Tips for backpacking in South east Asia

Why am I coming up with this headline?
Because geographically and demographically, SE Asia had similar characteristic, except of course Singapore.
Here's the similarities:
1. Most tourists will flock in the capital, which is the most packed and jam cities, OR exotic island such as Bali in Indonesia, Phuket in Thailand, or Boracay in The Phillippines.
2. Public transportation quite poor, although Bangkok and Kuala lumpur now had skytrain, but for the rest, you are solely relying on taxi or arranged tour.
3. Happy news is, although the people are not really fluent in English, but they are quite helpful and trying to show you with body languages or broken translations.

Sky train in Kuala Lumpur

SO, HOW THE HELL AM GOING TO DO BACKPACKING THERE??

Well, here some tips for you:

1. Buy local SIM Card with generous internet package. They usually sell it in the airport and will help you to register the sim card. I will explain more about traveling in Indonesia in my next post.
2. Internet connection will help you to use googlemaps or waze, which will give you direction to any destinations you want.
3. However, walking on those countries could be very hot and polluted. You might want to take taxi if public transportation is not available, but always stick with meter taxi. In Indonesia, we have Blue bird taxi which will punish their drivers if they offer you no meter. However, in Thailand most of taxi don't use meter, so you need to negotiate. But taxi fare in this country is very cheap compare to Singapore or western country. As an example, in Jakarta you only need to pay IDR 50,000 or USD 4 for 10km journey, with moderate traffic or up to USD 10 if the traffic is super awful in the peak hours.

   

   Jakarta is named as one of world worst traffic gridlock

4. Other options is to use ride sharing app such as Uber, Grab, or Go-car through their mobile app. Grab is available in most SE Asia countries. However, those drivers are not trained drivers, means possibility of them to get lost when picking or delivering you is high, and you might get into much hassle trying to explain where you are. That's the fun part! LOL.
5. Last option would be renting a car with driver. There are plenty car rental if you search on google, and the daily rate is pretty decent for car + driver + gasoline. If you travel in a group of 4, the cost will be so much cheaper compare to taxi, and no hassle! for example, average daily rate of car rental of toyota MPV (7-seater car) is IDR 700,000 or USD 50 for 10 hours.
6. Aside from the transportation, let's talk about the crime rate. Although the crime and scam rate is pretty high in these countries due to poverty, you won't get robbed in the middle of the street. Just make sure you're not showing too much blings, over-showing your newest iphone, or wearing super sexy clothes! Sexy clothes related to culture, in which all of those countries are very conservative, such as Malaysia and Indonesia people are majority moslem, while Cambodia and Thailand are mostly Buddhist. Wearing hot pants is OK, but try not showing cleavage except if you are in the exotic island. You won't get raped, no no.. you will just get some cat calling or some naughty eyes looking at your body, and that's no fun!
7. Last tips is about currency. If you can't exchange local currency in your country, just bring US Dollar with you, it will be acceptable in any money changer. But try not to exchange the money in the airport because the currency exchange is super expensive. There are money changer in leading malls in big cities, such as Siam square in Bangkok or Plaza senayan mall in Jakarta. They are listed money changer and they will give you fair rate.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, ENJOY THE TRIP!

Let me know if you have more question and drop in the comment below, I would be more than happy to answer!