Travel buddy
 

Hi there I'm planning to have a backpacker experience next year for the following country for 15 days probably 3 days each.
• Thailand
• Myanmar
• Laos
• Vietnam
• Cambodia

Any one tried this? Please advise me what the best place to go.

What are you going to see in 3 days in each country? You would be better to pick 2 places and really see what is there. What places in those countries are you planning on? That is a lot of territory to cover. What are your interest?

Are you actually interested in any of these places or are you just checking places off a list?

Your idea is one that will guarantee you have no experience of any of the places you visit. You will get better advice for backpacking on Thorntree, the Lonely Planet's forum. But they will be less kind than we are about your plan.

www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/index.jspa

I guess this not impossible below are my itinerary:

Day 1
Thailand (Phuket)
• Elephant Show
• Old Phuket Town
Travel to Bangkok (4 to 6 hours) Second Class Train
Day 2 (Bangkok)
• Ancient Tour
• Pod Fai Market
• Night – Vertigo and Moon Bar
Day 3
• Floating Market (
• River Kwai
• Park Society (tentative)
BURMA
Day 4
• Yanghon
o Swedagon Pagoda
o Mt. Kyaiktiyo (Golden Rock)
Day 5
• Mandalay
o Sagiang Hill
o Mandalay Village
Day 6
• Bagans
o Balloon over bagan tours
o Inle Lake
Laos
Day 7-8-9
• Luan Prabang

Vietnam
Day 10-11-12
• Honoi
o Tran Quoc
o West Lake
o Hanoi Hilton
o National Museum of fine arts
o The Presidential Palace
o Hoan Kiem Lake
o One Pillar Pagoda
o Ho Chi Minch Mausoleum
o Grand Opera House
o Temple of Literature
o Boat trip on Rivers
o Horse Cart Tour
Cambodia
Day 13
o Angkor
o Temple of Angkor
o Tep Pranamm Pagoda
Day 14
o Boeng Mealea
o Tonle Sap Lake
Day 15
Phnom Penh
o Royal Palace
o National Museum
o Tuol Sleng and the Killing field
o Friend Restaurant

But i will try to extend up to 20 days. Due to the limited time. I'm working in saudi and I only have one month vacation per year. So i need to maximize it to the places I want to see.

@ kmkrnn : You’ve been to Thailand right? Any suggestion?

I've done Thailand late last year, from memory 16 days. Approx 9 in Bangkok and the remainder in Phuket.

I think your holiday is too rushed and so much time will be spent on travelling to the next town/country. e.g. Day 1... you arrive in Phuket for half the day then the remainder of the day is travelling to Bangkok. How/when do you get to Burma.. the morning of day 3?

I like to take things a bit easier. I've booked Vietnam and Malaysia - 7 days in Hanoi, 7 in Ho Chi Minh City and 5 in KL on the way home.

@ Hi Ms. Green
Yup. I know it's little bit hard but I want to maximize my time. Maybe i will take at night flight (day 3 in thailand going to Burma, Yanghon) To mak eit Day 4 morning. Maybe i will try it as backpacker tour.
@ I'm going to malaysia and singapore prior to this 15 days tour.

When are you planning on going?

That just looks crazy. Do it again with travel time added in. How on earth do you think you are going to do Bagan and Inle Lake on the same day? And why would you want to?

Go look at the itineraries here for some ideas: http://www.intrepidtravel.com/

Define a backpacker experience ?

Anyway, we did your itinerary as follows:
Year 1, appr. 2 weeks Vietnam.
Year 2, appr. 2 weeks Myanmar.
Year 3, appr. 2 weeks Laos/Cambodia
Year 4, appr. 2 weeks Thailand.

We had a guide with a car and driver and were on a very tight schedule to experience as much as possible.
Domestic air travel was absolutely necessary.
In each country we could have easily spent an extra week without lingering.

In my opinion the 'best place to go' is any of these countries, but not all of them together in 15 days.

@ miss green: Next year April on my vacation.

@thursdaysd: thanks I will try to see it.

@ Emro2

back packing is a low cost form of travelling> i can go everywhere with my backpack luggage. I wish i can go with this 5 countries let's say 1 month will be ok?

I did SEA with a backpack in 2002. But I spent three months doing it (see http://wilhelmswords.com/asia2002/ ). With a mere 15 days you could do one country comfortably, or two if you insist. Trying to do more than that in SEA will result in an exhausted blur.

lol, your plan isn't even logistically possible as well as offering no time to see/go/experience anything of any of these marvelous places. Even if you were teleporting yourself from place to place, this is truly an awful plan. As Emro points out, backpackers typically move more slowly though these places. Two weeks for each country is a more usual backpacker's schedule. If you must visit 5 countries in one trip, I'd say you need more like 10 weeks.

You mention that you are going to Singapore and Malaysia for 15 days before this. Why not combine the time and choose only the places most important to you. As a backpacker, you likely don't want to spend more than a day or so in Singapore, as it is very expensive. If you had a month, you could visit 4 countries for a week each - not optimal, but much better than what you have planned.

thursdaysd: thanks I will check it.

@Kathie: I'm going to Malaysia for a short training ( 3 days ) but I will spend 5 days there to have an extra one day trip to Malaysia and singapore. Ok i will try to make it one month but I wish i can find a travel buddy.

Woa... April happens to be the biggest holiday in the region. Thai, Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia all have their new year holiday in the middle of April so you should take note.

Also, April is the hottest month of the year making backing kind of uncomfortable.

Hmmm... that's suppose to be "backpacking" not "backing"!

Transportation, especially buses and train will be quite full and a lot of businesses will be closed for a week.

@ Hanuman: Ok but just incase I can find a travel buddy and I can adjust it. For now study and researching for how things will work. God bless me.:)

@ hanuman: Yup it's back packing btw have you've been to this countries?