but I am glad I went. The diving is incredible and dirt cheap. I also found Malaysia fascinating, great food from the blending of the 3 cultures there.

I spent about $1000 per month including rooms, food, transportation, sightseeing and about 30 dives (including dive course). That is eating mostly local food and staying in budget rooms in hostels.

Look at airasia.com to get an idea of how cheap travel is around there - most flights between Bangkok, Manilla, Kuala Lumpur and Bali are about $35.

Thumbing through the Lonely Planet SE Asia (aka the Yellow Bible) should help you decide where you may want to concentrate your time. It is very helpful for determining how long it will take to get from place to place as well as what you can expect to spend.

I liked SE Asia so much I am returning there in October for four more months (or so) to see the Phillipines and more of Indonesia and Malaysia. Don't worry about travelling alone, you will meet people everywhere you go, especially if you stay in hostels. Reply to this

any advice on how to get best culinary education in thailand, laos and vietnam Reply to this

i am in thailand after starting in north vietnam where i flew into hanoi from hong kong. i went north to sapa then travelled south through the country then across and up cambodia into laos then up to north thailand. this worked out as a good route for me but there are other ways of doing it. overland is easy as vietnam has a good rail network and the others have good bus networks so getting from place to place is not a problem.

the gibbon experience works out at 160 euros (~$240) and i would recommend it having seen some of my mates photos and videos from when they did it last week. Reply to this