Institcher,

My husband and I had only 10 days also last Dec.

We had 3 full days in Siem Reap, 3 at the River Kwai Jungle Rafts (including travelling) and 3 back in Bangkok. I thoroughly recommend them all.

Siem Reap -stayed at Auberge Mont Royale, a khmer run, small clean and friendly hotel with bar and restaurant. We booked Saron Soeun as our guide beforehand - fantastic! see:http://www.sarontours.com/

Flew with Bangkok Airways back to Bangkok.

3 days at the River Kwai Jungle Rafts. See:http://www.riverkwaifloatel.com/index_jungle.htm
Plenty to do or not as you please. Hellfire Pass Memorial is a "must".

The last 3 days were in Bangkok. Restaurants, markets, shops all fantastic but a highlight was our cooking class prebooked before we left at the Blue Elephant Cooking School. Easy to get to. Right at Surasak station.
See: http://www.blueelephant.com/bangkok/
Met in morning, visited markets, taught by head chef in London and made 4 courses. Then settled down to the best Thai food I've ever tasted in the restaurant for lunch, and I made it!
Beautiful old colonial building.

Loved it all so much I'm planning a trip back with girlfriends in May/June.
I'm hoping this time I'll get to see the things my husband didn't want to.

By the way, you've probably read this on other threads but the best map of Bangkok is Nancy Chandler's which we bought in a supermarket there, next to the Christmas cards.

Oops, can't add up. We had 4 days back in Bangkok.

RhondaZ - Nancy Chandler's map is also listed on Amazon. Mine should arrive next week. Thanks for sharing your trip info!

The link works fine for me. Did you do a "copy" and "paste"? or did you type the address? in which case you may have made a mistake.

If you still have problems, just go to flyertalk.com, then American Airlines forum and open the very first thread at the very top. It's called a "sticky" because it always stays at the top. The thread itself is very rich in information but there are some great links too for even more precise AA info. The "Challenge" is an unpublished AA perk. You will not find any "official" information about it.

Good luck!

Got it! Thanks!

Another idea to consider is Air Passes. Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines have air passes for Asia. For about $1100 US dollars you can fly up to 20 cities in a month's time for this price. this includes your US-Asia-US fare as well!

Check out their websites for more info:
http://www.cathay-usa.com/offers/aap/subdefault.asp

http://www.malaysiaairlinesusa.com/frame5c.html

Also check out this site for Asian passes you can buy for travel just within Asia:
http://www.airtimetable.com/airpass_asia.htm

rv224 - Thanks for the info. I had not heard of Air Passes.

Just a little reminder about Airpasses. They are a good deal if you plan on spending some considerable time in Asia and visiting many places. If you have just a short vacation with plans for 1 or 2 places, then IMHO it's not a great deal at all.

Besides, in most cases Airpasses do not earn miles.

Because we want to go for AA's challenge (we are AA Gold now), AA is the best way for us to go this time. We like the 777's. Thanks!

I don't know if this helps but sometimes not easy searching thru websites to get the simplest of info but this may help, very rough flying times from Bangkok:-

Chiang Mai 1 hr 10
Phuket 1 hr 20
Siem reap ( for Angkor Wat ) 55 mins
Ho Chi Minh City ( aka saigon ) 1 hr 30
Hanoi 1 hr 50
Kuala Lumpur 1 hr 50
Singapore 2 hrs 20
Bali 4 hrs 20

Ballpark cheap regional fares from BKK to Hong Kong $150-170 return, roughly same for Singapore. Domestic flights vary a lot, cheapest start from around $20 one way but full fare airlines around the $40-60 area one way.
BKK-Hong Kong and Singapore are very competative as so many airlines.

To get say from Bangkok to Koh Samui using Express a/c bus and Jet Catamarn Boat about $ 25 one way.