Southeast Asian Budget
Jeff June 10th, 2008
We were in the midst of outlining our budget for our trip in three parts (see Part 1 - South America) when a weeklong vacation to South Carolina so rudely interrupted us. So now that life is back on its busy schedule, its time for us to finish the last two legs. Our second continental stop takes us to Southeast Asia, where we are planning on staying approximately three months. We’re breaking our trip down into two categories, every day expenses for our daily food, lodging and necessary transport and activities for all the crazy, unique things we will want to fill our time doing.
Every Day Expenses
The region is a backpacker haven for a region: it is cheap. Most of what we’ve read pegs decent budget hotel rooms at under $10-15, cheaper in some of the less developed nations. So as we’ve been trying to do, we’ll play it safe and budget $15 a day for hotel. Eating will also not tax our wallets. Street food can be found for less than $1, with restaurants slightly more. I’m not sure I’ll ever be motivated to cook on my own when I can get some fantastic noodles for less than a buck, so we won’t budget too much home cooking in. $10 a day should cover the occasional splurge. Since the region is fairly small, we will traveling primarily by bus, which is quite inexpensive. We will likely take a flight out to either Indonesia or the Philippines (help us decide), though even those seem relatively inexpensive at the moment due to heavy competition. $5 a day should do us handsomely. That brings us to $30 a day between the two of us.
Activities
Here’s the thing. There are actually very few special activities we want to do in Southeast Asia, at least ones we will have to arrange in advance and hire guides and shell out expensive fees for. Obviously we will go to Angkor Wat, but guides can be hired just for the day if desired and access to the park costs $20. To me, that seems to fit into the range of the general activities costs. Most of the other sights we want to see fall into this category*. So we will simply budget $10 a day for our activities and consider this done. If Angkor Wat is only $20, this should be plenty to cover our adventures.
So again, adding all of these expenses together, we plan on spending $40 a day for 90 days, or $3600. Now that I get here, I’m shocked at how little that is. I’m not as confident we’ll hit this budget as I am about our South American budget. But, I guess you can’t argue with math. As I said earlier, its a backpacker haven for a reason.
*There is one big activity that would blow our budget, though we have not yet officially decided on it yet. Theresa will have more on it soon.
One thing you forgot—scuba lessons. I think those may come in at about $250-$300 per person in Thailand for open water certification.
That’s crazy cheap, and from what I’ve heard, completely doable. You might even find it cheaper once you ge there.
What’s the super secret other thing you might do?
Budget more, and give me the leftovers. Thanks.
But that is very cheap. I may go over there. My expenses would be a lot less.
phew….glad i got this post before you moved on…
Here’s how it all breaks down
Thailand
“hotel”- around 500 baht a night
Basic guesthouses- 150-200 baht
Bungalow on the beach- 400-800 depending on the island you go too
street food- 40 baht or less
thai resurant- about 150 baht for a meal
western restuarant- 200+ baht
1 night jungle trek in chang mai- 1,000 baht
sangsom bucket= 150 baht
beer- 60 baht
Cambodia
room- 1-2 dollars
meal on the street- 1 dollar or less
beer- 1 dollar
basically, everything is a dollar….but if u pay in local currency, it can be a lot cheaper
angkor wat guied for 3 days= 10 bucks a day
Park fee i think is more than that but don’t go to angkor for a day…you’ll see none of the good stuff
Vietnam
hotel- 5-7 dollars
bus from top to bottom- 20 bucks
beer- 12 cents
bread from the street- 5 loafs at whatever you can bargain for, usually 5,000 dong (30 center)
meal- 2 dollars or less in a restuarant
Vietnam is cheap except for a hotel but in cambodia the opposite is true.
Laos
Only have limited experience there but its cheap, about half way between thailand and cambodia cheap
Realistically, if you want to party a bit, then I’d say an average of 17 dollars a day would do it. If you feel like having a less alcoholic time, you could do it for 15, especially if you don’t travel a lot.
BTW- I’ll be in Thailand as of september 1st.
BTW- The url link to my site no longer works. just remove the /index.html and you’ll be fine
Wow, thanks for the firsthand report, Matt. Very helpful. And thanks for letting me know about the link. I updated it. It would be cool if we crossed paths in SE Asia. How long are you planning to stay in that area?
Budget sounds right. Flights are really cheap there, so you might want to up the transporation budget a little and opt to take a couple flights around the region. Especially, if you plan to go to any of the Thai islands or places like that. Bus is still cheaper and train is a good alternative too, but hard to pass up the cheap airfares (especially these days).
Might also want to pad your lodging budget just a smidge to account for some ‘hostel burnout’. After 150+ days in hostels you might want a little break. SE Asia is the perfect place to do it since ‘upgrading’ is still incredibly cheap (especially Vietnam).
A couple quick recommendations: a GREAT hostel in Bangkok, Suk 11 (www.suk11.com). Lots of character, clean rooms, cheap, good restaurant, wireless internet (lobby). Not near Khao San Road (not a bad thing), but in the heart of Bangkok near all kinds of transportation, parks, street food, etc. Stayed there a few times and loved it.
Also, if you’re in Bangkok, check out Scirocco (http://www.thedomebkk.com/web/corp_home04.html) an outdoor bar on the 60th floor of the State Tower. 360 views of Bangkok, great place to go at sunset. The restaurant is a bit pricey, but you can just grab a drink at the outdoor bar and check things out. Very cool.
Angkor Wat is well worth it. Be sure to check out Ta Phrom while you’re there.
Thanks for all the tips, insight and advice Scott and Matt. You all make some great points. I’m also glad to hear that things are actually as inexpensive as we hear. I like the idea of the occasional upgrade though =).
[...] we plan to visit, we expect to spend an average of less than $50 per day (as outlined by Jeff in our last post) the cost seems even more exorbitant. We could live for months in the Southeast Asia for what [...]
[...] This the third in our three part budget outline. See Part 1 - South America and Part 2 - Southeast Asia. [...]