Bangkok | Put some cilantro on it!

Lesson 19 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Your feet are going to swell

19. Your feet are going to swell

Maybe it doesn’t happen to you. Maybe it doesn’t happen to everybody and maybe it depends on where you go and the time of year but, me? My feet swell. Pretty bad, usually.

Other travelers I met, I’d mention it, and they had no idea what I was talking about. When I researched the topic, I found that I am not alone which means you may very well join my ranks.

The problem is we sweat. A lot. If I’m wearing my small backpack (which I cart around my camera and lenses in; I may reevaluate my camera options for a future trip), in Ho Chi Minh City in south Vietnam, pretty much as soon as I walk outside, I start sweating profusely. Within 20 minutes, the back of my shirt (cotton, which is the wrong choice) is soaked through. Completely. Wring it out and there will be lots of water on the ground wet. Hard to get dry again wet.

That’s a lot of water. Moreover, that’s a lot of salt water.

Depending on the time of year, where you go and if there’s a storm, humidity could be through the roof, further adding to your sweating problems.

To the north in Hanoi, in December, it’s not nearly as bad (a balmy 80 degrees) but it’s still a problem.

What to do about it? Drink lots of water or sports drinks (buy the 1.5 litter bottles) and eat lots of salty foods/snack foods. You need to replenish the salt your body is losing through sweat. When your body loses that salt, and it doesn’t get replaced, your feet swell.

Here’s where the real problem is: you drink 1.5 liter after 1.5 liter of water, and you never have to pee, because you’re sweating it all out. And you think that everything’s just fine, right? No headache. No other signs of dehydration.

Except your feet. They’re swollen. They’re giant. Problem is all that salt you lost that was not replenished by that purified water.

That’s where the salty snacks come in.

Sounds easy, right? Well, it doesn’t always work at that way, so be prepared if they do swell, and don’t be too horrified.

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Lesson 18 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Wear a watch

18. Wear a watch

Phones are great, except when you’re traveling and they’re confused as to where you are, or which time zone, etc. Or when they are low on battery life and all the electric outlets are taken. Or when you’re in the airport, for your layover, and you have no idea where they put the clock, you don’t have a SIM card for Taiwan, because you’re just traveling through to Ho Chi Minh City.

Sometimes, you want to make sure your phone is charged enough so when you do get in country, you an easily navigate so you can get to your hostel.

What’s better is to bring a watch that you can easily set for whatever the local time is, both while dealing with layovers on the way there and back as well as moving between countries.

This also means you don’t have to deal with either bringing your phone everywhere or making sure it’s always fully charged.

So, just bring a watch.

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This little guy broke the bench! Go gasoline!

Lesson 17 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Have open travel plans

17. Have open travel plans

As a solo traveler, having open travel plans was the entire intention I have when I go so Southeast Asia. I usually land in the big city, stay there for a few days, talk to or make friends with some fellow travelers and figure it out from there.

Sometimes that means making travel buddies and sometimes that means I’ll use the advice from other travelers (taken with a grain of salt) to plan the next leg of my trip.

Whenever people ask me about my travels overseas, this question somehow comes up. When I say that I went without a definite plan, usually, people are thunderstruck, an entirely unfathomable concept, especially without having friends or family in country.

Going without travel plans is totally worth it, though. Things changes. People change. New people come into your life. Sometimes, a whole part of the country will be stuck in a monsoon during the dry season and you decide to flee to where it’s not.

I did not come up with this advice myself. I actually read it on a travel blog that was focusing on Southeast Asia. It was so right.

Maybe you want to go to Chang Mai in the north, or Phuket in the south or maybe you want to join some people on a trip to Cambodia. Maybe in Cambodia, you want to travel with someone. Whatever it is, keep your options open.

Having open travel plans only goes so far. After I landed in Thailand in December, 2015, I was a little lost. It was my first time in Southeast Asia and I hadn’t traveled anywhere outside of work for quite a few years at that point. A few years before, I lived and worked as an au pair in Germany, and backpacked across Eastern Europe, so traveling wasn’t entirely foreign.

I read the travel book (Lonely Planet) and re-read it after arrived in Bangkok. Finally, I got a taxi to take me to the backpacker district, which, in the evening, is one giant party.

I took this advice so seriously that I did not have any hostel reservations. Because I was so smart and decided not to get my SIM card immediately switched over, I was wandering around, paper map in hand, trying to figure out where to spend the night. The first few hostels I found were full up.

Finally, I found an empty hostel that was cheap, super cheap, with some dude sleeping downstairs, acting, I guess, as the hostel guard. Fortunately, they had AC. They were so cheapskate that I was their only customer that night. I passed right out.

Really, I should have already had a hostel reservation, at least for the first night. I later on went to stay at a highly rated hostel (and suggested in Lonely Planet) where I met a bunch of great travelers.

One of those travelers is the reason I was not entirely screwed when I lost my only debit card, yet another lesson.

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Christmas decorations in Downtown Bangkok. Make sure your travel plans are open enough.

Lesson 16 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Pay (and plan) for laundry service

16. Pay (and plan) for laundry service

Regardless if your trip is two weeks or six months, you should be traveling pretty light. That means you are probably going to have to get laundry done while in country. But, that’s OK! It’s cheap and your clothes will often come back folded tighter than you thought possible.

Do not bring enough clothes to last you the whole trip. This does require a little bit of planning. You figure, it will probably take a day before its ready so you should plan it out a little bit.

It’s cheap, it’s easy. In the meantime, go buy a cool beer shirt, or a soccer polo for the local team.

The other thing to consider is bringing fewer clothes with the intention of buying along the way. For me, that usually means synthetic soccer or polo shirts.

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As much as I love this photo, it shows the limits of shooting in JPEG. (See the sky?) Often, down this kind of alley, you will find laundry shops. Taken in Bangkok on Dec. 4, 2015.

Lesson 15 for Southeast Asia Traveling: When you find good clothes, buy them

15. When you find good clothes, buy them

It’s going to happen. There’s going to be a vendor on the street and he’s going to have the perfect piece of clothing. (T-shirt, button up, dress, scarf, shorts, etc.) You’re going to buy one, just one, and think, at the end of my trip, I’ll come back here, and I’ll pick up a bunch more.

Except you’ll never be able to find him again. It will be like he disappeared into a side alley, down the gutter or was picked up by the trashmen. He will no longer exist and your chance to get more of those shirts will be gone, forever.

I should point out that my favorite button up shirts were all bought (cheaply) from a street vendor when I was traveling through Paris, France, during my time as an au pair.

There are a couple other things that should be noted when buying things from vendors, at least in Thailand. The first is, haggle them down (assuming no price tags). If you’re buying in bulk, use that as a bargaining chip and if they’re asking too much, and won’t budge, just walk away.

The next is, don’t be afraid to just buy shirts, pants, shorts, whatever it is, there. I realized far too far into my trip that a synthetic Bangkok soccer team polo was probably one piece of clothing I should have been wearing much of the time, rather than a cotton T-shirt.

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

You got to have some fun, right? Taken in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, on Dec. 17, 2016

You got to have some fun, right? This is the synthetic soccer polo I should have first bought when I got in country. Taken in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, on Dec. 17, 2016

This is a French girl (some kind of physical education teacher) whom I was supposed to send pictures to. I forgot her name and have no idea where I put her email address. Woops! Taken in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, on Dec. 17, 2016.

Lesson 14 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Consider buying or bringing a duffel bag for the return trip

14. Consider bringing a duffel bag for the return trip

I don’t know how much shopping you plan on doing but you should really consider bringing a duffel bag (that is very small and lightweight when empty) on your trip or buying one in country.

The simple reasoning for bringing it is: it saves you from having to find one on those last days before you leave, when you’re trying to get all your shopping done.

I write a duffel bag because they’re just so much smaller and easier to deal with than a suitcase.

When it comes to the main travel bag, I’m a big fan of a big backpack. Mine has a sub-backpack that attaches to the front or, for shorter trips, detaches, making it perfect for backpacking.

I ended up using one of the bags I bought (shopping bag sized) as my second piece of checked luggage to store many of the scarves and shirts I bought over there. Fortunately for international travel, depending on the airline, you get two bags free, which is why I suggest the duffel bag.

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

: An indoor food market in Bangkok, Thailand taken on Dec. 4, 2015.

: An indoor food market in Bangkok, Thailand taken on Dec. 4, 2015.

Lesson 11 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Keep a travelogue

11. Keep a travelogue

See those people? The one in the center, (blue shirt) he’s from (or lives in, at least,) Montana. He’s on a 6+ month vacation after saving up.

He’s going to buy a motorcycle in Vietnam and go on from there. Do I remember his name? Nope. Not in the least. And I’m not going to remember because I (idiotically) didn’t keep a travelogue when I was in Thailand.

Even worse? I can’t remember all the places I went. Again, this is the folly of not keeping a travelogue.

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We peruse the shelves in the largest market in Thailand, in Bangkok. It’s a maze. The guy in the blue shirt? I can’t remember his name to save my life. All because I didn’t keep a travelogue. We were perusing the weekend market on Dec. 6, 2015.

Lesson 6 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Bring extra headphones

6. Bring extra headphones

It’s inevitable. It’s a fact of life. You’re going to lose your headphones.

There is a simple answer: make sure to bring a few extra pairs. That way, if you’re on the plane, the bus, the train, the boat or in the car, you always have an extra set on you.

Also consider bringing an MP3 player, loaded with music and audio books. Depending on how much traveling you will be doing in country, it comes in handy. It’s also nice to supplement the long, trans-continental flights and the layovers in various airports.

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A canal gate in Bangkok. Taken on Dec. 4, 2015.

Lesson 5 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Consider getting a VPN subscription

5. Consider getting a VPN subscription

Now that you’re considering bringing a laptop, or even just your smartphone and using WiFi, you should really consider a VPN subscription, at least for the time that you’ll be away. A VPN is a Virtual Private Network. It’s often described as a tunnel that your internet traffic goes through which is especially important when you’re connected to public WiFi.

Think about being in airports, or when you need to convince your bank (lost my debit card!), Netflix, Amazon Prime or any other entity that you’re actually in the United States and not in Thailand or Vietnam.

This offers a level of security and the convenience of appearing to be in a country of your choice for other purposes.

If you’re like me and you’re spending most of your time in hostels, you’re working on an insecure connection. While a VPN isn’t perfect, it does add a level of security for your internet usage while overseas. Personally, I like being able to use it at home, as well. Just because you think they’re spying on you doesn’t mean that they aren’t.

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

A woman holds a pot in alley, Dec. 4, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand. I really like alleys.

Lesson 2 for Southeast Asia Traveling: Get a SIM card from a telephone vendor ASAP

2. Get a SIM card from a telephone vendor as soon as you get in country.

The title says it all. Get a SIM card as soon as you get in country.

My first time around, when I went to Thailand, I waited far too long and then tried to do it myself. I don’t remember if I thought I could save money or if I wanted to get a better deal or I didn’t want to be connected to life like I am at home or I was just busy.

It doesn’t matter.

I should have switched my SIM cards out either in the airport or the following day at a telephone vendor. I think I was under the impression there would be enough WiFi networks to connect to. I was wrong.

I instead waited for a week and a half and tried to get it set up myself, and then tried to get the people in a 7/11 to set it up. It never worked very well and I really wish I would have just had some god damned 4G when I needed it.

On the other hand, the next year, when I went to Vietnam? I got a SIM card in the airport. Maybe it cost me a little more than it should have. I didn’t care. I had a functioning phone with a working phone number and internet access.

Trust me. You want to be able to access the internet, without having to rely on WiFi.

The flip side of this lesson is to make sure your smartphone both has a SIM card and that it can be used on overseas networks. If it doesn’t, consider buying a used smartphone that will work in the countries you plan on visiting. I bought my last and current phone, an HTC One M8, used, through Swappa. It still works like a charm and I can use it overseas.

The costs are minimal and they are worth it. Remember that if you go to a different country you may, or may not, need to get a new SIM card. Depends.

Find all of the travel lessons curated here.

A woman cleans a fountain in a park, Dec. 4, 2015 in Bangkok, Thailand.

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