India, China, and more?

I'm looking for a little help from those of you who have travelled extensively from India to surrounding countries. My friend and I have Feb and March to travel from the US and plan to spend roughly four weeks in India. From there we would love to check out Nepal, Shanghai, Beijing, Thailand, and perhaps Burma (myanmar). We are VERY flexible with destinations. Does anyone have suggestions on absolutely MUST SEE destinations in the area, and also, suggestions on cheap and easy ways to get there/back.
Thanks so much....

Of course you could easily spend alot more than four weeks in India there is alot of varity so you can go two a couple different areas and feel like your in a different country. As far as a cheap place to go, Sri Lanka and Nepal are the easiest and cheapest to get to from India. I haven't been to ethier but I'd like to. I spent a month in Burma and loved it. The issue there is you have to fly in and a least from Bangkok the flights were fairly expensive for how far you fly ~$200 USD. You also have to change $200 at the airport so if you are going for a short time it gets expensive, but beautiful country, friendly people, and terrible government. China would seem to be pretty ambitious in the amount of time you have. But if you worked your flight from the US so that it had a stop over in China it would be possible to get a feel for the place and not have to spend too much extra. The coast is the most expensive area (Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong) and in my opinion less interesting than other places in China. However, if you can only see one city in China I'd take Beijing I thought the best part of China was the South and the West esspecially the Tibetan areas. If your flight from the US has a stopover in Bangkok then I'd head to Angkor Wat, Cambodia or Laos otherwise it would be more expensive to fly there from India.

hi,

a couple of clarifications on flights to Myanmar and FECs that the previous poster mentions. Things about Burma that are now different:
You do not have to pay $200.00 to get into the country. You can even get an online visa (from USA) that takes 48hrs to process and get a visa to enter Burma for $30.00 US. There are flights from Kolkata to Yangon on Indian Airlines. For example I found a one way fare of $221.00 from Kolkata to Yangon on Mondays and THursdays for $221.00 USD non stop(expensive but its there). Return flights from Yangon to Kolkata is not nonstop and they also fly on Mondays THursdays via Bangkok. You might find flights from India to other destinations in SE asia cheaper in INdia than here at times depending on the agency you pick. You can go to Yangon via Bkk from Del or other destinations from India but those stop in Bangkok.

I personally havent been to China so I wont comment on that destination but Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar are all great and I would think Nepal would be your cheapest option in terms of leaving the country especially overland. Thailand would be good also. I cant rave enough about Myanmar and would highly recommend it as I just got back from there in Oct 2004. I can PM you with additional information if interested.

Last I was in Nepal in 1998 I really enjoyed the 2 weeks as I did a 5 day trek in Pokhara (locally arranged in Kathmandu), 3 day rafting trip on the seti and another 4 days in Chitwan national park to see the Rhinos.

Possible Itinerary if you were to do India, Nepal, Thailand (assuming you need to come back to Del to return to US, dont know how your tix is booked)

Del - Udaipur - jaipur - agra - Varnasi - Kathmandu - Pokhara - Chitwan - Bangkok (via kathmandu) - Krabi or Koh Samui - relax in the beaches after all the travels - then back to US Please note that I havent added all the smaller inbetween destinations just a general sketch for 8 weeks.

Possible Itinerary if you were to do India, Burma, Thailand

Del - Udaipur - jaipur - agra - Varnasi - Calcutta - Yangon - Mandalay - Bagan - Kalaw - Inle Lake - Yangon - Bangkok - Krabi/Koh Samui - Delhi

Dont know if you have your international air tickets yet to India and where you are flying in and out of... but if you use an asian carrier that allows stopover for free or small fee it might make sense to have a stop in bangkok to do the Myanmar/Thailand or even Cambodia and do the SE Asia portions from bangkok directly.

Glad to hear they got rid of those stupid FECs in Burma. If you don't mind the price of the airline ticket its highly recommended. But you need some time travel is slow, roads are bad.