6 Month trip through SouthEast Asia
 

A friend of mine is planning to do a 6 month trip through south east asia...

has anyone ever done anything like this? if so, would you mind sharing some of your thoughts/experiences and itinerary (this would be especially appreciated)....

Many thanks :thumbsup

Be sure to give away your plants and goldfish.

hahaha...

haha amen!

seriously

try to hit up everything, not only the main big cities, but the outlying cities too, where there isnt so many white ppl infestation. the real countries :thumbsup :2cents

I just got back to the USA, after spending 6 months in Manila. It's really cheap to base out of Manila, and get cheap round-trip flights on Cebu Pacific and AirAsia airlines to and from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, etc...usually for around $200 round-trip each from Manila. If you stay off of the "tourist track" in Manila, you can stay for around $7 a night (non a/c room) to $15 a night (a/c room). I spent a month in a cheap hotel like that...miles from the nearest American. Going back in late June...to base in Manila, and hit Malaysia and Thailand while there.

sounds cool ... anyone else with similar XP? :thumbsup

Good idea.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
http://www.virtualtourist.com/

Has anyone actually done a trip like this? There must be someone out there, with a friend of a friend who's done something like this!

Is he/she planning on doing any work while they're gone? Internet access/etc? It's a totally different trip if you have to manage internet connections or manage anything back home.

What are their interests? That plays a big role. Are they into sight seeing / historic monuments, meeting people, cities, shopping, ?

You really should go to lonelyplanet.com and read the S.E. Asia board...for some great tips and routes... I backpacked for 3 months in 2001 through several countries. I didn't end up doing this route, but an efficient one is fly to Bangkok then go see northern Thailand, cross into Laos, boat up the Mekong to like Luang Pragang and then head to northern Vietnam and make your way down through Vietnam into the Mekong Delta and cross into Cambodia there and go through country to Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat (highlight of my trip by far), and then cross back into Thailand to chill on the beaches for a while after all that backpacking. You could bus same day back to Bangkok from Siem Reap and take train/fly.. to southern Thailand beaches or head back south to chill on the Cambodian beach and take a boat back to Trat and maybe chill on Ko Chang... before heading back to Bangkok and heading south. From there you could take a boat to a nice Malaysian island like Langkawi to chill more and go down to Kuala Lampur and then cross into Singapore and if more adventurous...fly somewhere like PI or Indonesia or fly back to Bangkok if you are flying home from where you started.