How much money would you recommend bringing
 

Hi there,
I'm travelling to Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia for 3 1/2 months. I know its a vague question but I'm just wondering how much other people brought with them or spent so I can begin creating my budget.

Thanks !

If you literally mean "bring", I bring none. I use my atm card for local cash as I need it and credit cards when I can to avoid having to use up the cash. Leave your money safely in your account at home and get it as you go. I generally have several hundred dollar bills to exchange in an emergency which never happens.

If you mean how much will you spend, that's a question which is, as you say, vague. Not really answerable. Depends entirely on your travel style. Vaguely, I suppose you might think about having available half as much as you might spend traveling in a western country. By no means an accurate estimation but a starting point.

Check the budget estimates on Lonely Planet's website or in their guidebooks. It depends entirely on how you want to travel, but they give ranges for different travel styles. After all, you could stay in a beach cottage with no AC, or a five star resort....

I always carry a couple of US$100 bills in case we run into non-working ATMs or such. But I always get my local cash via ATM (make sure you have an account that doesn't charge you an arm and a leg to use a foreign ATM) and use credit cards that do not have a foreign exchange premium.

Thank you !