Would be happy to hear about: weather while you were there, packing suggestions, pre and post night recommendations, going back to Angkor Wat for sunrise, luggage advice (carry only vs checkin), any specific guidelines for airport security in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and rules that are different from US (liquids, etc), did you do an Asia stop over or go straight to Ho Chi Minh City? (Sorry so many questions, thank you!!)
Happy to help
Let's see if I can break this down into sections
Weather
We had great weather throughout the trip. It was hot and humid everywhere but we avoided rain for the most part. We live in south GA so the heat and humidity wasn't too unusual for us. For much of the trip, the temperatures were pretty much the same between where we were and at home.
There were a few showers, but none really impacted us. We had a few pre-trip days in Hanoi (more detail below). On the first day there, it rained most of the morning. We were going to go to Hoan Kiem Lake and walk around, but we decided to switch it up and go to Hoa Lo prison (even though it was also a part of the Disney trip). We figured it was mostly inside and, since it was an optional part of the ABD, we could skip it then and go something else (we ended up sleeping instead lol).
There was a short afternoon shower in Laos one of the days, but we were walking into a temple when it started and it was over by the time we were ready to leave.
There was a big shower on our last afternoon in Cambodia which moved the farewell dinner inside. We were already back at the hotel when it started, so it didn't impact us. I think most were happy for the air conditioning during the last dinner anyway
.
Packing
We were prepared for hot and rain. Our first day in Hoi An looked like a great opportunity to do laundry, so we packed enough clothes to get us up to that point, and made sure we would have enough clean after that to take us through the end of the trip. It worked perfectly as ABD arranged a laundry pickup for anyone that wanted it.
We had a bunch of outlet adapters. I think we used them at one hotel. For the most part, all the outlets we ran into accepted the US-style plugs. One of the most useful things we packed was a multi-USB outlet. Between the two of us, we had 2 cameras, 3 phones, 1 power bank, and 1 Apple Watch - so a lot of USB charging. We also had our laptops and could plug them into AC and use their USB ports for more. We also had long USB cords so that we could put the phones next to the bed. Even with long cords this wasn't always possible - many places only had outlets on the other side of the room.
A small luggage scale was also very useful.
Pre and Post Trip
We added some days as a pre-trip and went to Halong Bay and Ninh Binh and loved both.
We landed in Hanoi and spent the night and booked with a Halong Bay cruise company (Indochina Junk) to pick us up early the next morning to take us for an afternoon cruise. We also arranged for them to transfer us to Ninh Binh after the cruise to stay there that night. We worked with
Tommy's Service in Ninh Binh to arrange a full day tour of the area. We planned another night there, then Tommy would transfer us back to Hanoi. One more night in Hanoi, then off to HCMC to meet the ABD crew.
Unfortunately, there was a curve ball. There was a typhoon and all Halong Bay cruises were cancelled the day we were supposed to cruise. We didn't learn this until we arrived at the Hanoi hotel around 11PM the night before we were to go to the cruise. Indochina offered us a cruise the following day, but we had already scheduled the tour of Ninh Binh that day.
A few emails to Tommy and Indochina and we were able to rearrange our days. We had a free morning in Hanoi (the day it rained), then Tommy transferred us to Ninh Binh. We did the tour the following day (as previously planned), then Tommy transferred us to Halong the next morning for the cruise. Indochina then brought us back to the hotel in Hanoi.
It sounds a lot more confusing than it was
. Both Indochina and Tommy were so easy to work with.
We heard others did pre days in Singapore and there were a few that had post days in different areas (Shanghai Disney, Fiji (I
think it was Fiji), one added a few days in Siem Reap to see more temples). My parents had an overnight layover in Hong Kong, so they planned a morning tour there.
Angkor Sunrise
We had an early flight out of Siem Reap (11AM) so we didn't do the sunrise. We easily could have but we already had a 37 hour travel day in front of us and didn't want to add any additional time or stress. We heard a bunch of people planning to go, but I think only a small handful actually made it. We heard second hand that they got some great pictures.
Luggage
My wife and I each had a large suitcase, a carry-on, and a backpack. This worked well for us. My parents went with 1 large suitcase, 2 carry-ons, and a backpack and purse. They had a few more issues trying to manage weights and capacity. Neither of us bought many souvenirs, but you will accumulate things throughout the trip even if you don't buy much.
There is a lot of packing/unpacking, weighing, and shifting stuff around. Trying to manage what goes where so that everything makes it through security.
The luggage scale was invaluable. That helped us keep our checked luggage under weight. No one ever weighed our carry-on bags. Good thing, they were over weight most of the trip.
From what I observed, most on the trip didn't have carry-on bags. We saw no major downside of taking them - the only one being you have to drag it around yourself.
Airport Rules
These were very fluid (pun intended). Henry (ABD guide) told us that in Vietnam, you can take liquids, even open, on domestic flights. I think that worked for one flight. After that, they were removing even sealed liquids.
We kept all batteries in our carry-on luggage and never were asked to take them out. Small cameras also never had to be taken out. I think we had to take out laptops/tablets in each location.
My mom had small scissors in her carry-on that were confiscated early on. Mine got confiscated about half-way through the trip, but I don't remember when I moved them from my checked bag to my carry-on (I never intended to move them, but things happen when you a rearranging so often).
My general advice would be:
- Valuables go in your carry-on bags
- Keep laptops and tablets somewhere easy to take them out
- I didn't notice if larger cameras had to be taken out or not. If you have one, I'd probably keep that handy, too.
- Batteries go in your carry-on bags
- Large liquids go in checked bags
- Not 100% sure about smaller liquids. I didn't have any in my carry-on bags.
- My wife got stopped once for an aerosol can of hair spray. The office took it out, sprayed it in the air and smelled it, then gave it back.
- If you carry a bottle of water, be prepared to have to give it up. If it gets through, consider it a bonus
- If there is something you aren't sure of (scissors, umbrellas, etc.), put them in your checked bags
- Finally, expect different results at each airport and possibly for each person.
Stopover
We added the pre-trip days on our own, so we flew into Hanoi. We connected through Dallas and Tokyo to get there. On the way home, we left from Siem Reap and connected through Guangzhou, LAX, and ATL before getting to our small airport.
Would love to hear about your trip as well... we leave in a week!
You'll probably leave before I get my trip report posted. Heck, you'll probably get back before I post my trip report
So feel free to ask any last minute questions.