The Itinerary

As I did last time, I'm posting our itinerary. Since we haven't worked as closely with a tour operator, I don't have the lucious write-ups we had last time. I've since come to find out that plagarism is rampant in the tour industry. I found the source of many of the write-ups as I tried to navigate making my own tours & finding my own guides.

In the end, I did work with a tour agency, a hotel, and a private guide. We'll see how it all works out. I've embedded hyperlinks for you to browse around. I've also updated my Southeast Asia Map with our hotel locations & itinerary. This trip we'll be flying from Seattle to Bangkok, Thailand via Taipei. From Bangkok we will do an overland border crossing to Cambodia & drive to Siem Reap via the Aranyaprathet / Poipet border crossing. We'll visit the temples of Angkor Wat while we're in Siem Reap. Then we're driving (will be driven) to Phnom Penh. From Phnom Penh we fly to Taipei where we'll spend a few days before we take our direct flight back to Seattle. We actually arrive in Seattle earlier in the day than we take off from Taipei.

Wednesday, 2/24/2010
• cab pickup 10pm

Thursday, 2/25/2010
• depart 12:50am

Friday, 2/26/2010 - Bangkok
• Arrive 11:05am Flight 211 Thaitour driver will pick us up at door 3 and deliver to hotel.
• Hotel: Navalai River Resort

Saturday, 2/27/2010 - Bangkok
• Chatuchak Weekend Market
• Dinner booked: 19:30 @ the Bangkok Marriott - Manohra Dinner Cruise (Turn on your speaker, it's got nice music, if a bit repetetive after the 2nd go around)
Free river taxi from Taksin Public Pier every 15 min to Manohra / Marriott

Sunday, 2/28/2010 - Bangkok
• email The Pavilion – reservation@thepavilion.asia -
This is the hotel we'll be staying at in Phnom Penh. They require an email confirmation of arrival 7 days in advance of the booking. I'm all nervous about forgetting about it.

• 9am – guide picks us up at the hotel to visit Wat Pho (massage), Amulet Market, Nat’l Gallery Weekend Art market, Grand Palace

This time I worked with a travel agency to book guides & car in Thailand. We'll see how they work out. The company is Thaitour Service. We've asked them to arrange the airport transfer as well as a few of these tours. We've also booked the drive from Bangkok to Siem Reap, Cambodia with them. Now that will be telling.

Monday, 3/1/2010 - Bangkok
• 8am pickup – Ayutthaya. Return to Bangkok by 16:30
• Dinner: Baan Rabiang Nam

Tuesday, 3/2/2010 - Bangkok
• Chinatown
• Dinner booked: 19:00 dinner @ Jok’s kitchen
Jok Kitchen

We used the Thaitour Service tour agent to book us this reservation at Jok's Kitchen. At least with them, we could communicate via email. Otherwise, it would be an attempt to speak to someone in Thai via an international phone call. Not a high probability of that one actually happening.

Wednesday, 3/3/2010 – Siem Reap (Angokor Wat)
• Depart by car – 7:30am
• Arrive in Siem Reap
• Hotel: Golden Banana Boutique Resort

This is going to be an interesting day - I hope. I've heard that the border crossing isn't as "adventurous" as it used to be. I'm fine with that. I mean, what with backs getting thrown out, pneumonia, antibiotic resistant strains of staph, dogs dying kind of things happening when Dave & I travel, the idea of an uneventful border crossing is heavenly. We got our Cambodian Visas on line.

Their website was extremely easy to navigate, clearly written, and quick to use. Loved it. Probably one of the best sites to work with in SEA.

Thursday, 3/4/2010 - Siem Reap (Angokor Wat)
I haven't made a lot of reserverations in Siem Reap, okay, any b/c the hotel says that we can do that once we get there. From everything I've read, that appears to be true. We'll find out. It's a town built around tourism, but it doesn't "sound" as aggressive as Hanoi or what I've read about touts in Bangkok. Again, we'll find out.

One of my favorite websites about Cambodia is the one by
Canby Productions. This is the site where many a travel agent rips off the verbiage to add to their tour descriptions.

Friday, 3/5/2010 - Siem Reap (Angokor Wat)

Saturday, 3/6/2010 - Siem Reap (Angokor Wat)
• Depart by car. Arrive Phnom Penh between 3-6pm.
• Hotel: The Pavilion


Sunday, 3/7/2010 – Phnom Penh
We'll have 2 full days in Phnom Penh. I haven't really figured out what we're gonna do when. We hope to pick up a tuk-tuk driver we like to take us around.

Monday, 3/8/2010 – Phnom Penh

Tuesday, 3/9/2010 – Taipei
• Depart 12:45pm – EVA Air
• Arrive 5pm. Airport pickup arranged by hotel.
• Hotel: Just Sleep Hotel (Ximending)
• Meet with the guide Lulu Huang at 7pm @ hotel.
o Lung-Shan temple & visit the night market next to the temple.

We booked a local Taiwanese guide through the Our Explorer website. We were originally going to arrange to have her pick us up at the airport, but found that it would be cheaper going through the hotel. I have no interest in making things more difficult for myself, so things like trying to navigate the frustrations of making it from the airport to the hotel by finding the exit, finding a taxi, communicating with said taxi driver... forget it. This isn't my job, this is supposed to be fun. I'll help the global economy and pay someone to pick me up at the airport. Much nicer.

But back to the guide, Lulu, we're going to meet her at the hotel in the evening for our first tour - night markets in Taipei.

Wednesday, 3/10/2010 - Taipei
• Cave Gallery in the morning (9am?)
• 6pm go to Baoan Temple & Shilin night market

Thursday, 3/11/2010 - Taipei
• 10am reservations at Villa32

This is a hot springs resort in the Peitou (Beitou) district of Taipei. We'll catch the MRT red line & walk from there. We're only going for the day. We'll rent a private room for our soak, then each have massages, finishing off the day with tea.

Friday, 3/12/2010 - Taipei
• Check out noon
• National Art Gallery

• Departing 11pm from Taipei, arriving 6pm in Seattle

Ttttthat's all folks! (for now, I have to make some plans for Phnom Penh & find some more restaurants in Taipei)