8 Tips for your Next Travel

    We have been to 11 countries and 71 towns and 51 cities. We feel that it is now time to consolidate our learnings– thus help travellingpeoples on their next trips. We have come up to 8 tips for your next travel.

1.) Plan your itineraries

       You do not have all the time and money you need to roam and get lost in a new place. Most countries only allow foreigners to stay in their country for a couple of days even if it is visa free. It will also be a waste of money (e.g. transportation costs) if you do not have a strategic route (e.g. go to a tourist spot in the north coast of Taiwan then go to a tourist spot in the south coast of Taiwan then go back to the north coast– unless this is really how you want it to be)

2.) Choose your camera

        Most people would love to have photos in their travels. Choose a camera which fits your convenience. For example, we were using a heavy DSLR but being backpackers and wanting to post pictures instantly, we now opted for an iPhone. iPhone gives good quality photos anyway nowadays.

3.) Match your clothes to the weather and scenery

    Do a bit of research. Is it spring, summer, autumn, winter? What is the temperature? Then, for your instagram posts, check what does that tourist spot look like? So you can match your outfit with it.

4.) Get the address in the locals’ language

       Not everyone understands English. The locals will still always be your best friend than waze (if you do not have an internet). It would be best to still get the screen shot of your hotel’s address in chinese if you are somewhere China, japanese if you are somewhere Japan, arab if you are somewhere in the Arab region.

5.) Contact your friend living in that place

      Go back to your list of friends. You may have a friend living in that next destination of yours. They will have more idea of what good places to visit or faster routes to take.

6.) Download google translator app

       Not everyone understands english. Better to have a translator on your conversations!

7.) Make sure you know the accurate details of your bookings

             We missed our flight because we thought it is afternoon rather than morning. You may check out our Taiwan experience last year. 

8.) Have a background knowledge of their culture 

For example:

• a facebook-like hand gesture means ‘fuck you’ to most Arabs. You may get in trouble especially if you do it in the Arab region.
• my Indonesian friend had hard time contacting us because he was not aware that Filipinos have ‘pay-your-own-internet’ culture. There are very few public  sites with free wifi connection in the Philippines.
• In a restaurant in Bagan, the lady charged us for ice cubes even if we ordered soda.
• In the Philippines, they serve beer with ice. In other countries, they do not.