enderzero 0 Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 These places have been touched on before, but I am just gonna go ahead and start a new thread. I am going with a buddy to SE Asia for 3 weeks. I am hoping some of you out there can give me some insight on places to go, routes to follow, things to avoid. Maybe there is something you wish you knew before taking off. Best way to get around, border crossing to be wary of, amount of time to be sure to spend somewhere, cities to skip, etc. Plan number one has us flying in to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, then working our way north up the Coast, then across Laos and into Thailand. Hang out in North/central Thailand and then down to Bangkok and out from there. The idea has also been proposed to fly in to Ho Chi Minh and take the southern route through the deltas and into Cambodia, visit Angkor Wat, and into Thailand from there. We will be going the last week of October. Any words of advice are greatly appreciated. Link to post Share on other sites
snowboard_freak 0 Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 Dude you'll love Bangkok. Crazy place. Make sure you check out Patpong (sp?) Makrets. They are at night and it's a pretty interesting area. A good, cheap and fun (in a scared kinda way) way to get around is in Tuk-Tuks!! You can normally haggle the price down nice and low. Some of the drivers are crazy ba$tards. Flying around corners and over hills an bumps. Insane but a lot of fun. Check out the islands of the Samui Archipelago if you can. There is an awesome beach called Haad Yao on Ko Pha Ngan. The Haad Yao Bunglows are great. They have a great menu as well (they have "Special Shakes" ). Try and get one of the Lonely Planet books. They are gold. It's got a heap of really good info on just about anything. Take some Imodium or similar with you, cause you'll need it. Don't drink the water there either. That's all i can think of for the moment. Link to post Share on other sites
enderzero 0 Posted September 20, 2003 Author Share Posted September 20, 2003 Probably wont make it to the Southern Islands. I'll save that for next time. They seem like more of a maxin-and-relaxin kind of vacation than what we are planning. Link to post Share on other sites
amandanism 0 Posted September 21, 2003 Share Posted September 21, 2003 argh, i had a really long post sussed out for this one, and then i got preoccupied and shut the window accidently. heres the condensed version: are you planning to use land travel to get from laos to thailand? i hear its really dangerous and not recommended at all. other than that, northern thailand rocks. chiang mai is great. there are loads of outdoor-sy sort of stuff to do: bamboo rafting, hiking, day tours, elephant riding etc. there are a tonne of adventure agents right in chiangmai. i spent 5 days in chiang mai and surrounding rivers, and probably couldve stayed longer. there's a good night market and alot of good bars/restaurants. i dont like bangkok at all. you could stay there a few days and see most of what it has on offer. make sure to be there on the weekend to go to the weekend market. its mega. vietnam is great. i stayed in HCMC for 5 days or so, and then travelled around the mekong delta region. there's a floating market in Can Tho, which is fruit and veg, but a good experience nonetheless. the backpacking region (the name escapes me at the moment) has alot of cheap places to stay. i dont know what sort of place you want, but there are a fair amount of decent cheap places. i havent been to laos, so couldnt really help you on that one. my old room mate went there and said it was really good. lots of places to take fantastic photos. i'll think of more to add in as time goes by. Link to post Share on other sites
amandanism 0 Posted September 21, 2003 Share Posted September 21, 2003 oh, and most border crossing in s.e asia is pretty sketchy as far as im concerned. Link to post Share on other sites
peterson 0 Posted September 21, 2003 Share Posted September 21, 2003 DOn't drink the water - and be careful when you're drunk not to do it! My friend was pissed one night and came back to his room...... needed water but the bottled stuff was out. So he 'thinks' he then proceeded to drink gallons of tap water. He came back and was ill for about 10 days. Link to post Share on other sites
Goemon 0 Posted September 21, 2003 Share Posted September 21, 2003 ender: I have some friends who have been to all of those places recently; we can meet up with them when you get here for smoe advice. They've got guidebooks, maps, personal experiences, the works... Link to post Share on other sites
slow 0 Posted September 23, 2003 Share Posted September 23, 2003 This looks helpful for you. vietnam tourism The Coast cities in Vietnam are very pretty. I went there last September. The weather was OK, not too hot and sometimes raining. When we had heavy rain, road changed into river in HCMC. Angkor Wat must be very interesting place but it's not safe journey I think. There are many Backpackers at Internet Cafe in Vietnam, they will help you. Have a safe journey! Link to post Share on other sites
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