Paying every night for 120 days!!!! (OK - without camper...)

[Deleted member 11815]

Tomorrow we're going to embark on our 10th major trip - and this will be our first without the campervan.

We're off on our first ever backpacking trip to SE Asia, taking in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. Considering on all our other trips so far we've had our own transport, fridge, kettle, toilet, shower, bed and pack-donkey, this tirip is going to be unique in many ways! Not least we're going to have to pay for everything including accomodation every night:scared:

All being well we'll have good internet access early 2012 and we will be able to update our main GPS POI files for everyone, so despite the van having a well deserved rest we haven't forgotten about it

And when we return at the end of March we'll be house hunting in Cotswolds/Wiltshire - so make sure you let Canalsman know about all the wild camping spots around there!

So Merry Christmas and Happy new year! And we'll be back next tax year when somehow I'd have turned 40 :scared:

(For anyone interested, trip will be blogged on our site as normal)

 

[Bigpeetee]

Have a great time.

Probably no more expensive than staying in the UK over winter with all the inherent costs etc plus a holiday to say the canaries for a week.

Even when it's raining the weather is still warmer!!

 

[John H]

Sounds great - keep us posted because we will be following you for three months starting just after Christmas! As for costs, the hostels/guesthouses etc are less than English campsites and you get an en-suite bathroom and breakfast thrown in! If you feel the need to book a place for the night in advance, try www.hostelbookers.com - we use them a lot, they are good value (often cheaper than booking direct) and have a network of reps all over the world to help you out if there are any problems. Have a brilliant time - we intend to.

 

[David & Ann]

Have a wonderful journey. Keep a written log of your daily escapdes. John H is correct. Hostelbookers is great for finding cheap accomadation. You pay 10º up front and the rest when you are at the hotel. I find that good as if you dont like the joint you can find another place. Here are a couple more of self booking places: Hostelworld and Bootsandall. Merry Christmas and have fun.

 

[Firefox]

Great Blog! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to share your adventures and tips with us.

 

[John H]

Just to add to what David has said, it is worth booking ahead for holiday periods (eg Christmas, New Year, Tet - the latter lasting for several weeks in January in Vietnam!) because accommodation can be difficult to find at these times - and since you won't be paying much more than £10 per night then putting down a £1 deposit and then losing it if you decide to move on when you get there is no great hardship. Merry Christmas.

 

[Deleted member 11815]

Cheers all.
We've booked our first couple of nights in Bangkok with Hostelsclub (similar but slightly cheaper for same place) - and when our first hotel got flooded :boat: they very quickly told us and we made other arrangements.
Problem about booking is as we have so much time, we don't have a defined plan or route and will "live by the day". Even if that means we only get to Vietnam and miss off other countries. If we enjoy it that much we're going to go back! But yeah, holiday periods may be a pain and pricy but as we're not on tooooooo low a budget we'll be fine. Good idea about booking and losing deposit though - once we know what country we'll be in...
We've noted all the holidays for all the countries
Have to say the Android phone is looking like the best thing so far. All music, pre-cached (e.g. offline) full detail asia maps, games, GPS, Offline Dropbox cache of all PDFs for all places enroute, maps to places, insurance docs etc. Going to be an awesome tool.

John - where are you going and when?

 

[John H]

Cheers all.
We've booked our first couple of nights in Bangkok with Hostelsclub (similar but slightly cheaper for same place) - and when our first hotel got flooded :boat: they very quickly told us and we made other arrangements.
Problem about booking is as we have so much time, we don't have a defined plan or route and will "live by the day". Even if that means we only get to Vietnam and miss off other countries. If we enjoy it that much we're going to go back! But yeah, holiday periods may be a pain and pricy but as we're not on tooooooo low a budget we'll be fine. Good idea about booking and losing deposit though - once we know what country we'll be in...
We've noted all the holidays for all the countries
Have to say the Android phone is looking like the best thing so far. All music, pre-cached (e.g. offline) full detail asia maps, games, GPS, Offline Dropbox cache of all PDFs for all places enroute, maps to places, insurance docs etc. Going to be an awesome tool.

John - where are you going and when?

Hi

We fly to Bangkok on Jan 4th and fly back at the end of March. The plan is to do a clockwise tour (booked hotels already!) north through Thailand, then a river cruise down the Mekong to Laos (Luang Prabang) then fly to Hanoi (where we will do a 2 day junk cruise on Halong Bay) and slowly down through Vietnam (using the famous railway as much as possible) and then via the Mekong Delta to Phnomh Penh (by boat) and then Siem Reap (for Angkor Wat) and finally back to Bangkok via the Khao Yai National Park (the biggest in Thailand - elephants, monkeys, hornbills and even tigers - but don't expect to see any of the latter!). I wanted to then go over to Borneo - orang utans etc - but Jenny isn't that keen so we compromised and she won! If all goes according to plan (and usually it doesn't) we will be in Thailand 2 weeks; Laos 2 weeks; Vietnam 6 weeks, Cambodia 2 weeks and a further week back in Thailand.

Have you thought about visas? You don't need one for Thailand and for Laos and Cambodia they can be got at the border but for Vietnam you have to get a visa letter beforehand. This can be done online (google Vietnam visa) and cost us about £40 for two for more than a month. There is also a $25 per person stamping fee when you arrive but you can't get that unless you've got the letter first. It only takes a couple of days (all done electronically) but I mention it because you need to specify date of entry and if you are not sure when and where you are going you may not have though of it. The date is the earliest you can enter; its ok to arrive afterwards but the time starts clicking from the date you nominate. Sorry if I'm teaching grandmother to suck eggs but its the only thing you have to be specific about - and you don't want to miss out Vietnam.

Enjoy yourself.

 

[Deleted member 11815]

Hi
How can you pick hotels this far in advance? We're just going to wing it as we don't know what we will like or loath. We were going to go clockwise, but changed to anti-clock due to the floods (north of bangkok will be wet and more mozzies when we get there). Our old "planned" route is on our blog - hope to do similar but backwards.
We have a double entry Thai visa (as land borders are iffy) - this gives 2x 60 days.
Laos pay on border; cambodia eVisa in advance, and as you say Vietnam get our "letter" electronically a few days before. So all we have is Thai and will wing the rest once we know when we're going. We'll probably fly from Kuala Lumpar to Hanoi so will have a few days when we know dates and arrange the flights/visa then.
We may well cross paths! We will be using the Vietnam railway going south too...
As for tigers, look up the tiger temple near kanchaburi and the bridge over river kwia. (and erewan falls). The tiger temple may be a bit contraversial but make your own mind up as there are 2 sides to the coin....
You've done well to plan every night - bet you don't make it due to some natural disaster!! Probably when you get near us as we tend to attract them.
Our packing list is on blog, and we leave tomorrow down to London ready for Saturday flight.
May not have much internet so contact us via our blog if you want more info as we'll have email access more than web via the 3G kindle...

edit: also if you want urangatangs look up "the gibbon experience" just as you enter Laos. (then cancel some hotels! )

 

[John H]

Hi

The hotels are mainly a back-up. We have paid a £1 deposit on some; nothing on others - so it doesn't matter if we go somewhere else. But because we will be encountering two major holidays, it just gives us the security of knowing we can organise things so we have a roof over our heads. Besides, I like planning things, whether or not we actually stick to those plans. Jenny says I get as much pleasure over planning things we don't do as I do from the trips we do (she's probably right!). Thanks for the suggestions - I'm not sure about the tiger temple (having read the reports) but I had spotted the gibbon experience in Laos and it looks good.

On the subject of the floods, we wondered about our chosen route too but apparantly the railway north from Bangkok is now operating all the way to Chiang Mai and the airports are open, so that gives us a couple of options - not sure about the roads though. Maybe we can swap stories in the spring? Have a great trip.

 

[Deleted member 11815]

So far so good!
Bangkok was great - loads to see and we did over 10 miles walking a day. In Kanchanaburi now and enjoying the place.
Diesel 60p and LPG 22p! Not many campervans though... Meal with drinks tonight in a local eatery was £2.50 for us both... Bargain.
Thailand appears (so far!) to be very easy - accommodation has been as expected for the money; food easy to get; and transport etc all okay so far. Don't bother with many clothes - laundy here (give and get back) is 20 bhat per kg (43p) - so not worth carrying more than a few days of clothes really.
Pack suncream and peanut M&Ms - and save them till we cross paths

 

[John H]

So far so good!
Bangkok was great - loads to see and we did over 10 miles walking a day. In Kanchanaburi now and enjoying the place.
Diesel 60p and LPG 22p! Not many campervans though... Meal with drinks tonight in a local eatery was £2.50 for us both... Bargain.
Thailand appears (so far!) to be very easy - accommodation has been as expected for the money; food easy to get; and transport etc all okay so far. Don't bother with many clothes - laundy here (give and get back) is 20 bhat per kg (43p) - so not worth carrying more than a few days of clothes really.
Pack suncream and peanut M&Ms - and save them till we cross paths

Sounds great - will follow instructions but can't guarantee that the M&Ms won't have melted by the time our paths cross!