Currencies in Asia: Whats the best way to manage your travel money?

You could also use credit cards to pay for any souvenir shopping or restaurant bills. This has the advantage that you won't be left with surplus foreign cash when your ship sails, although it does slightly restrict your shopping and dining options to those establishments that take credit cards. Visa and MasterCard are the most widely accepted cards in Asia.

If the merchant offers you a choice of paying with a credit card in local currency or Australian dollars, always choose local currency. Choose to pay in Australian dollars and you subject yourself to the Dynamic Currency Conversion rate and it's a rip-off.

If you need more local currency then withdrawing via an ATM is your best bet. The card you usually use for this purpose will most likely incur  an international transaction fee, typically 3 per cent. Two cards that give you a better deal are the Citibank Plus Visa debit card and the Bankwest Zero Platinum MasterCard, which have no international transaction fees, nor annual fees. I deposit funds to my Citibank card, which I then use as a reservoir to make cash withdrawals when I'm overseas, thus avoiding the possibility of incurring high interest charges that apply to cash advances. If you decide to make withdrawals via an ATM while overseas, tell your bank or your transaction might be declined.