A rough plan for the first part of the upcoming extended travel is now coming together, and this first two to three weeks should then make a good, new itinerary for the website.

The plan so far is

• Arrive in Phuket
• Stay in Patong beach (in a hotel, not on the actual beach!)
• sight-see other areas of Phuket, mainly Phuket town and the other beaches
• Ferry to Ko Phi Phi
• ferry to Railay
• boat to Ko Lanta
• minibus to Khao Lak area (maybe Bang Niang)
• bus or minibus to Ranong
• transfer to Chumphon, on the gulf of Thailand
• Khao Sam Roi Yot national park
• Hua Hin.

That should keep us busy for a while! From Hua Hin, we will then make our way to Bangkok, although e are unsure yet if this will be direct, of i we will have other stops along the way.

As with any low cost carriers, your flight cost will be very cheap, and every other service you usually get for free on a regular flights, you need to pay extra for! In addition, you often get a lot of the extra services cheaper if you book them with your ticket, instead of paying for them at the terminal or on the plane.

With the Air Asia flight from Perth to Kuala Lumpur, the following are extras that you can pay for in advance if you wish, and get varying degrees of discount if you book early

1. Checked luggage - 15kg for $9.00 if booked online, $13.00 for 15kg if booked at airport check-in. $9.00 per kg after that at the airport, but less (another 5kg for $16.00, and then another 5kg for another $22.00) if booked in advance online.
2. In flights Meals - hot meals for $8.00 if booked online, $9.00 if booked on flight
3. XL seats - only online at time of booking, around extra 100%
4. pre-booking seats - $10.00 each
5. comfort kit - (A light blanket, an inflatable pillow and an eye mask) $11.00 if booked online, $16 on the plane
6. sporting goods luggage - 15kg for $28.00 for golf clubs, bikes, scuba gear and surfboards

As mentioned in the earlier Blogs, i will we keeping a detailed track of my/our expenditure in relation to our 3 months of travelling in south east Asia.

The target is AUD $150 per day, to include accommodation, all travel costs (including flights in and out), food and all other expenses. Obviously this will be important to me personally as I have a limited budget and hope to be able to stay overseas for the full 3 months, but also , I hope, will be useful and informative, and genuine, to future travellers in the region.

My reporting summary will be as follows

Total expenditure/ days in/ average cost per day

As I don’t take off until the 3rd of march, any trip costs before that day, will show against day 0

To-date expenses are

$427.00  - Air Asia flight x 2, Perth - Kuala Lumpur

$43.68 - Air Asia flight x 2, Kuala Lumpur - Phuket

 Total expenditure/ days in/ average cost per day

$457.68/0/$457

It is probably not a huge secret, holidays and travelling is expensive!

As we are travelling for 3 months, about 80 days in total, we need to be very careful with how much we spend, and as a result, a vital part of our travel planning includes a budget.

The two ways of starting this process is to take a total you are prepared to spend, and divide it by the number of days you will be away, or, alternatively, draw a line on an estimate of how much you think you can scrape by on per day, and multiply it out by your number of days.

As we are travelling Thailand and Nepal (and somewhere else, but as yet undecided), We have created a daily budget, as being a travel professional, I am hoping to demonstrate the ability to set a budgetary plan, and sticking to it.

And, the budget is……….AUD $150.00 per day (x 85 days)

Just to clarify - this is our total expenditure budget, including all our travel costs, and is for a couple - IE - 1 hotel room, but two of just about everything else. It will include our outward flight from Australia, and all other flights. So that puts us behind the 8 ball from the beginning, and will mean we must aim to keep most days at a cost of under $100 per day!

It will be an interesting challenge, and I intend to keep a relatively detailed record of our expenses. Obviously, I will be reporting our progress daily, or close to it (where possible) 

I want to put a few pictures on the Blog, just to see how they look, so I thought I should think of one of my favorite things - South East Asian Beaches. Here are a few of my favourites

   Kuta Beach, Beach Bar, Bali

  Beach restaurant, Ko Samet, Thailand

  Lovina Beach, Bali’s North Coast

 White Sands Beach, Ko Chang, Thailand

A few days into active planning of the 3 month travel plan, and already I have run into a problem, associated with day 1 of the trip!

As you would remember, We have booked Air Asia flights, from Perth, Western Australia, to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, followed by another flight about 7 hours later, from KL to Phuket in Thailand. As 7 hours was going to be a long time to hang about in the terminal, and I specifically booked a night flight, assuming we could the stay at the Airside transit hotel in KLIA airport!

Wrong!

Fired off an email to Airside Hotel, and as they are in the KLIA terminal, and Air Asia use the KLCC terminal, it is not possible to stay with them.

This now means either 7 hours in the terminal, or going to another, out of the terminal hotel. Therefore, we will have to pay for the whole night even if we only need a room for about 4 hours (allowing another 3/4 hour to get from landing to hotel, after exiting building etc).

Looks like the Concorde Inn will have to be the go - at about $75.00 AUD per night (Airside was going to be about $60.00)

Not a huge difference in price, although it is getting the budget off to a bad start!

Well, Everything that needed to come together, has come together, and therefore, the extended travel trip is now a definite go-er!

I have today confirmed flights, and can advise we will depart Perth, Australia, on Tuesday March 3rd, for what is intended to be a 3 month travelling scenario.

First point of arrival, and at this stage the only confirmed Itinerary item, is Phuket!

We have booked to fly with Air Asia, as the price it just too hard to go past. two people, to KL in Malaysia, is costing me $398.00 for the flights, plus an extra $9.00 for 15kg of luggage, and $20 to book seats (so we can sit together). We leave at about 6.30 in the evening, and arrive at KL at 23.30. Onward flight to Phuket, leaves KL at 7.10 the next morning.

The KL - Phuket flight is costing a grand total of MY100, IE 100 ringgit, equivalent of $45.00 AUD!! for two of us!!! It is so cheap it is almost unbelievable. that is including an extra 15kg in luggage!

 On first glance, the timing looks terrible - arrive at midnight, flight out 7 hours later, at the crack of dawn!. But, after consideration, this was probably the best timing of the flights available over that week. All the other days had similar gaps between arrival and departure in Kl, but are at different times of the day.

I concluded that the night in KL airport would be easiest to kill the time, and have sent off an enquiry to book 6 hours (the minimum block) at the Airside Hotel, within the departure area of KLIA. The big advantage hear is that we can sleep for 4 or 5 hours, and don’t need to pass in and out of customs, immigration etc. We can get off the plane from Perth, and be in bed in 20 Min’s or so! We have done this before, in Changi Airport, Singapore, when flying to Vietnam a couple of years ago, and found it to be easy and simple.

 The Airside is costing us RM140 , equivalent of $61.00 AUD. We expect it will be money well spent! (although it is more than we are budgeting per night for “real” hotels rooms, for the rest of the trip)