Our Budget Backpacking trip to 7 South East Countries for 3 Months

02 Sep Our Budget Backpacking trip to 7 South East Countries for 3 Months

Happy to share the beautiful experience we had during our 75 days of the amazing trip to 7 Asian countries. This was our first budget backpacking trip to 7 south-east Asian countries for 3 months, starting from India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, & back to India.

We did it under budget which was Rs 90,000 per person which includes our visas, all countries flights, accommodation, food & local transport. Will share the detailed post about the budget and travel hacks. Let me first show you the amazing journey in short. The motive was to learn the culture and to do the volunteering in different countries. We started with Malaysia & landed in Kuala Lumpur. The route was like this-

1. Malaysia
2. Singapore
3. Indonesia
4. Cambodia
5. Vietnam
6. Laos
7. Thailand

1. Malaysia: We landed in Kuala Lumpur, which was our first ever country. We were a little concern in the first few days as we got stuck at some place due to some bad experience with a host. Finally after staying 3 days in a hotel, we have got our first host right at the city center of the capital. It was a hostel combined guest house, where we spent almost 2 weeks. It was really good experience which has made us confident about our next countries. Check out our Malaysia video here.

2. Singapore:  We took a night bus ($15 per person) from Kuala Lumpur which dropped us at Singapore at around 4 AM. We spent only a few days here & it was nice. We stayed in a hostel which was around $5 per person for a dormitory room.

We went to various places which were famous in tourists, Spectra which is world famous laser & light show – we were excited about it but it was really not good at all as we expected, but we really liked “Gardens by the bay“. All knows Singapore is expensive and fancy – but we made it super cheap, so it was not really expensive for us. Here is our Singapore Video . Check out some pics-

3. Indonesia: we flew from Singapore to Bali, Indonesia where we planned to stay with 2 different hosts. Luckily the day we reached – entire Bali was celebrating the biggest  hindu festival “Galungan Festival” which comes once in 7 months. Here we spent 3 days at a village near to Ubud, the host was amazing. He was living with his family in an old traditional house. Check these pics from the festival and his amazing hospitality-

After this place we moved to another place in Bali which was 35 Km to west of it. This was an organic farming project called as “Tegal Project“. We enjoyed 1 week here & stayed in tents which was really different experience. Here we helped him in his project by doing help in plantations, painting the walls, making the rooms, cooking the lunch, making his website and all. We have also met couple of other volunteers from Spain. Some pics-

4. Cambodia:  We flew from Bali to Siem Reap, Cambodia & stayed here only for 3 days. Then we moved to Phnom Penh which is the capital city of Cambodia. Here we have met an amazing host “John” which was living in an apartment which had a roof top pool on 16th floor. He was amazing and inspired us from his stories and life experiences. He is an Ex Australian army officer and was living his rest of his life in Cambodia. We have learned so much from him that we can’t tell. Here are some pics-

5. Vietnam: We entered Ho Chi Minh (biggest city of Vietnam) by road border and took a bus from Phnom Penh. The visa was easy and done in Cambodia itself ($50 per person). We planned to stay here for 1 week but we extended to 3 weeks. Vietnam was truly amazing and we really didn’t want to come back.

We went to Hoi An, Da Nang, Hue & Quan Tri (which was a small town towards central Vietnam & close to the border of Laos). Here, we have got so much of love and happiness that we can’t express. We volunteered here for little school kids & for an amazing English club which was named as “Amazing English Tour“. We joined their tours and spent great time with local Vietnamese kids. Some pics-

6. Laos: It was a short stay for 6 days which we divided between Vientiane & Luang Prabang. We entered through road border from Hue, Vietnam to Vientiane, Laos. There were Buddhist temples to every corner here and the city was very cultural. We have met a couple of people from different countries and stayed in a hostel. Then we moved to Luang Prabang by Bus and stayed there for 3 days in a hostel. Luang Prabang was very different town, it was peaceful and beautiful. We rented a motorbike here & went to some amazing waterfalls. Some pics-

7. Thailand : We flew from Luang Prabang to Bangkok & then from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We volunteered here for a village community named as “Kad Sala” it was a beautiful old house of ancient wood carvers. Here we got a chance to go to different local schools and to teach them basic english and general knowledge. Some pics-

After having these amazing 75 days, we safely came back to India. Our life has been changed and this journey has taught many life lessons which will help us in future. We are truly inspired by meeting amazing people through out.