cathay pacific all asia pass -- how long in each place?

Hello all,
This summer I am traveling to asia with the cathay pacific all asia
pass for 30 days and I am trying to figure out how long to stay in my
slected locations. Can anyone give me some advice?

I am definitely planning on going to the following locations, but the
length in each can be tweaked as needed:

Hong Kong ~4 days
Thailand(BKK) ~7 days
Singapore ~3 days
Kuala Lumpur ~3 days
India(Mumbai) ~10 days
Beijing ~? days

Any advice on how to tweak this schedule? Any particular order that
would be best to visit these areas? I am planning on being in Thailand
for the full moon porty, and when in India I will be going to Goa.
Should I try and fit Beijing in, or spend more time elsewhere?

Any other advice would be appreciated as well as past experiences
using this cathay pacific all asia pass. Thanks for the help.

madman wrote:
This summer I am traveling to asia with the cathay pacific all asia
pass for 30 days and I am trying to figure out how long to stay in my
selected locations. Can anyone give me some advice?

I am definitely planning on going to the following locations, but the
length in each can be tweaked as needed:

Hong Kong ~4 days
Thailand(BKK) ~7 days
Singapore ~3 days
Kuala Lumpur ~3 days
India(Mumbai) ~10 days
Beijing ~? days

Bear in mind that many of your trips will probably require a trip back to
Hong Kong, thereby taking at least a day of travel time (possibly more, if
you have to overnight). Use a site like www.amadeus.net to examine how you
might actually achieve your itinerary on CX flights.

I don't think you can comfortably squeeze all those places in unless you're
trying to just say you've been there. I hate to have to pick one (since
they're all worth visiting), but Singapore is probably the one to drop, as
the experience there will more or less be duplicated by aspects of Hong
Kong, KL, and Mumbai.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

(madman) wrote in message . com...
Hello all,
This summer I am traveling to asia with the cathay pacific all asia
pass for 30 days and I am trying to figure out how long to stay in my
slected locations. Can anyone give me some advice?

I am definitely planning on going to the following locations, but the
length in each can be tweaked as needed:

Hong Kong ~4 days
Thailand(BKK) ~7 days
Singapore ~3 days
Kuala Lumpur ~3 days
India(Mumbai) ~10 days
Beijing ~? days

Any advice on how to tweak this schedule? Any particular order that
would be best to visit these areas? I am planning on being in Thailand
for the full moon porty, and when in India I will be going to Goa.
Should I try and fit Beijing in, or spend more time elsewhere?

First of all, check the weather averages for India and Thailand in the
summer - parts of those countries get a rainy season in the summer -
you don't want to be caught in the monsoon, or have your beach
vacation rained out day after day.

Cut out Singapore and KL - they're modern cities with not much to
offer the traveller. Consider Tokyo or Shanghai instead if you want
to see another modern Asian city besides Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is great - 5-7 days is more like it - that would give you
time to also see Macau (Portuguese/Chinese fusion in culture,
architecture, and food), Lantau Island (fishing villages, a monastery,
and a giant Buddha statue), and Shenzen (the mainland Chinese city
right over the border - to see how fast China is changing).

You'll need about 3 days for Bangkok proper. If you want to do day
trips to Ayuthaya (ruins) or Kanchanaburi (the Bridge on the River
Kwai), add another day each.

Beijing is worth seeing for its history, but it's not the most
pleasant city (polluted, unfriendly, the modern parts are unattractive
and sprawling) and you won't want to spend a lot of time there.

The full moon party is on Koh Phangan, which doesn't have an airport.
You fly to the nearby island Koh Samui, and then take a short boat
ride to Koh Phangan.

I'd recommend:

Hong Kong 5 days
(HK-Bangkok travel) 2 days
Bangkok 3 days
Thai beach + full moon party 4 days
(HK-Beijing travel) 2 days
Beijing 3 days
(HK-Mumbai travel) 2 days
Mumbai and Goa 9 days

Consider replacing Beijing with Tokyo, Kyoto (fly into Osaka), Angkor
Wat (short flight from Bangkok), or Shanghai.

"madman" wrote in message
om...
Hello all,
This summer I am traveling to asia with the cathay pacific all asia
pass for 30 days and I am trying to figure out how long to stay in my
slected locations. Can anyone give me some advice?

I am definitely planning on going to the following locations, but the
length in each can be tweaked as needed:

Hong Kong ~4 days
Thailand(BKK) ~7 days
Singapore ~3 days
Kuala Lumpur ~3 days
India(Mumbai) ~10 days
Beijing ~? days

Any advice on how to tweak this schedule? Any particular order that
would be best to visit these areas? I am planning on being in Thailand
for the full moon porty, and when in India I will be going to Goa.
Should I try and fit Beijing in, or spend more time elsewhere?


Is this your first visit to Asia? If no, which cities/countries in Asia
have you visited before? What do you look for in the places you visit?

Including Hong Kong, Singapore and KL seems like too much of the same (big
modern cities). I like all three, but would probably drop Singapore. KL
has more character and asian flavour than Singapore. If I wanted to do a
"first time to Asia highlights" trip, I'd probably drop KL too and go to
Kyoto and Nara instead (take the train from Osaka airport).

Beijing has a lot of history, and you'll also see how fast China is
developing - it will be hot in the middle of summer, but at least its a dry
heat. Shanghai is also interesting (and very humid), but Cathay don't fly
there at the moment. If you just wanted a quick visit to China you could
take the train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. Whilst that would give you an
impression of modern China, Guangzhou is not as interesting a city as
Beijing or Shanghai.

As the Cathay flight to Mumbai goes via Bangkok you'd want to do India
immediately before/after Thailand. Whilst I've been to many places in East
Asia, I don't know South Asia. However, have you considered Sri Lanka
instead of Goa? I think the weather on the east coast of Sri Lanka would be
better than Goa during the northern summer. Cathay fly daily to Colombo
(3/week via Bangkok, I think).

I wouldn't want to finish my holiday in a big hectic city, better to do
those earlier and then relax on the beach. Personally, if it was my first
trip to Asia, I'd do something like this:

Hong Kong - 4 days
Kyoto/Nara - 5 days
Beijing - 4 days
Thailand - 7 days
Sri Lanka - 10 days

Martin

On Wed, 21 Jan 2004 23:10:32 GMT, (Miguel Cruz) wrote:

I don't think you can comfortably squeeze all those places in unless you're
trying to just say you've been there. I hate to have to pick one (since
they're all worth visiting), but Singapore is probably the one to drop, as
the experience there will more or less be duplicated by aspects of Hong
Kong, KL, and Mumbai.

miguel

DON'T DON'T DON'T drop singapore, watching the weekly public whipping
of jaywalkers there alone is worthe twice the price of the air ticket!

MS wrote:
As the Cathay flight to Mumbai goes via Bangkok you'd want to do India
immediately before/after Thailand. Whilst I've been to many places in East
Asia, I don't know South Asia. However, have you considered Sri Lanka
instead of Goa? I think the weather on the east coast of Sri Lanka would be
better than Goa during the northern summer. Cathay fly daily to Colombo
(3/week via Bangkok, I think).

Sri Lanka is many things, but relaxing probably isn't one of them (unless
you have the bucks for a private resort). Non-stop sales pitches and touts
around the clock. Goa's much calmer by comparison.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

Thanks for the replies. So anyway, some have mentioned Japan, but I
really have no interest in going there this visit...and yeas, this is
my first trip to asia. I can cancel on beijing, as thats not a big
deal for me (BTW the all asia pass does in fact offer shanghai now
too). Iceman I am trusting your advice most since you are familiar
with the full moon party and probably more attuned to what I am
looking for. So anyway here is my current reasoning on my
destinations.

HK - its the hub, thus mandatory visit and stuff to do too anyway
Singapore - have a friend there
KL - no real reason
Thailand - probably the most popular destination, cheap, and the full
moon party
India - cheap and an amazing country. plus i have a friend near goa. i
could spend much more time there probably


I am definitely trying to schedule the trip with the fewest flights as
BKK is a mini-hub (notice the southeast focus). I considered sri lanka
but decided against it for several reasons.

So a couple questions:

Should I plan on spending 5+ days in Hong Kong?
Do I have to fly from BKK to Koh Sumai or are there other
alternatives?
Is 6 days between KL and Singapore enough? I could drop KL, but
figured we'll be so close why not just visit it.

Thanks for the help.

Thanks for the replies. So anyway, some have mentioned Japan, but I
really have no interest in going there this visit...and yeas, this is
my first trip to asia. I can cancel on beijing, as thats not a big
deal for me (BTW the all asia pass does in fact offer shanghai now
too). Iceman I am trusting your advice most since you are familiar
with the full moon party and probably more attuned to what I am
looking for. So anyway here is my current reasoning on my
destinations.

HK - its the hub, thus mandatory visit and stuff to do too anyway
Singapore - have a friend there
KL - no real reason
Thailand - probably the most popular destination, cheap, and the full
moon party
India - cheap and an amazing country. plus i have a friend near goa. i
could spend much more time there probably


I am definitely trying to schedule the trip with the fewest flights as
BKK is a mini-hub (notice the southeast focus). I considered sri lanka
but decided against it for several reasons.

So a couple questions:

Should I plan on spending 5+ days in Hong Kong?
Do I have to fly from BKK to Koh Sumai or are there other
alternatives?
Is 6 days between KL and Singapore enough? I could drop KL, but
figured we'll be so close why not just visit it.

Thanks for the help.

madman wrote:
Should I plan on spending 5+ days in Hong Kong?

If you enjoy cities, Hong Kong is one of the greatest. If not, then you may
find it overwhelming.

Is 6 days between KL and Singapore enough? I could drop KL, but
figured we'll be so close why not just visit it.

This is a controversial position, but I'm a big KL booster. It doesn't have
any particularly dramatic sights other than Petronas Towers and the the Batu
Caves, but the vibe is excellent, people are very friendly, the ethnic and
religious diversity is fascinating, and the food scene is the best in the
world.

miguel
--
Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/

So a couple questions:

Should I plan on spending 5+ days in Hong Kong?

Yes: If you're very interested in Chinese culture, if you like large
modern cities, or if you're interested in exploring the surrounding
region (you'd need two days to really see Macau; Lantau Island or
Shenzen can be done as day trips from HK).

No: If none of the above, then just use it as a hub, and maybe spend
2-3 days there.

Do I have to fly from BKK to Koh Sumai or are there other
alternatives?

Buses and vans leave from Bangkok, and there's a train from Bangkok
(to the ferry port on the mainland across from Samui).

I would recommend flying though, since you're on a tight schedule.
The flight is cheap and saves you a lot of time; the bus or train will
take a full long day each way. There are also flights from Koh Samui
to Singapore - this might save you some backtracking.

Is 6 days between KL and Singapore enough? I could drop KL, but
figured we'll be so close why not just visit it.

3 days each is enough.