hey guys Alexander travelbum again and this is how to travel Southeast Asia on
500 or less a month hardly spent the last four months in Southeast Asia and I
spent less than five hundred dollars each month now I know Southeast Asia is
cheap but for some reason a lot of people don't get away with that more
like a thousand dollars per month so how do you spend less how do you stretch
your budget so that you can spend more time in Southeast Asia well I'm going to
give you some tips on some of the things I learned there are four major
categories that you're going to be spending money in that's food
accommodation fun and transportation first things first accommodation this is
probably where you're going to spend most of your money but if you with some
of these tips you might be able to spend a lot less okay so here we go
accommodation first of all where you find where you where do you get the
accommodation Agoda is the best app the best website to use when you're in Asia
I didn't realize this until a few weeks in but Agoda is where it's at when it
comes to Asia so accommodation can be cheap in
Southeast Asia you can stay in hostels hotels you can
do couchsurfing or air B&B typically the range in hostels is from $3 to $8 and
for hotels more like $10 to $20 my average was $3 for every house silver
hotels $9 but I say in many hospitals that only cost $1.00 per night and I
stayed in hotels that were amazing for $5 $6 per night private hotel rooms
sometimes deluxe versions for less than $10 this is actually in Bali which is
not a cheap place and I stayed this bungalow with this sunset on this beach
with this view for $11 per net so what you want to do first excuse the ago taps
second you want to look a little bit ahead I'm not saying you have to do it
months in advance or weeks in advance but once you get down to it one or two
days before you want to book you're going to be left with the scraps most
people are doing at at least a few days ahead of time and and they're picking
the cheaper option pretty much everywhere you stay is either going to
be AC or fan and the fan rooms are about a dollar two dollars less and you pay a
premium to have the air-conditioned room also look at single rooms in hostels and
then single rooms in hotels sometimes a single room in a hotel is less than a
single room in the hospital or even a single room in a hotel it's less than a
dorm room in Southeast Asia there's no reason there are tons of
hotels that are even cheaper than the hostels don't ever rule them out
couchsurfing is another good option where you stay with locals for free I
explain it more in some of my other videos but it isn't as easy in Southeast
Asia as it is in somewhere like Europe less people are on the platform and I
love the hosts that you can find are actually other tourists or they're from
your own country and they're just living there for a while so you don't get quite
the local experience all the time when you're using a host on couchsurfing in
Asia as you do in Europe but that is the route to go and it's free accommodation
so if you can swing it try to do some couchsurfing transportation depends what
country you're in but in Southeast Asia typically you're
going to be taking taxis scooter rides tuk tuks tricycles and other little
vehicles which are basically forms of taxis in every country trains
and short flights when it comes to buses just like hotels and hostels there's
going to be usually an AC and air conditioning option which tourists
usually use and then an open-air bus which doesn't have any AC but you get
the air from outside coming in which sometimes is okay but if you can handle
it pick public buses or non AC buses but if
you can spare another dollar or two just take the AC option and it might feel a
lot better and a lot of times you won't be as cramped in taxis this is a big one
taxis in Southeast Asia for tourists there is always a tourist price and a
local price and if you look like a tourist can't lower your tourist and you
look like a tourist you're going to be charged a tourist price there's really
not much getting around paying some sort of tourist price but if you're aware of
it you can save some money and at least get a better tourist price when you're
traveling around Southeast Asia when you get off of an airplane get off of a bus
get off of the train lots of times you're going to have a
huge group of taxi drivers coming up to you trying to get you into their taxi
and they're going to give you their price which is inflated times five times
ten the thing that you have to do is you need to say no to everyone that comes up
to you when you get off the bus those prices are going to be the worst if you
walk down the road a little bit if you're away from this tourist spot where
you just got off they're probably going to be giving you a little bit better of
a price because the taxi drivers that hang out there they know that these are
unsuspecting tourists that don't know about it so a lot of them they're just
going to take the price and assume that it's what the price is especially
because if you're from a Western country a country like the United States like me
they might charge you five dollars for a half an hour right and you think oh
that's actually a great price in San Francisco that would have cost
made $20 but then you find out later that the local price is more like $1 for
a half an hour right so you're paying much much more than you should be and
those prices can really add up when you're taking taxis every day so what
you want to do is don't take the first second or third person that comes up to
you ask them what the price is and you'll see that as you take a few
minutes and walk down the road or or talk to a few more drivers you'll see
that the price goes from $20 from the first guy to $15 from the second guy $10
to the third guy and you walk out of the touristy area just walk for a minute or
two you don't even have to walk that far and you'll get to a guy that's got for
you a $5 ride and then still try to haggle a little bit say that the other
guy offered you sighs what can they offer you and they might give you a
$2.00 right which still might be a tourist price but at least it's much
better and I watch these taxis take away tourists for $25 for a $2.00 ride and
they just took it and when you're taking short flights within these countries
it's probably a little common sense but make sure you do it at least a week
ahead of time a lot of these smaller airlines all you need is a week ahead of
time to get a better price and if you if you're within that week or a few days
before your trip it's going to cost you a lot more
it still it might not seem like a lot of money to you if you buy a flight for
three days from now for a hundred and twenty dollars that might not seem that
much for a flight but you will end up saying later that people who booked a
week or two in advance we're getting $20 flights so trains are big in a lot of
places in Southeast Asia so it'll be some times you'll have to choose between
train and bus you're really you're gonna have to do
your research or you're going to have to ask around because a lot of times a
train will be much much cheaper than a bus or a bus will be much much cheaper
than a train and you really you really don't know in Myanmar I took train ride
12 14 hour train rides that cost me $1 and then I take bus rides for a few
hours economy went and Myanmar typically trains of the cheapest in the
Philippines you'll have to take a lot of flights because the Philippines are much
violence also Indonesia book flights ahead of time alright and the last
category is fun fun events shows tours all of these things one thing about me
is I don't really like tours I like doing things on my own or I like meeting
a local to take me around I just I like the more authentic experience I tend to
avoid them if I can and because of that I save a ton of money tours are for
tourists anything that is for tourists not for locals at all you're going to
get pretty much Western prices so tours can be $100 $200 which is just the most
you'll ever pay for anything in Southeast Asia it's it's very cheap to
travel there so if you can avoid tours and if you have to take a tour then you
know do it because sometimes they're worth it but see if you can haggle with
prices or see what the different tour companies are offering events and
attractions if you have a student ID card you can save 10 20 % getting in
things I don't have a student ID card anymore but you know you're in Southeast
Asia they don't really know what your student ID looks like right maybe you
can make one maybe you can get one off a friend or find your old one you know
make something that looks like a student ID and it'll probably pass because how
are they going to know which brings us to our last category which is food
street food street food street food is where it's at Southeast Asia is all
about street food people love it it's everywhere and it is usually the
cheapest option and the tastiest option it's amazing
Street food is good everywhere and it's usually actually better than the food
and restaurants and almost always cheaper people think that you're going
to get sick off of the street food and yes sometimes that happens but it's
usually not going to be life-threatening and locals eat the street food every day
tourists eat the street food everybody does and it's fine it's worth it there's
no way you should go through Southeast Asia take a trip there not try to street
food it ranges from 50 cents to maybe two three dollars for anything you can
get pad thai in Thailand get a chicken curry in Myanmar on me in Vietnam balut
in Philippines you don't want to say you've been these places and you didn't
get to try their food Asian food is very potent it has a certain taste to it and
you might not think in now but you're probably going to get tired of it after
probably a week not tired of it but you might need a little change you're
probably going to be paying Westar is basically the same as you would at
home for a subpar product at least this year if you're used to
burgers and mistakes when you get them in Southeast Asia they are not going to
be the same and you get through it there and they're not bad at least you get a
little bit of the Western flavor so that you can go back to the local meals right
after and one more thing when it comes to alcohol in Southeast Asia beer is
king everybody drinks beer not so many people drink cocktails there are the
very touristy destinations that have the tourist culture that the nightlife and
all of that and of course there tons of cocktail if you're on a budget you're
going to want to get beer and all the way beer you'll want to get the local
beer beer will be from 50 Cent's to maybe two dollars whereas cocktails will
be more of the prices you're probably used to do all these things and you'll
be traveling cheaply in Southeast Asia please like this video give it a thumbs
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