Big Exciting City Wanted

Penang is fantastic, more interesting than Kuala Lumpur to most visitors, but it doesn't really feel like a big city.
For a big city experience, Singapore or KL would be better - I much prefer Singapore. It also offers more to do for 8 days. Though you could split your time checking out Penang for say 3 days, leaving 5 for Singapore.

So what happened to Indonesia? On your last post people recommend you to miss Penang as you were giving to little time to Indonesia, if you just want to see cities, then Penang is great, the food is superb, with 8 days I would look at 3 in Penang, bust to KL then maybe 2 nights there and onto Singapore. But I guess it depends where your departure flights is from.

Hi All! Thank you so much for your continued ideas/helping me with all of these exciting decisions!! I just changed my flight back to the US to be out of Hong Kong, so right now my itinerary looks like the following:
Day 1-4 Bangkok
Day 5-8 ????
Day 9-12 Hong Kong

What are suggestions for where to spend the first 4 days in March?

Thanks again!!!
Kate

You need to decide you have asked various questions and been given answers, as you have a thing for cities I would probably do Singapore, but for me a 12 night solely based in cities is not my idea of a great holiday, you could pick two smaller cities that offer different perspectives Chiang Mai or Penang could offer that. But you would also need to look at places with flights to Hong Kong and in your timeframe direct ones.

This is now getting ridiculous and it feels like we've been wasting our times answering Qs about all sorts of places she is not going to after all.

I'm really sorry you feel this way. All of your advice has been completely indispensable to me in making my decisions. I am still hoping to include Malaysia or Indonesia in my itinerary. I'm just having a very difficult time making the most of my limited travel time. I don't know when I'll be able to come back to Asia, so I'm trying to figure out how to best satisfy my interests.

Thank you so so much for the time you've spent advising me. It has been immensely useful!

Kate

I have just responded on your latest post and now just read your last reply on this post.
I know how you feel, when you have limited time and there are so many option, its so difficult to decide. Having said that - honestly, I dont think that you can make a wrong choice. Go for the 3 destinations you feel most attracted too, and I am sure you will have an amazing time. You wont be able to compare them with other destinations in Asia that you have missed, so you wont know if you would have liked them better.

With 12 days and 3 destinations, and not knowing if you can return to Asia, if you dont mind including flights, I would choose 3 totally different destinations. I am assuming that you are now settled on Bangkok and Hong Kong ? Both are great cities and totally different from each other.

Bangkok is one of my favorite cities in the world. Its not always easy and not always pretty. But its an amazing place, there is so much to do, see, watch, experience, eat, people watch etc. I have been there at least 40 times and cant wait to return again and again. Hong Kong is quite different, but its also an amazing place with great food and many of the things you are looking for. Its also very spread out and quite varied, from very very modern to quite laid back quiet islands.

Penang as a third destination would not be a bad choice. Georgetown is much smaller than the 2 before mentioned cities. Its also one of the loveliest places I have been to, such a great mix of Malay, Chinese, Indian and Western culture, history and food. One of the best places in the world for food. Amazing night markets. Maybe no "big sights", but still, so much to do, see and enjoy. Also, its an island and although the beaches there are not fantastic, they are okay and so you could include a couple of hours of beach time.

Both Hong Kong and Bangkok are relatively rich places, especially Hong Kong, if you really want to experience SEA, why not fly to a poorer place like Siem Reap which has Angkor Wat for 2-3 days. It would give you a very different perspective of life in SEA other than those two well off cities.