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FAQ Thread for Mainland SE Asia

Replies: 67 - Last Post: 07-Jan-2010 08:33 Last Post By: Drtraveller

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chaskemp

chaskemp avatar

30-Sep-2005 14:46
Posts:  616

FAQ Thread for Mainland SE Asia

This branch covers:
Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam

Here you will find links to information on health issues, visas, transportation, volunteering, weather, food, and more. Links to well-regarded resources such as Travelfish, Tales of Asia, Canby, and so on are also here.

Note: This is a FAQ/internet resources post, not an area for asking questions (nobody will answer questions here) or a place to post personal blogs, photos, etc. Please do post updates or added information that will help others find their way around the Southeast Asia mainland.

CK

Guidebook Updates
To get the latest updates to any of our guidebooks - or to add your own - visit the Guidebook Feedback branch of the Thorn Tree. See below for links to all the guides relating to mainland SE Asia.

C Cambodia 5 H Hanoi & Halong Bay Encounter 1 L Laos 6 M Myanmar (Burma) 9 S Southeast Asia 14 V Vietnam 9, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos & the Greater Mekong 1

Older editions: Southeast Asia on a Shoestring 13, Vietnam 8

Enhanced search on TT

Travelers Health
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has up-to-date information from experts on malaria, dengue fever, and other diseases (including avian influenza) on a country by country basis and areas within countries. Easy to navigate click travel for travel info, diseases & conditions for specific concerns.
CDC
The World Health Organization is easy to navigate on some topics and very difficult on others. More languages than CDC.
WHO
TT health branch

Visas in Southeast Asia
TT thread from Steve252
Project Visa site

Cost
SEA with aircon private room, decent food, and land and water travel is easily done on $20USD/person/day (excluding airfare).
Saving money thread
Daily expenses thread #1
Daily expenses thread #2
Daily expenses thread for Thailand

Airlines in Southeast Asia
Sometimes difficult to make reservations online. It may be best to buy at airport.
SEA airlines

Trains across the world
I heard that lonesome whistle blow - trains are good things & a schedule helps if you're riding.
http://www.seat61.com/Vietnam.htm

Volunteering (TT thread from Steve252)
TT thread on volunteering

What’s the weather like in Battambang and Bagan?
Weatherbase
Weather Underground

Sex
I can't believe I need to say this, but I do. Herpes, hepatitis, HIV, etc. are common. Men should always wear a condom for sex and women should always demand that men wear a condom for sex.

Gay and lesbian travel SE Asia
Also see TT branch on gay & lesbian travel
Utopia - Asia

Money
XE currency converter

Plugs the world over
Plugs of the world

SE Asia FAQs from Steve252 (Airlines, ATMs, digital camera info, electricity & plugs, budget travel costs, malaria, mosquito repellents, vaccinations, Visa-on-Arrival, volunteering)
SEA FAQs

Thailand (and related) FAQs from Steve252. This is a huge section and many apply to mainland SEA. Steve252 has gone beyond.
Thailand FAQs

Sleeping
Guesthouses are more common than hostels. Cost varies among cities and countries. Aircon twins (two beds) are easily found for $10 or less in most places. See individual country sections below. http://www.travelfish.org/ is a good source of information. Some travelers report that as soon as a place is listed in a Lonely Planet book, the prices go up. Generally speaking there are other places near those listed. Walk around, check it out. Be sure you understand the cost and any taxes or other added charges.

Eating
Again, things change walk around, check it out. Who is eating there? Does the food look good? Fresh? Do the people who work there look healthy?

The following sites are in sections and in each section the sites are in approximate order of how I experienced them, from best to good.

General
Travelfish guide to SEA. http://www.travelfish.org/
Things Asian - stories by travelers (some very interesting ones, indeed). http://www.thingsasian.com/
Lonely Planet, of course - kind of like Microsoft: easy to criticize; let me know when something better comes along. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
Guide to several Asian countries basic and helpful. http://www.passplanet.com/Asia/index.htm
DMOZ - links to lots of sites on lots of places - good starting point. http://dmoz.org/Regional/Asia/
Big web encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia
And the encyclopedia's associate, a travel site. http://wikitravel.org/en/Southeast_Asia
Large compendium of travel tips, some dated. http://www.1000traveltips.org/index.htm
Virtual tourist - a little like TT. http://www.virtualtourist.com/
About traveling & more - directive (quit telling me what size pack is correct!), but informed. http://www.travelindependent.info/index.htm

Cambodia
Canby's on Cambodia, extensive, helpful. http://www.canbypublications.com/
Tales of Asia has a guide to Cambodia (especially Siem Reap) and several SEA countries. Very helpful to me to see photos of guesthouses. http://talesofasia.com/index.htm
Personal site, homegrown, good info, good heart. http://andybrouwer.co.uk/
Mainly links to current affairs but archives contain brief travel-related entries.
Pookai Books
Pop music in Cambodia at Bayon TV
Expat and traveler newsletter, etc. Check out the pdf newsletter as well as other information. Content variable, but definitely worthwhile. http://www.bayonpearnik.com/
Phnom Penh and Siem Reap only, site not fully developed but still worthwhile: http://www.cambodiapocketguide.com/default.aspx
Guide to Angkor from 1944. The Angkor Guide
Small collection Khmer language phrases. Cambdian Embassy
Cambodia: Beauty and Darkness. Mekong.net
Cambodia Genocide Program. Yale University
Also see books by David Chandler - Brother Number One, etc.

Vietnam
Jan Dodd's site (with links) is related to the Rough Guide. Jan Dodd site
Hongha's voluminous info on Vietnam (TT thread). Vietnam FAQs
Noodle pie, a blog about scoff & swill in Saigon - good photos, extensive, what you really see, food flashbacks (I'm getting hungry & so will you) - I love the internet. http://www.noodlepie.com/
Sticky Rice - food and more in Hanoi. http://stickyrice.typepad.com/
A school in Hanoi - maybe worth an internet surf & surely worth a live visit (but only if you believe in dreams): http://www.hoasuaschool.com/
OK on hotels in VN. http://www.hotels-in-vietnam.com/
KSVN has a very nice English-Vietnamese dictionary, other things, too. http://www.ksvn.com/
Moto tours in Vietnam. http://www.vietnamrider.com/

Burma € Compadre covers it all
Compadre has a great collection of carefully chosen links. Compadre's links
The Free Burma Coalition covers the political issues. Free Burma!
Here is a haunting and beautiful site/story on A Journey of the Heart. Paula Bock, the author is married to my colleague, Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, who volunteers at Dr. Cynthias clinic in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border. On the border
Pretty up to date exchange rate Burma can be found at Irrawaddy.org

Laos
Travelfish Laos section is the best resource I can find. http://www.travelfish.org/
Guide to Culturally Sensitive Travel in the Lao PDR. Cultural sensitivity
Okay, not much detail. Travel Notes

Thailand on TT There is a lot of information on the Thailand branch that is relevant to other parts of SE Asia. Thailand

Southeast Asia islands & peninsula branch - SE Asia islands & peninsula

Northeast Asia on TT € might as well slide on through HK, right?*
Northeast Asia

Travelogues, photos, other
Travelogues (a good way to keep a travelogue and post a few pics while in SE Asia). http://www.travelpod.com/
Another very nice travelogue resource. http://www.ballofdirt.com/
Travelblogs at: http://www.travelblog.org/
Photos - post them at Worldisround: http://www.worldisround.com/travel/index.html

The net is a wonderful thing - sleeping in airports around the world - personally, I like to sleep in airports. http://www.sleepinginairports.net/asia/hongkong.htm

Hard to say exactly what this is, but I'm glad I went - Cambodia, India, more - "The heart of the matter": http://www.theartichoke.org/

Thanks to foolsprogress, Toolz, kym_h, Joyasia, PhilipC, mrmookie, toady2002, gio19, le_tigre, Compadre, murwill16, Steve252, Hongha, montyman, RomanB

Edited by: Trent_at_LP

gusebumps

gusebumps avatar

11-Oct-2005 12:11
Posts:  29

3

I found this site amazingly usefull when just starting. Go to RTW section for good ideas and travelogue links Travel Library

BackslidingTurkeyCut

BackslidingTurkeyCut avatar

19-Dec-2005 18:57
Posts:  1

5

Cambodian Food:

Well worth checking out either Phnomenon.com, or Noodlepie.

Cheers

montyman

montyman avatar

29-Dec-2005 03:56
Posts:  4,630

Hanuman

Hanuman avatar

17-Jan-2006 21:52
Posts:  1,951

7

Vietnam-Cambodia international bordergate opens

An international bordergate between southern Tay Ninh province of Vietnam and Kompong Cham province of Cambodia was inaugurated on January 16.

The Xa Mat-Trapaing Phlong national bordergate was upgraded to the international level to facilitate bilateral trade between the two neighbouring countries.

Present at the ceremony were representatives from the Cambodian Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, Tay Ninh and Kompong Cham provincial authorities and almost 1,000 people from the two countries. (VNA)


FYI, new international Cambo-Vietn bordergate opens

gecko13

gecko13 avatar

03-Feb-2006 10:27
Posts:  90

8

backpacking travelogues, photos and info about trips to Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia.
Cambodia border crossing info:

Asiaphoto.de

OneVietnam

OneVietnam avatar

09-Feb-2006 21:59
Posts:  4

9

Here are some help about transportation, air ticket and shopping guide in Vietnam. Are they may be here?
http://www.waytovietnam.com/help.asp
Hope that it will be useful to you if plan a trip to Vietnam.

My travel

B_White

B_White avatar

06-Mar-2006 16:12
Posts:  6

10

Heres a resource -:

Malasia/Thailand/Cambodia

Lots of Pics - Site by no means complete , but functional and no popups, popunder,s cookies,or poo !

It is my belief that all wrong thinking people who think right thinking people are wrong, are right - sometimes

mrstolis

mrstolis avatar

08-Mar-2006 00:44
Posts:  1

11

Hi All,

Here is some important info regarding ATM's in Vientiane, Laos. I am in Vientiane at the moment (08 March 2006) and have found an ATM machine which accepts Maestro/Cirrus debit cards (you know your normal atm bank card) as well as credit cards.

The macine is on Th Pangkham, just past Laos Airlines, towards the river. There are two machines one marked International Cards and the Other Domestic Cards. Obviously use the International one!

The machine will give up to 700,000kip each time, but if it accepts your card and comes up with your name and details and then the service fails, don't panic it does this when there isn't enough cash in the machine. They fill it up every lunch time, so try later, we did this twice got cash no problem second try.

Happy ATM'ing

budenmeyer

budenmeyer avatar

22-Mar-2006 22:06
Posts:  1

12

TIPS ON GETTING MYANMAR TOURIST VISA IN BANGKOK, THAILAND

I applied for tourist visa (EVT/FIT) at the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok on February 7th, 2006. Here are some tips:

1. Every day the consular section of the embassy hands out numbered tickets for tourist visa applicants.

2. The daily limit is 40 - 45.

3. No ticket, no service. ( All the rules above and below apply equally to visa agents as well, according to the guy from an agency, who was standing in front of me.)

4. People start lining up outside the door before 6 am, and, after 7am, you definitely have no chance of getting a ticket. (FYI, I got there at 6:15 am, and I was #6. By 6:30 am, there were more than 20 people lined up.)

5. Once lined up, you wait until 9:00am or so until the door opens up, then get your ticket from the window.

6. After getting your ticket, wait for your turn. (According to the same agent refered above, they normally handle up to #20 before noon. They close for an hour at noon for lunch, then resume the service. Now, how they can get to anyone above #40 in the afternoon, I do not know. Safe to say, get a low number.)

7. For each person holding a ticket, the embassy will accept up to three passports. Does not matter if the three passports are from different countries or have different turn-around time. (I only had two USA passports for 1-day processing, and handed in a Japanese passport for a same-day processing. Just mentioned the different requirements to the clerk.)

8. The three-passport rule applies to the visa agencies as well. So, if the agency has more than three passports to process, they have to send in more than one person to line the queue. (Apparently this queue started recently, and the agencies are only getting used to it now. So, I'd guess, in future, the queue will close up way early in the morning.)

9. Given this, I'd say, the higher fee charged by the agencies are worth the cost IF they can deliver the visa in the promised time period.

10. Your choices are

(A) Get to the embassy by 6am to guarantee your place in the queue, and plan to stay there at least until 11am. Remember only one person for three passports (with the fees for three passports, of course). Also, try to fill the applications before going to the embassy. (two photos, either passport- or visa-size; visa application; arrival card; forms available at the window or on-line)

(B) Hire a visa agency but make sure they can get visa in the time period requested. The normal processing at the embassy window is two business days after submission (about 825 Baht) with expedited processing for next day (+225 Baht) and for same day (+450 Baht).

11. Tips on filling out visa application (from the agent)

-. Write your company name as well as your profession. (NO journalist or photographer)
-. Write any hotel name (e.g. Traders Hotel) for Myanmar address
-. Write Male or Female for sex, not M or F
-. Complexion: light, fair, or dark
(The visa clerk also asked me to write the hotel I was staying in Bangkok, but this seems to be just for an emergency contact.)

Hope this helps.

chaskemp

chaskemp avatar

01-Apr-2006 17:49
Posts:  616

chaskemp

chaskemp avatar

27-Apr-2006 17:14
Posts:  616

14

Burma info:

Here is Compadre's "Small FAQs re Burma"

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