Thread by @55mmbae

My trip to Southeast Asia: a thread 🌟

3.5 weeks, 3 countries, 5 cities, $1734 total (flight + accommodation)

Lemme preface by saying, I do all my own planning/booking. No travel agent/agency! Just time and research.

Flights:
La - Bangkok: $513
Bangkok - Phuket: $20
Phuket - Chiang Mai: $40
Chiang Mai - Hanoi, Vietnam: $100
Hanoi - Bali, Indonesia: $164
Bali - Bangkok: $97

Total: 934

Accommodations:

Bangkok, airbnb: $72
Phuket, 5 star luxury resort: $181
Chiang Mai, hotel: $142
Hanoi, airbnb: $197
Bali, hotel: $208

Total: $794

For accommodations, most are super affordable. Honestly you could splurge for a 5 star hotel/resort as we did & still pay a fourth of what you’d pay in the US or somewhere similar. This is a vid of our hotel room in Phuket, less than $100 a night. The hotel is Avista Hideaway btw

This hotel was easily the best hotel I’ve ever stayed at. It has 3 pools, breakfast, room service & a whole spa. And it’s still sooo affordable. This is the type place you’d pay 1000s for in the US. After our weekend of spa treatments & room services (everyday), we only paid $200

As far as deciding Airbnb or hotel, I suggest just looking at each and deciding what is best for your needs. I’m more into Airbnb personally so I always check their first but in some areas, the selection just wasn’t hittin right so I went with a hotel. It’s really up to you tho

As for actual booking, google is your best friend. Just search up the name of the place you would like to stay & youll get a price comparison of diff sites. I usually stick to booking.com but I’ve also used TripAdvisor/agoda with no problem.

For the flights, I always use google flights. It’s a life saver. Just search up the flight you need and boom you get an aggregation of flights + prices and you can be as flexible as you’d like with dates/times/places etc.

Planning big trips can seem really daunting at first. But it’s super easy when you break it down. I always write things down! It’s so helpful to just see what all needs to be done then set about doing them. You don’t have to book everything at once either, can do a bit at a time

For things to do in Southeast Asia, it really depends what you’re into. Shopping, hiking, animal excursions, spas, FOOD! I did a floating market tour & elephant sanctuary in Thailand & Also went to a secret beach & hiked in the jungle & went to the lantern festival! ✨🌟

Here’s info to the places I went to for those things:

Floating market - abnb.me/EoU3khe78R
Elephant sanctuary: elephantjunglesanctuary.com
‘Secret beach’: Freedom Beach, Phuket
Lantern Fest: Yi Peng. Once a year, on the 12th lunar month on the full moon!

Just do your research on cool things to do based on your own tastes. There’s so many great forums of travelers talking about their experiences. TripAdvisor and Facebook groups have been really helpful in that sense. There’s really something for everyone out here

As for how much spending money you should bring, that is totally up to you & your needs. But I will say everything is literally a few dollars. You can get delicious street food for $1-$3 a meal. Restaurants of course are a bit more at like $10+. (Perspective, $1 is about 33 thb)

Thailand is full of night markets/markets where people come and sell things! I bought all those souvenirs for like $20-$25 total.

Also a tip for the ladies: bring your own tampons. Depending where you are, they could be troublesome to find. They’re out there but pads seem to be much more popular. & even then a lot of stores don’t sell tampons with applicators! I found some tampons at BOOTS.

ALSO try to tip a little bit to the locals. A little of our money goes a long way in these countries. The average MONTHLY salary in Thailand is $220 USD. That’s not much & they work really hard + are incredibly kind. it doesn’t hurt to give a little to others in need 🤗

As for language barriers, I haven’t found it hard at all to communicate. A lot of people know a little bit of English especially in more tourist parts of town. It’s easy to get by. Just smile a lot & ppl are more than willing to work with you on what you need

for phone service: a lot of places have WiFi I noticed. But at the airport, you can get a local SIM card or pocket WiFi for really cheap. I think a pocket WiFi was like $5 a day and a sim was about the same plus whatever for data. These options are super easy to use + convenient!

I also recommend bringing a portable phone charger. Your days can get really long when you’re out and about and you may not be somewhere with an outlet. You should also bring a universal adapter. This is the one I have, works everywhere I’ve been! amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B071CL…

I’m currently in Vietnam. So I’ll give the dish on this country when I head to Bali at the end of this week. 👩🏽‍💻

OH and btw. You don’t need a visa for traveling through Thailand for less than 30 days. You do need a visa for Vietnam no matter how long. You can do this online ahead of time! And for Indonesia you don’t need a visa if you’re there for less than 30 days.

For Transportation, taxis/bikes,tuktuks are plentiful. I never paid more than $10. & You can hire private drivers who basically chauffeur you all day for a set price. + Use the grab app, the Asian version of Uber. You can rent mopeds too. Godspeed w/ that cuz the traffic is wild

Feel free to follow my ig: queenofvacay. Lots of travel pics and I post a lot on my ig story!

Another thing that has come in handy for the language barrier is taking pics of addresses/places/menu items and showing it to others. For instance, I screenshot photos of addys of places I want to go & show it to taxi drivers. I Just point & smile at menu items I can’t pronounce

Google flights is how I found my deal to Bangkok in the first place. Got my ticket for $513 round trip on air China. A steal! I was a bit worried the airline would suck as id never flown it but it was totally fine. Even had up to date movies, I watched Ant Man1&2. also had meals

I don’t ever talk about hostels cuz I never stay in them. But they’re a great option if you don’t mind them! Super cheap (can be as cheap as $5 a day) and a good way to meet other travelers. Have a go at it if that’s up your alley!

Adding this thread here for how to travel affordably:

https://twitter.com/55mmbae/status/948632892908777472?s=21

For currency: I switched to local currency each new place. I never used a card as I mostly went to local vendors like markets and street food and I don’t think they have card readers. You can get local money out of ATMs, they’re everywhere.

In Vietnam currently and I feel like I’ve been transported back in time. The vintage feel of everything is insane.
#CelestImages

Went to a market in Vietnam today. It’s 4 stories of vendors! 😭 overwhelming af. But I found some nice souvenirs. This was all $22USD. And I was sure to tip everyone I bought from, it really means a lot to them. 💓 the market is called Dong Xuan Market, btw.