Southeast Asia Itinerary Contest

5/29/2007 15 comments

Step right up and score some free jam-packed travel guides to Southeast Asia!

southeast asia islan If you haven’t heard of the website Travelfish, you need to get familiar with them if you are going to Southeast Asia. Their site is a fantastic resource giving you detailed reviews of cheap hotels and guesthouses, transportation info, and the latest scoop on border crossings, visas and the like. Plus some fine articles on travel in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Singapore.

All that is well and good, but the ole printed page still comes in handing when you’re not up for endless clicking or you don’t want to be searching for an Internet connection. These handy PDF guides are short enough be printed out and packed or carried along on a jump drive and accessed from any computer or PDA. They’ve got great eating and sleeping recommendations, excellent maps, and handy tips that will save you a bundle in your travels. (And get you off the “Lonely Planet Trail” to boot.) They’re usually $2.95 to $3.95 each, which is a bargain, but they’ve passed us a few to give away for FREE.

First, here are the guides that are up for grabs:

Ho Chi Minh City
Ko Phi Phi
Phuket
Remote Southern Laos
Siem Reap & Angkor Wat
Vientiane
Champasak, Laos
Phnom Penh (hot off the virtual press)

Are you going to any of these places in the next year and a half? To win your own copies, here’s what you have to do. Leave a comment below saying when you’re traveling in Southeast Asia and where you are planning to go. (One or two links are okay if your itinerary is already posted somewhere.) Then tell us all what you will do in that location with the $3.95 you’re saving by scoring a free guide. (Hey, $3.95 can really go somewhere in Southeast Asia–see the specific links above for examples.)

One GRAND PRIZE winner gets a copy of every guide, plus an e-book version of The World’s Cheapest Destinations. So one well-traveled soul will win the whole bowl of pho.

You must leave your e-mail address when making a comment as part of the normal process and that’s how we’ll get in touch. Don’t worry, nobody can see it but me. Eight other winners will be chosen from the commentors to receive at least one guide each.

This contest expires June 16, 2007, so get your name in now!

Comments

Written by teresa on 6/1/2007. Reply

I suppose it doesn’t count because I’m not travelling through Viet Nam right now, instead I live here, and I only have loose plans of visiting Laos and Cambodia, but I could buy 12 big bowls of pho ga for those four bucks.
Written by delujo on 6/2/2007. Reply

Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam for three months at the end of ’07.

So let’s see, for the price of three of these I think I’ll get a night of lodging, three bowls of pho, a loaf of bread, and a few glasses of cold bia hoi.
Written by Rhonda Delameter on 6/7/2007. Reply

My husband & I start our RTW trip in August and are going to be spending 2-3 months in SE Asia this fall. We’ll be Malaysai, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and potentially Mynamar.
Gosh, we’ve only been to Thailand before in that region but for $3.75 I’d spend the night at the floating hotel near the River Kwai… run entirely by the villagers kids it’s a real treat! Or, haven’t been there but from what I hear $3.75 can get us an extra night in a bungalow in Don Det Laos! Or all the noodles we can eat on Kao San Rd in Bangkok PLUS a beer!
Written by Travis Raymond on 6/8/2007. Reply

This fall I will buy a one way ticket to BKK and spend a month in RaiLay rock climbing before starting to travel. With my one way ticket I will have the freedom to roam about and let life come at me. I have no real plans but more interests of where I’d like to go. Laos has alway intrigued me to no end and I want to spend lot’s of time there. In fact there are no countries over in that part of the world that harbor no interest for me. I will eventually make my way through China and into Nepal and down to India. I am going to travel until my money runs out. Saving all that money by winning the grand prize I’d spend it by taking a big group of street children out to a nice dinner. I’d take them to the finest restaurant I could find, some place that they could never experience. We’d laugh and dine into the night.
Written by Janet Hand on 6/13/2007. Reply

In less then 2 weeks I head out to S. Korea to teach English for a year. After that I plan on spending a good 6 months travelling through cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand– and hopefully on this adventure I’ll be getting off the beaten lonely track and mingling with the locals rather than the average touristy type. And with those extra 4$ (which in reality would be 30$ish as i’d buy them all!!) I’ll immerse myself with the locals and pay a local family for a home stay– I buy the groceries if they cook it and let me chill with them and the fam.
Written by Mike on 6/13/2007. Reply

This one’s easy! For $3.95 I’d rent a scooter for a day and start exploring Southern Laos. Smell the air, pick bugs out of my teeth, investigate streams, take pictures of water buffalo. With the extra money I’d grab a bite to eat, then I’d sell the book for what it’s worth to another tourist and buy enough gas to hopefully make it back before having to sleep on the side of the road that night. Ah, what a day!
Written by Jennifer on 6/13/2007. Reply

Hello
I’m off to Laos in July for one month and I’m so looking forward to it. I’ll be flying in to Vientiane and from there, depending on how rainy the rainy season it, I hope to travel north up to Phongsali via Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Muang Ngoi and also hopefully staying at the Gibbon Sanctuary in Bokeo province. The second part of my trip will take me to southern Laos to visit Pakse, the Bolaven plateau coffee plantation and Champasak, then ultimately further south to chill out on the 4000 islands. I have heard nothing but great things about this country, its food, scenery and people and I want to see it all!
With at least $3.95 saved, possibly more I would put it towards buying some books from Big Brother Mouse in Luang Prabang. I’ve been in touch with them about helping out with some volunteer teaching whilst there (I’m an ESL teacher in Korea) and have been recommended by many people to buy their books to take with me as I travel and distribute them to kids I meet along the way. It’s better than candy and supports a local business too.
Written by Rob Larson on 6/16/2007. Reply

I have a one-way ticket to Bali, Indonesia on September 4, 2007. I plan on two months of roaming through Indonesia and then heading north to see what kinda adventures I can find. Any guides would come in handy…. especially if they’re free.

Cheers, rl
Written by tim on 6/25/2007. Reply

Thanks to everyone who entered! I e-mailed the guides out today. If you commented above and didn’t receive one, get in touch. The grand prize winner is Rhonda, who is hitting every area covered by the Travelfish guides starting in August. If you run into someone who seems to know the inside scoop on all these places, it’s probably her. Happy trails!
Written by Rhonda Delameter on 6/25/2007. Reply

Hey! Tim, thanks again for naming me winner. I am devouring the guide book info in between still pretending to work (20 days of work and counting!)
Perhaps I’ll see some of the others over in Asia!
Cheers
Rhonda
Written by Jennifer on 6/25/2007. Reply

Hi Tim

Thanks for the Laos guides. I’m excited to be going and will put them to good use.
Happy travelling Rhonda and congrats!!
Thanks again

xxx jen
Written by regina on 10/16/2007. Reply

Our trip starts on January 17. In exactly 12 weeks (sounds shorter than 3 months). The GRAND PLAN takes us from Bangkok to Udon and across the border at Chong Mek into Laos. 5 nights checking out the sights then a nightbus to Vientiane for a few days and fly to Luang Prabang (didn’t like all those reports about people throwing up through the open windows on the bus)We’ll spend 5 days in LP then Bangkok and straight on (Lao Airlines permitting ) to Krabi (with Air Asia) where we’ll get a car and check out the sights around there. Relax for a while on Koh Jum and then back to Bangkok for some serious shopping. Travel time 30 days. $ 3.50: Donate to Big Brother Mouse- check out their site. Safe travels!
Written by Stan Hardie on 4/15/2008. Reply

Please tell me how to travell the cheapest from Florida to Cambodia. It has always been a dream of mine to go there. Also, how expensive is it now in April 08 to go to Cambodia.
Please respond. Thanks.
Written by tim on 4/15/2008. Reply

Flights from the U.S. to Southeast Asia vary greatly from month to month no matter where you are leaving from. You will likely fly through a hub city on the west coast and then go to Bangkok first. You can often get a circle the Pacific ticket for about the same price as a round trip to one destination. Go to this airfare deal websites page and scroll down.
Written by owenbooy84 on 2/19/2009. Reply

My girlfriend & I start our trip in march and are going to be spending 7 months in SE Asia. We’ll be Malaysai, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam.
Gosh, we’ve only been to Thailand before in that region but for $3.75 I’d spend the night at the floating hotel near the River Kwai… run entirely by the villagers kids it’s a real treat! Or, haven’t been there but from what I hear $3.75 can get us an extra night in a bungalow in Don Det Laos! Or all the noodles we can eat on Kao San Rd in Bangkok PLUS a beer!

Southeast Asia Itinerary Contest

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