Try to stay indoors at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.

Stay in climate controlled hotels and inns when possible. Air-conditioned lodgings afford better mosquito protection.

If you can’t get enclosed lodging (or you are camping or roughing it), be sure to pack some mosquito nets. There are some good ones made for individual use that don’t take up much room.

If you use nets, be sure they are tucked under mattress.

Treat all fabric articles with repellant. Using it on shoes, clothes, bedding, nets and other personal objects can help keep mosquitoes away.

If you are going to be near a beach, stay close to ocean breezes. Mosquitoes are poor flyers and will avoid windy areas.

Many mosquito diseases are seasonal. Try to plan to travel to heavily infested areas during mosquito “off season”.

With just a little advance planning, and some common sense, you can avoid being plagued by mosquitoes in your travels. Take these few steps before you go and then get back to important thing: having a pleasurable trip.

Take bus from Vientiane to Hanoi via mountains and Cau Treo border crossing into Vietnam. Hanoi is a very interesting place with lots to do and also offers a few interesting side trips: Sapa is a beautiful village set in mountains, and Halong Bay, a Unesco World Heritage site, offers amazing views of thousands of mountainous karsts jutting up from ocean waters.

In Hanoi, you can buy an “Open Tour” bus ticket that gets you all way south to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). It has a standard set of stops, but allows you to purchase add-ons for a few dollars each, two of which I highly recommend being Ninh Binh and Dalat. From Hanoi, first stop will indeed be Ninh Binh. Not a particularly touristy town, but launching point to visit spectacular Tam Coc park and/or Cuc Phuong National Park.

From Ninh Binh, move to Hue for a day or two, then on to Hoi An to check out amazing tailors and beaches, then to Nha Trang (a partying beach town that can be skipped if you wish), and then on to your second add-on which is mountain town of Dalat. From Dalat, you can do another addon stop in Mui Ne which is very quiet and good if you just want to relax and maybe poke around local market a little bit.

The last stop in Vietnam will be Ho Chi Minh which offers plenty to see and do including a massage at Vietnamese Traditional Medicine Institute for a couple of dollars. From there, you can cross into Cambodia in a couple ways. The first is a bus ride through some beautiful country to Phnom Penh, and second is a boat tour through Mekong Delta which also deposits you in Phnom Penh. Be warned though: roads in Cambodia are dirt and very slow going, but scenery is incredible if your backside can take it.

Phnom Penh gets mixed reviews but does have a couple of must visits before you continue: Killing Fields and S-21. When you do move on, you again have choice of bus or boat up to Siem Riep. I prefer bus because of fantastic views and insight into lives of country folk - trust me, you’ll never forget it.

After spending some time gawking at awesome ruins of Angkor Wat at Siem Riep, you can fly or bus it back to Bangkok, once again back where you started! Again, bus is harsh, but worth it to see Poipet (I’ll say it again: not to stay, but to see) and night-and-day change visible in a matter of a few meters when you cross from poverty of Cambodia into developing Thailand.

There you have it. That route can be done in 3 months if you don’t choose every side trip mentioned (to do it all you’ll want to add another couple of weeks). If you work it out, you’ll find you can spend a few nights in each place, but don't make mistake of creating some sort of concrete itinerary. Just be aware of your time, because you will want to spend lots of time in some places, while spending little in others and you really won’t know which until you get there. Be flexible within reason, and remember: it’s all about having fun!

Once back in Bangkok, you now have option to work your way south to islands, and perhaps, onward to other countries like Malaysia and Indonesia, or perhaps they will have to wait until your next trip, and yes, you will want to come back.

One of next logical questions is: What is it like to travel around these countries on a route like this? That’s precisely experience I detail in my book Rice Crust from Bottom of Pot: A Journey Across South East Asia (http://parryloeffler.com/ricecrust). It’s full of crazy adventures, wonderful stories of my interactions with locals, and even a few recipes collected directly from their kitchens.

About Author

Parry Loeffler is author of Rice Crust from Bottom of Pot: A Journey Across South East Asia http://parryloeffler.com/ricecrust Read it today… and get excited about your trip!

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