Hi I'm planning on travelling in feb 2014 heading to Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Australia, Fiji & America any help with routes would be great, I'm planning to go solo and to be away for a year but to be honest I'm finding it all a bit daunting & overwhelming and really don't know the best way to go about it.
Relax... it's a bit intimidating at first but all the places you mention are firmly on the Gringo Trail and have been intimately explored by countless backpackers before you so the normal routes are well researched and laid out in great detail in loads of excellent guide books. If you want to get off the beaten path then that's easy to do once you arrive too.
You have loads of time to research and read before you go. That's a whole lot of fun in itself - figuring out what interests you.
Have fun, you've chosen some really cool destinations.
Cheers,
Terry
Hi Jason,
I was in your exact situation this time last year, and I can say is relax (as Terry has said). it is so so so much easier to get around Asia than you would think.
After months of reading online I arrived in Bangkok as clueless as when I started reading, within an hour of being in my first hostel I was chatting to a guy who recommended I go to Pai (I would also recommend you go there too if you get the chance), I'd never heard of it before but booked a ticket to Chiang Mai and got a bus from there (after a few days in Chiang Mai and a trek/elephant ride of course), once in Pai I met a group who were going to Luang Prabang by slow boat... 9 weeks later I'd seen the whole of Lao and Vietnam, and 3 towns/cities in Thailand and was feeling adventurous enough to buy a China visa off a woman in the back of a motorbike rental shop and a cheap flight to Shanghai; China wasn't even in my itinerary...
8 months on I'm in Sydney and planning my escape to go visit India alone...
my advise, just turn up and everything will be right; everyone is in a similar situation when travelling (especially in SEA), you'll find tonnes of clueless mate to find your way with...
you're making an awesome decision to travel, well done!!!!! :-)
Hi Nickl,
I've just been reading your post and noticed that you are off to India alone - I am also looking to do this. Do you have a plan for when you arrive? Are you going to book on a tour? I've been looking at the STA tours which look great but there not cheap! Any advice/info would be great :-) Sarah
Hi Sarahmoss,
I have absolutely zero plans for India so far I'm afraid (except I arrive 25th Feb at Trivandrum, because it is the cheapest place to fly to from Sri Lanka and I needed both flights in and out to arrange my Sri Lankan visa)...
I've taken a brief glimpse at an India map and picked out the places I've heard of, would make sense from where I'm starting to go
Trivandrum -> Bangalore -> Goa -> Mumbai -> Rajasthan (with some stops inbetween to be decided once I get chatting to people in hostels) then across to Delhi/New Delhi for the Taj Mahal etc then east for the Ganges; I'm not too sure yet though - I'm hoping it'll just sort itself once I get there... not too sure whether there is much to see south west either so may look for a border exit into Nepal or Tibet, money/time permitting...
I'll be leaving Oz with the deposit from my house, 2-3 weeks wages and my creditcard as a back-up so I don't think I'll be stretching to any tours this time out :-) - I want to last as long as possible with my limited funds...
Local buses/trains although undoubted unpleasant should be pretty sufficient to see everything I want to see at a fraction of the cost (although I'm pretty sure STA will just book you the same trains/buses as you can buy once you get there, at a huge premium? - I've not booked any tours so I don't know the exact arrangement but there was certainly people on my bus/es in Vietnam who had bought the "hop on/hop off" buses through tour companies (not necessarily STA) prior to Vietnam who had paid upwards of $200-300 for what we've bought for <$40 once we got there... they did also have all their hotels/hostels prebooked for them though (also at a massively premium) and had their visa prearranged (at the biggest premium of all))... I wouldn't by any means deter you from buying a tour though, it's probably the easiest and safest way to see everything if your budget permits... and it'll be massively handy to arrive/travel in a group if you've never done anything like this before...
sorry I couldn't be more help!!!
when are you looking to travel out?
- * not sure if there's much to see south-east
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