Another budget post! 3 months in SE Asia and 3 months in Oz

OP, 6GBP for 2 of you is more than doable in SEA without going without. I dont know why they say it isnt. Its more than we average on our many trips we've made there. And we're probably travellers similar to you.

What is 6GBP?!

For how long?

The budget problem is not SE Asia...as has been made clear above...but Australia.

£5000 each for 6 months is £800 a month each.

That is ok for SE Asia.Not luxury,but ok.

That is not enough for Australia.........

I'm guessing there's a 2 missing somewhere.

Is averaging out a daily budget for SEA and Australia not a bit pointless since it reflects neither the relative cheapness of SEA and the relative expensiveness of Oz?

1. There's your missing two. Pesky number.

Averaging out the budget isnt really pointless. You take out your daily amount, stick it in a wallet or whatever and keep the rest hidden. For many, it means you dont blow the budget on Day 1. Try it, it works.

Yeah I get that, but the 26 quid a day average is the average spend overall, ie the average of SEA & Australia. So lets say you spend 24GBP/day in SEA and 30GBP/day in Oz, the 26GBP/day average doesn't really help you with either. When the areas you visit are lopsided with regards to costs working out an overall average is a bit misleading.

Hey rml247

I was in exactly your same situation last year. My girlfriend and I just got back from our 5 months in those regions (though went only a few days in Aus, but plus New Zealand). We are from the U.K.

We were on a budget on £8,000 for 5 months for the both of us (spending money & internal bus/train travel - as flights, insurance, etc, were already paid for). We took in approx 1 month in Thailand, 1 month in Laos, 1 month in Vietnam, 3 weeks in Cambodia, 2 weeks in peninsula Malaysia, 4 days in Singapore, 4 days in Sydney and 3 weeks in New Zealand,

We started with a budget of £55 a day (more on that later!)

We ate out - sometimes street food, often in restaurants, except in New Zealand where we self-catered for 95% of the time. We stayed in hostels and guesthouses, but had our own room and not dorms, and private bathrooms where we could (and if we could afford). We also like a beer! So we drank fairly regularly (on about 75% of days we were out there). We didn't do any extreme sports (like bungee jumping or whitewater rafting) as they tended to be very expensive - but we did see many paid-for sights, activities, excursions, treks, etc.

We also budgeted to include some "must-sees" like Temples of Angkor and Ha Long Bay.

I did a spreadsheet because I was so concerned about our budget. Which - as sad as it is - I recommend!

Some things to note:

1) You will be initially shocked when you fly into Singapore. Because it is expensive. As is peninsula Malaysia. Don't worry - it will get cheaper as you progress to the rest of the region. Especially Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia which cost a fraction of the other countries. We started in Laos and worked though Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand then through Malaysia to Singapore and on to New Zealand (south island) via Sydney. As a result our shock came later on.

2) The pound is no longer anywhere near as strong as it was before the recession. SE Asia as a whole is growing. Bear this in mind when taking any advice off people who went over 3 years ago, or old guidebooks.

3) If I were to list countries in order of cheapest to most expensive (which assumes drink, food, activities, local transport and accommodation) it would be as follows: Laos; Cambodia; Vietnam; Thailand; Malaysia; Singapore; New Zealand; Sydney.

4) Prices in the cheaper countries are such that you will be able to eat out all the time, drink quite a lot, do many activities and find decent guesthouses and hostels to stay which will hardly dent your budget. We were still careful, but we didn't find ourselves too concerned.

5) New Zealand obliterated our budget. From our brief experience in Sydney - and talking to people we met along the way - the two countries are somewhat comparable in costs. Singapore is also very expensive on our budget.

By the end - based on the £55 a day - we were massively up in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia (all under budget by about £400) despite being far less careful that later on.

We were a somewhat up in Malaysia (about £200), but did not drink much there as alcohol was so expensive.

We almost broke even in Thailand and Singapore (very marginally up). For the former it was because we found Ko Samui and other islands very expensive, though northern Thailand - such as Chang Mai - was less so. The only reason we weren't over budget in Singapore is that we were eating very cheap, drank no alcohol, and skipped paid-for attractions.

Sydney and New Zealand absolutely destroyed our budget. Everything from accommodation, food, drink, travel, activities - all were very, very expensive. I was shocked by Sydney in particular.

And forget extreme activities. We self-catered, bought our own beers and did free things. We hired a car in New Zealand, because we still wanted to do certain parts that buses would struggle to get us to in the time we were there.

NB: I can't speak for the rest of Australia - but it is going to be comparable to NZ.

Our final result:

Budget of £8000 for 5 months.
Final spend: £7,780
(So under budget by £220).

Now - we could have done cheaper. Had we had done dorms, drank a little less, done fewer sights, we could have done it a lot cheaper. But we wanted to have fun, otherwise what is the point? Nevertheless we did find that we didn't enjoy Singapore and New Zealand quite as much as we could have done with a bit more cash (though we still had a fab time)

Now - you are staying with family for a month, which should help.

Can you do it on your budget? Yes.

Just be careful. And bear in mind that your most expensive spend will be in the countries earlier on, so don't panic when you come to the end of Malaysia and feel you have very little left. Because trust me when I say Laos and co. are still very cheap.

(Wow that was a long post!)

Have a great trip
K

Bless your heart, 15!
thanks.

A life changing trip for OP.
ç(;oD>

I wish uni students would do it,
after the first year.

Everyone has their own idea of what is a reasonable budget. You will always find someone who says, 'I did country X on 10 GBP a day' or whatever. You will also find someone who says, 'I did country X on 50 GBP per day'. Neither is lying, but the difference in what one could afford vs. the other is obviously going to be quite a difference.

The TT has lots of well travelled people who post regularly. What no one looking for answers here should do is listen to the lowest or the highest figure. What anyone should do is look at what the PREPONDERANCE of the evidence (so to speak) has to say.

Yet, there will always be people who hear only what they want to hear and who will listen to one response saying yes when 10 have said no. For 3 months in SEA and 3 months in OZ, I for ONE do not see 10,000 GBP as enough for 2 people to enjoy their 6 months to the full. Too many sacrifices to budget will be made for my liking.

It's clear London, that even for the under 4 weeks you were in NZ/OZ, you did not have enough money to enjoy that month of your trip fully. For my money, you shouldn't have even gone there if you couldn't afford it.

You come across as someone with a very high opinion of himself here on TT to set everyone straight.

#17 I want to clarify that while more money would have improved my trip to NZ, I still had a fantastic time - being that you can see and do so much for free provided you cut back on food (self-cater) and activities. And I wasn't living out of a bin. Driving through NZ in a retal car, self catering on decent food, nice hostels - it wasn't exactly a punishing experience!

Plus at no point did we feel we were rushing through countries and places.

I agree that powering through countries for the sake of it when the money is stretched isn't the best, But my opinion is its about recognising other issues in my life: Realistically, will I have another opportunity to go to NZ without other commitments? Will I ever have the free budget to go to NZ and "enjoy it fully", so to speak, considering the directions of the economies and the money I spent on this trip (and the fact that flying to NZ from London is a lot more expensive than flying from Singapore on a RTW ticket)?

In hindsight would I have still gone to NZ knowing what I know now? Yes. Definitely.

The only mistake I made was in not saving up earlier. But the cost of living in London isn't conducive to saving!

Or I could have worked as a banker in the City - which I'm not.

But each to their own.