In June 2013 I went to a travel lecture about SE Asia and was instantly fascinated by Vietnam. I met a very nice women at that lecture-Eileen. We clicked and couldn't stop talking about going to Vietnam. As time went on we decided to not only go to Vietnam but also go to Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. The discussions went from 3 weeks in Vietnam to 2 weeks in Vietnam and 3 weeks in Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand for a total of 5 weeks.
Eileen and I would get together every week at SE Asian retaurants Madison, WI for June, July and August 2013That was a lot of fun. We would choose SE Asian restaurants close to our homes - I live on the East side of Madison, Eileen lives West side of Madison, about 6 miles away and close to Middleton, WI. When we shared our research of each country and put together a tentative itinary we started meeting weekly at each other's home. It was a lot of fun planning with a nice glass of wine and a snack. We booked air and hotels together on our computers. I booked with mostly venere.com booking.com and agoda.com., most of the hotels paying in advance. 3-5 star hotels were surprisingly inexpensive running from $12 to $40 per night for what appears to be very nice rooms. I always tried to find rooms with 2 beds, balconies and a restaurant. Booking the flights was done by Eileen - Korean Air for our initial flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Viet Nam; Viet Nam Airlines for the trip from Hanoi, Viet Nam to Luang Prabang, Laos and for Luang Prabang, Laos to Phnom Penh, Cambodia; then a speed boat from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap, Cambodia; Cambodia Airlines from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand; Thailand Air round trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand; then finally Korean Air home - (sshew!!)
