We had initially thought to head from Chaing Mai to Chaing Rai and then on the 2-day Mekong boat trip to Luang Prabang, and from there on to Vientienne and Cambodia. However, we are very dependent on having our T-Mobile phone for contact due to an eldercare situation at home, and T-Mobile does not have a partner in Laos. So we reluctantly felt it better to postpone Laos until we can be phone-free without worry for a few days, and instead just do Thailand and Cambodia. And then we snagged our night at ENP, which has us thrilled.

Julies, we tend to strike a balance between planned ahead and on-the-fly (ie lead time of a few days). Hence we have two weeks blocked out for Northern Thailand, accommodation in Chiang Mai booked (in 3 and 4 night chunks which we can cancel -- but we certainly wanted to have accommodation in hand over CNY). The only thing set in stone is ENP on the night of Jan 29. Once we are in CM, we will work with the tours desk at 3Sis or a travel agent to, we hope, sort 3 or 4 nights on MHS loop with minvan transport, and perhaps an overnight in CR.

We will probably spend our first few days in CM battling jet lag, relaxing and planning. :-)

All we have booked for Cambodia is a flight DMK-REP on Feb 5, five cancellable nights in SR at Hollywood Angkor, and three cancellable nights in PP . So perhaps we should consider SR to Battambang to PP.

(Your hotel list in your trip report, which I read earlier today, is very helpful; I will review the places thatI have on hold).

After 8-10 days in Cambodia we have about weeks back in Thailand, of which we had thought to spend about 6 nights in Bangkok and then, if charmed by Bangkok perhaps stay longer, or if not perhaps head to the Anadaman coast.

We depart BKK on Feb 28.

We too use T-Mobile's international plan, but as you know it doesn't work in Laos. It was very easy and cheap in Laos to buy a SIM card; that is what we relied on there. You may want to check into this idea before completely discarding the Laos idea.

The MHS loop is great but really needs 3/4 nights to make the best of it. If you are not keen on driving yourself then a minivan is an option but I feel tha would detract from the experience somewhat. We have done the loop twice by self drive and both times stayed at Fern Resort - a lovely place. They have links with a community based tourism initiative which organises hikes into the surrounding village. Well worth considering given your interests - details on their website at http://www.fernresort.info/activities.php.

MHS doe have an airport but not sure how regular flights are. You could do worse than use that as a base for a few days.

Alternatively, Chiang Dao is only a couple of hours from CM and has a wealth of hikes and activities in the vicinity http://nest.chiangdao.com

Another thought in the north is to fly to Nan, a pleasant but quiet town with a superb night market.

If you are not into temples, I would think twice about extending your time in Siem Reap. (BTW, we also stayed at Hollywood Angkor - a very nice property!) .

Battambang makes a nice break halfway between SR and PP and you won't have any problems finding accomodation there. As mentioned above the town is not inspiring but there is a lot to see in the surrounding countryside, some of which is included in the Cambodian section of our blog of our time there @ https://accidentalnomads.com/category/cambodia/ also some photos of Kampot.

I liked both Battambang and Kampot but, on balance, preferred Kampot. An added bonus is that you can now get there by train - LancasterLad recently posted details on this forum.

PS it is pretty easy to wing it anywhere in Asia CNY or not as far as buses and accomodation is concerned (the latter only if you are not on bothered about staying in a particular place) . The main issue would be airfares IME.

Julies (from another thread) "MmePerdu--We must have similar lodging tastes."

Proved once again - I love the Ibrik! The ground floor room over the water.

I wasn't that keen on BKK in the beginning but find myself drawn to it now. One of those places, I think, that grows on one over time.

Thank you to everyone for this helpful discussion!

I think that I will book a couple of nights at Fern Resort -- just to hold them -- and try to sort reasonable minivan transport for the MHS loop once we get to CM. Perhaps 2 nights in Sappong so we can do the caves, and two nights in Fern Resort? more reading to do on the plane!

That would be a good mix, although three nights at Fern would be better as two nights only gives you one full day. The food at Soppong River Inn is superb and it is close to both the market and the caves.

Travel was so much simpler before social media, we just got on with it....tbh I haven't changed much.

After an initial six nights in CM, we have four available nighats before we need to be back in CM for our overnight at Elephant Nature Part. We are now looking seriously at the MHS loop by minivan bus, with overnights at the Soppong River Inn and the Fern Resort. The question is whether to make it 2 nights at each, or split 1N/3N.

It looks like minivans take 4 hours to go CM to Soppong, and leave CM hourly. From Soppong to MHS is about 75km, so I would think a minivan could do it in 2 hours.

Thus the options seem to be:
Day 1: minivan to Soppong, overnight at Soppong River Inn
Day 2: explore Soppong (market, caves), late afternoon minibus to Fern Resort
Day 3, 4: explore Mae Hong area
Day 5: minibus back to CM

Alternatively we could do 2 nights in Soppong, and take an early minibus from Soppong to Mae Hong on Day 3.

Because we can't shift ENP, we can't do a 5th night.

Thoughts?

From memory, we did 3 nights at Fern Resort and one at Soppong and ten moved on to Mai Salong and back to CM via Doi Inthanon. This worked pretty well because there are a lot of hikes from Fern which could easily take up two days ( the dogs there act as guides for you!) . The night market in MHS is also pretty good for one night and the town has a few wats worthy of a visit. One issue with Fern that occurs to me is that it is around 5 miles out of town so you would have to use taxis to get around. Although I think there are buses from the main road. The resort also probably has transport arrangements.

The caves in Soppong take a couple of hours and the market is best visited early morning so one day should be fine. There are also a number of hikes in the area, we just didn't have time to take advantage of them.

Mid range hotel in Bangkok:-

1) Miran Sathorn Hotel
2) 130 Hotel & Residence Bangkok
3) Naga Residence
4) Ma Hotel Bangkok
5) Zen Rooms Silom 12
6) Siri Poshtel Bangkok
7) CK2 Hotel
8) Triple 8 Inn
9) iCheck inn Sukhumvit