3 Countries, 7 Days – Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam

We’ve started planning this 7-day trip when Air Asia went on sale July of last year. Who could resist a one-way ticket from Clark to Kuala Lumpur worth PHP650? So Jego and I texted our friends and soon there were 6 of us booked in that flight. But the question was where to go next after Kuala Lumpur?

Air Asia flies to almost all major destinations in Asia from Kuala Lumpur so it gave us a lot of options for our next destination. Most of us cannot leave work for more than a week which means we can only squeeze in 2 more cities at the most. We had the Indochina region in mind. Some were also suggesting Bangkok but 3 days would not be enough so we thought of doing a separate trip for that when opportunity comes. After so many considerations, we were only able to come up with a final itinerary by the end of last year and here it is:

Feb 8	Manila - Kuala Lumpur1
Feb 12	Kuala Lumpur – Siem Reap2
Feb 13	Siem Reap – Phnom Penh3
Feb 14	Phnom Penh – Ho Chi Minh4
Feb 16	Ho Chi Minh – Manila5

And here are our “intercity” transportation costs:

 ¹ We let go of our Clark-Kuala Lumpur ticket for February 9 when we got a cheap flight from Cebu Pacific leaving Manila in the morning of the same day. The total cost for 6 tickets with 2 15kg-baggage is only Php4240 (Php706 each). That flight was eventually cancelled so we have it moved to February 8 on an evening flight.

² Booked via Air Asia. Total cost for 6 tickets (with 2 25kg-baggage) was 982 MYR(Php 14,112)

³ 6 hour trip via Mekong Express Bus with free bottled water, snack and cold towel (wet tissue actually)– costs $11 each

⁴ 6-7 hour trip via Mekong Express Bus with free bottled water, snack and cold towel - $12

⁵ Booked via Cebu Pacific. Total cost for 6 tickets (with 20kg baggage each) was PHP15,254.34.

All in all, we spent roughly about PHP7,262.39 each for tickets. We added additional baggage a week before our flight which I think cost us around PHP400-500 each. 

*Technically our trip covered a total of 9 days. I did not include our departure from and arrival to Manila.