How to Backpack Southeast Asia: Southeast Asia Travel Guide (Budget, Itinerary, Tips)

hello what's up and welcome back to my channel my name is Rachel and I make videos on fashion travel and environmentalism so if you like any of those things you should consider subscribing to me in this video I'm going to be breaking down my whole Southeast Asia backpacking trip that I went on letting you know my route letting you know places I loved and letting you know how long I think you should stay in each of those [Music] places got kind of a comfy Vibe going on right right now I've got my laptop out because I plan my trips on my laptop let me know in the comments if you're interested in a video on how I plan my trips because I do it very specifically this was such a fantastic trip if you're watching this video and you're considering or debating whether you should backpack southeast Asia I highly recommend it as a solo female traveler I felt so safe I was able to navigate things very easily as long as you go in with a confident and and kind and you know knowledgeable heart body and soul you will do fine I feel like if you're watching a video like you're watching mine you're probably doing some research so you're already partway there so what I did for Southeast Asia is what's commonly referred to as the banana pancake Trail so there are a bunch of different countries that can Encompass the banana pancake Trail the countries I did were Thailand La Vietnam Cambodia and Bali well Indonesia now to start off a lot of people ask how much time you need I would say you need at least 3 months to really enjoy this trip and see at least the main highlights of each country that you're in obviously there's going to be places that you enjoy more than others and places you're going to want to spend some more time but I think at least 3 months if you have four even better because you can do it at a bit of a slower rate I was gone for about like 3 and 1 half months and I found some places I was doing it a little bit quick and then some places I had a little bit more time so I started off my trip in Bangkok I was in Bangkok for 4 days I found I could have actually done maybe one extra day in Bangkok now not because there's a crazy amount of things to do in Bangkok but only if that's where you're starting your trip giving yourself some time to adjust to the time difference giving yourself some time to adjust to backpacking life sometimes that needs an extra day I also found that there were some things that you can just go immediately and do like the wat fo Temple which is like has the golden Tai Buddha in it Tha massages C when you're partying like these were all things that you could just do without any prior booking however I found if you wanted to do the floating markets you should look ahead on get your guide I waited too long and then kind of ran out of time to be able to do this so something to note about Bangkok I stayed at Bed station I like this hostel it was a good time overall budget for Thailand I would say you can get a nice hostel probably for about $10 a night and you can get a me meal for probably around $3 or less and your daily budget should be about $30 I would say just in case you're visiting Temple some of them more expensive than others and just getting around and putting money into the local economy can obviously fluctuate if you're doing things more in a budget or not but I would say around $30 a day okay so the next place I went was changai I went up north I had a really good time here I did a cooking class that was absolutely fantastic I walked around a lot of like their night markets cuz they had a lot of night markets here I really like the Vibes in the north and I really like the hustle that I stayed at it was called hidden garden hostel there definitely like a bougier fit here but I enjoyed it a lot changai is also where I saw the elephants so if you're planning on going to an elephant Sanctuary this would be the place to do that I spent 4 days in changai I thought this was a good amount before I go any further I feel like it's a good idea to mention that I vlogged my whole entire trip so if you're new to my channel I will link my southeast Asia playlist right here I documented my packing my unpacking and my whole entire trip journey to get from Bangkok to changai was a train I believe the train was about like 10 hours A lot of people do this at night I did it in the daytime cuz I kind of wanted to like see the countryside but it's really up to you whether you'd want to sleep on a train you can also save a night of accommodations if you do it this way after I did changai I went even further north up to Pi now I am currently wearing a sweater from pie if you haven't noticed already it say pie hole on it I I feel I need to stand up and show you like this this sweater truly just encompasses pie pie was by far my favorite place in Thailand however the journey to get to pie was rough it's basically a 3our journey to get from changai to pie and you can do it by bus however the bus ride is quite quite literally and I mean this quite literally turns the whole entire way like you come out of a turn and you go into another turn it is like this the whole entire Journey now I feel the need to mention I'm a person who has never been car sick ever and I was so car sick I don't know if it's because I ate some like potentially dodgy food at a little stand before I got on my bus or if it's the fact that I was at the back of the bus which doesn't help the fact that our driver was just doing like the most crazy turns at such a high speed but even with the crazy bus journey I still recommend going to P I highly recommend going to P it was by far my favorite place in Thailand I met so many amazing people there I stayed at noo Hub and it was a great hostel like I just made so many amazing memories and there were so many people that I met there who also told me oh my gosh pie is my favorite place ever and I'm like I agree pie is also my favorite place ever if you ask any Backpacker I swear they're going to tell you how much they loved pie it is worth the car sickness on the way back I popped a gravel like 30 to 40 minutes before I got on my bus and I was absolutely fine a little drowsy but I was fine so just pop a gravel 30 to 40 minutes before you get in your bus and you will be absolutely fine and Pie will be amazing I spent only four short days in pie but I wish I spent honestly I wish I spent a week in pie like a full week I could have been so happy there are so many amazing things to do like Hot Springs waterfalls sunsets motorcycling like pie is such a gem for Backpackers literally I feel the need to explain my sweater to people who haven't been to pie but they call it the pie hole because it's like once you go to pie you kind of fall down the pie hole or you get trapped in the pie hole or you get sucked into the pie hole so to speak this metaphorical pie hole in the sense that you love it so much you never want to leave so after pie my order just straight up does not make sense for tiand and I just want to point out that so that you do not follow the same order I did because it wasn't that smart but here's the reason I did it first is like I mentioned before I wanted to finish Chand in 30 days the second is I wanted to being kofan man for the full moon party so I was kind of timing out my city so that I would be in kofan man for that exact date so that resulted in me kind of doing the islands and Thailand in general in a pretty wonky order like I started in Bangkok went up to the North and then went all the way to the islands a lot of the time what people do is they start in Thailand like I did right in Bangkok they go up to the North like I did but then instead of going south and doing the islands in a wonky order they just pop over to Lao which is right next to the north of Thailand and then they do Vietnam and then they do Cambodia and then they finish with the islands in Thailand this has its pros and cons a con being you have to wait your whole entire trip to experience the amazingness that are the Thailand Islands but a pro is that you're actually doing it in a smart way you're not having stupid long travel days like I did and you're not not wasting money on Transportation by doing things in a weird order but nonetheless here's the rest of my Thailand experience so crabby I stayed in Krabby for 4 days I found 4 days was enough in Krabby the hostle that I stay I didn't love so maybe look for different recommendations again I did Vlog my whole trip so if you want to see what hostle I stayed at and things that I got up to day to day check out the playlist I found this was enough I actually went to Rel Beach like for a day trip I was Finding just going for a day doing some rock climbing if you're not a rock climber your muscles are going to get sore and you probably won't be able to do multiple days of climbing anyway so you know I enjoyed staying in Krabby and then just making a day trip out to really but te each his own Krabby is like a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be and there are so many restaurants and it's got a real like touristy vibe in Krabby so I just kind of like got in saw what I needed to see got out maybe that's a pro for some people who do stay in because it wasn't as touristy um definitely still touristy but not as touristy as Krabby was and then after Krabby I did kofifi I stayed at the pier 519 I liked this hostel it was a good location kofifi is definitely a party island so there's not a lot of like cultural places that I found in kofifi it kind of felt like a resort to be honest like kofifi felt like a resort I did a boat trip I went to see my friends I had a lot of beach days in kofifi and I just kind of relaxed for me I spent about 4 days in kofifi and I found that was enough because I literally just I didn't do too much I just relaxed compared to all the fun enriching cultural experiences I was having in other places in Thailand Kofi view was kind of like not a let down but definitely a place to just relax and not do too much from kofifi I did a trip to Maya Bay there's lots of life like agencies that you can kind of do day trips with and do like party boats with from kofifi to kotow I took a fairy a lot in between the islands you can take fairies I booked all of my transit for my whole entire Asia trip on a website called one two go Asia and I found it super super helpful literally never had anything delayed never had any issues always got where I needed to be so I highly recommend one to go Asia for book everything Thailand related and everything southeast Asia related I should say from kofifi to CAU I took a fairy kotow is the place where you get your scuba certifications I had such a good time in kotow I always say to people my favorite place in the north was pie of course and my favorite place in the South if I had to choose would have been kotow I found kotow had some like really cool beachy Surfer Vibes to it well at the same time you know had a lot of scuba diving in kotow I stayed at the best hostel I've ever stayed at in my entire life and that was Savage hostel the beds were so comfy there was a rooftop pool just like pie I would have spent a week in kotow and that's for two reasons the first off is cuz the Vibes were so amazing and great and the second is because if you want to do your scuba certifications that takes at least like 3 days so depending on the scuba course that you're going to take and how long it's going to be factor that in go to cotel don't leave it on your list even if you're not someone who wants to go scuba diving there's still lots of things to see I definitely recommend going scuba diving though I had so much fun I was someone who was a bit nervous and anxious about doing it but once I was there I had such a good time because I was only in kotow for 4 days I only did my beginner like in to scuba so I didn't get my full certification so another reason why I would have stayed in kotow longer after kotow I finished off my Thailand experience in kofan I went there for the full moon party I had a great time make sure that you meet people if you're solo traveling and make some friends before the full moon party so you have a good crew to like stay with that you know you're going to be safe for the full moon party a lot of the hostels only open up for the full moon party and they close when it's not a full moon so something to note like there's not too much going on in the island I did hang out with some friends and do like a waterfall day trip I obviously had a lot of amazing Beach each time on this lovely Thai Island other than that I wouldn't recommend staying in kofan for so long I stayed in kofan for 5 days cuz that's just kind of how my journey worked out however I only think you need about like 3 days in kofan one day to get there get settled hype yourself up for Full Moon one day for full moon party and one day to recover from the full moon party and maybe one extra day to do a fun little Adventure on the other side of the island oh you know what the reason I stayed in coov an for so long was because the hostle I was staying at it like had a 5 night minimum stay and I feel like they do that to make money of course because they're only open during full moon time so I was like oh what whatever I'll just stay for 5 days like there must be something to do if there's a five night minimum stay no to be honest I would have just paid my five night minimum and still left early and that's what a lot of Backpackers did they paid their five night minimum but they did not stay for Five Nights from kofan that was my last City in Thailand like I mentioned then I moved on to Lao again that did not make any sense my order because I literally started in middle of Thailand let me just paint a picture on a map here middle of Thailand went up to the north went down to the South and then went back up to go to La don't be like me there was a method to my madness I went up back to Lao and then continued on the trail the normal route because after I wanted to go to Bali and Bali was South anyway it made sense in my head at the time okay but from here on out I feel like from Lao onwards I did um my order in a smart way so from Lao onwards you can follow my order I started off in luing prang that's like one of their big cities BL it's falling here now I really appreciated that Lao was a bit more rugged a bit more untouched obviously this is a place that Backpackers love to go to but people in general don't travel to Lao as much as they travel to Thailand and so it felt a lot more real and less touristy than Thailand even though that came with you know some hostels that might not have been as luxurious as Thailand and some experiences that were a bit more rugged and um off the beaten path I really really enjoyed it in Lao I only spent one week total in La I spent 3 days in leing prang I spent 3 days in viang Vang and I spent 2 Days in vienen and I found that was the perfect timeline now something to know when you get to La I was able to get a visa on the spot I was able to get a visa on the spot for every single country except for Vietnam but I'll talk about that more when we get to Vietnam but essentially in Lao got there I didn't have any issues loing perang was stunning because they have so many beautiful like night markets quy waterfalls and then just a lot of like Buddhist temples like you would see in Thailand as well and that was really fun Ling perang is also a big thing for Backpackers 2 is to go bowling again check out my Vlog if you want to see more of that from Ling prang it is a 6-hour van ride to viang viang there's lots of like beautiful viewpoints there's lots of lagoons again really rugged like you're doing some questionable things like asking someone on the side of the road to take you to the lagoons and giving them some money and just getting in the back of their car with your friends oh gosh my mom's gonna freak out listening to this but La in general was just a really good time the only thing I would say is vnn I stayed in for 2 days it was good for me at the time of my trip because I needed like a buffer day to just chill at that point I'd been traveling for over a month I needed to catch up on laundry I need to catch up on sleep uh the craziness that was you know the rest of LA vnn is like there's not too much to see it's a city and you know you can see some museums and like statues but other than that there's not too too much to do I highly recommend thinking about this if you are traveling for 3 and 1/2 months or more you are going to need days where you're just going to relax and do absolutely nothing that's something I didn't quite think about when I was reading a lot of like the blog posts and people's recommendations on how many days you need in each Place they'd be like oh you only need 3 days here oh you only need 4 days here without thinking about the fact that you are going to need buffer days added in to your journey so that is my tip to you to think about when you were planning your backpacking trip after vnn I spent about 2 weeks in Vietnam now Vietnam is the only place that you need to apply and get approved for a Visa before you enter the country this is something that you know if you you have a general route of when you're going to be entering the country do it at home before you leave you have to have it printed off some people were able to scramble and do this at the last minute and get their hostals to print it off it's never really worth the added stress because you're never really sure if your hostel is going to be able to print it off or not I printed mine off at home I had it in one of those clear plastic sleeves it was safe it was organized I kept it in a nice spot and I was ready to go when I got to the Vietnamese airport they literally will not let you get on a plane unless you have your Vietnamese visa and everything sorted out so don't try to bypass it don't try to do it at the last minute if you're going to Vietnam plan ahead you're definitely going to want to plan ahead because Vietnam is probably I think I'm going to say it I think I'm going to say it out loud and let everyone know Vietnam is probably one of my favorite countries after doing my backpacking trip in Southeast Asia I loved Vietnam so much specifically I loved Northern Vietnam the most but it's actually up there in my top countries now like you do not want to miss this and the reason is I well first off I did like a good route in Vietnam I start in the North and then worked my way down to the South so it logistically made sense spent just over half of my time in Vietnam in Hanoi and doing excursions out of Hanoi I did 8 days in Hanoi with the the two excursions the first one being the Hang Loop this was the best part of my whole entire backpacking trip do not skip this so many people you talk to will also tell you it was the best part of their whole entire backpacking trip it is a 3-day motorcycle trip in the Vietnamese mountains you can choose to ride a motorcycle yourself or you can do what I did and get an Easy Rider and get a Vietnamese person to drive your motorcycle and use sit on the back and you can just enjoy it take in the views that was the first Excursion I did the second Excursion I did was I did a sappa hike I had a really good time in my sappa hike it was definitely very adventurous very rugged if I could do it again I might have subbed out my Sapp tour if you don't have enough time for how long bay I've heard really good things about how long bay even though I had a really good time on my sappa hike the conversations I've had with people made it seem like they had way more fun on their how long bay trip at the time I was thinking it was a little bit expensive and I was by myself so so maybe if I could do it again I would find a friend who would want to like split the room with me or something like that I really liked Hanoi like as a city obviously my excursions were based out of hooi but like you drive up to them but Hanoi itself was such an amazing City when I think about Vietnam I think about Hanoi the hostel I stayed at was Hanoi Buffalo hostel and it was right an old quarter it had so much character so many walking streets but but also like people in their motorcycles it was so busy it was so fun it was so vibrant this is where you can try egg coffee there's a lot of cathedrals a lot of street food that you need to try like oh my God there's there's just too many to list next place I went was hoan I stayed in hyan for about 3 days and I thought that was enough the main thing I wanted to do when I was in hoyan was to get like a Custom Tailor Made outfit done and that was so cool like an amazing experience and because the the turnaround is so quick you can get a dress or pants or whatever you get made done in like a day or two so that's really all you need maybe an extra day if you want to like do some more of the night markets have more like going out nights honestly I was staying at cheerful hyan hostel and the woman who ran that hostel was just such a sweet woman and The hostle Vibes were like less of a party hostle because I was doing a lot of partying in other other places that I was in so I really enjoyed that cheerful hoan was like chill and relaxing if you are someone who wants to party every single City you go to maybe book another night or two so that you have some like recovery days after night out but for me I did not party in hyan and even if I wanted to I couldn't because I had bronchitis now something that you can do from hyan to get to dang which is the next place I did is to do the high van pass which you can basically like arrange a motorbike and then have someone take your bags in like a separate car and go at your own speed from hoan to den that's an option I didn't do that because it was raining when I was there but a lot of people did do it on other days that it wasn't raining so something to think about again comes with RIS anytime you go on a motorcycle comes with risk be careful so many people get injured in Southeast Asia because they're driving a motorcycle and they don't know what they're doing so so that is my warning to you when I was in dang I only stayed in dang for about 2 days there wasn't a lot to do in da like people said you know there was a good night life I don't know if it was just the hostle I stayed at like I didn't meet a lot of people who were going out but the only main thing I did was like the bana Hill and the golden bridge but they were so like touristy that it wasn't even fun so I didn't have the most fun in same with doot like it was very unmemorable for me I only SE D lot for like two days that was enough there wasn't too much going on and then I went to hoian City I only stayed in hoian city for about 2 days there was more going on in hoim City cuz it's like a big city I saw the coochie tunnels the war remnants Museum after Vietnam I went to Cambodia I spent a week in Cambodia and just like Lao it was a little bit more rugged a little bit more more real a little bit more of a cultural experience and I had a really good time and bodia is really great if you like history and you like architecture I stayed 2 Days in panon pen I stayed 2 Days in Sam reap and then I stayed 3 days in Kong and Kong is like an island Kong I would say was my favorite part of Cambodia there was just something so cool about korong like it was such a beautiful island I always tell my friends Kang is the best beach I've ever been to there was just so much space that was really like Untouched by other people and you kind of be on your own honestly if I could go back I would spend more time in Kang and I might even do like Kang samam which is like their other Island I think Kang is more of like a party island and then Kong seum is more like if you want to be a little bit bougie last country I did before I came home was Indonesia I was in Bali mainly and I did Bali for 2 and 1/2 weeks after doing the whole like main banana pancake countries of like Thailand last Vietnam Cambodia BDI was definitely like a little bit more expensive now B in general isn't that expensive but compared to where I was before I was like wo all the hosts I stayed at in Bali were fantastic the way I did it because I only had about 2 and 1/ half weeks before I knew I wanted to go home I did 4 days in changu I did 4 days in Ubud I did 3 days in the ghillies I just did ghilly tea and then I did 3 days in nanita and then I did 3 days in uluwatu some places I liked more than others I like changu it was very touristy I did have a traumatic surfing experience that left me with scars both physically and mentally but besides that there was a lot of good yoga there was a lot of good vegan restaurants I really like eating plant-based food so it was kind of like a mini Paradise for me in that way Ubud was really nice because Ubud is like the spiritual heart of Bal so I did like sound healing here I did obviously the iconic B swing I avoided the monkey Sanctuary monkeys are kind of wild guys okay like be careful around monkeys honestly AUD is somewhere that I would say I could have stayed for like a day or two longer because I didn't get to do the mount vatar hike and so I kind of wish that I did that a big thing to do is to like hike up there for Sunrise Gilly had a really good time this was pure just relaxing in Beach time like I did snorkeling I partied I chilled by the pool I chilled by the beach however long you need for that is how long you should stay there the next thing I did was nanita now nanita was nice I booked like my own private hotel in nanita and then I just kind of like met up with friends and did the viewpoints I found nanita was a little bit like overrated I enjoyed going snorkeling there I enjoyed seeing the viewpoints but like other than that there's not too much to do in this binita so and then I finished my trip in uatu uatu kind of had a little bit more of like a hippie spiritual vibe to it kind of like a again people here typically spend time doing yoga going to the beach that's what I did you can see the K dances go to Temples I like that there was like a lot of those cultural experiences there I only saved for 3 days I found that was enough but I found I was also tired because I was packing up and moving every couple days in Bali so it was kind of a whirlwind here's the thing I definitely don't think you could have done Bali any like shorter than I did it so the bare minimum for Bali if you want to see all the places that I saw is 2 and 1 half weeks all right that was a super chatty video but I hope it kind of gave you a good planning route for how many days you should spend in each place what countries you'd be interested in comment down below if you're interested to see how I plan my trips I'm currently in the process of planning my next backpacking trip which will be in Central America I'm doing that in the new year so it's only like a couple months away so I'm a little bit last minute let me know if you want to see my process how I organize things how I book things all of that jazz make sure you give this video a thumbs up if it was helpful for you and if you enjoyed watching it and subscribe to my channel if you like fashion travel or environmentalism that's all for this video guys I will see you next week bye I got so I think I'm running out bu me downit I don't do this for no CL hey I got so much back I think I'm never running out yeah bust me down the wood

Channel: RoamwithRach

Views: 11,474

Keywords: travel Southeast Asia, backpacking Southeast Asia, thailand, thailand travel, Laos, Laos Travel, Vietnam, Vietnam travel, Cambodia, Cambodia travel, backpacking

Id: vZZ7RbKgZkg

Length: 28min 40sec (1720 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 17 2023