Southeast Asia 101: My Top 10 Travel Tips

Hi, my name is Louise and I have been living and traveling in Southeast Asia for a while. I did my exchange year in Japan and later my internship in Taiwan. I have also traveled in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. There are just a few more places to check off in Southeast Asia.

I want to give you a few tips that have helped me when I travel abroad. Here are my 10 best tips when you travel abroad. Just a quick disclaimer, these are only my own opinions and experiences.

Make photocopies of important documents
Scan or take pictures of all your important things. An example could be your passport, insurance papers, visa etc. Upload them somewhere safe where you can easily access them, or keep them on your phone. This is to be sure in case your passport gets stolen, for example.

Make sure you know if you need a visa for transit
I thought I didn’t need a visa for a transit, but since I would have stayed in the country longer than 24 hours, I apparently needed one. Luckily, I could change my flight, but it is good to keep in mind.
Furthermore, if you will transit in another country, make sure to have some cash from that country. My flight was delayed so I had an unexpected layover in China, and I didn’t have the online payments like WeChat Pay. They only accepted cash, not my card, for transportation to my layover hotel. But thanks to a stranger, I managed to solve the problem.

Make sure to ALWAYS have insurance when you are abroad
Sometimes you may have travel insurance only up to a certain number of days, and if you travel for a long time make sure you have one that covers the whole period. Personally I used Gouda when I was abroad and I was covered 24/7. Through Svenskar i Världen I got a discount when buying the insurance.
When you travel you assume nothing will happen, knock on wood, but I actually injured myself abroad. My takeaway, if you want to be extra cautious, is that if you know which city you will stay in, contact the insurance company beforehand to see which options they have with English speaking hospitals. Fortunately I knew the country’s language I was in, but I can’t imagine being abroad and needing a hospital where no one speaks English. So from my side I would say to look up which hospitals your travel insurance covers. If you are in Europe it is also good to bring your European Health Insurance Card.

Let’s talk a bit about money
Just to be sure, have at least an extra bank card with you when you travel, and it is good if it is from a different bank. The reason is because if the ATM eats your card when you are abroad, you can still take out money with another card.
I personally use Revolut, which is very convenient since when I travel to different countries I can convert the currency directly.
Another good thing to do is check how much it costs when you withdraw money from an ATM. Sometimes there is a foreign transaction fee or an ATM fee. For example, when I use Revolut, I know there is a maximum amount I can take out without an extra fee.
Furthermore, it is also important to inform your bank so they can open your card for use abroad.

It is generally good to have some cash with you
But when it comes to Japan and Taiwan it is especially important, since they are still very cash-based societies.

Bring medicine
I would suggest buying medicine that you might need while you are abroad. This is because you have it ready when you need it, and you know what kind of medicines you have, e.g. painkillers. Just make sure to check how much medicine you can bring into a country

Do research if you need any vaccinations for the countries you are visiting. It is better to be safe even if vaccinations cost a bit”. Imagine being abroad and realizing you could have gotten the vaccine for it. Also think long term, since some vaccinations you might not need again.

Download offline maps
If you know you will not have data, I suggest downloading offline maps and marking the places you want to visit. In Singapore I ran out of data faster than I thought and luckily I managed to get back to my hostel in the middle of the night, thanks to the offline maps.

Bring a portable charger or power bank and a universal adapter
Don’t make the same mistake as when my friend and I didn’t have any power bank and our phones were dead. Due to flight delays we ended up successfully(!) walking home for 3 hours from the closest station since we couldn’t make it to our connecting train during midnight. Forgot to mention we didn’t have GPS because of a dead battery, luckily my friend has a great sense of orientation. We walked past our campus security office at 4 in the morning with our backpack while they looked at us strangely, perhaps they thought we were ambitious students studying up late. We also walked past the station and there was a guy playing the guitar out loud in the morning.

Sign up for Svenskalistan and download UD Resklar
This makes sure that if something happens, you can receive information directly from the embassy or Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
One extra tip is to read a bit about the country so you know what you should be aware of. I checked Sweden Abroad, and for example for Taiwan I could see that earthquakes happen there, so I read more about what to do in those situations as we do not experience them often in Sweden.

Bonus Tips
Lastly, be open minded when you travel and try different things. Challenge yourself and talk to strangers and locals. I have made friends when traveling solo, and I mainly met them through hostels or when visiting sightseeing spots like museums.