jlzcohen

My wife and I are planning to go to S.E Asia on Thursday, November 8 and return home on Saturday, November 23. We would like to go to Hong Kong, Bangkok, Angkor Wat, and Luang Prabang: Two large cities and two small! But we don’t know how many days we should spend in each. Also, we thought we would use the Cathay Pacific package which is for 55+ and also goes to Bangkok. We could use Bangkok Air for Angkor Wat and Luang Prabang. Can anyone help with our scheduling the itinerary or have any other suggestions? Friends have also told us that Bangkok Air has a pass for many cities from Bangkok and Cathay Pacific is wonderful. I have spoken to people at both airlines and get the feeling that we have to make our reservations for Bangkok Air soon. Also, how about private drivers in Angkor Wat or Luang Prabang? Any particular places to visit, restaurants, hotels? Thank you very much in advance.

KimJapan

Bangkok Air has a Discovery Air Pass that you would probably find useful. Their website www.bangkokair.com has information about the routes and prices...but be aware that tax and surcharge are not included and increase the price more than you might expect. You need to book the pass from outside of Thailand through Bangkok Air or a travel agent.

As I see it, you have 15 days including your days of arrival and departure, making it really 13 days. In that amount of time, I would really only do 2 or 3 places. You lose at least 1/2 a day when you change locations (check out of hotel, get to airport early for fly, fly, arrive, customs/immigration, get to hotel, check in) - even with the best flight schedules. You might consider either Hong Kong or Bangkok and LP and Siem Reap.

We have spent 5 nights in Hong Kong 3 times, and it is never enough. We've also spent between 3 and 6 nights in Bangkok at a time on 5 occasions so far, and it's also never enough. To see the major temples in Angkor Wat requires 3 days at least, and there many minor temples that seem really great, Tonle Sap, villages...we have scheduled ourselves 6 full days there in August and imagine we will go back. Ponheary Ly is well recommended as a guide. See also www.theplf.org for information about the foundation that a Fodorite (thank you Lori!) has set up with Ponheary.

Luang Prabang...I would say minimum 3 days, but I would imagine 5 days to a week would be nicer, enabling you to get out of LP and into smaller villages. There is a lot to see and do.

Elizabeth_S

We just got back from SE Asia - a very similar itinerary but over 20 nights - we did the following

Hong Kong - 6 nights
Siem Reap - 5 nights
Bangkok - 5 nights
Luang Prabang - 4 nights

It might be too ambitious to do all those locations in 15 nights - in retrospect if I had to trim our above itinerary down to 15 nights it would look like this

Hong Kong - 4 nights (depending upon when you arrive from NA and how you recover from jet lag)
Siem Reap - 3 nights
Bangkok - 4 nights
Luang Prabang - 3 nights

Bangkok Air has the Discovery Pass (we used it) for Bangkok to Siem Reap and Luang Prabang - it was a good deal for us.

Re private drivers/guides - we would highly recommend guides in Angkor Wat and Bangkok - and one day in Luang Prabang.

Here's a link to our blog - it has lots of info to give you an idea of what to do and we're happy to provide more info.

Quick hotel suggestions:

Hong Kong - YMCA Salisbury (yes, the Y! It's a great hotel and the Harbour View Rooms are terrific)

Siem Reap - Angkor Holiday Hotel - there are lots of hotels in Siem Reap - so many of them are somewhat out of town and it's easy to just come and go from the hotel without experiencing Siem Reap.

Bangkok - Arun Residence - we had the Arun suite which has the most amazing view of Wat Arun - it's a small BandB with few services, but if you can get the suite, it's the best room in Bangkok (IMHO!)

Luang Prabang - we really enjoyed the Apsara - beautiful big room 2 blocks from the main street.

Here's the link to our blog

http://lizandrichardsa.typepad.com/2007_adventures/

On the left hand side of the blog there is a list of destinations - the SE Asian ones are first.

jlzcohen

Thank you KimJapan and Elizabeth so much. You responded so quickly and we really appreciate your help. And Elizabeth, your blog is wonderful - good restaurants and places to go - and beautiful pictures. Now we have to think about the number of days and if we should only go to either Hong Kong or Bangkok. It's so difficult to make our decision. Already we know we don't have enough days! Thanks again.

rhkkmk

i will suggest something different....drop hong kong for this trip....its a fantastic city but the other 3 would make a great and varied trip all neatly packaged....

fly directly to bkk and use bkk air to fly to the other two locations....the air pass requires 3 legs and you will have 4 legs this way...so its perfect for you...you need to buy this overseas, not in thailand...

i would spend 4 nites in LP
and 3 or 4 nites in SR and
the rest in bkk....i would split my bkk time to a few days at the start and the rest at the end...this will allow for jet lague to pass and full attention on the next 3 stops...

pick a hotel with a nice pool for your arrival in bkk and just adjust yourselves and do you big sightseeing at the end of your trip....

and then next year do HK and maybe beijing or macau or all 3....its a trip in itself, imo...

tons of options to get to bkk including cathy---northwest, brit. air, air france, united, thai air direct from nyc, ana, japan, korean and options through other american carriers using partners....eva, emerites....

depends whre you are coming from...

jlzcohen

Dear Rhkkmk,
Thank you so much. As a matter of fact, your suggestion is what we were leaning toward. We will be flying from Newark and have been looking at the Cathey Pacific and Bangkok Air Discovery Pass. We will check out the other airlines also - for example, British Airways stopped in London and the whole trip is only 19+ hours as compared to 23 on others. But we will still check out everything. Your ideas are terrific and I really think we are going to do the trip very close to what you wrote.
Thanks again. If anyone knows any drivers in Luang Prabang or Angkor Wat, that would be very helpful. Also we wouldn't mind hotel and/or restaurant suggestions.

Elizabeth_S

Luang Prabang driver/guide info in this thread of mine

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34949775

Dara Ly in Angkor Wat - I'm not sure if he has his own email address or if it all goes through his sister Ponheary? Somebody will probably jump in with Dara's contact info.

Lots of restaurant suggestions in our blog.

rhkkmk

if the ly's are not available in SR, your hotel will set you up with someone if you request it in advance...this is what i did and it was fine...

i am glad you see the advantage of doing just the southern route on this trip....it will be fantastic!!

we would love to help with hotel if you need help and i have a restaurant listing if you email me at [email protected]

bob

rhkkmk

we did air france last time and it was fantastic because it was all nite flights except paris to boston on the way home: nite flight boston to paris---all day in paris.....nite flight paris to bangkok.....nite flight bkk to paris....5 hour lay over and day flight to boston....same would be available from ny/newark....there might even be a day flight which could then hitch you up with an evening flight to bkk with a shorter layover....we quite liked the layover...but we had a 6 week trip so it was much easier to absorb...
you have tons of options from ny/nj/dc

Gpanda

jlzcohen-check out the JFK-BKK flight. It's really great. There is some talk abouit cancelling the non-stop, but until they do, this is definitely the best way to get to BKK from the NY area. We flew economy and it was spacious and gracious.

I agree with the detestable Bob (DB) and suggest you skip Hong Kong. The other three are conveniently grouped on Bangkok Air.

jlzcohen

Dear Gpanda,
Thanks for the flight information about JFK-BKK nonstop. What airline is it? Also, could someone please tell us the best type of clothing to wear in Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos in November. We know it's going to be hot but are concerned about wearing shorts or sleeveless tops to the temples.
Do we need a visa in Cambodia and Laos for less than thirty days? I know we don't need it for Thailand but we are not sure about the other two.
And Elizabeth and Bob, thanks for the driver information. Bob, thanks about Air France also.
Judy

Gpanda

Thai Air. Check out their website.

jenskar

If you're flying out of Newark -- you might want to check out Singapore Air. Not nonstop to BKK (you switch in Singapore) but all seats are Exec Economy. They fly out of JFK via Frankfurt to Singapore, on to BKK too. You might be able to open jaw with them, into Siem Reap, out of BKK as far as ticketing price too.
I always fly them to Asia and I just use standard economy -- the entertainment systems are amazing -- all individual with over 20 movies, tv, language learning programs, the food is good and the service is impeccable. I know Cathay gets great reviews but if you compare economy class ratings, Singapore Air is consistently ranked higher.
I didn't know Cathay had a 55+ package tho. Food for future thought.

rhkkmk

figures that panda would forget to mention the airline...that's real helpful....

clothing...all natural fiber...cottons linen, etc...loose fitting...cotton undies, etc....sandals with a heal strap...

i wear a polo shirt or camp shirt and chinos almost all the time....shorts in the beach resorts...
my wife wears slacks mostly and loose fitting tops with a cap sleeve or sleeveless, except in some wats where she takes a shawl or scaft to cover up...
we both wear sandals, sometimes with socks...

we also both take cotton hats and a long sleeved white cotton shirt to escape the sun, like in a boat...

it will be plenty hot in all those places in november....average probably 88-92 with 110% humidity...