Backpacking in Southeast Asia for 5.5 months! How much money do I need?
 

I'm planning my first backpacking trip for 5.5 months with one other person starting February 2013. We just figured out our route and are trying to calculate expenses.

Route:
Philippines - 2 weeks
Japan - 2 weeks
China - 1 month
Thailand - 1 month
Laos - 2 weeks
Cambodia - 2 weeks
Malaysia - 1.5 weeks
Singapore - 2 weeks
Indonesia - 3 weeks

We plan to end in Australia and live/work there for the rest of the year. All flights have been calculated and came to a total of around $6,500 CDN.

How much more money will we be needing for this trip for daily expenses, nightly accommodations, etc? Will $12,000 CDN be enough?

Any additional information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

It's hard to calculate this. You can get a great double in Cambodia for $10 a night, while you'll be lucky to get a single youth hostel bed in japan for $40. Great meals for $3 are not hard to find in some of these places, but you can spend a lot more too. A 3 day temple pass in Siem Reap is $40 while a single museum ticket in Japan or Singapore can run $25. A lot depends on your personal standards (which will likely drop as you settle into traveling).

My tip for long term Budget travel is to start in the easiest, cleanest countries and once you have adjusted, to head for the more difficult but likely cheaper countries. (e.g. start in Japan or Singapore and end in the Philippines).

You might want to reconsider your destinations. For instance, while I always enjoy SIngapore, I can't imagine spending two weeks in this small city-stat. Also, SIngapore is quite expensive. Likewise, Japan is quite expensive, as Lcuy mentions.

No one can say what your budget should be. But if you are careful, and don't spend a lot of time in very expensive countries, CAN$12,000 is likely to be enough. Always make sure you have an alternate way to get money just in case of emergency.

I don't know what the rules are for non-citizens working in Australia, but make sure you know the rules before you assume you can do it.

Make sure all of your travel visas are in order and, as Kathie said, you have backup sources of money. Trips can get unexpectedly expensive.

Are you up to date with immunizations? I would recommend Hepatitis A and B vaccines if you don't already have them.

I agree that Singapore would get very boring after 6-7 days. Having been there twice for a total of 2.5 days I do not think I could spend more than 1 more day enjoyably. Further that country would be quite costly as will many destinations in Japan. Coonsidering you are going in Feb, diving and snorkeling will not be possible or to say theleast extremely difficuly until the very end of March-early April. Nov. through Mmid-March is their monsoon season. I would say 1 week is more tham ample in Malaysia. Though we did not backpack we asked a lot of questions and met numerous backpackpackers and I would allow $14-$15,000 CAN to be save and NOT too much in cash!

You are covering a lot of territory, so it will not be monsoon season everywhere. This region is affected by several different monsoon seasons. see www.weatherbase.com for historic weather info for each of your destinations.

I know it is a cliche, but there is an old backpacker saying that before you travel you should lay out all the items you intend to take, throw half back in the wardrobe and take twice the money you think you will need. When we travelled we found this to be so very true.

Take a look at Lonely Planet which provides a reasonably current guide to costs in each country e.g. accommodation at varying levels, beer, cheap meals (i.e. all the really important stuff!) Cost of tours, admission fees etc can eat into your budget faster than you may expect, but the whole point of travel is to see these places so you need to take account of this.

As others have mentioned the countries you visit will have a huge influence on cost. we travelled for the whole of 2008 and found the most expensive place to be Australia, followed by Japan. Since then the exchange rate for the UK £ against the Aus$ and Yen has depreciated by 40-50% making these countries now hugely expensive for us and I imagine it is similar for the CAN $.

We budgeted $100US perday for our trip which was enough to stay in reasonable B&B / hostels in private accommodation with the occasional splurge, eating in local restaurants or street stalls/market but not stinting on entrance fees or tours where appropriate. You could reduce the cost considerable by opting for a bed in a dorm rather than private room. www,hostelworld.com is a good place to source accomodation.

Things change but Cambodia, Lao and Vietnam were very cheap and given you proposed itinerary, I would be inclined to spend more time there at the expense of Thailand, Singapore or Malaysia (all more expensive), but, that is my subjective view and is also largely based on the comparative attractions of those countries. I agree with StanKases comments re Singapore except that I reached my boredom threshold after 2 days.

Have fun and be sure to post a reoprt on your trip.

Figure in the budget for a possible medical emergency. You never know. So, don't cut the budget really close,but have some flexibility in it. Happy Travels!

"Figure in the budget for a possible medical emergency" or buy travel insurance, a nescessity on a trip of this length.

crellston - did you have a blog, a journal, trip report or something on that trip? I would love to see one.

Wintersp - here is the link http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blo...ai/1/tpod.html

Try travelfish.com it is a backpackers site for Asia.

travelfish is indeed great site. It is worth signing up for their weekly newsletter as it a lot of great ideas for getting away from the mainstream sights

It's http://www.travelfish.org/

Your're correct it is travelfish.org. If you "like" them on facebook they post great pics and advice almost daily.

Thanks for all the great tips. I'll be sure to post a report once I'm back.