Budget:
$100 Cdn ($65us) per day (for the two of us)
- Excludes: Flights, Scuba diving, Vaccines
- Includes: Visas, tours, souvenirs
This is the upper end of the backpacker budget giving us frequent a/c & satellite tv, but sometimes shared bath & scuzzy rooms
Packing Highlights:
Try to make everything efficient.
eg: trousers that zip to shorts, bathing suit that doubles as shorts, pj's that can be worn under clothes for warmth, sarong that can be a pants, a dress, a sleeping sheet or beach blanket.
- First Aid: 2nd skin, polysporin, lotsa bandaids
- Pill Box: Asprin, Tylenol Flu, Gravol, Immodium, Decongenstant
- Repair Kit: Duct tape
- Copies of: Passport, insurance coverage, vaccines, etc.
- Misc: Zip loc bags, wetnaps, antibacterial handwash, tiny jackknife (not on the plane!)
Pre-trip Planning:
Weeks/Months in advance we'd pick the countries we wanted to see & roughly how long we'd spend in each country (heavily relying on travel books). Then we could purchase our overseas flight. Different agents specialize in different things so we ended up using a different travel agent for each trip
Internal Flights:
These are easiest bought locally. Sometimes flights do sell out, so buying at the last minute doesn't always work. If you buy in advance it's usually easy to change your travel date but it's not easy to get a refund (there may be a large admin fee or the paperwork may never get completed by whoever they mail it to). Obviously some Asian airlines won't match Western safety standards but we took over 50 flights and never had any problems.
During-trip Planning:
Each nite we'd plan out what we would do the next day. As soon as we finished our plans for one city we'd arrange our onward travel plans.
Finding Hotels:
We seldom made hotel reservations. Upon arriving at a new city we'd drop Louise & our luggage in a safe place & have Brett search for a decent hotel. Depending how fussy/cheap you are this could be quick or if you're looking for a hotel with bathroom & a/c in Singapore for less than $32 it could take 1 hour 40 minutes & send your wife into a panic. Travel books will steer you to the right neighbourhoods. Once there you can look at both their recommendations & places you stumble across or are directed to by hotel touts.
Tips
Get an internet based email address. Hotmail is by far the mostcommon but it's so popular it sometimes grinds to a halt. Yahoo is less busy.
- ATM cards work almost everywhere (but carry US$, US travellers cheques & a credit card just in case)
- Put masking tape on your films & record what's on each roll
- Hidden pockets for money, passports make pickpocketing a lot less likely
- Don't bring much film (it's cheaper in Asia).
- Everywhere is much safer/easier to travel in than you'd expect.
- The more research you do the more you'll enjoy your trip