christo

Serasera,
To your practical questions:
1. Do you pack for one week and wash clothes in between?

Yes, essentially I only bring enough socks and undies for a week so whenever I have 2 nights in one hotel then the 1st night becomes a wash time in the sink or tub. Some hotels have cheap laundry prices, sometimes a machine is available, many B&B's will do laundry complimentary, and places like Thailand have inexpensive laundry shops with quick turnaround.

2. Do you prefer stops to stretch your legs when you fly or long flight times in the air?

I try to limit a flight time to 7 hours unless it is business class which we try to use our points for (Star Alliance) . Economy for Asia from NYC is tough, better get up and walk the plane, stretch a bit. Premium economy is worth looking at for long flights. One thing for sure after 14 hours in economy I want to be sure of a hotel at the other end !

3. Is there a preferred airline for Bangkok? I see China Air is about $500 cheaper than the rest (NYC to BKK.) Do you think that is based on plane comfort amenities or flight departure and arrival times e.g. 2am!! I assume safety is a given.

This may be a good question for the airline forum and the many informed people there.
I do have my preferred airlines but usually have to take what my points give me for business class. Higher cost though does not equal better service or comfort in my experience, usually good prices come from competition on popular routes such as NYC to BKK. I have been on some amazingly cheap flights and the comfort and service was great (the now defunct Oasis Air from London to Hong Kong). Some airlines just have lower costs. Do You mean Air China ? or China Airlines, they are not the same. Departure and arrival times maybe. Safety, no they are not all equal, some have very bad records - probably there are some good web sites to check this. As for seat comfort I like Seat Guru .com and to compare prices I always use Kayak.com. You may want to consider other gateway cities in Asia because flights in the region are quite cheap with airlines such as Air Asia. Hope this helps.

Christo.

janisj

<B>Cristo:</B> "<i>Serasera,
To your practical questions:</i>"

I think you meant to post on this thread over on the Asia Forum:

http://www.fodors.com/community/asia...vs-vietnam.cfm

That is the only thread serasera has ever started . . .

serasera

Thanks so much. I was unaware of this tip section in Fodors.
The airline is China Eastern Air. I used Kayak. It gets only so so ratings. But most remarks are related to intra Asia travel, not US to Asia. I will bring this issue to the airline forum as you suggest. I've never been more than 7 hours in the air at one time. I dread this part of the trip.
I'm feeling pressure to make the flight arrangements because without that arrival info I won't be able to nail down dates with SM (who has yet to respond). And my friend is in TX and I'm in MA so that adds a little twist. Thanks for your email. I'll check the airline forum first.

christo

No Janisj, I meant for it to be in the Travel Tips forum.
The proper posting protocol is elusive !

janisj

christo: "<i>No Janisj, I meant for it to be in the Travel Tips forum. The proper posting protocol is elusive !</i>"

The monitors apparently disagreed since they moved the thread to the Asia board??

But anyway no harm. My point was not about which forum it should be - but that it should have been posted to the thread you were answering.

serasera

Change of plans!!! I'm new to Fodors Forums so I'm not sure this is the place to post. Thank you to Christo and all the others who generously shared their Burma trip info:gailmo, kathie,live42day,glyntor,shelleyk among others. My travel buddy had to clip a week off the trip so we're going to postpone myanmar .

I'll be switching to the Europe/Africa forum. The plan now is Madrid/Morocco. It reduces the travel time to less than half. Thanks all.