I don’t consider myself a jet setter world traveler by any stretch, but 2007 saw me on 4 different continents so I’m no homebody either. And I have to say that the traveler in me see this as an exciting product, and more than an exciting product I see a vision of what travel guides should be.

One big problem with travel guides is that they are basically out of date when you buy them, and to really plan a trip you have to spend the time reading the out of date travel guide and then spend the time scouring the internet for some updated current information. And that is basically what I ended up doing a lot during my trip to SE Asia. For a longer trip especially, where you are making up your trip as you go along, having the ability to instantly print off a guide like that would save so much time. I’d rather pay $9 and print out a PDF at a net cafe on an island in Thailand than have to spend a few hours searching wikitravel and other sites to figure out what there is to see and do in the next place I’ve decided to visit. That way I can spend less time on a computer and more time on the beach. And let’s face it, if I just wanted to spend time on a computer I could just stay home.

Another example was when reading another out of date travel guide I found out about some cool art museum in Geneva, Switzerland. Decided to hit it up the next day, only to get there and find it closed for renovations. Wasted the morning and then had to scramble to figure out what else was nearby that I’d like to check out. After that experience I’ve learned to try and google stuff the night before and try and find a website with updated operating hours for a place I want to check out. But internet isn’t always readily available and sometimes it’s really expensive and slow, and most of all sometimes in the evenings I Just want to relax and not be furiously trying to make sure my travel guide information is up to date.

Or there was the time I went to Bali. I had picked out a guesthouse recommended by my Lonely Planet guide in the town of Ubud. The guide said this guesthouse was very busy and full of travellers, which I thought was perfect because I was traveling alone and staying in a busy guesthouse is the best way to meet people. I got off the bus (at the wrong spot no less) and spent a grueling hour walking around the town with my heavy pack and trying to ignore local touts yelling ‘room here! room here!’ and trying to figure out the lay of the city and match it to my map and find the guesthouse. Eventually I walked for the second time by the place where it ought to be and asked someone only to be told the guesthouse had closed. At that point I walked down the street to some random guesthouse to inquire about a room, they showed me a lovely lovely one that was unfortunately out of my budget (awkward and embarrassing). Left and walked in to another random place where I ended up staying but being the only person there for the first night. A crappy experience that could have hopefully been avoided with an updated travel guide.

Another customization option that sounds great to me that was mentioned is special needs, for example if you’re a vegetarian. This is huge for me when I travel, travel guides pretty much never have much in the way of vegetarian restaurant suggestions and every time I travel I spend a good chunk of time on the internet researching restaurants to check out and looking on google maps to figure out how to get there. In fact this is something I’ve often thought there is a total lack of on the web, solid information on restaurants with vegetarian options. I don’t need to eat in strictly vegetarian restaurants when I travel, but I’ll definitely choose one with vegetarian options over one where I’ll be stuck eating a lame salad.

Anyway, it made my day to read about Offbeat Guides and watch the video interview with the founder (which I’d link to but in 5 second attention span couldn’t figure out how to link to on blip.tv). I love that people are coming up with awesome ideas and implementing them despite all the possibilities for failure. And I can’t wait to get my beta invite so I can check out the service myself.

I went and looked at some luggage this afternoon at Loft. I still find it hard to tell the difference between a $100 suitcase and a $200 one. Will have to keep looking. Google search pointed me to an apparent discount store nearby in Sannomiya that I was not aware of, I’m going to have to check out this DonkiKingdom place.

Lazing around on beaches or in hammocks in tropical destinations might sound all well and nice, but the fact is after a day or two, it can get a bit boring. Especially when you’re on some little island with rather little in the way of downtime entertainment (notice the downtime, we all need downtime after a day of swimming/snorkeling/hiking/exploring what have you). No TVs (ok there might be one or two in a restaurant or guest house common area but chances are even so the options of what to watch are pretty limited), and internet is prohibitively expensive and slow because it’s satellite access on old laptops. That’s right about when you may think having a book to read would be nice… So you wander over to the little general store only to find out that the price of that new bestseller book is equivalent to twice what you’re paying for one night’s accommodations.

Throughout my SE Asia travels, I found that books were a pretty valuable commodity. Even well worn second hand books were not very cheap, especially on small out of the way islands. When one is in budget traveling mode, spending that much on books is simply unthinkable. But, with a little bit of planning, you shouldn’t have to.

Before leaving for my trip, I went to the spring rummage sale at the Toronto Zen Buddhist Temple. There, I was able to pick up a bunch of used books for really cheap. I tried to pick small paperback sized books that wouldn’t take up too much space. I was able to fit them all into one of the large ziplock bags I was using for my packing system, minus one that I was currently reading.

And so I began my trip well armed with books, and these books were the seed of the system that my friend and I ended up developing for the duration of our trip. I was lucky that my friend/travel partner is also an avid reader, and we share similar taste in books. The way our system worked was this. I would read one of my books, she would read one of hers, we would trade. So that was great, because right there I could read double the number of books I was carrying.

That worked well, but eventually we were still going to run out of reading material. That is when second hand bookshops came in. My first experience was with a little shop in Thong Sala on the island of Ko Phangan. This is when we realized how expensive (relatively speaking) second hand books were. In fact to my great surprise, I ended up selling one of my books to that shop because I was offered (without any bargaining on my part) considerably (again, relatively speaking) more than I had paid for it.

Anyway, throughout out trip were were always on the lookout for good deals on books. The best way to get new reading material was a 1 for 1 trade, but those weren’t very common. When we did find 1 for 1 trades, they were usually run in guest houses as a service to the customers.

A lot of second hand book shops would offer trades where you would trade your book plus pay an additional amount in exchange for one of their books. Other shops would offer trades of 2 of your books for 1 of theirs. Trading 2 for 1 books wasn’t so bad, because it lightened my bag, but needless to say I was sure glad that I had started the trip with a healthy supply of books.

Sometimes I did just buy books outright. Singapore has some good large bookstores with great selection and reasonable prices. In Ubud, on the island of Bali in Indonesia, there’s the Pondok Pekak Library which fosters literacy in children of the village. They had a good selection of used books for sale, and it was nice to know that a book purchase helped to support the library. They also accepted donations of books. I also found english books easier to come by and reasonably priced in Manila in the Philippines.

Before my trip, I just packed some books because I like to read. I ended up reading a lot more than I thought I would. It was a great way to kill time while waiting for buses or trains, as well as relax on the beach. I expected everything in SE Asia to be really cheap to buy, because that’s what everyone seems to say. But english books are definitely an exception and having a bunch of books to trade helped me stay within my modest travel budget.

I’d say for your basic well trod SE Asia backpacker trail trip you basically need a pair of flip flops and a good pair of walking shoes. That’s all I had, plus a pair of foam/plastic slippers bought in Toronto’s Chinatown, just coz I had them before I left and was going to throw them out otherwise.

I lucked out and found what I think were the perfect shoes. I got a pair of Salomon Tech Amphibian women’s shoes and here’s what I loved about them:

• The collapsible heel allowed me to wear them as slip ons when circumstances were such that it was more convenient or comfortable to do so.
• A one pull lacing system meant no laces to tie or get tangled. Great for when having to take the shoes off to go into temples and other shoes-not-allowed places.
• Mesh sides allowed for lots of airflow, kept feet cool and dry.
• Comfortable to wear barefoot or with socks.
• Designed to get wet and drain. Dried quickly when they did get wet.
• Good sole with a good grip.

Between the shoes and the flip flops I felt like I was pretty much covered. Sport sandals like Tevas or Chacos would have provided more support than flip flops but also taken up more space and been heavier. For the sake of traveling light if I wanted more support I just wore my shoes.

The slippers were actually really useful as shower shoes or bathroom shoes and didn’t take up any more space than flip flops. When we did splurge for the luxury of an en suite bathroom, it was usually one tiled room with a sink, toilet, and shower coming out of one wall. As in there was no separate shower stall and the entire bathroom floor would get wet from a shower. That is when the slippers came in handy, keeping my feet dry when I had to go into the bathroom and the whole floor was wet. So while they may seem like an unnecessary extra, I feel they were worth it. And while I’m all about multiple purposes, I wouldn’t use flip flops I wear out on the street as shower shoes coz that’s just dirty. Dust/dirt from the bottom of flip flops worn out on the street mixed with water from a shower = mud.

After researching carefully, I settled on the Pentax Option W10. At the time it was their latest waterproof model. The newest one now is the w30, which of course has many improvements including longer underwater time (up to 2 hours).

Just under 2000 shots later, I have to say that i am very happy with my choice. On land the camera takes good quality pictures, and also takes surprisingly good macro shots. Under water, I’ve used it to take pictures and video while snorkeling in Malaysia and also in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef. I’ve also taken it snowboarding in the Japanese Alps without having to worry about dropping it in the snow. It’s small, light, waterproof (and sand proof!) and did what it was supposed to do: let me take pictures. It has a large LCD screen, but no viewfinder. However I didn’t find that to be a problem for me at all.

And the best part is that on top of being all the camera it should be, I was also able to use it as a pocket watch and alarm clock. It has a very useful clock function that allows you to check the time, without actually having to power on the camera. And it has an alarm clock function as well, which was super useful for the days when I had to wake up at a certain time to catch a train or bus or whatever. Those additional features were really useful while traveling, and made it unnecessary for me to pack or wear a watch or portable alarm clock.

A couple of weeks into my trip I accidentally dropped my camera down onto some sharp rocks while overlooking a beautiful beach in Thailand. The camera suffered some scratches but seems to be otherwise unaffected.

So all in all, the Pentax Optio W10 (or newer model) is a great point and shoot camera to consider if you’re shopping around for a new camera for an upcoming trip.

I’d say the first order of business is to take a look at what the temperatures and rainfall will be like at your destinations. I was basically packing for heat, humidity and some rain. That and keeping in mind that modesty is an important consideration for the places I was traveling to basically dictated my wardrobe to consist of capri pants and t-shirts (and not shorts and tank tops as one might image would be suitable clothing for such a hot climate).

One thing I did not do was go out and buy clothes for my trip. From my research people seemed to suggest that any clothing left after the trip would so worn it would only be fit for the garbage so it was better to pick old clothes from your closet. And another thing that I heard over and over again was how cheap clothes are in SE Asia and how it makes way more sense to just buy any needed clothes there. I found out that wasn’t quite such good advice to follow and I’ll elaborate on why later.

Here is a rough list of what clothing to pack for an long-term trip in a hot climate when wanting to travel light:

• 1 pair of pants made from a lightweight fabric (Not jeans, they are too hot, too heavy, and take way too long to dry. Full length pants are good to have when hiking in the jungle, they offer protection from friendly neighbourhood leeches and other crawlies. Also good to wear when visiting temples where full length bottoms are required).
• 1 or 2 pairs of capri pants (I would recommend buying pants made from a lightweight quick drying fabric such as a nylon or polyester blend).
• 1 pair of shorts for the beach (Again, quick drying fabric is best)
• 1 sweater (Most useful for long bus rides where the a/c is on full blast and very much out of your control, or for visits to high altitude and cooler destinations like the Cameron Highlands)
• a bunch of t-shirts
• a bunch of undies
• pjs
• a swimsuit
• a couple of pairs of socks (or more depending on how often you plan on wearing socks).

A lot of the sources I consulted recommended light colored loose long sleeved cotton shirts to protect from the sun and heat. I packed one such shirt because I happened to already have it, but found that I barely wore it. As I said above, the list is merely a suggestion and one could add and subtract from it based on personal preferences.

Now, as far as when/where to buy clothes if you don’t already have them, I would say hold off on the t-shirts. They are cheap and plentiful anywhere you go, so it’s very easy to pick some up at your destination or en route. In face you’ll probably want to anyway at some point as souvenirs. However, pants, I would go ahead and purchase before leaving.

I didn’t pack what I considered good capri pants. In fact, one of my pairs were worn work pants from the Gap that I was going to throw out but decided at the last minute to throw in my pack until I bought new ones. Well I ended up wearing those Gap pants throughout my trip (and they were surprisingly comfortable) because I couldn’t find anything else. Yes clothing could be found much cheaper in SE Asia, but I found one generally got what they paid for. Inexpensive pants (for women anyway) were usually made of cotton (not interested because cotton takes too long to dry in a heavier bottom weight fabric) and often the quality and fit were a problem for me. If I wanted to buy what I would consider good, well made pants from a performance type fabric, I found that I would be paying a similar price (ok maybe ever so slightly less) than I would back home. Basically, if I had to do it over again I would have just gone to MEC and bought something like these 96% nylon/4% spandex capri pants and saved myself the trouble of scouring every clothing store and market for appropriate pants while traveling. The other thing to keep in mind if planning to buy clothing at your SE Asian destination is anthropometry. In North America, I’ll usually buy a size S. In Thailand, I was buying L and it fit snug.

You may be wondering at my obsession with quick drying fabrics. That has to do with laundry. When backpacking and staying in budget accommodations with limited facilities clothes dryers are a rare encounter. Whether you do your own laundry in the sink, or use a laundry service, chances are that the drying method will be hanging on a line. So trust me, you don’t want jeans that take 2 days to dry because the sun isn’t cooperating. Cotton t-shirts are ok because generally t-shirt fabric is thinner than pants fabric and thinner fabric dries faster.

Now that I’ve been there done that, I figure maybe I should share some of what I’ve learned. So I’m going to write a series of posts on what to pack for a trip to South East Asia.

Choosing a backpack

Considering this is what you’re going to be carrying around and living out of for the duration of your trip, I’d say it’s worth picking a good one. I wanted to travel as light as possible, and initially I was looking for a pack in the 50-55L range. However in the end I ended up getting a 64L MEC Walkabout Travel Pack because it was significantly less expensive than a different slightly smaller pack I was looking at and had all the other features I wanted which were:

• Easy access. The opening zips around 3 sides of the bag so it can be fully opened and contents can be quickly and easily found. A friend of mine who had gone backpacking told me this was the most important thing to look for. Many packs are top loading and it can get really annoying to have to empty everything out just to get something that happens to be at the bottom.
• Comfortable to carry. Well padded, adjustable straps and an internal frame. Look for a pack where the straps aren’t just added on as an afterthought. When you are carrying a full heavy pack around in the afternoon Thai heat because you accidentally got off the bus too soon, you will appreciate a well designed carrying system.
• Lockable. One main compartment with those special zippers with the loops that you can lock does the trick. If you are traveling overnight on a train or have to leave your pack in a busy train station for a few hours while you go kill some time waiting for your train, one feels a bit better knowing their bag is locked.
• A flap to cover the strap system. This is a nice extra to have for when your pack needs to be checked-in for flying, or thrown in the suitcase pit on a large boat. Keeps your straps from getting caught or tangled up in the big jumble of other bags.

Some extra features of the bag that I appreciated:

• Detachable daypack. Some people say these are worthless as they can be easily detached and stolen while you’re carrying the bag, but I never had any problems. If you’re really worried, just don’t put anything valuable in the day pack when its attached to the main pack. The day pack was really useful for day trips and I still use it regularly.
• Well thought out internal dividers in the main compartment. Made it easy to organize my stuff and that much easier to find what i needed to.

As for actually packing, I have to say one thing that made my life much easier was to put everything in large ziplock freezer bags. I did it mainly because I was moving out of my apartment and had a box of those large ziplock freezer bags that would have just been thrown out anyway. But it turned out they were super handy. I kept my shampoo and soap in one bag, so even if the shampoo leaked (which it always seems to do on planes) it wouldn’t get all over my clothes. I had books in another bag. Socks in another one. Undies in another. Swim suits in another. First aid kit in another. And one for toiletries. The ziplock bags kept thing organized and really easy to find. When I was looking for something I’d just have to look for the right ziplock bag and pull it out. And the bags slide past each other easily, which made everything a piece of cake to access. I threw in a bunch of extra empty ziplock bags just because I had them, and ended up using them throughout my trip when other bags would get holes in them and so on. Since they take up pretty much no space it was not a big deal.