mjslacker

So far the only thing I've got booked for sure is our plane tickets into and out of Siem Reap. We arrive at 2230 Sept 23rd and fly home at 1930 Oct 7th. Our plans are to spend about half the time in Cambodia, in the area of Siem Reap, although we would like to go on an elephant trek as well. We then want to go to Hoi An Vietnam and go on a motorcylce tour. Of course we also plan on doing lots of tourist stuff, Angkor Wat etc. I'd like to see Halong Bay, or the Mekong Delta, but again not sure how the timing will work out. So back to the thread title, I've heard that seeing Angkor Wat kinda ruins everything else. So if you were planning this trip would you fly to Vietnam the day after landing in Cambodia and spend about a week there then fly back to Cambodia? Or spend the first week in Cambodia?

Any ideas on elephant treks? I saw some in Ban Lung Cambodia, but not sure how hard it would be to get there as it seem really remote. In this time frame we have would it be worth trying to see Halong Bay, is there another place that is similiar but more worth seeing? I know, nothing like asking other people to plan our trip for us.....

Just a bit of back ground on us, we are both late 20's and this trip is for our honeymoon. We each picked a country and place to go, my choice was Angkor Wat, his the motorcycle tour in Hoi An. We both prefer adventrue tours to lazy days at the beach, both loved snorkeling in Mexico but decided to drop Thailand/snorkeling off this trip in effort to have enough time at the other places. We want to see as much as possible in the limited time we have, but don't want to plan so much that we get worn out.

Any help, ideas, etc would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks in advance

Amy

Angkor Wat is splendid, but Vietnam is so different and what you're doing will be so different that I certainly don't think you'll be "ruined" for everything else. I'd probably want to go to more than HoiAn (of course, I don't know what places your motorcycle tour would consist of) and the Mekong Delta is probably a bit more do-able with your itinerary, although I did love Hanoi and HaLong Bay.

If you're going to be kinda wanting to relax after the wedding, I'd do Angkor Wat first; granted, it can be a long day of touring, but I found it more relaxing in lots of ways.

Here's my trip report on the Vietnam part of what I did: I was just in Siem Reap for three days for Angkor Wat and the other temples; most of the trip was Vietnam:
http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...d-far-away.cfm

Kathie

What do you mean by an elephant trek? Are you looking to ride an elephant for an hour or so or are you looking for a day or two long trip?

You have two weeks. If you are really interested in the Angkor temples you'll want a week or close to it there. Buy Dawn Rooney's book, Angkor: A Guide to Cambodia's Wonderous Temples to prepare. The book will help you decide how much time to spend in/near Siem Reap visiting the temples.

"I've heard that seeing Angkor Wat kinda ruins everything else" - everything else? I guess you wouldn't want to visit other temple ruins after Angkor, but it sounds like you are choosing other things to do/see.

One consideration is that you likely only want to enter VN once, as otherwise you'll need a multi-entry visa. So consider that in your routing.

So your finance wants a motorcycle tour out of Hoi An... where is it he wants to go from Hoi An? When he says a motorcycle tour, does he mean riding around for a day or does he mean a multi-night trip?

If a couple of day stop in Hi An is enough, you can choose either Hanoi or HCMC to add to your itinerary. From Hanoi you can go to Halong Bay, but you'd want an overnight there, so you'd have very little time to see Hanoi itself, which is well worth your time. BTW, most people much prefer Hanoi to HCMC.

Travel from place to place in SE Asia takes time - often a full day from when you check out of one hotel until you are at your next hotel. So consider travel time as well.

You say you have your tickets booked in and out of Siem Reap. That means you'll have to buy a second visa to get back into Cambodia. What is your flight routing? You'd probably be better off time-wise to fly home from somewhere other than Siem Reap. If you could fly home from Hanoi or HCMC, that would be helpful.

mjslacker

Thank you both so much for your responses. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to say Thank you.

I've tried to re-route our flight home, but it is out of our price range. I also tred to extend the trip, however was told there are no seats available so guess I'm stuck with what I've got.

Amy your trip report was awesome, and of course led me to read other trip reports, so instead of narrowing down my list I've come up with even more places we want to go. We've decided to drop the elephant tour, we were looking for one that would last 2-3 days, but have decided to visit Halong Bay instead. The Motorcycle tour is 2-5 days, we haven't booked one for sure yet however I'm leaning towards the 2 day which does include My Son in Vietnam. I love the idea of seeing Sapa, but don't think we will be able to time wise even if we keep the motorcycle tour really short. There is another motorcycle tour that is from Hoi An to Hue which might be the best bet however it would not include My Son and is pretty much just scenery.

Kathie thanks for pointing out the double entry Visa. Poor planning on my part, but I never even thought of it. We are planning on getting the Cambodia Visa from the embassy in Washington DC and probably just get the on line approvel for the Vietnam one as I can't find a way to send it to DC once and get both visa's (Cambodia and Vietnam.) Does that make sense? Everything I've read says to send the paperwork to the Cambodian embassy with a return envelope and they will send it back to me. I would then have to resend everything to the Vietnam embassy... Do you know of a way to get both at once?

I will have to get the 2nd Cambodian Visa when we cross back from Vietnam, but it appears that is not hard to do.

When I get this a little more ironed out I'll post with a new thread to make sure it all makes sense and I'm not forgetting anything important. Thanks again

offwego

Send for your vietnamese visa now and get visa on arrival in Siem Reap Airport. if I'm giving this advise too late and your passport is already in transit, you can get vietnamese visa easily at any travel agent in Siem REap but will take about 3 days, so do it pretty soon after you arrive. You can't get one on arrival to Vietnam that I'm aware of although I understand there is an application you can do and have approved ahead of time? Point is cambodia visa is on arrival, vietnam not.

If it was me:
Arrive Siem Reap, shake off the jet lag, stay about 5 days and see stuff (there's a lot more than temples these days even if you get templed out quickly). Then head to VN and give yourself some time there. If you find after experiencing the hustle and bustle of vietnam that you liked Cambodia better, come back a few days early before your flight out. If you dig VN, you'll be glad you gave it more time. Either way you win if you book-end VN.

PS another $20 visa for re-entry is not what I'd call a big deal in the grand scheme of things....

krgystn

plus another exit fee of $25...