How I planned my solo trip around Southeast Asia

A very late post… I’m new to this blogging thing! I’m going to say that I mean for my publishing schedule to be monthly and publish earlier if I can. Now on to the blog content…

A week before I gave my notice, I knew that I wanted to take time off in between jobs. This meant that I only had 3.5 weeks to plan my trip to Asia, even though I’d been thinking about it for a long time. This trip was so last minute that after my last day at Deloitte, I flew to Japan the next morning. Here are tips for planning and executing your future backpacking trip around Asia.

Planning

When planning a trip around Asia, I had to decide on the countries to visit. There are so many! It was hard to narrow it down. Given the below guidelines, I found the places I wanted to go. This guided me in what I wanted to do when I visited each country. 

What I wanted from this solo vacation:

See college friends who lived in Asia
Tropical weather
Great food
Minimal tourists
Beautiful ocean and beaches
Abundant tropical fruit
Natural beauty
Relaxation
Running/Biking/Rock Climbing/Muay Thai Boxing/Yoga/Active Activities
A beautiful place to spend time writing

As long as I stuck to my guidelines, I felt that my day was not wasted. Hence, I decided on Japan, Singapore, Bali/Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

Banking

I love traveling. So I invested in a Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card last year and received the 100k point bonus knowing one day that I’d use them. The perks of this card include 1) points, 2) priority pass - free access to airport lounges (extremely helpful during layovers, free food to eat in the airport terminal, snacks to bring with you on the plane; you can bring unlimited friends too!), 3) reimbursed global entry, and 4) no international fees. The yearly fee is $450, but you receive $300 credit for your travel-related transactions - making the total yearly fee to be $150.

I also opened an Ally Bank Checking Account. Since I already used Ally Bank for online savings, opening a checking account allowed me to be reimbursed for any ATM fees during withdrawals. This was handy as I withdrew cash in various countries on my trip.

TL;DR - invest in the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card and ATM-fee reimbursable checking account through Ally Bank when traveling internationally outside of the U.S. to save $.

Flights

When booking flights, I optimized for low costs and short travel times. I opted to fly when I traveled from country to country because I had limited time for my trip and I didn’t want to spend it traveling on trains/buses. Japan was the only place where I used trains and they were fast bullet trains.

There are a few ways to go around booking flights for a multi-flight, multi-destination trip. Some airlines have joined together to make it easier to book “around-the-world” tickets such as the OneWorld Alliance and the Star Alliance. After researching for ease of use, I discovered Airtreks. They’re pretty much a virtual travel agent - meaning you don’t have to visit their office and you can have a phone call with them to tell them your desired itinerary. From there, they’ll figure out the most optimal flight path and connections.

I would only recommend Airtreks for people who are disorganized and unwilling to manage their flight itineraries. In hindsight, I would have booked all the flights myself. Airtreks is great, but I had issues with the following 1) I could have gotten lower ticket prices myself (I routed the trips through Kayak and estimated the price to compare), 2) they gave me the wrong confirmation number for my flight between Cambodia and the Philippines, and 3) you’re unable to add “add-ons” such as additional baggage, food, etc. since they book the flights using their email address.

Major Tip 1 - make sure to write down ALL of your flight confirmation numbers in a notebook.

My phone malfunctioned and I was panicking with the ability to look up my flight information. Luckily, it worked out, but if I didn’t I would have missed my flight.

Major Tip 2 - Prepay all your baggage when booking flights.

I initially thought I was going to bring my one carry-on sized Osprey backpack from flight to flight, but little did I know my bag was extremely heavy and didn’t meet airline weight limits for carry-ons. So I had to pay $60 at the airport ticket counter to check a bag rather than $15-20 had I booked it in advance.

Vaccinations

Traveling to Southeast Asia isn’t without its risks. Vaccines are something I would definitely recommend for ease of mind. I went to Passport Health in DC for a consultation and they gave me a handy book on how to diagnose my symptoms and things to be aware when traveling.

The following vaccines were recommended based on my itinerary:

Tetanus (useful just in case you step on a nail, badly injured)
Typhoid (food-related illness when it’s not properly cooked)
Flu
Hep A
Hep B (I already had this)
Japanese Encephalitis (skipped)
Rabies (I decided to go skip the rabies vaccine and simply made a huge effort to avoid any stray dogs and animals that came my way.)

Pro-tip, please plan vaccinations in advance!

I received about three shots in one day and had to pay higher fees for the vaccinations due to my last minute planning and not being able to price compare with various medical offices. In hindsight, if I had more time, I would have spread out my vaccinations over time and not depend on the medical office that had availability in order to shop around for vaccination pricing.

It’s still super important to pack over-the-counter (OTC) medication even though you had vaccinations.

I became sick in Japan and it was probably the result of traveling and meeting new people. As for Bali, I forgot that you’re not suppose to use tap water for brushing your teeth and I ate at a not-so-crowded establishment which caused me to have “Bali Belly”.

Packing

My packing list can be found here. Inspiration for my packing list came from numerous Southeast Asia backpacking blogs.

Things I Loved

DEET Mosquito Wipes In order to prevent getting mosquito-carrying diseases such as dengue fever and Japanese Encephalitis, I enjoyed using wipes rather than spraying.
Small backpack Carrying a smaller bag around day-to-day instead of your backpacking bag was much more manageable.
OTC Meds - Pepto Bismol, Imodium, Allegra, Advil, Dayquil All extremely useful to target various symptoms of allergies, cold/flu, upset stomach, and pain which can happen at different times of the trip.
Tissues/Hand wipes These came in handy because there were restrooms without toilet paper or even soap to properly wash your hands.
Packing Cubes These made my clothes super organized and easy to throw together into my backpack.

Things I Hated

Osprey backpack The backpack I bought was too heavy in the middle and didn’t evenly distribute the weight. I should have made the visit to REI and tried on different “backpacking” bags.
Too many tissues I packed too many tissue packets because I was super paranoid. It was unnecessary and didn’t leave me room to bring home more souvenirs.
Clothes I should’ve packed fewer clothes than I thought because I always ended up buying things when traveling.
Laptop Even though it was handy at times and gave me things to do, I could do everything using my iPhone.

Things I Wish I had

Powerbank This would have been useful when I didn’t have an outlet to charge my phone.
Extra Carry On Bag I aimed to only have my Osprey backpack as a carry-on and that was it and fit everything into it! In hindsight, I ended up paying money for baggage fees anyway and I ended up with the ability to carry less due to the fact that I didn’t have any other bags to use as a carry-on.

This was a long post. I hope that this was helpful in planning your own trip to Asia. Please feel free to ask me any questions on my experience and/or if you need help planning your own trip. My next few blog posts will be specific to the countries I visited. Next up, Japan! Stay tuned.

Photo by Cynthia del Río on Unsplash