Hi guys,

I don't know if FT will handle long-winded itinerary examinations, but it's so great for everything else that I thought I'd give it a try.

A friend and I are off on an Aeroplan mini-RTW, with BOS-YUL-ZRH-BKK(stop)-HKG(stop)-PEK(stop)-ICN-LAX-PHL-BOS, and we've hammered out the back end of the trip (week in HKG with Hong Kong/Macau, and guided DPRK tour from PEK) but we're still working on the front end.

What we have so far is arrive BKK at 05.30 on 31 July from ZRH and connect to Chiang Mai on a morning flight on the same day. I'm considering the first day in Chiang Mai then a write-off due to the jet lag. We thus have 31 July as a recovery day in Chiang Mai and then, for August:

1-3 Chiang Mai, fly back to and overnight BKK on 3 evening
4-6 Bangkok, take southbound train on 6 afternoon (14.45), overnight train
7 arrive Butterworth (13.51), transfer and overnight Penang/Georgetown
8 Georgetown, transfer and depart Butterworth evening (23.00), overnight train
9 arrive Kuala Lumpur (06.00) and overnight
10 depart Kuala Lumpur (23.00)
11-13 arrive Singapore 11 morning (06.30), 13 evening fly back to BKK, overnight BKK airport
14 depart BKK for HKG

So on that itinerary I think there's enough time at 2.5 days for Singapore and 2 days in Kuala Lumpur. I think the 1.5 days in Penang/Georgetown is pretty valuable as well. Of course this leave us pretty short in Bangkok. I'm kind of tempted to move one day towards Bangkok although my friend suggests to leave that day in Chiang Mai. We do have our recovery day on 31 July in Chiang, so if we'd have any strength that day that will still sort of count as day. Is 2.5 days in BKK too short? I'm reading that with the heat one can't really see all that much in a day since you have to just stop midday -- i.e. it's not like Europe where you can power through a whole day.

Any thoughts?

Insights would be really, really, much appreciated. Thanks!