Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Generally, getting around Asia won't cost you much money, especially if you stick to the local buses and
avoid the tourist transit system (private coaches that take tourists from one destination to another).
ACTIVITIES AND ATTRACTIONS
Activities and attractions see a wide range of prices in this region, depending on how touristy a destination
you are in. Most Buddhist temples throughout the area are free to enter, though some of the more famous
and larger ones, like Wat Phnom in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Wat Pho in Bangkok; the Temple of Literature
in Hanoi; and Vat Xieng Toung in Luang Prabang, Laos, cost $3-5 USD.
Large temple complexes such as the ultra-famous world heritage sites of Angkor Wat ($20-60 USD)
in Cambodia, Borobudar ($15 USD) in Indonesia, or Sukkothai in Thailand ($6 USD) do cost a lot more
money than smaller temples. These are the ruins of ancient cities and require a full day or, in the case of
Angkor, multiple days to see.
Scuba diving in the region costs $300-400 USD to get your three-day open water PADI certificate,
which will allow you to dive anywhere in the world. On the island of Ko Tao in Thailand, the course is $300
USD and includes free accommodation for the duration of the course, which lasts three or four days. This is
the cheapest place in the world to get your certification because there are more than fifty dive shops on the
island and competition is very fierce. If you want to learn to dive, learn here. Most single dives in the region
cost $50 USD.
The region is also filled with other day activities that cost an average of $20 USD for a one-day tour. If
you are going jungle trekking, seeing elephants, climbing mountains, or doing overnight trips, prices can go
as high as $50 USD.
Throughout much of the region, there is no single tour operator that is amazing. In Appendix A, I list
a few companies I enjoy, but most of the operators are nameless companies and offer mostly the same ser-
vices.
Travel agents are the mainstay of travel in this region. You stop inside, tell them where you want to go,
and they book your bus or train or ferry for you. Want to do a tour somewhere? You book that there too.
Unlike in the developed world, there isn't a lot of online booking and do-it-yourself travel here, so you rely
on these companies a lot. Most are simply nameless mom-and-pop establishments, one just as good as any
other. But three are worth mentioning:
East West Travel
(Phnom Penh, Cambodia): eastwest-travel.com
NS Travel
(Bangkok, Thailand): nstravel.com
Bali Discovery
(Bali, Indonesia): balidiscovery.com
Guesthouses can also help you book tours or transportation. The bad news in this region is that there are
no discount cards or special passes for tours. The price is the price. If a tour costs $10 USD, you're paying
$10 USD. Tour companies here aren't really large, formal organizations. Typically there is one company,
and all the tour agents around town sell that tour. You'll find a bus full of people on the same tour who all
booked at different places. So if you are in a large group of people booking together, you can usually haggle
down a price from the tourist agency.
Singapore is the only place you can get a city discount card. It's not run by the city but by an outside
organization called iVenture (seesingaporepass.iventurecard.com) and is widely accepted at all the tourist
