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Cheap Travel in Southeast Asia

November 25th, 2009 Posted in Cheap Asia Travel, Destination reports, Travel adventures, Travel bargains

I’ll admit this blog has focused more heavily on Latin America lately than Europe or Asia, partly because that’s where I’ve been spending more time. (”No jet lag” is a powerful incentive when you’re not on a long-term jaunt.)

So it’s time to make up for it with some good info on cheap travel info for Southeast Asia. This region is backpacker central for a lot of good reasons, but the main one is that as a whole, this part of the globe offers the best bang for your buck.

National Geographic Traveler has a nice piece online about Cruising the Chao Phraya River by public boat. I did this a couple different times there, either going from place to place in Bangkok (fastest way sometimes) or going way upriver just to get out of the smoggy center. The article’s itinerary just covers Bangkok, but you can keep going north (you may have to change boats somewhere), joining the commuters. Here’s a rundown on which boats go where and the fares. If you go as far as possible, it will set you back all of 34 baht—about a dollar.

EscapeArtist has a piece on getting by for less than $10 a day in Thailand.

Lonely Planet founder Tony Wheeler has some suggestions on roads less traveled in Laos.

Speaking of less traveled, this is a year old but fits in well: a Budget Travel story on secrets islands of Southeast Asia. OK, they’re not a secret now, but sure to be less crowded.

Batavia Air just launched service between Singapore and two cities in Java, Indonesia. Including Batavia Air, 14 airlines now operate passenger services between Singapore and 12 cities in Indonesia via more than 750 weekly scheduled flights.

If you’ve been shocked by how high the airfares can go to that part of the world, just remember it’ll be cheap to get around after you arrive, either overland or by budget airline flights. And you can offset that cost a bit if you keep going. Bangkok is a standard stop on most round-the-world airline tickets.

Don’t forget to bring a towel!

Related posts:

  1. Your Censored Internet in Southeast Asia
  2. Cheap Destination Travel News
  3. Still a Buyer’s Market in Thailand
  4. Cheap Travel in Expensive Cities
  5. Cheap Family Travel in the U.S.
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  1. 3 Responses to “Cheap Travel in Southeast Asia”

  2. By Mike on Nov 25, 2009

    This post is very timely, Tim! Heading to SEA on Sunday – roundtrip from Seattle to BKK for $780… so prices aren’t really that bad.

    Thanks for the links on the Bangkok commuter boats – I’ve never done that and I’ll definitely have to check it out next week. How far can you actually go on them? Can you get to rural areas?

  3. By jim johnston on Nov 27, 2009

    http://www.airasia.com has cheap flights all over SE Asia. If you sign up for their email list you’ll get notification of special sale prices. I just flew round trip from London to Kuala Lumpur for $375.

  4. By Backpacker on Dec 4, 2009

    Perfect! Have some plans of spending next summer at Phuket. Thank you for this post. I need this. By the way, what are the must-see places in Thailand? any suggestions?

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