Cambodia/Thailand/Malaysia

Hi,

I agree with your choice of Angkor Wat, it is an amazing place! You should schedule a full two days there to be on the safe side.

Seeing Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok and making it most of your trip could be a little waste...

You also want to minimize your flying time...as whatever you do, it's going to be a long flight.

Options do vary...You could use the direct flight of Cathay to HK, or Singapore Airline to Singapore from NYC. Another alternative is to fly with Emirates. Thai used to have a direct flight, they stopped it....but are speaking of re-introducing it.

The question is simple...have you been to the region before? If not, I would skip KL for either an introduction to HK or Singapore on your lay-over.

If you do fly on Emirates, they have connecting flights to KL and BKK, so do an open-jaw. Try to make a 12-24 hours stop in Dubai...to do the 2 hours ski, one water park...and the sunset in the dunes.

Reaching Siem Reap is easy from Bangkok on Bangkok Airways, from KL, Air Asia fly there....so make sure you book your flights separately, will be cheaper.

Be careful, for the region, December is already high-season...well, with the current ash situation and Bangkok situation, not sure this is truly an issue.

I would finish the trip by Bangkok...way better than KL for shopping, and you don't want to carry all those things with you around the region.

So...land in KL, stay there for 24 hours...you will find in KL some of the cheapest hotels in the world, 100usd do buy you a very nice 5 stars...and 50usd a nice 4 star!

From there, I would go on a beach to get rid of your jet-lag...you can fly cheap and easy to places like Tioman, or Pangkor. Allow 2-3 nights. Back in KL, and transfer to Angkor for 3 nights...than direct flight to BKK. If you do have time left, keep some for a beach (fly to Krabi), or some countryside sightseeing (river Kwai Bridge)...

Hope this help,

Peter Reply to this

I haven't booked anything yet, still researching, but not going till at least november, looking towards december though too Reply to this

change date...going on 30 oct - 4 nov.. Reply to this

I think Bangkok is the easiest place to fly to from the states. If you want to get to the beaches, then I would recommend Thailand islands and cutting down your time in Bangkok. Most of the major islands are a good distance away from Bangkok, but I know you can fly to Ko Samui from Bangkok. From Bangkok it is a short flight to Siem Reap. We did most of the Angkor temples in one full day from sunrise to sunset. But it's a long day and you would probably need at least two nights in Siem Reap. Kuala Lumpur is very modern and surprisingly Americanized (there's even a Chili's there!). I loved the city, however, and would recommend it. Most of the major airlines will fly from BK or Siem Reap to KL. We had a longer time in that area, but I relate to the two week vacation thing. Feel free to contact me if you need any other suggestions and once you have your itinerary more set up. Reply to this

We traveled mostly over land, but when we flew in Asia we typically took Air Asia because it was the least expensive. We didn't use travel agents, unless they were agents at our hostel and that was for convenience only. You can easily book most of the stuff online on your own. Reply to this