After our first three countries and nearly a month of travel (25 days), it was time to crunch the numbers and see how our attempt to travel on as little as possible was actually going.
This tally covers everything from the moment we boarded an AirAsia flight in Paris bound for Kuala Lumpur, right up until we crossed the border from Thailand into Laos. It excludes visa costs for Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia — we'll count those in the respective country breakdowns — and doesn't include the AirAsia flight itself, since we'd already paid for it and it would distort the cost-of-living picture for these countries.
Over these first 25 days (25 November to 19 December) we spent a grand total of €642.87 between the two of us.
Malaysia
Budget breakdown for one week in Malaysia
One week in Malaysia cost us €85.21 in total, which I reckon is pretty respectable.
- Our biggest outlay was eating out — restaurants and street stalls — totalling €31.03 at the exchange rate.
- Shopping at markets and supermarkets came to €17.73.
- Accommodation was also just €17.73 — mainly because we couchsurfed with a Malaysian guy in Kuala Lumpur.
- City transport was the fourth biggest expense at €7.37 — oddly high for us, but explained by the fact that our Couchsurfing host's place was a two-hour walk from the centre.
- Intercity transport came to €4.30 — just the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Melaka, since the Melaka–Singapore leg counts as international transport.
- Juices and drinks at restaurants added up to €2.63 and €1.78 respectively.
- There's about €2.39 that I honestly can't account for — some expense I forgot to note down.
Crunching the numbers: barely €12 a day, or €6 per person, during our time in Malaysia. Food was the main drain at just under €3.50 per person per day.
Singapore
Budget breakdown for 4 days and 3 nights in Singapore
Singapore is an expensive city, yet we still managed to keep it to €42.57 over our three nights there.
- Accommodation was the main potential drain — solved, again, by Couchsurfing. It wasn't our best CS experience since we barely saw our host, but at least we had a free bed.
- Eating out came to €19.67 — we went hungry some days, but generally ate well.
- City transport ended up being the biggest surprise expense. There's simply no way to walk everywhere in Singapore, so we spent more than usual on something we normally avoid: €16.87 total.
- Supermarket shops came to €3.10 and juices to €2.63, with water spending barely registering (30 cents).
Even in the most expensive country in Southeast Asia, we kept it down to just €7 per person per night. More on how we pulled that off in our experience in Singapore.
Thailand
Budget breakdown for 15 days in Thailand
We flew into Bangkok from Singapore, and while my passport gave me 30 days visa-free, Ilze only got 15 days — so our plan to spend a month in Thailand was cut to just a couple of weeks. Over those 15 days we spent €327.22 in total.
- As ever, food was our biggest expense. We spent €103.86 working our way through pad thais, rice dishes, crepes, green, red and yellow curries… The variety in Bangkok in particular is staggering.
- Accommodation came to €67.07 — mostly guesthouses, with the occasional rented room, a hostel night and a couple of nights sleeping on the beach.
- Transport totalled €54.73 — buses, ferries, trains and the entrance fee for Ko Samet (a National Park).
- Ilze's visa on arrival worked out at €26.73 at the exchange rate.
- Juices and shakes cost us €23.94 — we went through every variety: mango, banana, pineapple, papaya, watermelon, lemon, apple, mixed… plus coffee shakes and hot coffees.
- Supermarket shopping, mostly at 7-Eleven and mainly pastries, came to €19.67.
- Bottled water cost us €9.74.
- Thai massages set us back €8.75 — every cent well spent, without question.
- City transport in Bangkok was €4.67 — the Sky Train is pricey but the buses are remarkably cheap (and slow).
- Alcohol barely featured at €3.56, a local SIM cost €2.66, and chewing gum €1.47.
All told, just under €11 per person per day, with food and drink — street stalls, restaurants, juices, coffees, supermarkets — accounting for half of everything we spent.
Other expenses
- International transport added up to a fair chunk. The buses were cheap enough (€10.49 from Melaka to Singapore), but the treat of flying to Bangkok cost us €110.69.
- Travel gear purchases like a new padlock came to €33.90.
- Phone bill for the last month was €8.87 — part spent in Singapore and Malaysia when we didn't have a local SIM, but mostly in Europe, so probably only €3–4 of that was actually Asia.
- Personal care items like shampoo came to €6.57.
- Currency exchange fees were €12.20 and ATM charges €5.15.
Hope this has been useful. I'll keep tracking our spending and publishing it country by country.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to travel Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand?
Over 25 days across all three, the two of us spent €642.87 in total — excluding the flight in and the onward visas. That breaks down to about €6 each per day in Malaysia, €7 per night each in Singapore, and just under €11 each per day in Thailand. Food was consistently our biggest cost, swallowing roughly half of everything.
What's the biggest travel expense in Southeast Asia?
For us it was always food — and that's the good news, because eating is the part you want to spend on. Street stalls, juices, curries and the odd coffee added up faster than anything else. Accommodation came in much lower than people expect, largely because we couchsurfed whenever we could.
Is Singapore too expensive for budget travellers?
It's the priciest country in the region, but it's far from off-limits. We kept it to about €7 per person per night, mainly by sorting a free bed through Couchsurfing. The unavoidable cost is city transport — Singapore is one of the rare places you genuinely can't just walk everywhere.
How do you keep food costs down in Thailand?
Eat where Thais eat. Street stalls and simple local restaurants serve pad thai, rice plates and curries for a fraction of tourist-zone prices, and they're usually better too. We treated juices and shakes as our one cheerful indulgence — and even those barely dented the budget.
Any tips for cutting costs even further?
