Thailand and Borneo Trip in August/September

Thomas. PLease. · 9 Mar 2008 at 02:17

Hi there, i'm after a little advice regarding a trip i will be going on later this year.

So, i'm a geography student in my second year atm. As one of my third year modules we are able to go on some pretty good field trips. The field trip i am going on is to Borneo, to study sustainability and other issues in the rainforest.

Now the field trip runs from 1st of september through to the 15th i think. at a predefined cost to us. However we have to book our own flights.

So a group of mates and i decided that as we were going out there we may as well do a few weeks travelling before hand of the field trip two weeks.

So we have decided to fly out to Bankok, and travel down through thailand, and eventually getting flights to kuala lumpur, and then to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo.

Now I have never been to Asia, or bankok etc, is there anything that we really should do in allowing for the short amount of time we will be there, (I think we aim to leave the UK around the 9th/10th of august) so will have 2/3 weeks around the area

Also i was interested in maybe doing a PADI course while in thailand, does anyone know how long this takes/cost, and whether it is a good idea.

Thanks for any help, sorry for the long post

Tom.

Killa_ken · 9 Mar 2008 at 02:25

Thailand was boring, Bangkok was full of prostitutes with old white men.

Borneo was ok for maybe 3 days but I went during the SARS outbreak so everything was dead.

Malaysia - Loved it, Kuala lumpur is a brilliant place, stayed in a nice hotel and some excellent shopping.

I wouldnt be spending more then 10 days in all the above places though, not much to do!

Avoid Air Puhket at all costs. Malaysian airlines are good.

Biohazard · 9 Mar 2008 at 02:27

Killa_ken said:
Thailand was boring, Bangkok was full of prostitutes with old white men.

Surely theres a little more? or is it just that?

Killa_ken · 9 Mar 2008 at 02:38

Biohazard said:
Surely theres a little more? or is it just that?

nope, nothing interesting unless your into old stuff.

Van Hellseek · 9 Mar 2008 at 03:07

Biohazard said:
Surely theres a little more? or is it just that?

That's not the reason you're going?

mrmoose · 9 Mar 2008 at 03:15

get out of bangkok as soon as you possibly can. within the first couple of hours of landing is best. Jump on a sleeper train and get down to ko pha ngan for the lash then koa toa for some diving, I spent a good month on the islands on my own. Had a right laugh and only spent £400

Paul11 · 9 Mar 2008 at 09:01

thailand is an amazing place.

diving: get down to koh tao (small island north of samui and phangan) and you can do a dive course there in 3/4 days. its one of the cheapest places to do it.

worth seeing if you have the time, is a full moon party on koh phangan. become a bit commercial lately but still worth a look

bangkok is worth hanging out for a day or two and having a look around the city and khao san road.