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Type the words "cheap holiday asia" into an internet search engine like google and see how many websites come up on the topic. I tried it and got 1,160,000 websites, many of them trying to sell you package tours or backpackers guidebooks. The usual sales talk is of rooms you can rent in Kuta Beach Bali or Calcutta or Khao San Road in Bangkok for $5 a night. When you arrive you find yourself in a tourist ghetto teeming with thousands of other travelers all clutching the same guidebooks and chasing the same "bargains".
So what really happens on your "cheap" holiday is that you stay somewhere that charges ten times the local rate for a beer. Walk down the street and the price drops to 5 times the local rate. You get herded around the same backpackers haunts, mix with other backpackers and never get to meet the locals. The south to north tourist trail in Vietnam at present is organised much like this. You can buy a home brewed beer in Hanoi for about 10 cents at tiny street stalls yet the tourist crowds are paying $1 or $2 in backpacker hangouts. Restaurants put up a menu in english and double the prices. So much for a cheap holiday !
Get off the Beaten Track!
You sleep in a lousy room which is so hot you end up going out to find air conditioned malls or restaurants and end up spending more than you would have on a decent room. All those "cheap" backpacker hangout restaurants charge you double, triple the going rate for your bowl of noodles or coke.
I know a bungalow owner in Ko Samui who makes no profit on his bungalow rooms but a fortune from the onsite restaurant. So much in fact that bungalow guests who don't eat onsite could expect to be thrown out!
Ignore the myriad of guidebooks on sale. Everyone else buys the same books and you won't find any bargains there, just tourist traps. Instead, consider going off the beaten track, and you will find life much more inexpensive. And surprisingly, you will find that in many places prices are so cheap you will actually be able to afford to stay in a comfortable, well located room on the same budget.
Here's a few ideas to get you started. Your 'e bound to discover a lot more bargains on your travels. With the money you save avoiding the tourist traps you can afford to get yourself a decent safe hotel room wherever you go using our reservation service!
Eat on the Cheap
North Eastern Thailand
If you're really on a budget forget Khao San Road in Bangkok and the other tourist ghettos and get yourself on a bus or train to North Eastern Thailand, known as "Esarn". The cities of Nahkon Ratchasima (Khorat), Khon Kaen, Udon Thani and Nong Khai are en route between Bangkok and Vientiane, as well countless other smaller towns and villages. Prices are cheaper than anywhere else in Thailand and you will encounter far fewer tourists.
Or follow the train line towards Cambodia via Buriram, Surin and Ubon Ratchathani and experience the blend of Lao, Thai and Khmer influences that characterise the area. There are few tourists and even fewer rip-offs.
Vietnam - North to South
Virtually every backpacker who tours Vietnam arrives at Ho Chi Minh city and takes a series of mini buses full of westerners up to Hanoi and beyond, stopping along the way to stay in tourist ghettos.
Try the reverse ! Start in Hanoi and head south instead and the crowds aren't so bad - everyone else is going in the other direction ! Avoid the crowds and you will find food, drink and things like internet access are much cheaper. Find yourself a Vietnamese - run mini hotel or pick up bargain room prices by using an internet booking service. Travel by train if you can....although a little dearer than mini buses, the north-south train service is safer, slower, and you will see a lot more of the real Vietnam than you would in a minibus packed with tourists. Vietnam is incredibly cheap once you escape the tourist hordes and take a look around on your own steam.
Singapore to Beijing by bus and train
It doesn't cost the earth to travel Asia by train ! You can travel cheaply by bus or train from Singapore through Kuala Lumpur and on to Butterworth (Penang) for under $50. From there you can take buses or trains to Bangkok from around $10 and on to Vientiane in Laos. Another $25 or so will buy you a torturously long bus ride through to Vinh in Vietnam and on to Hanoi.
From Hanoi there is a train service running all the way to Beijing. Truly affordable travel and most of the destinations along the way are easy on the pocket.
Get out of Bali and see Indonesia!
No, we don't hate Bali. It's great for those who love beach resorts. But if you want to experience Indonesia on the cheap, get out of Bali and move on to Lombok by ferry and bus....the whole of Java and Sumatra is accessible by bus or train and fares are dirt cheap. Away from Bali and Jakarta you can get by very cheaply and travel a lot further on the same money. Spend a month exploring rural and regional Indonesia for the same price as a week of "living it up" in Bali.
Got a cheap holiday secret you'd like to share ?
Hotelz Asia will publish interesting articles that go off the tourist trail and explore the "other" Asia on a budget. Please contact us using this form.
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