Rough Southeast Asia itinerary...

So I haven't quite left yet on my trip. But I've been planning like crazy using Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum where you can get tips and tricks about anything... and I mean anything. Think: random (and possibly terrible) 22 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang, Laos to Hanoi, Vietnam on a dirt road in a bus that's almost falling apart squished in like sardines with all the other passengers while listening to 80s one-hit-wonders and Laotian hits at full blast for the entire trip. You can find reviews of this wonderful bus ride from tons of travelers who have already done it. Great site.

Anyway, after entire days (and a few nights until 3:30am) of copy/pasting tips and tricks from that forum, I created a really rough itinerary for my trip with Sergio. Okay, so maybe it's 30 pages long... but I wanted to make sure we had options to get from point A to point B if the bus/2 day cargo boat ride/3rd class train didn't work out as a first choice. And it includes recommendations for cheap hotels and cheap eats, tres importante.

Here is the grand itinerary (not 30 pages, have no fear... and revised to cut out Northern Thailand and the hill tribes to save on time, sniff):

Thailand: 2 days

• Depart LAX on May 30, arrive in Bangkok on June 1
• Spend 2 days in Bangkok
• Short day trip to Ayutthaya
• Temples and palaces to bicycle around
• Continue north to border with Laos at Nong Khai / Vientiane

• Via overnight train

Laos: 1 week-ish

• Vientiane (captial)
• Vang Viang

• Known for bars and restaurants that play "Friends" re-runs, haha
• Luang Prabang

• The "gem of S/E Asia", according to my professor
• Hanoi, VIetnam
• Via 22 hour bus ride (already dreading it)

Vietnam: 9ish days

• Hanoi (capital in the north)
• Ha Long Bay

• Hundreds of limestone outcrops and caves so spectacular it's listed as a World Heritage Site
• South to Hue

• Via Reunification train (goes at a blinding speed of 30mph) 
• Hue

• The Imperial City in the 19th century
• Demilitarized Zone

• Border between N / S Vietnam until 1975

• Hoi An

• Historic port town
• Contine train ride south to Ho Chi Minh City/Saigon (former capital)
• Cu Chi tunnels

• Viet Cong network of underground tunnels
• Mekong Delta
• 3 day tour will take us across the Cambodian border to Phnom Penh

Cambodia: 1 week-ish

• Boat to Phnom Penh (riverside capital)
• Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

• This school was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge rule; 20,000 teachers, monks, doctors, children were tortured and killed here
• Bus to Siem Reap (close to Angkor)
• 1 or 3 day tour of Angkor

• 100+ ruined Hindu-Buddhist temples and palaces of the ancient Khmer city, built between the 9th-14th centures, another World Heritage Site
• Flight to Phuket, Thailand (island time!)

Southern Thailand islands: 2 weeks + 2 days Bangkok

• Start in Phuket
• Following islands TBD
• Khao Sok National park
• Hope to make it here... sleep in a tree house, wake up to hooting gibbons, take a tour via waterlogged caves and jungle trails to a lake!
• Train or flight back to Bangkok
• 2 days Bangkok, then fly home on July 13

After all my research, I know exactly how to get from each destination to the next. Yay Thorn Tree. But I haven't bought my traveler's checks or finished buying all of my travel gear / essentials! Can I do it all in time? Do I really need to take my malaria medication (heard it damages the liver, only .01% of traveler's get malaria anyway, and Dengue fever is by far a more commonly caught mosquito-borne disease... and it has no vaccination!) Did I really need to buy all those REI moisture-wicking clothes? You don't want to know how much I spent. I don't want to know how much I spent. Am I bringing too much / too little? We'll see soon enough.

Five more days... !