Question to those who have been to Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Thailand: is there a difference between?

Question for backpackers- thailand, phillipines and vietnam?

• hi, i would like to go and see my mate who is based in bangkok. i am aiming to go there around the start of 2011. as i have never been that far obviously i need to check the vaccinations etc which i have done through my doctor. i was thinking about going for 2 weeks or 14/15 days. i would like to go to thailand and possibly do some island hopping or seeing a few sights and also add in a little bit of the phillipines and/or vietnam. do you think 2 weeks is too short to add this much in? should i keep it to just one country? where is a good place to start planning/organising my itinery? this is the first time i have done this so at a bit of a loss as where to look. btw i will be travelling alone if that makes any difference. thanks in advance

• Answer:

  If you are going for just 2 weeks I would think about exactly where you want to go and what you are interested in seeing. I haven't been to the Philippines but I can tell you that roads and buses in most of Vietnam and Thailand are good enough to make travel fairly fast. However, getting from Bangkok to some of the nicer beaches in Thailand still takes a whole night (I went by night bus), so unless you're planning on domestic flights you are quite limited in terms of time. I'd try to pair it down to a maximum of two countries. Backpacking is less fun if you are really stressed for time. A good place to start is the lonely planet website for some background info. See what places interest you most and then check out a map to see how far they are from each other. There are relatively inexpensive flights from Bangkok to cities in Vietnam which can save you time. I hope you enjoy your trip and if you need any more info feel free to email me!