One way travel? In Asia?

[The Bear]

Hi,
Every Summer since college, I have tried to travel somewhere, USA, western europe and my own little UK! For a good couple of months at the least. Except last year I took off of travelling to spend all that University money on learning to ride a motorbike and getting one. But next year marks the end of my education and me a uni friend want one last blast to punctuate the good ole days before work, so.... we was thinking of Asia.

Except, the combined planning skills of all most of my friends means we can't organise a piss up in a brewery. Subsequently the rough plan so far is "we get a ticket to bangkok and then make our way 'ome from china, 'innit?" (I wish I made that up)

So the questions are,

I never been to anywhere that needed more than 1 visa (USA), is it possibleto get visas 'on the fly'? or at least get visas with a big enough time limit that we can saunter in and out of countries?

Optimistically we can raise about 5-6k each, realistically 4-5k. With emergency plane home cash should we flounder. Hopefully the fact that we know people that we can crash at once we start getting back into turkey/europe will save hostel and food money. Is this a sensible amount of cash for this type of trip? Granting that I can be fairly thrifty and impart this knowledge and TP tips to the others.

Time frame is a non issue really, but 3 months is the suggested thinking. would this be accurate?

Lastly, is it even possible to just get a 1 way plane to SE Asia and tell them that we are going home by any means possible bar another flight? and promise them not to outstay our welcome?

Please help get something to work with, advice, conjecture and mild abuse welcome!

[Esterina]

I hope I'm not too late on this post!

Awesome project! I think feasable, but you'll need to either be super flexible timewise or get a bit of planning ahead of leaving. The problems are the visa for China, and possibly Vietnam if you wish to see it. The Lao and Cambodian visas you can buy at the border, with cash and photos, but not the other two. So either you waste time in the embassies in Thailand then await those visas, or you get them prior to leaving UK, which is what I'd recommend. You can in this way concentrate on having fun in Thailand!

I would recommend to avoid doing a lot of in and out of countries, because this would bring attention to yourself at borders. SEA and East Asia are areas of the world where a lot of traffic of a sorts is occuring. Don't think you want to experience an officer's curiosity...

Is your budget amount in Euros, dollars or pounds ? Even being in dollars, you still have enough : 4k = $50 a day. You can live for as low as $15-$25 in most SEA cities, and that includes meals-lodging-inner transport. International transport is a bit higher.

As for time frame, 3 months is fine but of course, if you could stay longer that'd be even better. Asia's life flows at a slow pace and that gets to you early in your stay. Plus transport in Asia is a painful uneffective neccessity that will slow your plans down anyways. Plus there is so much to see and do ! Plus China is so big. The very least number of weeks to visit a country there would be 2 weeks. For example, I did 2 weeks in southern Laos; 3 in the northern half of Vietnam and that was too quick ! I would have needed to double the time, in order to see the whole country.

Lastly, is it even possible to just get a 1 way plane to SE Asia and tell them that we are going home by any means possible bar another flight? and promise them not to outstay our welcome?

I can't answer this. I know you are required to have a proof you will exit the country, but I'm not sure they do in fact ask for it at the border. Having been to China either, but I'd think they are quite stuck on procedures...

[TheWills]

once again my estimed colleage is right! take your time with asia, its painfully slow gettin around since it is so inefficient. When you have nothing but time its quite a wicked experience! Visas...yeah china is gonna be a tough one, you might be able to roll up and see what happens but as she said I would invest in that before hand at a embassy in your homeland. Everything else just roll up with a couple passport photos and a always a wad of cash as that really does the talking in asia. Man im jelous have a great trip and really let that one fly by the seat of your pants, if you plan that continent your doing it wrong cause once your over there its a whole new world. Just have a rough idea of what you wanna do and then throw everything else to the wind!
Cheers

[The Bear]

Thanks for the replies! and sorry to have posted into the wrong section in the first place.

I have plenty of time to start making more concrete plans, our dealine for buying plane tickets is in January, late chrissy presents to ourselves! :D Thanks for the heads up about the visas, going to work on paperwork for them shortly. Also thanks for the rough price guide, if $4k dollars is good enough then £4k pounds should mean we won't be too bad off!

The plan has changed a bit now, we are more likely to start in Thailand, or maybe even Malasia if we can justify it, and work through Vietnam, Laos and finally into China. Making China the last of our tour and getting the plane home from there. The theory being we can spend longer in SE Asia and China, with it being cheaper, than we would do crawling back into Europe from Asia, As much as I really, REALLY, want to do that (voted down ).

Also is cambodia safe enough to travel in? And has anyone done a little boat hopping to the philippians and indonesia? I was told that I could use some of my spanglish to get us by in the philippians...

Thanks all!