1 week in February, SEA, where to go?

[CLW]

Hello, I'm planning a holiday in the first week of February.

Looking for flights and visa I considered these 3 places/countries:

Yangon, Myanmar

Saigon, Vietnam

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I want to travel around and mainly interested in nature.

Oh, BTW I'm travelling on a tight budget so the costs also play a role.

I don't mind sleeping in hostel and eating street food.

[TheAppletons]

Vietnam, hands down, particularly given your criteria of natural beauty and tight budget.

[melvinmelvin]

agree

(or Laos, although not on your list)

[CLW]

agree

(or Laos, although not on your list)

Laos still on the list but I will take advantage of the flight promo.

BTW, is it possible to travel in one week from Saigon to Hanoi or just a rush?

[TheAppletons]

agree

(or Laos, although not on your list)

Laos still on the list but I will take advantage of the flight promo.

BTW, is it possible to travel in one week from Saigon to Hanoi or just a rush?

If you're talking by bus/train and stopping along the way for local scenery....that's a little bit tight and perhaps not so relaxing. Short flight though (but you knew that).

If I had just a week, I'd either start in Hanoi and work my way south toward the center or start in HCM and work my way north toward the center. (Personal preference, I'd start in Hanoi.)

[Rhys]

Factors to consider.. your age, your limit on BS, and your adventure factor.. Try Vietnam.. food, coffee and a better sense of tourism..and you might just score the adventure you want..

[CLW]

Factors to consider.. your age, your limit on BS, and your adventure factor.. Try Vietnam.. food, coffee and a better sense of tourism..and you might just score the adventure you want..

What's BS ?

[Morakot]

Factors to consider.. your age, your limit on BS, and your adventure factor.. Try Vietnam.. food, coffee and a better sense of tourism..and you might just score the adventure you want..

What's BS ?

An expletive...

I think the person is trying to inquire how much nonsense (from the locals?) you can take.

[Morakot]

agree

(or Laos, although not on your list)

Laos still on the list but I will take advantage of the flight promo.

BTW, is it possible to travel in one week from Saigon to Hanoi or just a rush?

Sounds rushed. Even with your own car, I'd say.

[craigt3365]

If you are into nature, then it's hard to beat Myanmar. Sadly, getting to these beautiful places is very difficult and time consuming. Especially expensive due to the lack of good hotels/hostels. Way over priced.

Vietnam would be my recommendation. So much to do. And yes, one week to go from HCMC to Hanoi is not enough time. I could kill a week in those 2 cities alone. Hanoi and the surrounding areas is great to explore.

[JMWPACIFIC]

Just got back from Yangon/Mandalay after 8 days. I would recommend it highly as taxis with driver are very cheap but infrastructure including hotels leaves something to be desired. Plus, hotels are expensive.

VN (or Laos less so) may be your best bet for cost. Hanoi is a fabulous, walkable city (HCM also but not my cup of tea) and hotel costs are very reasonable. Maybe split you time between Hanoi and Hoi An, a lovely World Heritage Site city

[mikebell]

The 3 night/2 day Halong Bay cruise was the best short holiday of my 73 years. We flew from BKK to Hanoi & stayed overnight. Hotel provided a driver to Halong - Gulf of Tonkin.. https://www.aucocruises.com/

[CLW]

Thanks for all the replies.

Booked now to Saigon / HCMC with Air Asia for total 3500 Baht.

You can think what you want about Air Asia but during looking for the cheapest flight on various airline websites, they are the ONLY one who show the complete fare already in the search process.

All other displayed bait prices like 49 Baht one way without taxes etc.

So one more thumbs up for Air Asia.

[TheAppletons]

Have you checked into the visa requirements yet? Depending upon the country of your passport, you may need to get a "visa letter" prior to departure - if it's required for your country, the airline won't let you board the flight without it.

[CLW]

Visa free entry for 15 days with return ticket

[dddave]

A week in Saigon itself maybe 4 days too many but there are worthwhile outlying tours.. The one day Cu Chi tunnel tour can be interesting though kind of touristy.

What I would recommend the most is a 3 day Mekong Delta excursion to Cao Doc, then return to HCMC. If you hadn't already bought a round trip ticket, I'd suggest from Cao Doc, a bus/boat to Phnom Penh, Cambodia for a day...then home.

[lordblackader]

Just got back from Yangon/Mandalay after 8 days. I would recommend it highly as taxis with driver are very cheap but infrastructure including hotels leaves something to be desired. Plus, hotels are expensive.

VN (or Laos less so) may be your best bet for cost. Hanoi is a fabulous, walkable city (HCM also but not my cup of tea) and hotel costs are very reasonable. Maybe split you time between Hanoi and Hoi An, a lovely World Heritage Site city

Hanoi is a walkable city? seriously?

Sure, if you like risking life and limb every 50-100m trying to cross the road.Y

Yeah, I know how to do it (no need to be told) but at least HCMC has traffic lights and it's easier to cross the road.

Hanoi is also seriously dirty as well, at least HCMC has a more modern vibe to it and a better range of restaurants; not saying the food is bad in Hanoi (some of the nicest Baramundi, locally known as Asian Sea Parch I've ever had, all for roughly 30 baht) but HCMC is trying to be first world, Hanoi is far off from getting there.

[meltingpot2015]

Thanks for all the replies.

Booked now to Saigon / HCMC with Air Asia for total 3500 Baht.

You can think what you want about Air Asia but during looking for the cheapest flight on various airline websites, they are the ONLY one who show the complete fare already in the search process.

All other displayed bait prices like 49 Baht one way without taxes etc.

So one more thumbs up for Air Asia.

Saigon is a great choice to start-off trip of Vietnam. Even if you just see Saigon, due to limited time, its worth it. I did Hanoi, then Saigon, afterwards realised it should have been the other way round. How can I put it, Hanoi is a lot rough round the edges. For westerner, Saigon is lot easier to get to grips with.

I can also recommend Danang, in addition to Saigon.

[alex8912]

Just got back from Yangon/Mandalay after 8 days. I would recommend it highly as taxis with driver are very cheap but infrastructure including hotels leaves something to be desired. Plus, hotels are expensive.

VN (or Laos less so) may be your best bet for cost. Hanoi is a fabulous, walkable city (HCM also but not my cup of tea) and hotel costs are very reasonable. Maybe split you time between Hanoi and Hoi An, a lovely World Heritage Site city

Hanoi is a walkable city? seriously?

Sure, if you like risking life and limb every 50-100m trying to cross the road.Y

Yeah, I know how to do it (no need to be told) but at least HCMC has traffic lights and it's easier to cross the road.

Hanoi is also seriously dirty as well, at least HCMC has a more modern vibe to it and a better range of restaurants; not saying the food is bad in Hanoi (some of the nicest Baramundi, locally known as Asian Sea Parch I've ever had, all for roughly 30 baht) but HCMC is trying to be first world, Hanoi is far off from getting there.

Hanoi is an extremely walkable and beautiful city. Probably some of the best architecture of any large SE ASIAN city. What I find strange about old men crossing the street is that if they just kept at the pace they started out with when they begin to cross the street they would get to the other side and any car, mother bike, bus , rickshaw whatever would be able to get by as well. What happens ALL the time is they freeze halfway across the street because they THINK they will be hit or something. Very strange but very common here.

[Phatbeets]

Lol at the Vietnamese Coffee being good. Didn't like it at all would even rank the instant coffee higher.

Anyway VN is a good choice.

[CLW]

Factors to consider.. your age, your limit on BS, and your adventure factor.. Try Vietnam.. food, coffee and a better sense of tourism..and you might just score the adventure you want..

Regarding the BS, is it really that bad in VN with touts etc?

[phuketrichard]

with a week

fly into Manadaly

stay 2 nights

boat down to Bagan takes a day

stay another 2 days

overnight bus to Yangon

stay until u fly back to Bangkok

[meltingpot2015]

Heads-up on Danang (Da Nang). Be prepared for the occasional power-cut. Mostly for about 1-2 hours, sometimes even less. But on 16/01 we had a 7 hour power-cut from 7am - 2pm. Although, the condo owner did make me aware of this the previous day. There hasn't been any power-cuts since. I've been here about 2 months now, and there's been about 5-6 power cuts.

Sometimes it's for your particular area, Sometimes its for the whole of danang. I've been told it used to be a lot worse. So ....

Edited January 28, 2016 by meltingpot2015

[meltingpot2015]

The locals do ask "where you are from" a LOT. I mean, a LOT....

[CLW]

Just a warning to everyone. I was nicely ripped off by the taxi from Saigon Airport.

I took the official queue but the wrong company. Instead of paying 5$ I was charged 15. Nothing to ruin me but still upset me.

Use ONLY taxis from MaiLinh (green) or Vinasun (white).

No other companies from the queue.

[meltingpot2015]

Watch closely at the name of the cab company MaiLinh and Vinasun. There are some dodgy cab firms operating with similar names...e.g. vinasum.

After a long flight, easy to miss. I've read that generally, the dodgy taxi's are somewhat unroadworthy, they would have bad bodywork, dirty exterior/interior. See:

http://www.runawaybrit.com/2012/05/28/how-to-avoid-saigons-rip-off-taxis-a-comprehensive-guide-2/

Ensure that you have the correct fare or close to it before you exit the airport (ask a bank cashier at airport for change). Vietnamese dong 10,000 is very similar to the 100,000, so if you receive change from driver for a 500,000 dong note, check its the correct change.

Most hotels provide airport pick-up for a fee (some hotels may offer it free if you stay more than three nights).

Edited January 30, 2016 by meltingpot2015

[amyreyna]

Just a warning to everyone. I was nicely ripped off by the taxi from Saigon Airport.

I took the official queue but the wrong company. Instead of paying 5$ I was charged 15. Nothing to ruin me but still upset me.

Use ONLY taxis from MaiLinh (green) or Vinasun (white).

No other companies from the queue.

Seems like, when going to big city in SEA need to know what is the trusted taxi, last time I was also ripped off by a taxi driver in Manila airports. That was not my first flight to Manila, usually I use yellow taxi (forgot the name) and I have to pay the toll fee round trip that I found strange...why should I pay round trip toll fee. Then try another taxi, that is worse, charge me 5 times then it usually the yellow taxi