I type this on my penultimate night in Asia, in a Starbucks (it has AC) in Kuta in Bali. The past 6 months have whizzed past in a whirlwind of events, emotions, people and places. I've really had the time of my life an as sad as I am to be leaving this spectacular continent, I'm super jazzed to be moving onto a completely new adventure!
Now after 6 months of travelling I've picked up on a few do's and don'ts of backpcking through these. You probs don't care, but I'm gonna list them anyway.
-DO learn the basics of every language, especially thank you and hello. My favourite thank you is in Lao, kap chai lai lai (spell check please).
-DON'T leave a motorbike unattended for 10 hours infront of a local market in Cambodia. It will get stolen and you'll have to cough up a load of dollars to the owner. Luckily, they might find the bike INSIDE the market the next (you'll still have to cough up some dollars for the dude who "looked after" the bike for 16 hours)
-DO have a local beer on the first night you get into a new country. Bintang gets better the more you drink, and in Thailand choose Chang. Vietnam will provide you with the cheapest beer in the world.
-DON'T fight with border officials or people working in embassies. You may not be able to enter the country or you might be denied a visa (this never happened to me because I pick my fights and get into epic tiffs with tuk-tuk drivers).
-DO eat crap loads of good food.
-DON'T go batshit crazy when a bus journey doesn't go as smoothly as you wanted it to. You are backpacking through South East Asia, so the chances of things running smootly are quite slim. Also add at least 2 hours to the total journey time the ticket seller. Most of the time you'll arrive in your destination within the 2 hour margin, sometimes it might take 10 hours longer. Read a book, play cards, be cool.
-DON'T be too bummed if a rat eats a massive hole into your rucksack (happened to me in Vang Vieng, Laos). You've got a good story to tell people.
-DO try new and cool things. Jump a bungy. Go diving, but DON'T get your ankle caught in a fish line with octopus on it (yup, happened to me) and then get a perforated ear drum because you couldn't equalize properly. This will result in a doctors bill, and no diving for at least 2 weeks and a course of antibiotics. With only being 1 dive away from completing your open water certificate this really sucks balls.
-DO make awsum new friends and get drunk with them. Or be civilized. That works too.
-DON'T forget to put on sun block. You will get burned and the proceed to peel like a banana.
-DON'T be intimitated by what the guide books tell you to do. If you don't want to do something, you don't have to. Staying in your hostel chilling all day only leaving to get food is perfectly acceptable.
-DON'T smell like a hobo, looking like one is ok though.
-DON'T be mean to locals. Otherwise they won't give you that extra cup of chai or extra pickle. Be nice, man.
-DON'T take clean cothes for granted. I only get them washed when my pants supply is low.
-DO travel with an open mind, expect the unexpected and just go with the flow and you'll be having so much fun you won't ever want to go back home.
