I'm heading to Bangkok at the end of November ...
... and am planning to stay in Southeast Asia for three months. This will be my first trip and I am wondering about the best way of staying in touch with friends and family back home. I will be carrying my iPod Touch to check my email and going online via
You have nothing to worry about on that score. You won’t have problem finding Wi-Fi at hotels and guesthouses, especially in big cities like Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Siem Reap, Luang Prabang and even many towns in Myanmar. Even beach bungalows on Koh Pha-ngan or Phi Phi seem to offer free Wi-Fi these days.
Right now, Wi-Fi is everywhere. However, you may find the signal a bit sketchy in some places or you might have to pay for it, but you won’t have trouble updating your status on Facebook while you are on the road.
An iPod is a good choice for the road. If you are travelling on a shoestring, and don't want to risk losing your gadget while staying in a rough place, you can also rely on Internet cafes. This is really a question of personal preference.
If you plan to stop in very remote areas with limited internet access, the best way to stay in touch is to have an unlocked phone and a local sim card with which you can send text messages. If you don't have one, you can buy a used one for a few hundred baht in Thailand. If your phone is locked you can easily get it unlocked in Bangkok too.
If you happen to be somewhere that doesn’t have internet access and your sim card runs out, go back to the basics and make sure you have a pen to write postcards back home.
I'm planning to travel to Hanoi and then go to Dien Bien Phu. I am thinking about going by car and flying back to Hanoi. Do you have any recommendation for the overland route? Sompong
Most people travel overland from Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu via Sapa. You can take the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa, stay in Sapa for a couple of nights then move on to Dien Bien Phu. From Sapa or Lao Cai, a transport hub in northern Vietnam, it’s a full day on the bus to Dien Bien Phu. Lao Cai is actually a border town, located a short walk away from Hekou on the Chinese side. People going to Kunming in southern China pass through here, continuing 470 km northwards to get to Kunming. The train from Hanoi also stops in Lao Cai, making the town the gateway to Sapa.
The route from Lao Cai to Dien Bien Phu travels through the mountains of northern Vietnam and offers some majestic scenery as well as the chance to admire several tribal villages.
If you have already been to Sapa and would prefer to travel direct from Hanoi to Dien Bien Phu, there are buses departing mainly from My Dinh Bus Station around eight km from Hanoi and from Ha Dong Bus Station in Hatay province, about 10 km from Hanoi city centre. The trip used to take up to 12 hours, but thanks to some road upgrades, now takes a few hours less.
On your return trip, you can simply take the 60-minute flight back from Dien Bien Phu to Hanoi with Vietnam Airlines.
Bon voyage!
