RTW Trip 2010

Hi All,

My name is Andy. I am currently doing a Masters degree in University but will be finished May 09, I am planning to travel for a year with some friends from Jan 2010 onwards. I know its early days but I want to plan this trip very carefully. I am living in Ireland. I plan to travel to Bangkok and spend 3 months touring south east asia, hoping to take in as much as possible, would love to visit Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. Then onwards to Austrailia/ New Zealand. We plan to work here for three months and travel for two. Hoping to find a job as a social worker. This will bring us up to September. From September onwards we plan to either travel to South America and then home or North America. These are very broad plans I know but I am at the very early stages of planning this trip. If anyonw has any info or advice on this itinerary or on the best times to visit these places, fininding a job, accommodation, how much spending money, etc. I would really appreciate it.

Cheers guys,

Andy from Ireland

I'm planning to be in SEA about the same time (dec. '09 - feb/march '10) and i'm planning to spend about $30-50/Day in those countries (a little more for brunei and singapore, a little less when I'm not moving much, etc.)...Also, I'd love to travel with you a bit if we happen to be in the same place. Anyways, good luck to you and your buddies!

Thanks for that. One of my friends that is coming with me had traveled SE Asia for 3 months before so she has that fairly covered she reckons 20euro - 30euro would definetly be enough for asia, do u have an itinerary prepared for SE Asia??

Not exactly - it's fairly far away, so I'll get a more definite itinerary when the time gets closer, but this is the basic idea:

Indonesia (3-4 weeks) (December)
Malaysia & Brunei (2 weeks) (December - January)
Peninsular Malaysia & Singapore (2 weeks) ( January)
Thailand (4 weeks-ish) (January - February)
Laos (2 weeks) (February - March)
Cambodia (1 week - 10 Days) (March)
Vietnam (2-3 weeks) (March - Early April)

Then on to china, Hong Kong, more china, fly from bejijing to s. korea, etc, etc...

You can find a map of my plans here:
http://darcyjohnperkins.com/details/route/

Good luck with your trip, it sounds like it'll be good, and you've got tons of time to get saving :)

Now I don't know and someone more experienced will hopefully advise further, but I doubt that you'll be able to find a three month placement as a social worker whilst in Australia/NZ. Have you looked into this? I should imagine it'd be pretty hard to set up when you'll just be staying for three months, however experienced or qualified you are. It might be possible, but would probably need a lot of planning in advance.

What about going a more conventional backpacker job route, but combining this with some kind of volunteer work? That'll look good on your CV, but probably won't be quite as hard to set up as a social worker job (might still need some forward planning though).

Thanks for the reply, I agree it will be hard to find a ob as a social worker for such a short period of time, however there are social work agencys that hire social workers on part-time/relief basis, locum work I was wondering did anyone know anything about this. Otherwise I will try for a social care job which would be easier to get.

Cheers

On the 3-month social work issue, i had the same thought as #4 above but you have a good though andy. However, it is probalby only in Sydney or Melbourne and maybe in the other capital cities that you likely to find that there are opportunities for you. If i were you, i would consider looking for an employment agency well in advance over the web, like now even, to find out if its possible at all. I don't know what you mean by social care job but again, i don't think short term placements would be that easy to come by. We are only very small countries so opportunities are less.

Apart from that it is easy to get work in some touristy areas if you have your work permit. Just speak to other travellers about this as you go.