Backpacking Southeast Asia

Helloooo, long time no forum!

Well, I am back from Canada, now living in Jindy again, for the season, maybe possibly longer.
But my next big plans are in the making. I’ve decided I want to do some non-snow stuff for a while, stop lugging a big awkward snowboard bag around. So I’m planning to backpack Southeast Asia!

Who’s done it? For how long? Where did you go? What did you see? What did you experience? How long did that rash take to go away? The highs and lows? The pros and cons?
Hit me with what ever you’ve got, and GO! ?

Yo @DylanV,

Good to hear your move back home went well. You must be pretty excited for the Aussie season. Your travel plans sound awesome! Backpacking is such a great way to travel and see lots of new places. I have travelled a bit in Southeast Asia, and Michelle and I backpacked Europe for 5 months last summer as you know, so I might have some advice for you.

Check out the Your three must-have travel items. What are they thread I started last year while we were backpacking. There some good stuff in there!

My biggest piece of advice is travel as light as possible. Only take the bare essentials. Get clothing items that can be versatile and double up in use, for example, walkshort/boardshort hybrids. Take a super light spray jacket that takes up no room but can be super helpful if it starts pouring or gets cold/windy. Don’t take more than one pair of pants, don’t take more than a couple of shirts. Just pack super light and wash more regularly. Take some Campsuds or a similar washing concentrate which takes up minimal room but will wash a lot of clothes.

In regards to cool places in Southeast Asia I would recommend (I haven’t been to many, to be honest):

Langkawi — 1 of only 64 globally recognised geoparks. This place is amazing!
Penang, Malaysia — I really enjoyed Penang. The people are super nice, the markets are epic!
Singapore — Worth visiting if you can. They have a sick cable wakeboarding park.
I’m sure others will have suggestions for Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia etc. I also think Myanmar would be incredible (somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit).

Cheers @rider26, I think I’ve got the packing list sorted, only taking carry on everywhere.

Cheers for the suggestions, I actually plan to stay more in the Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam & Laos. Singapore is a bit of a budget buster, especially things like cable park, not saying that I won’t splurge on things but they will be things I really want to do.

I won’t be planning a lot, just things I really want to do and make it up along the way between them.
At the moment these include (in no particular order):
      -Songkran in Chiang Mai, Thailand
      -Deep water soloing in Railay, Thailand
      -4 week EBS course in Phuket, Thailand
      -1 week volunteering at Elephant Nature Park north of Chiang Mai, Thailand
      -Visit the temples of Angkor, Cambodia
      -Learn to kite surf

It’s all a fair way off because I have to pay off debt then save money to fund the adventure, but it will happen.

*If any one wants to pay some/all of the debt off or fund the adventure… *