hi ya, thought i'd ask at the travel fountain of knowledge here about my trip.....planning on going to hong kong, then train/ bus it round china for a month, then follow the indochina countries on into thailand. then to malaysia/singapore/indonesia/bali/Oz/New zealand then home, taking about 7/8 months. i've got a few questions if you could help it would be much appreciated.

how easy is it to get a visa from hong kong to china? and be able to exit china via vietnam??? do you think it would be easier with a rtw ticket?
when would be the worst monsoon-y months to avoid thailand?
anyone want to meet up along the way for a drink/part of the trip(may-dec)??
am i off my head to try this?? haha!

cheers t-punks! :cheers: Puzzell

Hey! I'm going to be in China from Sept - early Dec, and then will be most likely be travelling overland from Shanghai to Vietnam, from the north to south, then through Cambodia to Bangkok.

I don't know if any of that will cooincide with your plans, but if they do, drinks on! :cheers:

If you need any particular advice for Malaysia, ask away.

As far as I know now there are three border crossings from China - Vietnam. I will probably take the train from Guangzhou - Nanning - Hanoi. There's also a direct train from Beijing to Hanoi.

Have an awesome trip! :D

Hi ya.....it's a cool trip isnt it? i'm hoping to get to hong kong in the middle of june and spend 3/4 weeks in each country, so i think you will be behind me- i'll leave a present in each place for you! but if you get a fast bus then send me a message!
i was gonna go up to shanghai then beijing quickly then back to Xi'an, then find some way to yunnan province, cos it looks beautiful. chinese trains look good(better than british!) and then head towards hanoi. i'm probably going to work in thailand and oz but mainly just take it easy, with a bit of surfing & diving & drinking! should be an adventure! it seems the monsoons aren't really anything to go out of my way to avoid too much, thanks.
don't know much about malaysia, except it's home to the cool petronas towers, but any info would be nice.
when i know for definite i will tell you what & when i'm going places. i'm getting excited writing this now, can't wait!!

thanks for the tips
puzzell

Haha, you know what?

I just remembered that I'm going home to Malaysia in July and will be there until the end of August. I totally forgot about it earlier. If you're going to be in Malaysia at that time I'd totally take you around a bit, at least around KL. :) Although I think that might be too early for you.

I'm going to spend two weeks in east Malaysia (Borneo, Sabah) backpacking on my own from the 14th of July - 27th of July. I'll be back on the Peninsula after that until the 21st/22nd? of August, when I'm probably going to Singapore for a night or two and then flying to the US. If you have time, work in Borneo if you like outdoorsy stuff. It's got gorgeous beaches - the diving at Sipadan is top-notch, the world's oldest rainforests, amazing caves and it's always a nice thing to say that you've climbed Mt. Kinabalu (4095 ft).

If not, it would be funny if you left a trail of easter eggs for me to pick up later on. :P

Have fun planning! I love planning my travels, it's so addictive.

Freespiritz, I was wondering, it's quite easy to get from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, isn't it? The reason I ask is that I have 5 days in Singapore at the end of my trip in December, and don't really fancy spending the whole 5 days there. I hear it's a reasonably easy trip to make by public transport.

Also, is there anywhere else in Malaysia that you might recommed, that would be easy to get to from Singapore, and worth spending a night or two?

Hey Lauren,

Yup, it's very easy to get to KL from Singapore. You can take the bus or the train. What the locals do is take a bus from Singapore to Johor Bahru (JB), just across the causeway, and then take a local bus from JB so you don't have to pay in Sing dollars. If you take the train or bus direct then you obviously pay in Sing dollars. :)

There are a plethora of long-distance bus providers in Malaysia and they run very frequently. Just make sure you buy tickets from the counters and not from touts. :) It's about 5 hours (give a little depending on rush hour traffic and thunderstorms) from JB to KL. I'm a fan of the busses, a ticket from JB to KL should cost you 20-something ringgit (5 or 6 USD) on a comfy comfy bus - I usually get those that are only three seats across. ;)

If you like historical towns and just walking around and soaking in atmosphere, Malacca is on the way to KL. It's the oldest city/port in Malaysia and has a Portugese heritage.

If you could tell me what kind of stuff you like doing, I could give you a couple more suggestions of places to go to. :)

Whatever you do, be adventurous with food!

Oh yes, I am a big fan of the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari; if you have time and enjoy such things, check those out. The Underwater World is cool too but I haven't been there in a while. Otherwise, Singapore is too expensive for me and they *think* they have the authentic food. :P

Here's the scoop on Hong Kong and Chinese entry requirements:
Check out this site

I highly recommend this trip...sounds like a blast! SE Asia is great, HK is cool, and I'll bet China (haven't been) will be amazing, as well.

worldwidemike

I agree with freespiritz about getting to Borneo - I lived in Brunei for three years and travelled a lot through sarawak and sabah. Kucing or Miri are good places to go in Sarawak... also Mulu caves is really cool. And there is an island off Sabah, the name starts with S, but it has beautiful beaches and the main drawcards is that there is a turtle farm there. You watch these huge turtles come and lay their eggs on the beach in the middle of the night then the eggs get moved to the farm. then they do the whole "heres some we prepared earlier" thing and you get to help release freshly hatched baby turtles into the sea. its a really good experience

haha - spoken like only a true local would understand...!


plus, singapore now like to be known as the 'new tokyo' as someone told me....hehe

but all kidding aside, it's a very pretty city but a little authoritarian for me, though i haven't been there in like ages...maybe things have changed...

Hey Ray...how have you been? Haven't seen you around in awhile! Good to see you...

worldwidemike

I think you will need a visa for Vietnam as well, btw. I would recommend getting your China visa before you go if you have time. While you can get it in HK (I have seen signs right in the HK airport advertising PRC visas), if they happen to ask for a document you didn't bring with you you might have some problems. Otherwise, if you decide to wait until you get to HK, there are plenty of travel agencies around to help you get your visa. At a minimum you should bring an official birth certificate just to be safe. :cheers:

i've been doing great, mike.

i had all kinds of strange and weird things happened to me, right after the LA meet up, all the way back to May of last year.

but things have pretty much settled and - and it's good to be back here.... :blink:

cheers
r

thanks for the advice people......i booked my flights yesterday got a good deal round the world but with more getting from a to b. get to hong kong on the 15th june!! :blink:

then i'll spend about 5 weeks around china, wandering wether to head to beijing or to spend my time round the south. do you think the trains are the best bet in china?
then fly down to bangkok, from singapore to bali,bali to cairns,hitch down to melbourne, fly to NZ, over to chile/argentina/brazil then home.

cos i'm out for so long any tips on volunteering in asia/australia? i've seen adverts but they all cost a bomb.
wish i could give some advice to other people but not really been out of europe/U.S yet.