Adventure Holidays? Advice?
Hi,
I am going to Asia (Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand) on this adventure trip and it's going to be pretty hardcore trekking and stuff. I have everything sorted (i.e. Vaccines, insurance, Plane tickets, expenditure, accommodations ect) but I was just wondering about anything extra I should take or look out for?
Any advice will be much appreciated.
Passports and visas taken care of? Passport has at least 6 months remaining from your final departure? Make photocopies of your passport and put those copies in each of your bags. Have some spare passport photos available just in case they are needed.
If you are coming from a country like the US who insists on the check in bag being unlocked you can use electricians ties to keep the lock shut. You will have to secrete some small scissors or envelope opener in one of the pockets of your check in bag so you can cut that plastic tie off the lock when you get to your hotel.
http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=507844
On trains, planes, buses and taxi cabs keep cash, jewelry, electronics, passport with you at your seat or within sight and not in your checked in bag! Consider having a secret pocket sewed into your trousers, accessible from inside. I like velcro on my pocket flaps, even if there are buttons there. Get a pouch and lanyard for your passport. Pin or attach that lanyard to the inside pocket so you don't lose your pp.
Make sure you can lock all of your bags. Anytime you leave your hotel room lock your bags. It is not always the hotel staff you have to be wary of - your fellow tourist next door may also rip you off too! Use the hotel safe or safety box for your spare cash and valuables. Don't trust anyone you meet on the road, especially any tourists who are dopers! Dopers might store their dope in your bags and you take the fall for it if found. If you bring a "guest" up to your room make sure your wallet, passport, watch and cell phone are locked up, especially if you leave that "guest" alone in the room while you take a shower. Guest and valuables could be gone when you are finished with your shower!
Notify your banks or credit unions that you will be using their debit or credit cards overseas. If you do not notify your banks ahead of time your ATM withdrawals may not be approved because of suspected fraud.
You don't have to take a laptop with you. Internet shops are available in most places, especially Thailand. I have a flash drive with Firefox on it (free download) that has the same home page as my home computers. When I am in an internet shop I plug that FD in and the monitor looks just like my home computer. You can lock up a FD in a hotel safe or safety box but most of those boxes won't take a laptop! Password protect that FD if you take one and especially password protect your laptop if you bring one.
Before you leave home - stop your mail and newspapers! A whole bunch of mail and newspapers means no one is home and your house is ripe for someone to break in!
Empty your trash too! Nothing stinks more than old meat wrappers and especially fish remnants left for a month in your kitchen trash can. Double check your house to see if you are leaving any lights on. You can put a few lights on a timer to mimic someone being home to maybe fool some crooks into thinking the house is occupied.
If you do not have bank or credit union accounts that have Bill Pay set them up now! This way you can schedule payments ahead of time or make them on the road. You can set your telephone, electricity, gas and credit card payments ahead of time. Some credit unions pay for your ATM fees even overseas, or at least some of the fees. These credit unions also provide travelers checks free of commission.
Need to know telephone numbers, addresses, etc. can be written in email form, you send that email to yourself and then save it into memory. You can even write your travelers checks serial numbers in email form and even the serial numbers of your large currency (like $100 bills.) This way if you need any of this info you can pull it up in an internet shop and have it available. You can also put your flight itineraries and hotel booking info in email form and save that too for easy recall. Download a copy of your passport info page and any visas you have and save that in email form as an enclosure or something.
Try these travel forums for more ideas:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g293916-i3687-o20-Bangkok.html
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/forum.jspa?forumID=51
http://forum.virtualtourist.com/forum-1943-1-Travel-Thailand-1-forum.html
Good luck.
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