Backpacking in Australia or Southeast Asia
 

Hey everyone,

I'm thinking about going back packing with my girl friend in either Australia or Thailand/cambodia/vietnam...

We're in the planning stages right now but since we don't know alot of people who have done it we have no one to turn to for advice.

Some i came to RS lol...

Anyways my main questions if you have done it are...

1.)What did you do there/what did you enjoy the most
2.)How much money did you spend/what time frame were you there.
3.)would you recommend one place over another


Any tips on backpacking or any of these locations would be great

Thanks in advance

thorntree.lonelyplanet.com

just to give you an idea, I'm bringing three grand with me to vietnam and I leave next week. And I'm told I'll have a hard time spending a g even though im there for nearly a month.

hahah yeah i've been to vietnam and cambodia before and the exchange rate is just unblieveable in vietnam u can feed like a family of 4 on pho for like 2 dollars canadian

thanks for the link btw

I'll direct you to my sister's travel site. She was in that area a couple years ago (along with the rest of the world) and should have some useful information for you. There's basically blog posts about where she went, to give you ideas, and advice on backpacking as well.

I've been to Vietnam 5 times and I absolutely love it! I'm going again this summer actually. I have family there, so I just stay with them. However, I did take a 2 week backpacking kind of trip from South to Central Vietnam. I travelled by train and bus... although I don't remember how much it was to travel that way... sorry.

The exchange there is roughly $1,000,000 dong for $100 cdn/us (depending on the exchange). There have been times that I only got $800,000 dong and other times I got almost $1,500,000. I just bring Canadian money with me.

The cost of food and what not is going to be cheapest of your expenses. A plate of rice with grilled meat or a bowl of pho (beef noodle soup) will run you about $5000-$10,000 dong ($0.50-$1.00 here). If you are on a budget, avoid fancier restaurants. Street food is the best kind of food anyways!

Just an interesting fact that you might want to know... some washrooms require you to pay, so always keep smaller bills on hand. Its $500-1000 dong ($0.05-0.10). Those washrooms are always cleaner, and they have toilet paper.

If you have any other questions about Vietnam, I'd be happy to answer them for you. Just message me =)

Oh yeah, if you're planning on hopping from country to country in asia, make sure you look at the dates on your travelling visa carefully. I heard of this girl that went from vietnam to cambodia and they wouldn't let her leave cambodia because her visa expired... she got arrested.

few thigns
if you haven' tdone ANY back packing before, go with contiki tour.
if you cant' sleep easily on random hostel beds, or u NEED the nice hotels, do NOT backpack.
lastly, if you and your GF just started to date and you dont 'know her well enough, DON"T back pack.

good luck with ur gf.

btw you wont find a bowl of pho for 10k dong.

inflation.

Did my first backpacking trip about 4 years ago in Thailand and Laos. Loved it. We back to Thailand again a few months after getting back with my GF. Was in Cambodia and Vietnam for 4 weeks, just got back last Wed.

It's super easy to backpack in SE Asia. The added bonus is that it's cheap from all aspects: accommodation, transportation, food, entertainment, etc. Nothing to be scared about. I've backpacked thru Jamaica and that's a place where you don't want to go out at night.....really.