10+ Tips for travelling in Asia for 4 months

Woohoo you are going to travel for some time through Asia. How fun and lucky you are! In this article all my tips and everything I learned from taking my backpack and wandering around for 4 months. I hope these tips will come in handy.

All my tips

Money

Money: Always have a credit card with you. Also, take some money from home to convert into the local currency.
If you are planning to visit Cambodia and Indonesia, take US dollars with you. Especially in Cambodia they often tell you the price in Dollars as well, as it is much easier than the Riels.
A friend told me once that she applied for her visa at the border and she could not get Riels at the border, as the machine was broken, but luckily she could pay with dollars.

Next to that, it’s often cheaper when you convert money into the local currency than to withdraw money everywhere. So make sure to take some cash with you which you can convert. I took 1000 Euros with me from home and this was just enough to convert, the rest I did have to withdraw from time to time.

Want to know more about Cambodia? Read these articles.

Tips on Whatsapp / Facebook groups

Did you know that there are different Whatsapp groups for all countries to meet up with people?

Thailand Backpackers group in English
Vietnam Travel group in English
Bali Travel Group (Dutch)
Indonesia Travel Group
Philippines Travel Group
Cambodia Travel Group
Find a Travel Buddy on Facebook

In the descriptions of the groups, there are a couple more groups that you can be part of. You can literally ask anything in these groups and most of the time there are around 500 members. I asked once something about taxi apps when I flew to Cambodia (Passapp for example) and got some great tips, that saved me money.
In the Thailand group, I once asked if there was someone in Bangkok that wanted to meet and met a fun chick that I am still in contact with, and so on.

On Facebook, there are also some groups to find travel buddies and I asked if someone wanted to join me (because I don’t like to travel solo), and this way I travelled with someone through Thailand, whom I did not know before travelling. Awesome right? We were a good match and she is still a dear friend of mine 🙂

Backpack tips

Always have some extra bags in your daypack. It could also be easy when you have some plastic bags. You can use this for garbage, or other things.
I know not everyone likes plastic, so if you can use something else that would be nice
If you can buy a backpack that you can open in the middle; like a suitcase, it is so much easier. With my backpack, it isn’t possible and if I needed something in the middle, I always had to take everything out. My room was filled with clothes all over the floor.
Buy packing cubes to organize.
Last but not least; put your heaviest things in the bottom, so your weight is managed and you won’t fall forward while tying your shoe laces.

Laundry / Clothing tips

Take some washing powder with you and clean your clothes every day after wearing them. I noticed that my backpack started to smell bad if I kept all the dirty laundry in for some days in my backpack. This way you don’t have to do your laundry every week, which saves you money.
Take a small (laundry) rope with you. If there is no place to hang your clothes, you can hang them in your room and let your clothes dry.
Buy a sarong in Asia! This way you can wear shorts while discovering a city and when you want to visit a temple, you can put your sarong around you and be respectful. A sarong does not cost much + does not weigh anything. It saved me and my friend a couple of times from not entering a temple.