I’m a firm believer that travel does not have to be expensive. In fact, there’s something freeing about stuffing a handful of ragged clothes into a backpack, sleeping in hammocks and eating street food. Therefore, I want to share my backpacking trip planner and show how I make the most of my backpacking budget, so that all you like-minded budget backpackers out there can save on travel costs and take your adventures even further. Read more
I’ve been quiet for a few months on this blog. This has been partly an intentional break and partly because I’ve struggled to find the right words to articulate the reasons behind my hiatus. However, if there are any words that can best describe the tumultuous swinging between wanderlust and a craving for home that I’ve been feeling, they can be found in quotes from Wild by Cheryl Strayed.
Ironically, I read Strayed’s travel memoir in my hometown, rather than on the road. Yet, in six months of hibernation back on British soil, I found that I couldn’t concentrate on reading Wild when I was sitting still. Instead, I turned the pages on trains and buses.
It was as if I needed to be in transit for the journey to resonate.
It seems apt that now that I’ve left home once again for the next adventure (more on this to come), that the time is ripe to share some of my favourite passages and quotes from Wild on this blog. Read more
Making friends in a new place is always hard, whether it’s in the next town over or in a new country. Trust me, I’ve moved around a lot, but I’ve found the key thing when it comes to how to make friends in a new city is perseverance.
That’s right. You don’t need to be a social butterfly, you don’t need to know the local language and there is no magical secret to getting people to like you. You just need to persevere and hold strong to the fact that you will find your people. Everything takes time. Read more
Does the idea of travelling around Southeast Asia for two months sound a bit daunting? I felt the same when I came to plan my own itinerary, especially as I knew I would be backpacking on a shoestring budget. Two months in Southeast Asia sounds like a long time, but with so much to see and do, you need to make sure you’re not spreading yourself (or your budget!) too thinly.
Therefore, I have compiled this detailed post as a comprehensive travel guide to all the places I managed to squeeze into my two months in Southeast Asia, travelling solo and backpacking on a cheap shoestring budget, including:
– Things to know before you go
– How to plan a detailed itinerary on a budget
– My personal budget travel hacks
– Individual country guides that will help you choose where to go in Southeast Asia and inform how much things cost in each destination.
This is a long post because I wanted to provide as much information as possible (you can never do too much research!), so I advise you take it in in bite-size chunks, print it out or save it to return to when you need it. Also, if you’re more interested in general budget travelling advice, I have a separate post – The Ultimate Trip Planner: How to Make the Most of Your Backpacking Budget.
Southeast Asia Travel Guide: Before You Go
Before you set off on your Southeast Asia tour, there are a few things you need to know and get sorted before you go. Naturally, I left my planning to a few weeks before I went off backpacking Asia and then had to run around like a headless chicken sorting all of it out. So basically, don’t be an idiot like me. Read more
“You’ve slept in a lot of beds,” one of my oldest and best friends said to me a few weeks ago. When I gasped in offence, he was quick to add, “I mean, travelling, of course!” That got me thinking about all the places I have stayed on my travels: some the best hostels in the world, the comfiest of pillows and… some of the worst places I have ever ‘slept’.
After five years of living in Asia, I have pretty much perfected the ability to sleep anywhere. But, there are still a few standout beds that (bed)spring to mind. Here are, in my humble opinion, some of the best hostels in the world and the places I’ve most enjoyed resting my head.
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
