It’s time to reveal our plans for travelling through South East Asia – the only part of the trip we’ve planned in some detail! Its an area we’ve backpacked around before, back in 2005 when we travelled through China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. This time we want to see some new places – this is our route around South East Asia!
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South East Asia Backpacking
All in we think we’ll probably spend around 11 weeks in South East Asia backpacking, and as its the start of our honeymoon we’ve decided to up the budget for the first couple of weeks and have some luxury to begin our trip in Koh Tao. Thailand has so many options for great beaches, we found it hard to choose but in the end we chose Koh Tao because it is seemingly much quieter than the bigger island resorts, and is also great for scuba diving. Also, we’re hoping we miss the worst of the wet season in June this way. Otherwise we may as well stay in the UK!
After this the real backpacking adventure begins. Where to go first? We looked at all sorts of options; should we head back up to Bangkok, and go overland from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia? Or should we fly from Bangkok to Hanoi and go overland from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, to Siem Reap/Bangkok before heading off to Bali? In the end, we decided we really wanted to see Laos, so we’ve planned a different route entirely, travelling overland from Chumpon to Phuket, and then flying from Phuket to Chang Mai in the north of Thailand.
From there, we travel overland from Chang Mai into Laos, with our ultimate destination of Hanoi in Vietnam. We’re hoping to go north in Laos to avoid some of the traditional tourist trail, but haven’t researched it properly yet! Any tips?
We then travel overland from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City, and from there we enter Cambodia, where we hope to spend some time in Sihaoukville on the beach, before our ultimate destination of Siem Reap and Angkor Wat!
After a number of weeks of travelling, we’ll be looking forward to a couple of weeks relaxing in Bali before our next big push across Australia! Cant wait!
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That is a lot to squeeze into 11 weeks! I’m sure you know that already.
My suggestions go to Pai from Chiang Mai and into Laos from there! Do the Hai Van pass in Vietnam on motorbike! It is such a pretty job! Go to Koh Rong off of Sihanoukville! It is a gorgeous little island!!
Thanks for the feedback! We’ll definitely check out the Hai Van pass into Vietnam hadn’t heard of that one. We were planning to head to Sihanoukville, but if theres an island just off it I think that would be even better! Thanks for commenting and the ideas!
Hi – Sounds fantastic and wish I was back there now.
Hai Van Pass takes you from Hoi An to Hue (or vice versa) about 2.5-3 hrs by car – you can hire a car and driver with a local driver in Hoi An (price dependant on haggling abilitiies) or at a travel agents around $70 but motorbike sound great. (I think if you go by train you miss out on the Pass) I’ve just blogged about Hue and Hoi An here http://wp.me/p1tbVN-s2 – if you get to Hue definitely go tomb hopping and have a drink in the DMZ bar if it’s still there. Have a wonderful time and I look forward to reading about it. – Suzanne
Thanks Suzanne, we’ll definitely check out the tomb hopping and DMZ bar sounds great! Some great photos on your blog as well, we’re very excited about this part of our trip now! I think we’ll probably hire a driver for the trip, I’m guessing they’re pretty flexible in terms of stopping along the way for photos etc? Thanks again for your advice!