Hello Brie and welcome to Travelblog!
£3,000 is not going to get you far if you spend all of your time in Australia. I assume that this amount will include airfares. If it does, then you will lose at least £700 in an airfare. This leaves you with about $3,200-$3,300 Australian dollars.
To give you an idea of costs in Australia, living in dorms will cost you about $30 per night (minimum), which equals $210 per week, and then add food in Australia - figure on around $100 per week if you eat out, half if you cook every meal (and I do mean every meal). Thus your budget will exhaust in 11 weeks and that is without any expenses such as shopping, travelling around the country, or sightseeing. If you do this, you could easily add $100 per week.
The reason for this price is that Australia is equal to if not more expensive than Europe, partly due to the very strong Australian dollar versus the pound at present.
Might be a good idea to start in Australia as that is very easy for a traveller to move around. Once your confidence grows a bit, then head into Asia and spend some time at quieter places there. My suggestion is to spend six weeks in Australia and then the rest of the time in Asia where you pound will stretch much further. The best part of Australia are not the cities but the outback - places such as Uluru, Kakadu and of course the coastal areas such as Great Barrier Reef.
Have a look at this blog:
The Final Chapter which perfectly encapsulates how confidence improves with travelling, particularly the following:
"Next on this journey home I will land myself once again in the notorious city of Bangkok, Thailand. I experience this every time I land in Bangkok now, but I imagine that this time more than ever I will reminisce about when I landed in this crazy city for the first time at the beginning of my trip nine amazing months ago. At that time I was extremely overwhelmed and anxious about the unknown as I prepared as best I could to embark on this incredible journey completely on my own.It’s quite empowering actually to think about how far I’ve come and all that I’ve been able to accomplish on my own. I imagine that there are a lot of things that prior to this trip would have scared or intimidated me that now would barely even faze me. Now that I think about it actually, this is quite a priceless quality or state of mind to have obtained. My faith in myself has increased exponentially and my fear of the world has diminished significantly. I’ve discovered that it turns out that I am capable of so much more than I could ever have imagined and for having had the opportunity to discover this I will forever be grateful."
It is possible for anyone to achieve this, even shy people. In fact, I think they achieve it easier than others as they rely on themselves more instead of seeking assistance externally. You too can go on this journey of "faith in myself", but you need to be prepared that it will be a little tough and frustrating at times.
I'll leave Asian ideas for others to post or I can waffle for a very long time. If you have any questions please ask.
PS: I deleted the duplicate post in the other thread. It is easier to follow answers in one thread.
[Edited: 2012 Feb 13 01:52 - The Travel Camel:11053 - Formatting]
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