Cambodia & Thailand

dimples06

I want to go to Thailand and Cambodia next Summer for about 5 weeks, leaving some time in June. There are 2 of us travelling and we are pretty flexible and don't mind where we go and we have a pretty good budget.
For the last week we would like to go somewhere really nice and relaxing before we head home.

We were thinking of flying into Cambodia instead of Thailand because we don't want to fly into Thailand, leave it and then come back again because of the visa.

Cambodia:
-Phnom Penh
-Sihanoukville
-Siem Reap


Thailand: fly up to Chiang Mai from Cambodia
-Bangkok
-Ko Chang
-Ko Tao
-Ko Phangnam
-Ko Samui
-Phuket
-Ko Phi Phi

This is just a general idea of where we might go. Not sure where we would fly home from yet. Was nearly even thinking of booking a cheap flight with Air Asia to somewhere else in Asia to spend our last week. When we are travelling through Cambodia and Thailand we are going to book flights instead of the long train/bus journeys.

If anyone has any tips or suggestions I would love to hear them

Theresalwaysone

If you leave and re enter youll get a new visa. Whatever about the rest of your plans Bangkok airport is the main hub for SEAsia and so id imagine flights to it would be cheaper.

Gatica

agree, flights into/out of Thailand were far cheaper than any other destination in SE Asia. The usual rule that return long haul flights are cheaper than one way flights also applies. You're unlikely to find flights into one city and then a one way from another to come back costing even within a reasonable percentage of a regular return flight.
Air Asia is cheapest within the same country, once you start crossing borders the cost goes up a good bit. If money is no object, then your plan could work.

For the last week of relaxation I'd recommend Koh Phi Phi. Went there on honeymoon and loved it. It's not cheap though compared to Thailand, but we did relax and do nothing for 5 days. Went on a snorkelling trip, got massages... lounged on the beach.

In Bangkok avoid touting tuk tuks like the plague. They try to give you a "tour" for really cheap but their intent is really to bring you to some tailor or travel agent. Wave down a cab and make sure he puts the meter on when you get in. If they try to haggle a price just get out. It's not legal for them to do that and usually works out more expensive than the actual tariff. You also risk them changing the price when you get to your destination, saying, "no I said Y", when they said X. Also, some try to play dumb with numbers, like saying 15 and then on arrival pretending it was 50, so try to make it clear on fingers before you leave.
There are a lot of rip-offs but there are also a lot of nice and decent folk, so you'll just have to watch out for scammers but don't let it taint your view of the culture and the people.

Would recommend you include Chiang Mai in your itinerary. It's the Galway of Thailand. A little town with a lot to offer. Elephant Nature Park was a highlight for us. You can do a day trip or stay a couple of days and help look after the elephants, like feeding and washing them. There are also a lot of treks there, though we didn't do any.

Cambodia mainly deals in dollars so bring plenty of those and keep a good bit of single dollars if you can. They're useful for grabbing a tuk-tuk and negotiating a price, and keeps you from getting ripped off if they decide not to give you change, though we didn't have much of a problem with that in Siem Reap. Remember that ATMs there dispense money in dollars. In addition they usually use the Cambodian Real in 1000's to give you change equivalent to American cents. Roughly 4000 to a dollar.

PrettyBoy

Better off flying into Bangkok, it will only make things easier and cheaper.

laniey

I know this is an old thread, but I'm planning Thailand and Cambodia this June, for 5 weeks also and I would love to know how you got on. Did you fit it all into 5weeks? What would you recommend/not recommend? Any advice in general would be appreciated. Thanks!!