e started talking about our year-long, once-in-a-lifetime trip quite far in advance and therefore were lucky enough to be able to start saving before handing in our notices at work and setting off on our travels. This being said, you don't have to have a humongous budget to enjoy South East Asia at its best - in fact we're finding you can probably enjoy the experience more by living like a local and opting for the cheaper option (within reason).
How much did we plan in the end? To be honest... we didn't plan much at all.
We wanted to take the laid back spontaneous approach, so we could stay in beautiful places that we like longer and swiftly exit areas that are not as they appear online!
Of course, we did plan some aspects of the trip, namely:
- Travel Insurance
- Flights from London to Bangkok
- Vaccinations
- What to pack
- First few nights in Bangkok
Throughout this trip we are focused mainly on the cheaper options as we haven't got the largest budget to hand and are going for quite some time... we've got to make the money last!
Travel Insurance
We opted for Outbacker Travel Insurance which is targeted at young adventurers.
To summarise, the main reasons we went for this company over others are:
- All our planned activities are included in the cover for example - backpacking, scuba diving, snorkelling, water sports, train journeys, skydiving etc...
- All countries we plan on visiting are included in the cover.
- Medical Emergency & Repatriation - in short, if anything happens we want to be taken home and all our medical bills taken care of.
- Personal Belongings including money (cash), passports & documents are covered.
- Lastly, all our gadgets are covered (phones, tablets, cameras, drones etc..)
We haven't had to take advantage of these benefits (luckily) and therefore can't really review them. But after extensive research and reading other reviews, this was our number one pick!
Flights From London To Bangkok
We used Skyscanner to book our flights and highly recommend the website if you're looking to save on flights. At first we were going to choose the cheapest options available (around £200 each - one way) but after researching all the options this would've ended up a mammoth adventure in itself, boasting four stop-overs.
Inevitably, the sensible option was with Qatar Airways that resulted in a cost of £395 each (saving £250 per ticket) and we were fed and sat next to each other.
If you book in advance, you can save tremendously!
Vaccinations
So.. we live in the UK and therefore can take advantage of our NHS (National Health Service).
We spoke to our GP and went through a detailed map of all the places we were going as well as talking through where we were planning on staying and what types of activities we're doing.
What's advised depends on the GP's suggestions as well as your own accountability. The general spilt of recommendations goes - some travellers, most travellers and all travellers.
In conclusion, we opted for the most travellers as we tend to side with caution on most things.
For Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. We were advised to have:
- Hepatitis A & B
- MMR
- Diphtheria
- Rabies
- Tetanus
- Typhoid
Japanese Encephalitis - our GP told us to go to a Superdrug Travel Clinic for this as they didn't have stock / weren't able to administer it. The cost for two doses of this vaccination is £190 (blows budget day 1!)
GET THESE BOOKED WAY IN ADVANCED. There's not many slots available, stock is low in this current global climate and you really ought to have the highly recommended ones at the very least so you don't get ill.
Packing List
I've listed below my packed items as Maggie's list is so long there is not enough web space to cope with the data!
Clothing
- 4 x T-Shirts
- 1 x Polo
- 2 x Vests
- 1 x Shirt
- 2 x Gym Shorts
- 2 x Chino Shorts
- 1 x Trousers
- 2 x Swim Shorts
- 7 x Underwear
- 7 x Ankle Socks
- 1 x Lightweight Jacket
- 1 x Jumper / Hoodie
- 1 x Comfy Trainers
- 1 x Flip Flops
- 1 x Sandals
- 3 x Masks
- 1 x Cheap Sunglasses
Accessories
- Roll Up Backpack
- Blow Up Pillow
- Bag Locks
- Water Bottle
- Note Pad & Pens
- Ear Plugs & Mask
- Packing Cubes
- Waterproof Bags
- Sink Stopper
- Waterproof Beach Bag
- Pen Knife
- Reading Books
- Travel Books
- Compass
- Emergency Urine Bags
- Wind Up Torch / Charger
- Quick Dry Towel
Electronics
- USB Mini Fan
- 2 x Power Banks
- GoPro
- GoPro Accessories
- Portable Speaker
- Drone
- Worldwide Adapter
- Headphones
- Phone & Chargers
- Tablet & Keyboard
Documents
- 4 x Copies of Insurance
- 4 x Copies of Passports
- 12 x Passport Photos
- 2 x Copies of Covid Vaccination Certificates
- Passports
- International Drivers Licences
- Lots of Debit / Credit Cards
Toiletries / Other
- First Aid Kit
- 3 x Suncreams
- 3 x Insect Repellants
- 1 x Insect Bite Relief
- 3 x Paracetamol Packs
- 2 x Ibuprofen Packs
- 4 x Imodium Packs
- 1 x IBS Relief Pack
- Anti-Bac Gel
- Allergy Tablets
- Shampoo
- Shower Gel
- Toothbrush & Toothpaste
- Face Wipes
- Razors
- Nail Care Accessories
- Deodorant
- Coffee & Tea
First Few Nights In Bangkok
We decided to only book in advance our first 3 nights in Bangkok. Airbnb seems to be the best option if you're wanting a base to start with which is what we wanted. We were located a 1 minute walk from the station, around 20 minutes on the Airport Link train from the airport, very central and were able to drop our bags off safely while we got to grips with busy Bangkok!
