Southeast Asia questions
 

We have changed our timing for our Southeast Asia trip from Jan. 2010 to the month of October, 2009. We will travel to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos. We are interested in the following:
1) Weather - the literature indicates that monsoon season ends in September - your thoughts?
2) With our travel taking place in Oct. we will need to fly from San Francisco to Bangkok and the return is from Phnom Phen or possibly returning to Bangkok to fly back to San Francisco. We will use American Express frequent flier miles for business class seats. Interested in your thoughts on airline choices and whether to fly out of Phnom Phen or return to Bangkok to fly back to San Francisco?

roosevelt,

The weather right now in Bangkok is very nice with sunny days and cool nights, last night it went down to 13C. In October the humidity is higher and there will be rain still in most part of the country. If you're visiting Thailand right now you'll be able to spend the whole day wandering around sightseeing in comfort while in October you will most likely need to take a break in the middle of the day to get out of the heat and humidity or to avoid the rain.

If you can I would stick to January especially for Thailand.

Take a look at www.weatherbase.com and check each city you are planning to visit. This part of the world is impacted by several different monsoon systems. In my experience in Thailand, October is significantly wetter than November.

I notice you plan to visit 4 countries... unless you have at least 4 weeks to travel and will have not more than two stops in each country, I think you'd benefit from reducing the number of places you are visiting.

I'd recommend Thai Air for your transpacific flights. Depending on what they do with their schedules, you may be able to get the LAX-BKK non-stop, which significantly reduces your total travel time.

I don't know that there is any advantage to flying back from PP, as you'd have to fly back to Bangkok first anyway.

Thank you for this helpful information. It has convinced us to rearrange our schedule to continue with plans for Jan/Feb 2010. I will post a broad itinerary soon as we map out our travels.

R-I second Kathie's advice concerning number of countries visited. You need at least three weeks on the ground, but four would be much better if you want to go to four very different countries. Even if Cambodia and Laos are quick stops in Siem Riep and Luang Prabang, Thailand and Vietnam demand long visits with several stops in each country.

I think the 2010 trip will give better weather at least in Thailand, cambodia and Laos.

roosevelt,

Be aware that from mid January onward the temperature and humidity usually rises quite a lot. I would plan for early January for Thailand(especially Bangkok) to enjoy the cooler weather. Northern Thailand and Laos can remain cool until February but Bangkok will be hot and humid by then.

any chance of a november trip, or early december? that weather is perfect...

airlines: thai from LA....ANA...japan...northwest...eva...china air....united...american through japan and then thai....