So, what happened with Bhutan? Well, for starters, the Bhutanese government only lets in so many tourists a year, and you have to petition the government for permission to visit. Not a huge obstacle though admittedly a slight deterrent. But then, I learned that in order to get the right entry visas to visit, you have to provide evidence of a licensed guide. I'm not entirely sure how to explain this or that I even fully understand it myself. The Bhutanese government charges all tourists a daily fee for visiting their country. And it's not a small fee. When I was doing my research in 2015, the fee was on the order of $250/day per person. Seems like a lot, right? But this fee was supposed to include full room and board. However, you can't just travel across Bhutan on your own. Their government doesn't want tourists just traipsing about their sacred landscape unaccompanied, so in addition to paying this fee per person, per day, you also have to hire a guide to be with you the entire time. Many American tourists get around this by joining a group tour that has preplanned itineraries and such. Maybe I'll be that sort of traveler some day. I can see myself going with a group tour on an African safari or to visit the Egyptian pyramids, and maybe someday I'll join a group tour to Bhutan, but as a traveler in my 30s, I'm just not that interested in spending several hours a day on a bus with strangers making small talk.
The final nail in the Bhutan coffin were the flights. In order to fly into Bhutan, you either have to do a layover in Bangkok, Thailand or Nepal. After really thinking long and hard about the aforementioned conditions of visiting Bhutan, I figured...if you're already flying through Bangkok...why not just go there instead? See how you like the region, and if you think it's worth going back some day.
With a starting point in Bangkok, I then started researching the region. We had exactly two weeks, and I wanted to make sure we used that time efficiently without running ourselves ragged like we did in Germany. I already decided that we wouldn't rent a car (after reading about how difficult and dangerous it was to navigate roads in that region), but I also knew I didn't want to spend the entire time in Bangkok. After a little bit of research, I found that commuter flights to other nearby cities were short and relatively cheap. That would enable us to see much more of the region than we otherwise would have. And thanks to my husband's extensive work travel the year prior, we had airline miles and hilton reward points galore.
I found about 2-3 days worth of activities that I wanted to do in Bangkok, and I knew I wanted to see more than just that city in Thailand (though I wasn't terribly interested in Phuket - Thailand's beach resort island). I, instead, chose to visit the north of Thailand; a place called Chiang Mai. I looked into busses and trains but those were long, bumpy and came with hefty safety warnings. Nope! No thanks! Too timid for that. They're super popular with backpackers because they're cheap and relatively safe, but I am not the backpacking world traveler. Instead, I discovered that there was a quick 50 min flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai with very reasonable price options.
What really made this financially feasible for us was the fact that our international flights were cheap (thought we did end up splurging on a totally amazing luxury right at the end), and hotels throughout Southeast Asia (Singapore being the exception) were really inexpensive for the time of year that we visited.
Take a look at my budget for a trip. If you've read my earlier blogs about budgeting (feel free to read them now by clicking here), then you know that I recommend having a cushion of $10,000 for planning a 2 week international vacation. If you do your planning in advance, you should only wind up spending between $7,000-$8,000, but I still like to have that buffer.
Flight $2,500.00 (for 2 people)
Hotel $3,000.00 (assumes $200/night for 15 days)
Food $1,000.00 (this assumes about $65/day for 15 days. If you're a big drinker, you'll want to double this)
Activites $1,000.00 (always a random guess. usually end up sending less than this)
Souvenirs $1,000.00 (so I don't deprive myself of something special, but I never spend it all)
Transportation $1,000.00 (including any small flights, taxis, trains, subways, etc. etc.)
Misc $1,000.00 (includes pet care, visa fees, foreign transaction fees, etc.)
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Total $10,500.00
Like I said above, thanks to lots of Hilton points, we ended up only spending a little over $1,000 total on hotels for the entire trip. We also booked international flights for only about $800/per person, which gave us a lot of wiggle room for spending more money on transportation between the cities.
Ok, so we would start our trip in Bangkok, then fly north to Chiang Mai. What next? Well, Thailand is tantalizingly close to Cambodia and the famous Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is a world wonder and one of those places that I only ever dreamed of visiting. Cambodia is a very destitute and unstable country. I knew I was too timid to plan an actual trip to Cambodia itself, but I couldn't help but wonder if there was a way to squeeze in a little side trip just to visit Angkor Wat without getting in over our heads. And...I did!
Having visited Japan in 2012 and Dubai in 2013, both my husband and I remembered tons and tons of TV advertisements for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I knew from the start that I wanted to end our trip in Singapore, but even after factoring in enough down time (unlike Germany) we still found ourselves with an extra couple of days. Oddly enough, the flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur was one of the cheapest I found, so it seemed like a no-brainer. Then instead of flying, we took a train from Malaysia to Singapore to finish out the trip.
So at first glance, everything seemed to fit nicely. Here's how the trip outline looked initially:
May 3-4 - Fly from Washington Dulles to Bangkok via Narita, Japan (yep...took a day and a half)
May 5-6 - Full days in Bangkok
May 7-8 - Day and a half in Chiang Mai
May 9 - travel back to Bangkok
May 10-11 - Day and a half in Cambodia
May 12 - travel back to Bangkok
May 13-14 - Day and a half in Kuala Lumpur
May 15 - Train to Singapore
May 16-17 - Full days in Singapore
May 18 - Fly from Singapore back to Dulles via Narita, Japan
Seems like a lot...I know. And it was. But each of those days that says "travel back to Bangkok" included a morning flight from Chiang Mai or Cambodia followed by a full afternoon/evening with no plans. That sounded good at the time, but it still resulted in us doing a lot of hotel hopping. Looking back, the itinerary worked out very nicely, but we didn't anticipate how annoying all of those little commuter flights would be. We flew all of them on Air Asia, which ended up being perfectly fine. The flights felt safe, and they were on time, but this trip was right around when the two Malaysian Airline flight crashes/disappearances happened, so that made us very uneasy about flying a small Asian airline, and I think we worried too much.
Packing for such a long trip was somewhat of a different beast. Packing is always a beast if you don't intend on checking luggage. I almost never check luggage unless I'm forced to (foreshadowing our trip to the Galapagos), so that means I'm limited with what I can take.
For Southeast Asia, we traveled in May which was (very, very unfortunately) summer, so we stuck to shorts and t-shirts. No bulky sweaters or anything like that was necessary. I chose this time of year for 2 reasons (and looking back...they were both bad reasons! Please, please, learn from my mistakes and don't travel to SE Asia in May!) First, I started planning in January and thought I needed a good 4-5 months to really plan such a big trip well. Second, summer in SE Asia is considered "off season". Fewer crowds, cheaper rates, what's not to love? And we have hot summers here in the mid-Atlantic region of the USA, we can handle the heat and humidity. Boy oh boy...I have never been more wrong about anything! More on that later...
So, packing. A few things to note if you're traveling to the SE Asian area. They have very similar rules as European churches about modesty for women if you're visiting a Buddhist temple or somewhere sacred: knees and shoulders covered. Also, Malaysia is a Muslim country, so I knew I would want to dress modestly there as well. That means I didn't pack any short shorts or tank tops (as much as I wish I could have). Also, prior to the trip, I read in the review of our Cambodia hotel, that they offered ridiculously cheap laundry service. And since that was pretty close to the middle of the trip, that would benefit us significantly. I've come to learn that is a really good way to pack light. If you can find a way to launder at least a few pieces of clothing during a trip, it will really help you in the long run and will be worth spending a few extra dollars.
In the end, this is all I took with me.
With passports in hand (and visas for Cambodia), we embarked on another adventure filled with exotic beasts, majestic temples, mysterious ruins, and incredible culinary delights. Join me friends as I share with you my journey across Southeast Asia.
Thanks for reading!
- Foxy the Traveler
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