Popagandhi

the guide for people who have a lot of time

I don’t plan for any trip with a guidebook. I find them to be full of drivel, usually outdated, and well, you can’t do a ctrl-F or cmd+F to skip to the necessary bits. Guidebooks are expensive, the ones you find going for cheap are a few years outdated, and they all have their own strengths and weaknesses, yet you can’t take all of them with you. And God help you if you ever try to find a room in a guesthouse recommended by Lonely Planet, especially in high season. Many of you have written me to go through, in detail, how I plan my trips. I’m highly disorganized when it comes to trip planning, so I can’t guarantee it’d work for you. My tips are mostly Asia-centric, since I haven’t had the chance to plan for one elsewhere.

Read A Lot
This is a truism, but I’m sometimes surprised by how little some one can know about the places they’re going to. I have heard tales of a clueless traveller who insisted Vientiene was in Cambodia, even though he was going there the next day. Besides, it’s only respectful - learn key words, a little bit about the culture, and what you should expect to find. If you’re going to a Thai island, then at least know “Koh” means “island” (and it isn’t pronounced the same way as you would the Chinese surname), and what “Ao”, and “Haad”, and “songtaew” are. Read up on how to say “hello” and “thank you” in the local language; even if you can’t say it flawlessly, they will appreciate your efforts. Know how much you’re supposed to pay for basic services and what the expected behaviour is. For example, you should know never to take a taxi in Bangkok if the driver refuses to use the meter, and to avoid tuk-tuks with the yellow tags (the white ones are licensed ones).

Go to your bookstore of choice and browse the guidebooks - no need to buy them, just make mental notes of what you think is necessary. Read Lonely Planet for the background of your destination, skim through Rough Guide for an overview, and read anything you like in FootPrint (there’s a lot to like). There’s no point wondering about accommodation at this stage. (1) I’ve never ended up staying long in any guidebook-recommended hotel or guesthouse (2) they’re not always what they are supposed to be (3) online resources, though scattered across the web, do a far better job, with pictures and reviews from more than one voice. A guesthouse that advertises itself as “recommended by Lonely Planet” is usually sucky, because what Lonely Planet could have said was, “dirty, expensive, stay only if the other places are full”, and that’s still a recommendation because it was in Lonely Planet. And I hope it goes without saying, there’s no need to follow the “food” sections in any of the guidebooks.

Look up travel resources online, search for blogs where people have detailed their trips to, or their lives in, said destination. I planned for Cambodia entirely on the back of Tales of Asia and Canby Publications. I used TravelFish for more information, and they even have a feature where you can generate your personalized “guidebook” (eFish, they call them): simply select the country and province you want, and state what should go into the book - accommodation only, or should it be more detailed, and what layout you would like (Travelfish for Laos, Cambodia, Thailand only). Using these resources keeps you up to date. There would have been no other way of knowing that Phnom Penh will soon have international ATMs (just a few months ago, it had only one ATMand it was linked only to local accounts from the Prime Minister’s daughter’s bank). The guidebooks in print would only be able to tell you that next year.

Because I’m very free and I have a lot of time, I always browse at del.icio.us, for the tags, “travel”, and the places I’m going to (i.e. “thailand”). Not all the information will be useful for you, but in general they do help you learn more about the country, its going ons, and what you should expect (if you find information on that country having death-for-sodomy rulings, then please don’t hold a man’s hands if you’re one, you can let him know you love him in private).

Roof Over Your Head
Being cheap, my first approach to finding a roof over my head is to scan through a list of people who may have a room or a sofa bed for me in said destination. Dorm rooms of friends in universities abroad. Distant relatives, close friends of family members. Bloggers with whom you are on good terms with (I suppose this only works if you’re a fairly known blogger). Failing which, try Global Freeloaders; I’ve never tried it, so I can’t attest to the service, and can’t take responsibility if you end up on the couch of a person with a pick axe under his or her bed. If you’re a single gay woman, and you’re headed somewhere with a large gay population, you could try hooking up with someone who could take you around the scene, or even fix you a place to stay in for a night or two. Craigslist would be a good place to look, if you’re headed to the States. Of course all this assumes you are a fairly social person, that you’re not the sort that is impossible to live with, and know how to tell a good/neutral egg from a really bad one. Don’t be a complete freeloader, though. Buy your host an alcoholic drink, dinner, or both, and more if she has an alternative payment scheme in mind.

Otherwise, ‘last minute rooms’ are a good idea, though it will take a lot of clicking around. Look up sites specializing in last minute bookings of accommodation where you’re headed. Then make the decision if it really saves you that much: some properties only offer marginal savings, others save you much more. If the savings are negligible I’d rather keep my accommodation options open.

Find out what to expect for the amount you pay. I went to Koh Pha-Ngan, happily took a room for 350 baht, loved the view and the room - then at midnight, snapped awake immediately when the fan went off - only to find the electricity goes off at midnight because that part of the island ran on generators only, and had limited electricity. Find out if you’ll have to bring your own toiletries and towels. Find out if you have a free breakfast. Just be in the know about things.

Don’t Just Fly
My personal policy is to only take a plane from Singapore to my destination. Within the destination, I’m not likely to want to fly. Budget is one thing, my personal disdain for aircraft is the other. It seems like the most hassle-free way to get from point A to point B, but then also remember to factor in the costs of an airport transfer to Airport A, and the airport transfer from Airport B; the lack of choice where most domestic routes are concerned, and their prices (usually not of much value for what you pay for). It’s quite likely the only circumstances in which I would want to fly, would be on routes such as Delhi to Chennai, L.A. to New York, or similar. Though if you have limited number of days “on leave”, i.e. when you’re in the workforce, then by all means, make the most of your time and fly instead.

You see so much more on other modes of transportation. Try to break a long distance journey into different legs, especially if you’re not experienced, or if the road is known to be rough. For example, the Bangkok to Phnom Penh via Hat Lek/Cham Yeam (Koh Kong) journey is tough. But if you decide to make that trip, you could also stop by Koh Samet or Koh Chang on the way there, then make your way to the Cambodian border when you feel ready. Know what your money gets you for your bus fare.

A word of warning: it may be tempting to take a ‘package’ from any travel agent in Khao San Road, or similar services in other parts of the world - those people who will promise you VIP coaches and a direct stress-free route, to Phnom Penh or the Angkor Wat, Koh Tao, or to Ho Chi Minh. Then you find yourself on a marathon journey, rickety bus, and being pressured into staying at a commission-paying guesthouse, or shopping at a commission-paying retailer. I get iffy about these packages, especially when it crosses international borders: you may get a plush coach from Bangkok, but when they dump you at the border and you’re forced to climb into a minibus with a faulty air con for the next 3/4 of the journey, there’s nothing you can do about it. I much rather prefer to find my own transport from point to point; a government bus to the border (which, by the way, is more efficient, cheaper, even cleaner, than the dubious agent-run ones, in Thailand at least), then alight at the border, clear customs, and find my own transport for the onward journey. At least I get to choose, and even if it’s a bad choice, at least it’s my own doing.

Train: I’m a romantic at heart, so I can’t help but love locomotives. One gets to breathe an air from an earlier era on many trains, when they were the fastest mode of transportation. They’re not the fastest things these days, but compared to a bus journey, it can be more comfortable. My grandmother approves of trains, she says at least I can pee whenever I want, whereas not all buses have built in toilet facilities, and well, you have to go when you have to go. The Man In Seat 61 is the place to go to for information on trains, anywhere. 3rd class is tolerable for short hops, i.e. Bangkok to Kanchanaburi; but anything spanning a night, and you should at least have a berth to sleep in.

Something To Talk About
Talk. A lot. To people who know something about travel, who know something about your destination. Read what the expats living in that place have to say about it, mostly since, well, they are visitors with a different visa, who have had more time to try out many restaurants, bars, and local women.

Baby When You’re Gone
The first thing I do when I’m there, no matter where, is to grab free resources: maps, guides, pullouts. Check at guesthouses, hotels, travel agents’ desks, railway stations, airports, foreigner/expat-heavy restaurants and bars. It’s a bit difficult to guarantee what you’ll find, but in Koh Pha-Ngan, a copy of Phangan Explorer or Phangan.info would be immensely helpful, and in Siem Reap or Phnom Penh, their respective guides published by Canby Publications; all free, all good.

Foodie Alert: If you love food, seek out a restaurant guide. If you already have a culinary objective for your trip, then book early. Book at NOBU or Tetsuya’s to ensure a happy stomach. And eat local food. Regardless of cleanliness. I repeat, regardless of cleanliness. Because Anthony Bourdain says so (I’m studiously avoiding the other bit, “eat whatever”).

ET Phone Home
You may feel alien, especially in the field of communications. Suddenly you don’t know how to get in touch with your family. International roaming is one option, but it’s terribly overpriced, due to dirty telcos everywhere. In most places a local SIM card is easy to obtain and use. Choose your poison (it’s easy to see I don’t like telcos very much, huh) carefully; whether it’s Airtel or Hutch when you’re in India would boil down to how much international SMSes cost, and how much calls back home cost per minute. Though, in India, the STD/ISD booths are so easy to locate, such that international calls are so cheap to make. In less developed countries (no that doesn’t mean Thailand or India) with limited communications, such as Cambodia, calls are hard to make and cost an arm and a leg. Phone booths are few and far between, there being no signs of an existing telco (phone booths are just people by the street behind a booth, with a mobile phone). In such places, there’s likely to be cheap VoIP services in most Internet cafes. They run on dial-up, typically, but the calls are surprisingly audible and not too laggy. In such cases, I reckon your family would just be pleased to know you are alive and/or haven’t lost a limb.

To iPod, or Not to iPod
Not surprisingly, I hear this question asked all the time. Ask yourself a few questions: can you go without music? I can’t. But don’t be a bigot and assume you’re going to be a victim of theft (iPod or not) just because you’re in a poor(er) country. You’re more likely to have your iPod grabbed from you in New York City, at gunpoint, than you are in Phnom Penh or Calcutta. They don’t know what it is, and they don’t have the necessary computer equipment to make use of it (iPods run on >Windows 2000 only). Exercise caution, as you would at home (or in New York) - shield it, put it in your pocket, don’t flash it around much like how you shouldn’t flash wads of money around. If you’re an audio connoisseur, leave the expensive earphones at home, even if you need your isolating Shure e3cs to block out the sound of screaming babies on economy class. Take a cheap Sony. Because when it breaks, I don’t grief at all, and the time I take to carefully coil my earphones of choice into its carrying case, exposes the iPod far longer than I should. (If you have an iPod shuffle, you could always disguise your shuffle as a Wrigley stick. )

I’m still searching for the case that will transform my 15GB iPod into a can of SPAM.

Last Words
Be patient. Don’t be a stupid tourist. Bargain, but remember they have to make ends meet too, so be reasonable too. Don’t give money to beggars, even if they are very very cute, give food if you need to. Don’t give money even if the toddler is holding a dead baby outside a museum, and crying dramatically. He will be there the next day, and the day after, and the week after, and the year after, and the money would have gone to the syndicate that put him up to it. Don’t litter. When the touts ask where you want to go, say Ulan Bataar. When somebody who wants to sell you something says “How are you today”, just smile and say “I was fine yesterday”. (If you’re in Bangkok: backpackers - please explore outside Khao San, eat more than banana pancakes and pad thai and Beer Chang; packaged tours - there’s more to Bangkok than Mah Boon Krong and Chatuchak.) Don’t just go to the tourist places. Eat local food. Eat lots of local food. Don’t piss off your girlfriend: if she wants to shop, pretend you are having a good time shopping.

Last but not least, don’t smoke too much (note to self), even if fags cost 10000000x more when you get home.