Planning 5-6 month trip to 7 countries in SE Asia...have several questions!
 

Hi, I'm 17 years old and about to be a senior in highschool. Bewteen highschool and college I plan to take a gap year and am trying to plan out a trip that lasts around 5 or 6 months. I have a list of seven different countries in Southeast Asia that I would like to visit; India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. So far, this is the rough itinerary I have come up with:

India: 1 month
Nepal: 1 month
Bangladesh: 3 weeks
Bhutan: 1 week
Thailand: 3 weeks
Laos: 2 weeks
Myanmar/Burma: 3 weeks

Total, this trip would be about 5 months and from what I have found cost around $4140 (Bhutan is apparently very expensive at $200 per day, while the other countries are around $20 per day). Also, this cost does NOT include any traveling costs, just normal daily expenses.


My questions are:
1. I am a 17 year old girl and will be traveling alone. Is this safe for me to do? Are there any countries that I should consider not traveling to because they are dangerous?
2. Are there any other countries in the SouthEastern part of Asia that I should consider going go in addition to or instead of any of these countries?
3. Are the amounts of time that I allotted to each country enough/too much? Should I spend more/less time in any of these countries?
4. Is the cost that I estimated accurate?
5. Are there any specific cities, temples, or other sites that you would reccomend?
6. I plan on backpacking and traveling very cheaply/lightly. Any suggestions or information on this?

Any other useful information or suggestions would be much appreciated as I have never taken a big trip like this before and I have never had to plan a trip alone either! Thanks!

Also when would be the best times of year to visit each country?

Here is weather info for you: www,weatherbase.com Check each city you plan to visit.

For lots of information on traveling cheaply, take a look at the Lonely Planet guides and use their travel board, thorntree. www.thorntree.lonelyplanet.com

I think your cost estimate of $20 a day for all of the countries except Bhutan may prove a bit low. Traveling on $20 a day means you have to omit wonderful places to see because they have admission fees.

It's hard to know what to recommend to you in terms of places to go. There are lots of other wonderful places in SE Asia, but it's not clear to me what you are looking for. What are you interested in? What kinds of experiences are you hoping to have?

One conspicuous omission from your itinerary is Cambodia and the temples of Angkor. You may find our photos of many places in SE Asia useful in your deliberations www.marlandc.com

oops - a typo in my link above should be www.weatherbase.com

Yeah I didn't include costs for admissions or traveling so I know that that would add on a good amount of money...$20 per day was just one estimate I found online but yes I know it will be low, that's for traveling very lightly and moving slowly, which I will be okay with because I'm on a budget.

And I agree, after looking into Cambodia more I think that I would really enjoy going there. Do you think 2 or 3 weeks would be sufficient there?

And in general I am mainly looking to experience the cultures and diversities of these countries. I want to see the temples, ancient architecture, city life, how the people dress, taste the food, etc. However I'm also interested in seeing the nature aspects of these places, such as the Himalayas and major bodies of water, etc.

Sounds like a great trip you are planning! I finished a year long trip around the world and have written more thena a few tips/opinions based on that experience. You have prompted me to finish them off and post on this forum, in the meantime..

1. As regards safety, the vast majority of of travellers do not encounter any problems. That said you need to keep your wits about you and observe the usual precautions. I strongly suggest you attend one of the one day travel safety seminars run by many different organisations. You should check with the approriate websites of your home govt. for travel advisorys/warnings. The UK govt @ http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-...ving-overseas/
usually strikes the right balance without being alarmist.

http://www.statravel.com/

2. Any other countries in SEA? Vietnam and Cambodia spring to mind and, as this is your first big trip, I would choose these over say Bangladesh (I do think that you have too many locations for the time available).

3. it is difficult to determine whether you have allocated the correct amount of time to each location without knowing what your specific interest are. Could you provide a bit more info on your interests.

4. Costs. Lonely Planet guides provide good info on basic daily costs in their guides for each location (& I think on their website. On our trip we averaged $100 per day for two of us, most staying in (mostly!)nice hostels, B&Bs and we certainly did not stint on any of the activities we wanted to do. $20 per day is possible but as Kathie says you will be missing out on a lot of great opportunities. You will meet up with people on your travels and this will help to reduce costs by sharing rooms travel etc. and you will also gain a LOT of invaluable knowledge at the hostels you stay at.
Good sites include:

www.hostelbookers.com
www.hostelworld.com

5. Specific sights are many and varied. Again, what are your interests? On piece of advice I would offer is to seek out the less well known sights rather than just limiting yourself to teh major sights in each country.

6. Travel lightly. Take only the basics in terms of clothes. You can buy any extra teeshirts etc really cheaply on the way. It should be possible to fit everything you need for the trip into a backpack that can be carried on any flights you take. Carrying a heavy backpack becomes a real pain in a surprisingly short period of time!
Travel by bus and train is obviously cheaper than flying and you will see much, much more of local life.
You will need to learn to haggle over the price of most things (apart from food and travel.
Eating at local rather than tourist restaurants is cheaper and the food is almost always better. Cheaper still is to buy food at local markets and cook in your hostel ( again, it is cheaper to cookk for 2 or 3 than for one.

Finally, enjoy every second of your trip

hmmm. i will suggest that try to visit here in Philippines..
and also dont travel all alone.. you are minor right now... just have a chaperon or your friends with you...

Hi, xkellaayyx3,

Actually nobody can tell you if it is safe for you to travel by yourself without knowing you really well. To start you will have to be very mature and street-smart and hopefully you had some travel experiences by yourself. Also reading up on the countries and doing good preparation can eliminate some risks.

if you are on a budget(who isn't), do less and enjoy more. India is one big fascinating country that deserve months.

You can look into http://www.couchsurfing.org. I learn about this organization yesterday from gerd on the vietnam forum. It's not for me but you can take a look.

If you can tell us what you would like to see and achieve, maybe we can further assist you.

Can I ask how much travelling you have already done?

As for "Are there any specific cities, temples, or other sites that you would reccomend?" - you mean across all those countries? Sure there are, but why don't you get hold of a guide book and see what appeals to you PERSONALLY. The Rough Guide or Lonely Planet would be a good place to start. The Footprint series is also good on culture, history, etc. but for the "how to" it's hard to beat the LP.

Thing is, my taste and yours may not be the same. And when it comes to India there's not a lot of point my recommending a wooden palace in Kerala if you're not planning on heading to the south. And with only a month for India you will have to make some tough decisions on which areas to concentrate on. It's a huge country with so much to see, and travelling around is time consuming if you are talking buses and trains (which is how I did it). It is not uncommon for it to take a whole day to get from A to B - overnight train trips and/or ten hours on a bus, depending ...

So I'd do yourself a favour and get as clued up as you can about the geography of each country; the weather patterns and the modes of transport available. That way you will start to see what is and what is not possible.

Best of luck.

re Mohans comment re couchsurfing. I really would not suggest you do this. You will be on your own, in someones home with no one else around and no way of knowing whether the person you are lodging with is any sort of weirdo!

My son was 17 when he left for his 6 month trip around the world before Med school and had a great time with no problems (apart, of course from running out of money which is de riguer for these trips!!). His worst point was arriving in Bangkok on the first day of his trip and found it all a bit of a shock and phoned home wanting to come back. He didn't of course and the next day he met some fellow travellers and travelled wth them for much of his time in Asia and never looked back.

Hi there!

Are you still considering visiting Bangladesh? I haven't read the rest of the replies, but since you are a young female, I strongly suggest you don't visit Bangladesh ALONE. But if you have friends there who can accompany you in ur stay there...then go, otherwise don't. It'll be way too much hassel for you, trust me.

Why Bangladesh?

I would not travel alone at your age.

Your cost estimates seem low.

I don't know if you've made your decisions, but do hope you're traveling. I wish I had done so before college (39 now).

As for traveling on your own, I think it's great, but also think that it depends on your own confidence and comfort. As a woman, you need to be extra vigilant, particularly in tourist hubs. Unsavory types will look out for you. But one can always find groups of travelers, couples on the road, etc. with whom you can hook up on the road to provide some safety whether for a few mins or for an extended period. The beauty of solo travel is that you can stay with others for a period as long as you want.

As for time to alot, I think you'll meet a lot of folks fresh from the places you'll be travelling and pick up invaluable information. If I were travelling, I'd pick a few key places and flights and book those ahead of time and then wing it.

Cambodia and Thailand are magical and India is without equal in the world.

Best of luck wherever you land.

Your plan sounds good, except I wouldn't do Bangladesh. You'll have enough "shock" to your system. I'd take those three weeks and spread them out to some of your other destinations. And I would definitely take more money. I would "never" depend on $20.00 a day. I budgeted more than that to travel on in the 70s and 80s. And you didn't mention travel insurance for medical/evacuation. It's very important. On my travels, I did end up at the hospital a few times, asthma related, but when it happened it was in the country that I based myself in for 11 weeks, in Europe, and that country was on socialized medicine of which I was covered. So, I never had to pay anything. And whenever I got the stomach sickness/food poisoning elsewhere in the world, I was lucky to be able to have enough extra money to take care of it.

Although I'm in my mid 50s now, I first took off, to Europe, at 17 and have been away traveling throughout the world (all continents) almost annually and solo ever since. I'm female, so have had some different experiences than many of my "male" counterparts who were out traveling at the same time.

Back in my day, when I first went off into the world solo, females were told to pack a good pair of dark sunglasses. This was one way of avoiding direct eye contact with many males on the street. And to also just ignore the comments in some places and keep walking and confidently. Coming from L.A., I was used to big city life, but here in L.A., I was and still am used to giving eye contact and people greeting people, on the street, even if they don't know each other. So, while traveling in the world, I had to be more like my New York City friends. I don't know where you're from, or if you're used to big city life and the precautions of it.

As far as safety, I have been fine all of these decades overseas, but one can "never" let one's guards down as I have dealt with "stuff" and plenty of "stuff" while traveling as a solo female.

I always have taxi money in case one has to get out of a situation quickly during the day time. I would just flag a taxi and jump in to get away from bothersome people. But, I was more cautious about taking taxis at night. And never stay in a taxi if the taxi driver suddenly picks up someone who jumps in at some point along your route. Many a person has gotten robbed that way.

As you are young, you will probably deal with the "bothersome" factor more. I know I did. I remember when it was suggested for females to wear a fake wedding ring when they were traveling alone. I never did that, but I know of other females who did.

I would also go to a travel store and buy one of those little door alarms. I have one. I don't remember the name of the company, but it's in red and white packaging and has a female's picture on the front. It's very small and has a tweezer-like prong, that you insert between your hotel/guesthouse or whatever door space and the wall and then hang it on the doorknob. If anyone comes in, it will go off.

Back in my day, before such devices, we'd travel with a string of bells that we'd hang on the doorknob. I have had people come into my room before and over the decades. I was in Buenos Aires, at a rented serviced apartment, in 2008, and heard a key and no knock on the door, and then the door flew open and in walked the cleaning woman. It's good I was dressed. I had forgotten to pack the door alarm. One day the door opened and I was upstairs asleep. I've had this kind of stuff happen on different continents.

Once in Paris, I was at a hotel and my room didn't have a bathroom. I needed to take a shower. So, the owner of the hotel went over to some else's room and opened it and told me to go in and take a shower. I was shocked, I remember the hotel and now it's a 3-star hotel. Back then it was a zero star, owned by a family with young kids. The hotel guests had to eat breakfast with them in their kitchen. So, secure your things and yourself as much as possible.

And buy a money belt and wear it and take copies of your passport and an official copy of your birth certificate. Also buy luggage that you can "lock" with combination locks....like the Eagle Creek TSA locks. I also pack two Eagle Creek cables. They come in handy on trains and buses to lock luggage on the racks and they come in handy for other uses,too.

I'm not trying to scare you, but just trying to be practical and cautious. A family friend had a niece who was going off on her first overseas trip and asked me to talk to her before leaving. I told her what she needed to do, but she didn't listen at all. Well, her plane ticket, passport, and luggage got stolen. It's good she had a travel companion. But, she had to call home and her parents had to foot a big bill to get money to her and to buy her a plane ticket home. And she was in her early 20s and finished with university. One would think a little more life experience and common sense.

Another friend of mine recently had his 17 year old get stranded overseas when he realized that he didn't have his passport on him when he went to the airport to check in to fly home. And he was nearly out of money. His parent ended up having to buy a very expensive one-way ticket home for him as he was on a restricted, budget ticket. Plus, he had to get the passport replaced and find a place to stay until it was cleared up. Money had to be wired to him.

So, as one who has actually traveled as a female and starting at 17 and onwards, I'm probably coming from a different experience/place than those who have not. Happy Travels!

I just noticed someone talking about, "couch surfing". I would "never" do that and as a 17-year old, female traveler. When I was out traveling, most of the time I stayed at either student hotels, inexpensive hotels, or rented out a room in student housing as they were available for rent in the summers. As for inexpensive hotels, I just had to be careful and not end up in one where the room occupants were changing on the hour. Happy Travels!

may i suggest that right now you need to consult with a travel clinic to plan what shots you may need in advance of your trip.....some require a course of shots over as much as 6 months, so you should get started on those....

i personally would find a full month in nepal to be too long...

vietnam is for sure a place you can visit cheaply....

and yes india is so unique you will surely love it...

I would take out Bangladesh and add Malaysia. Happy Travels!

xkella - I think it might be a good idea to be with a group of other gap year students for part of the time...If so, I suggest you should contact Rustic Pathways - www.rusticpathways.com

They offer AMAZING scheduled and customized individual gap year programs for students your age - They have bases with hostel-like accommodations in Thailand and Laos, and also offer cultural and community service trips to Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Indonesia, Tibet, Mongolia, etc. My son did two summer programs with them while still in high school and has several friends that did all or part of a gap year with them.

The kids we know who traveled with Rustic Pathways considered it life-changing and many went back for multiple years. You might want to kick off your trip with one of their Thailand-Laos programs, where you would definitely meet other kids to travel with. Definitely worth checking out, even just for itinerary ideas.

If you can get a friend to go along with you, you can watch each other's back. You'll feel waaaay safer, have someone to help you if you get sick, and share lots of laughs (and horror stories, which later become laughs).

It's a great way to learn about the world, better than college, and you'll be ahead of the game once you get back in school.

I too would lose Bangladesh. Sri Lanka is another option.

And READ, READ, READ before you go.