Hi!

I'm planning on going to South-East Asia in january, february and march 2012.
I was thinking about visiting Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia,...

My question is: in which order should i visit them? Going from south to north, or the other direction?

What would you do? I think the weather could be quite important while making this decission? Are there any other things is should know?

The reason why my question is so important: i want to know which flights i should book. Probably i'll return (in march) from another place than the place where i landed in january.

Other important stuff you would like to share with me are also very welcome!
If you're travelling the same region during that time and would like some company: let me know!
thnx!
Arne

I can't see that any direction will bring better or worse weather. They all share the same climate and mostly the same hot/rainy seasons. Stand to be corrected here though as I'm no expert.

Obviously the countries you've listed are not conintuous (they don't all share borders) so you'll be flying? In that sense any flight will cost you around $50 or so and so again it doesn't really matter how you do this. Also note that you can't fly to too many destinations from Laos.

A general rule for travelling I follow is to start in the more expensive place and go towards the cheaper. From what is listed Malaysia is the most expensive and Kuala Lumpar is the main travel hub of the region. You can fly anywhere real cheap form there with Air Asia.

As a general idea you could maybe start in Ho Chi Minh and travel north to Hanoi. Form there head north-west to Sapa and then west to Dien Bien Phu. From here you can find a bus over the mountains and into Laos and then run south through the Laos hotspots such as Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane. Then you could head back into Vietnam (not sure how that would work with visas as you need to get these BEFORE heading to Vietnam so maybe you can grab a new Vietnam visa in Vientiane) and then back across to HCMC ready to fly over to Bali or whatever.

Both indonesia and Malysia are fairly immense. Are you going across to Sarawak or just staying on the Malaysian penisula? If you wanted to get across to the Perhentian Islands be advised that it may be difficult to get there outside of March - October due to monsoons. Outside that preiod it's low season and the islands are practically dead. Palau Tioman in the south is also beautiful and more accessible in low season. I went there and had a huge white-sand snorkling beach to myself for 5 days with clear skies and sunshine throughout :) superb!

I guess your itinerary is still heavily dependant on where in each country you wanted to go. You are talking about a huge area with far too much to take in in 3 months. Good luck though :)

Hi!

Thanks for the helpful reply!

Laos and Indonesia are the only 2 countries which i HAVE to see... The others (Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Signapore) would be great, but not necessary...

I was thinking about taking busses and planes... Depending on a lot of stuff, but probably i wouldn't book the flights before i leave... Would it still be about 50 dollars/flight? I don't mind sitting in a bus for 1 day, but i'dd prefere a plane if the bus would take 40 hours!

My first idea was only doing Malaysian Penisula... But plans can change, ofcourse...

I have to go now, but looking forward to more great advise.

Thanks again!
Arne

Air Asia work on the budget airline model, so if you buy last minute, you will pay much more than booking months in advance. I know it's a pain to have to plan ahead and book flights, but it saves you in the long run (financially, at least).

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You should come to the north first and later to the south because at this time the north is cold (8 ~ 20 degrees).