Vietnam and Laos (Part 1)

* Please note that amounts mentioned below are in Australian dollars. The exchange rate is pretty similar to US dollars - AUD1 = USD1.04. 

Inexpensive / Cheap Travel

This six and a half weeks trip cost no more than $1500, flights included, visas excluded. It would also have been cheaper had I not travelled solo (shared accommodation, at the least). You can do it too! Your trip does not have to be as long, or even as low budget... but it can definitely be more affordable than what our imagination conjures. I will list a quick breakdown below :-).

I did not include visas and processing costs because prices (or free entry) will depend on your nationality. For peace of mind, I organised all my visas from home which cost me more than getting it from the border (for Laos) and online (for Vietnam). I struggle to remember the fees, I think $40 and $70 for a single entry. At the border and online they wouldn't have cost more than $100 together. Postage and money order charges were about $40. 

$520 were spent on my return airfare, bought during a sale around two months before the day of departure. I had on hand $50 worth of Vietnamese Dong and $30 worth of Malaysian Ringgit, exchanged through friends. Approximately $800 were converted to local currencies along the way to spend on everything - accommodation, transportation, food, entrance fees, and sundries. I paid for a tour with my credit card once (the only time it was possible as everywhere else were cash only transactions).

It means I lived on $21 per day. Honestly, I budgeted $25, but I was curious if I could survive on $15 daily. I observed that it would have been easy enough to spend $15 or less (especially if I did not travel to other cities as much), but I decided to continue having some luxuries and to prioritise on my safety being a single-female-traveller.

US dollars were accepted everywhere. Australian dollars were not recognised in the smaller towns I visited! Thankfully I always had enough local currency to get by. ATMs were available but some towns (especially Laos) were risky, as in the credit card may not work or it may not have cash to dispense. A great backup was Western Union, it was everywhere. It charged high rates but made it possible for people to withdraw cash from their credit cards where there were no ATMs or other banks available, and when the currencies they were carrying were undesirable. Weekends you're on your own (banks/Western Union agencies are closed). I risked and carried over $1000 with me on this trip, as I thought I would be in very remote destinations. I was, but I was not there so long that I ran out of local currency (and they did not accept my currency anyway, ugh). I do not recommend carrying so much cash. I was lucky nothing untoward happened to me. I gave $200 to my sister whom I met up with in Hanoi. I still had almost $130 cash left in my wallet as I headed home.

I had a lot of fun while travelling. I journeyed the whole length of both countries overland. It was cheaper than flying and I felt better, more part of the country. I saw how the landscapes curved and changed; observed how people lived and worked; and experienced the culture. In Vietnam I started from Ho Chi Minh/Saigon to Sapa. After climbing the Mount Fansipan I traversed to Laos via the Dien Bien Phu/Tay Trang borders. I headed down to Mong Khua and explored all the way to the bottom in Si Phan Don (even stepping on Cambodian soil for a couple of hours). Then inched my way back in the middle to capital city Vientiane where I flew out to come back home.

I used all modes of transport - overnight sleeper buses/trains, public buses, VIP buses/minivans, songthaews, cyclos, xe oms/mopeds/motorcycles (always a passenger), bicycles, boats, ferries, and kayaks. Costs ranged from 50 cents on the motorcycles to $40 on the overnight train or long-distance journeys. In these two countries it is okay to not book anything until the day before, on the day, or as you arrive. Just always find out the schedules, duration and  frequency so you could plan your moves.

Most of the time I had my own room - in a hotel or a guesthouse. Only the Hoi An accommodation was booked ahead, recommended by a fellow traveller I met last year. I tried booking a room in Vientiane for my last night too, but even with an email confirmation it was not reserved. So be prepared for that too, but easily fixed. There's enough affordable accommodation for all with and without reservation. The room rates were mostly for two people, but $6-$15 were cheap enough that I did not mind paying "double" to have privacy. I stayed in a dormitory twice only in Hoi An and Hanoi (Vietnam). I had free accommodation when my friend hosted me for about 4 nights in Saigon, and a couple of nights in Hanoi with my sister. My best nights were sleeping out in the open with mosquitoes under a starry skyline on a mountain in the An Giang province (Vietnam); power-napping in Hanoi; celebrating next to my fireplace in cold Sapa after my mis-adventurous summit climb; and relaxing in Si Phan Don. I shared a room on two (and a half) occasions with now four good friends - with a couple (in Vietnam) and a lady (in Laos). The half was a gentleman I hanged out with in two cities (in Vietnam) who had an evening flight so he left me a room to myself. I didn't have swimming pool access (only once in Mui Ne, Vietnam) but I always had the beach or the river close by! There were times when I had air-conditioning but I did not use it because I was getting sick from the constant temperature changes. A few times breakfast was included. In Vietnam the decent hotels had free toothbrushes with toothpaste, combs, shampoos and soaps too!

Food...! I ate sitting on plastic chairs next to the streets, inside markets, from hawkers selling food alongside buses, local eateries, and several fine-dining restaurants. I paid from less than $1 to try sweets and snacks to I don't know how much to try top-end dishes (maybe $25?). I did not mind the costs, especially with company as it was more fun and we could share the dishes! Sometimes I would search for the cheapest yet most delicious meals. Other times I would bask in indulgent comfort taking advantage of the fact that my currency was strong. I also loved to end  my days with a nice celebratory dinner (with alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks). I noticed beer and cigarettes were cheaper than water!! It shows how warped we humans are and our "needs".

My profile in another site has all the video and picture updates (sorry, won't repost here). I did all kinds of adventures such as cruising ($70+), tubing (can't remember, $5?), caving ($5-25), summit-climbing ($100++), hiking ($2-50), cycling ($1-3) and hot air ballooning ($80), to name a few. Many people told me I was a flashpacker (not a backpacker), hahahah! Maybe, I even agreed, because I liked to seize the opportunities and hug the moments fully :-). Sometimes to do that, money needs to be spent. Finance could still be balanced by not spending too much on other things on other days. I also don't go to every single attraction or do every activity. I choose the ones that suits my values and interests and make the most of those experiences.

TRAVEL IS NOT EXPENSIVE. It is really not hard, and will not always be uncomfortable. And it will not be boring because you think you can't afford much. You can do as little ("yukuri yukuri... slowly slowly...") or as much ("hayaku! hayaku!.. faster! faster!') as you want and can handle. Keep an open mind, research so you could list the interesting places you'd like to see or activities you'd like to do, and make friends along the way. If you have a condition that may/will impair your mobility, work it into the considerations and contact travellers with the same challenges (I met many of them inspiring people through the years) - for encouragement and tips.

I did not always know how to get from one town to another, especially in Laos. But I knew there were bound to be services catering for tourists or at least for the locals I could use. I did not always choose the best (especially some modes of travel, hahahah ugh), but the misadventures I had from those times made great stories. And sometimes there were other tourists there with me admitting it wasn't the best idea, sulking or laughing as we shared the experiences with each other.

Just go. Step out of your trepidation and excuses - they will always be there for everything you want to do but are not doing. Don't expect/demand too much. Be a local. Respect the cultures and learn their ways. Represent and let the locals learn your culture's ways. Being generous is not always best, so be mindful of how you throw your money around, even when you think you are helping "those poor people". Relax and have fun. You will find out so much about the country and it's people, as well as about yourself. Your journey will continue even after your trip. The skills, mindsets and realities you will be exposed to and take home with you will open or close many doors.