adeleh

I am starting a new thread because the itinerary I have been working on has fallen apart and I need to start all over- kind of all over.
I will arrive in Singapore on July 13th
Will spend 4 nights in SGP
Take the Orient Express to BKK and arrive in BKK on the 18Th of Jyly
Will spend 3 nights in BKK-This is my third time to Thailand, and I don't want to spend more than that there.
It is from here that things have changed and I need help.
From here I was planning to fly to Myanmar and spend
3 N in Bagan
3 N in Inle Lake
3 N on The Road To Mandalay
2 N in Yangon
1 N in BKK
Fly ack to USA on the 3rd of August.

I just found out that the RTM is not available on that date due to a booking by a private group.
Now I have 11 nights that I don't want to spend all in Myanmar, and am thinking of splitting them between Myanmar and another country. Laos? Cambodia?
Does anywhere in that area have a better weather in late Juty?
I haven't done any research on anywhere except Myanmar.
At this time I just want to know what the SEA experts suggest and take it from there.
Please don't ask me what interests me, because any place in the world does interest me and my goal is to see as many places as I can in my life time- so far I have done a pretty good job.
Please tell me how you would spend 11 nights in late July in SEA, starting in BKK and ending in BKK-Myanmar being a part of it.
Thank you

Kathie

I would love to have had more time in Burma. If it were me - and it isn't - I'd put together a longer Burma itinerary. I had three full days in each Inle and Bagan which means 4 nights in each. That would take two of your three days. You could add one more day to Yangon or take a trip north out of Inle to Kalaw, for instance.

rhkkmk

you could add laos to your trip and/or cambodia...

thursdaysd

I spent 14 days in Myanmar, traveling entirely by road, and could easily have spent longer.

You really only have three extra nights, if you keep the rest of your Myanmar itinerary. You're almost certainly going to be flying back to Bangkok, so unless you want to stay in Thailand probably Angkor Wat would be the best alternative, although it really merits more time.

Cicerone

You could easily spend all that time in Malaysia, Vietnam or Indonesia and barely scratch the surface of what is there. East coast Malaysia beaches and offshore islands are at their very best at that time. The same should be true of most of Vietnam and Indonesia, check weather websites. You should be able to reach a myriad of places in any of those three countries from Bangkok and in some cases from Myanmar.

While not strictly in South East Asia, you could spend part of the time in Hong Kong or the Philippines. Both have some rain and the odd typhoon at that time, this would be more of an issue in the Philippines as you may want to spend beach time there. The advantage in Hong Kong is that the air is clearer in the summer months than the winter.

You could reach many places in the PRC from Bangkok and also some from Myanmar (e.g. Kunming from which you can go to places in Yunnan Province, or connect on to Beijing or elsewhere).

You could get to the Maldives from Bangkok in under 5 hours. The rainy season is on then, but IMO even the thunderstorms are magnificent. Unless you wanted to do serious diving, I don’t think the rain with interfere with a holiday there. If you go to the far south in Gan, you may also have less rain in July as the monsoon should have moved north by then.

You could go to India. Much of it will also be in monsoon, but some people actually go at that time to experience the monsoon, esp to southwest India to see it break, which generally is mid-July so your timing may work well for that. Also the east coast of India, mostly in the south from Chennai, does not experience the monsoon in the summer, they get their heavy rain in the fall months. So going to Chennai, Pondicherry and that area may work well for July. Or go to Ladakh which does not really experience much of any rainfall.

Finally, you could go back to Bhutan and deliver the long-promised camera if you have not yet found a way to do so.

adeleh

ciceron-that made me laugh. I did find a way to deliver the camera and it cost me very little.
thanks to this website. A travel agent who lives in Thimphu asked me to send it to him so he can find the family and give it to them. I trusted him and he kept his promise and sent me a picture with the girl.
Very happy ending!