Things You'll Need:
- An empty water bottle. Just buy one big one and refill via taps as necessary. This is best used for European trips, but water isn’t free at any restaurant, and most locations will charge you more for
- A Purse, or a Man’s purse, also known as the Murse.
- Something smaller than your gigantic backpack to carry the things you’ll need during the day. Medicines, water, postcards, snacks, etc. In Europe men are way wussified, so don’t worry about looking li
- Anti-diahrreal pills – because schnitzel and chocolate will mess your ass up…literally.
- Anti-histamines – You never know what might trigger an allergic reaction that could ruin your day.
- Vitamin C supplement – Incredibly useful to take one each morning, you will be healthy and energized to start at 8:00 when you went to bed five hours ago.
- Asprin and melatonin for jet lag.
- A big ass book to read throughout the traveling time.
- Sunscreen, or you will burn.
- A swiss army knife or some instrument with a knife, corkscrew, bottle opener and nail clippers if possible. You will need to cut cheese and fruit, and also spread things on sandwiches, for which I al
- A camera, with lots of extra memory and an adapter so you can charge it wherever you may be. It’s a risk, but I can’t imagine doing a trip like this without the pictures.
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Step 1
Backpacking is easily the biggest adventure you can embark on, unless you know the whereabouts of the Holy Grail, in which case, I’d go that route instead.
Backpacking offers you a myriad of options:
Meet tons of people both from the source countries, and who are tourists just like you, there’s a ton of Koreans and Canadians.
It’s less structured so you can do what you want, when you want to do it.
Get drunk during breakfast – as far as you have to walk, it will all be worth it if you’re hammered drunk.
Walk around shifty alleys and unnamed streets, you won’t necessarily get there faster, but you will see things that no one else would ever get to see.
You get more unsupervised exposure to locals, which enables you to absorb more culture.
Your trip becomes more fluid, you make your own schedule, you can tailor your itinerary at will.
Obstacles to Backpacking
Many people assume that backpacking is difficult to plan logistically, but that’s just stupid.
Travel sites let you compare prices and scope out accommodations easily and very very cheaply
Studentuniverse.com
Lastminutetravel.com
http://freetraveling .com
Next you may wonder what type of clothing to bring, how you will access money, and what to do if you have no idea how to speak the language of the country you’re in.
“Let’s Go” publishes regional guides on places all over the world, including helpful tips, peak times to go, what to do, where to eat and sleep, and how much these places cost and what they offer. The guide also has maps for each area, but if you find those maps to be useless, as I sometimes did, you can go to any hotel and ask for one in English, and they will be able to help you out, all for free.
The passport also seems to be a monumental task, but you can get one in one day easily, it’s time consuming for a day, but it beats the months of delaying your trip to get one.
Go to http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/pubs/pubs_854.html It costs about 120 bucks, but it’s your ticket to all kinds of wacky adventures and it’s easily one of the best investments you’ll make.
The Right Stuff
If you plan a longer trip, logistical problems like laundry and personal health and hygiene can easily ruin your trip, but with some quick tips, you’ll be all set.
Money
Traveler’s cheques are worthless, and often not accepted. You can use the ATMs in your countries and they will not charge you anymore of a fee than ones stateside will, and you don’t have to worry about co -
Step 2
What to Leave Behind
Your cell phone, it will need to be recharged, calls will be prohibitively expensive, and it could get stolen or damaged. Either buy a pay as you go phone there, or just bring a calling card and use the pay phones.
More than one towel – You forget that it’s the same towel you’ve been using after a while.
A ton of clothing – You’re carrying everything you have with you from country to country and from the train or airport or bus to your hostel, which will be very, very cumbersome even if you pack light. Conserve clothes, wear clothes that you can wear repeatedly without washing. It’s okay, French people don’t even know what deodorant is, you’ll be fine.
It might sound kind of grungy, but practically you can only really carry so many articles of clothing. Different socks and underwear will enable you to wear the same over clothes again without having to bother with the time and Euro costly Laundromats.
Security
You will need to safeguard your belongings, because street theft is much more common in other parts of the world. Take a small padlock and affix it to the two zippers of your backpack, that way even when it’s on your back, theft is thwarted.
Carry your important identification, money, and credit cards in a pouch that you can buy and put on underneath your clothes. If someone still robs something from underneath you, that’s just Darwinist theory weeding out the incompetents.
Order a back-up credit or debit card and don’t activate it unless you have to. Keep them separate, because you never know when **** might go down.
Use the lockers at hostels, I can tell you, even your roommates in your hostel can rob you and be gone before you know it.
Hide some emergency cash in your shoe. If through some awful happenstance you get robbed, you still have something this way. -
Step 3
Get your Attitude right
Have patience, you can easily get lost or delayed, just relax, breathe, and you’ll get over it. – Verona story.
Don’t try and be a tough guy/girl with the locals – They know the terrain, and they have a lot less to lose than you do. Be nice and open, and they will treat you like gold, and you will find your most compelling discoveries here.
Don’t solicit a prostitute or buy drugs from street vendors – You don’t know what you’re doing, you stick out like a sore thumb, and these are usually ploys to rob the hell out of you.
Don’t wander off alone unless you’re fully prepared to find your way back, and make sure others know if you’re leaving and where you plan on going.
Don’t get ****-faced alone or in a place where you have no idea where you are or how to get back. If you’re drunk in a big group, you’ll be safer, but just as lost, but it could be an adventure.
Don’t be pro Bush, or if you are, keep it to yourself. No one hates Americans, but they are all pissed about what our country is doing, and if you argue in favor of Bush publicly, it will not go well for you.
Overbudget, and try not to worry about money. Take license to try new and different things such as legal psychedelic mushrooms in Camden Square. It will be a costly trip, but it’s better to regret a debt than to regret what you didn’t do in this golden opportunity.
Talk to people, you will learn so much, and take such great memories away from it, and that’s the only way to really get into the culture.
Comments
LilacGirl said
on 5/19/2008 Excellent travel safety suggestions.