Aloha FTers,

Background:
I am in need of some vacation help as i have reached research overload. A work proposal that had me traveling to Hong Kong closed early but i’m keeping the 12 day trip to use as a vacation. I'll be flying in/out of HK for this post. I wanted go to the Indonesia temples & Bali but the current environmental issues have me looking for places in the north (to avoid the potential for poor air quality). I’ll be using *A points for this part of the trip so my primary northern location (Siem Reap) is out due to lack of *A inventory.

Trip question:
I’ll spend a max of 7 days on this portion of the trip. I would like to relax a bit and see some culture (temples) and feel as if i am in Asia. Unless you guys suggest otherwise...i'll just stick with one country to explore. I’m considering Thailand (Chang Mai or Chang Rai) or Vietnam. Please let me know if i am looking at the wrong locations here.

P.S. Since the holidays are coming i would like to buy gifts (electronics, gadgets) can that be found in one of the locations above or do i need to stop over in mainland China Guangzhou, Shanghai for that sort of thing?


Thanks for your insights!
TheHoax