Top tips by Dr Pepper.

To wrap up this trip, here's some recommendations for SE Asia. I'm likely to have missed something exciting and/or obvious, but these are the ones that came to my mind this time as the places I enjoyed the most.

Top places by Dr Pepper:
Broken Heart Guesthouse, Koh Rong island, Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Kong Lor cave, Thakek, Laos.
Scuba diving in Koh Tao, Thailand.

Top temples to see by Dr Pepper:
Angkor archeological park, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
White Temple, Chiang Rai, Thailand.
My favourite Buddha, Old Sukhothai, Thailand.
(Bubbling under: Cao Dai temple at Tay Ninh, Grand Palace in Bangkok, Historical park in Ayutthaya)

Top places for food by Dr Pepper
Vientiane - French, Japanese, Italian, Indian... food heaven in the middle of Asia.
Hoi An (expensive and delicious) and Hue (traditional and delicious).
Penang - endless varieties of noodles, and top notch street food in Chinese, Indian and Malay styles.

Then I've got a long list of travel tips (hidden under the "read more" link) for unexperienced travellers - this is more or less my attempt to pass on what I learned during my travels. I'm not trying to say that it is a dangerous world out there, because it really isn't - SE Asia is very safe and friendly as long as you don't behave stupidly. These tips could be called sensible precautions to minimise any unnecessary hassle and to maximise the enjoyment.


Communication with locals

Smile.

Learn at least "Hello!" and "Thank you!" in the local language, and use them liberally.

Keep your English simple.

Try not to raise your voice - you will lose your face in front of the locals (Thai, Lao, Khmer) and they will feel embarrassed for you, meaning more difficult interaction.

If there is any trouble, keep calm and keep smiling. Politely present your case, never blame the local but offer an acceptable way out.


Behaviour

Try to keep your shoulders and knees covered in cities, rural villages and when visiting places of worship.

No kissing or cuddling in public. Even holding hands might be considered offensive.

Boldly go to places where you haven't gone before!!!


Money and safety

When paying for a service in advance (a hotel room or a tour), always ask for a receipt marked/stamped "PAID" and keep it safe. Usually it's better to pay at the end of your hotel stay to avoid confusion.

Carry a padlock with you. We had a few - big one suitable for the door, smaller one for locking backpack compartments, and two with wires to lock a backpack into something bigger in sleeper trains (to make sure no one just walks past and picks it up when you're sleeping). Also, it's good to have lockable compartment in the backpack. Also, when you lock something, it's better for the lock not to be blatantly obvious - that attracts attention too.

Don't keep anything that you don't want to lose in your backpack. We heard a story of a pickpocket being locked in the luggage compartment of a night bus in Thailand - they opened every backpack, took out the valuables, and the bus stopped to let them off during the night. Locked zipper compartments can apparently be opened by pushing something sharp like a pen between the zip. Note: apparently this is different in South America were there are highway robbers that stop the bus and take the valuables that you have on your person but leave the backpacks untouched.

Don't keep anything that you don't want to lose in your shoulder bag either. Easily snatched from your shoulder in a moto drive-by.

Don't keep anything that you don't want to lose in your hotel room. Cleaners and dorm-mates can be untrustworthy.

In other words: keep your passport and credit cards either in a well-hidden money belt or in a safety locker.

Or if there is no safety locker and you have to trust your valuables with the reception, I usually count my money beforehand. A couple of times I sewed my bag shut to make sure I would know if my valuables had been rifled through - you don't know if your credit card details have been copied until a lot later.

In case you lose your valuables, it's a good idea to keep electronic copies (photos/scans) of the passport ID page and visas available in your email account. Also, keep a list of the phone numbers to call if you need to cancel your credit cards and home country sim card. We also kept smallish amounts (200 USD) of backup money hidden in very difficult places within our backpacks... just in case. Most of that money was actually helpful at times when there was no access to a cashpoint!

Set a security code to unlock the keylock of your phone to avoid anyone else calling from it, especially if using a home country sim.

Back up your photos somewhere. If you travel with a laptop, back them up online (Picasa, Facebook, Dropbox) or to a memory stick that you carry separate to your laptop and your camera. We had two memory sticks and two copies of all of our photos just in case. Water is probably a bigger threat to your photos than a pickpocket. Also, remember to upload your photos from your camera regularly (every week or so), because it seems that the most stolen / lost item is the camera.


Health

Obviously be aware what you eat. In the beginning of your trip your tummy is not used to local food, so avoid shocking it too much. It would be better to avoid all salads, dressings and uncooked food, but there are times that you can't or don't want to... so you don't. I always end up eating what the locals eat after a month of trying to stay safe, and I've never had huge troubles with my tummy (except from the reverse shock when returning to Europe and having too much cheese).

Ice cubes mainly come from a factory and are made of purified water, but sometimes they are chopped from a big block in a fairly unhygienic fashion or put into the glass with dirty fingers. The circular ones with a round hole in the middle are apparently the safe factory ones. I brush my teeth with Asian tap water without problems, but I didn't drink it even in the five star hotel that had advertised their potable tap water.

Drink plenty of water. Revive was great too in replenishing all the water you lose by sweating.

Use a hat, long sleeves or a lot of strong sunblock, and good sunglasses. The sun is intense.

We always carried hand sanitizer with us, to be used after toilet and before meals. We also had a small first aid kit in our day bag - containing betadine to disinfect wounds, bandages and a variety of dressings, painkillers, immodium for upset tummy, travel sickness pills, blister plasters (compeed), allergy medications, salve for itchy insect bites, ear plugs, eye drops, throat lozenges, thermometer. We also had a bigger first aid kit with even more helpful things, but that was a bit unnecessary now that I think about it in retrospect. SE Asia has helpful, well-stocked pharmacies, although some of them sell fake medications. Most important is to pack the medications that you tend to need in normal life.

We took antimalarials the whole trip and took many many vaccinations. Check with your local travel health clinic what the recommendations are for your destination. We used our mosquito net once I think (most places had them, or no mosquitos), and our use of mosquito spray (DEET) grew rarer and rarer the journey went on. It's just easier to put long trousers and long-sleeved shirt on!


Toilets

Toilet paper goes into the bin next to the toilet as the plumbing will get blocked otherwise.

Always carry toilet paper with you. In China it's customary to bring your own paper, and in SE Asia the toilets very often run out of it.

Squatting is actually pretty easy, as long as you're not wearing long loose trousers. Squatting is a lot easier than trying to hover over a dirty toilet seat (because locals squat on them), so why not try the same or a semi-squat (one foot on the ground, another on the toilet)? Or just go to the squat toilet if available!


What to take with you?

Headlamp to be kept close to you. Useful in blackouts, caves, going home at night, reading in bed, exploring Angkor Wat before sunrise, islands and rural villages without electricity, going to toilet during the night, more caves, entering a dorm room after bedtime, Viet Cong tunnels, reading on bus/train, walking by the road in the dark, driving a moto without lights in the dark.

Betadine for wound disinfection, to be used immediately. Boyfriend managed to get a tiny cut on Koh Rong that started to infect, and betadine healed it completely in a day (cut the infected would open and press the pus out before applying betadine). Also, I seem to have a tendency to ear canal infections, and betadine three times a day stopped one from developing in Don Det.

Something warm for the very airconditioned buses and trains. A buff fits easily in your pocket and prevents the nasty sore throat and stiff neck from too strong A/C.

Long-sleeved light (=cotton) shirt and trousers, preferably light colours too. For days that you don't feel like putting sun-block on, or you've burnt, or you need to be a lot in the sun, or you're visiting a place of worship, or you don't want insect bites.

For clothes in general, it's good to have enough clothes for about a week as it's cheap and easy to get them washed. Also it's good if you can wash them all together without worrying the red bleeding with the white... as most of the local laundry services just dump everything together in the washing machine. I liked having one nicer outfit with me for the bit better restaurants and big cities. Rest of it was plain functional (but still tidy).

For shoes, I had only my trusty trekking sandals this time, and I also bought beach sandals from Thailand. Didn't really need more than that, although trekking in the jungle always made me worried about snakes. So if you plan to explore a lot of jungles, take proper shoes, but other than that quite a lot of people seem happy just in flipflops.

Laptop or a smart phone would be pretty handy in the modern world where there is free wi-fi everywhere, as well as little helpers such as skype, googlemaps and tripadvisor.

Relaxed attitude. You're on a holiday - there is no rush. So what if you miss your bus? Take the next one or spend a day more where you are! Also friendliness, patience and adventurousness are very handy on the road.