What to bring

Luggage

Your main baggage must be no more that 20kg (the maximum for internal flights limits). You will have, at times, to wheel or carry your luggage: holdalls or soft-cases with wheels are a good option. If you bring a big, hard case, this will be more difficult for you. Remember this is a casually dressed trip, it will be warm, and you will be tempted to buy souvenirs, so leave some space in your luggage. Below are useful things to bring but you can buy all these locally too:

Clothes

  • Small (pack- a-mac) rain coat (just in case)
  • Shorts, t shirts and light long trousers/skirts/dresses.
  • A sun hat
  • One light material top with long sleeves
  • Sandals
  • A fleece top or light jacket (in Nong Khiew, Laos it might be cool at night)

Equipment

  • Sun screen
  • Mosquito repellent
  • Hand cleansing gel to keep hands clean
  • Passport photographs for visas
  • Torch
  • Medicines in case of upset tummy etc
  • Passport photocopy
  • Passport photographs for visas (minimum 4)
  • Small backpack/bag for daily incidentals

Money

Thailand

In Thailand the currency is the Thai Baht. You can change sterling quite easily around Bangkok at many exchange bureaus. Note they are very fussy when changing money in relation to the quality of foreign notes. Any writing, bad creases or marks on your UK notes for example and they will refuse to change them. ATMs are in abundance in Bangkok too.

Laos

In Laos the currency is the Kip. There are places to change £sterling into local currency in Luang Prabang so there is no need to obtain the currency before travel. In some places you can also use dollars but generally speaking just arrive here and either change your US dollars or £sterling into the local currency. There are some ATMs in Luang Prabang too.

Cambodia

Cambodia's currency is the Riel. Many things are priced in US Dollars so it is a good idea to bring a lot of Dollars (and some in small denominations like $1 bills). You can quite easily spend US dollar bills in Cambodia and rarely use the local currency. Shops, for example, can give you change in local currency or sometimes in Dollars too. So our advice is to bring US dollars for Cambodia. Sterling is not popular and can be difficult to change in Cambodia.