Don’t book ahead too much. If you are travelling for 2 weeks you will have a plan that you have to stick to so you will have to have most places booked. However, if you are travelling for over 2 weeks give yourself some space to be spontaneous. If you meet people and they are going somewhere that sounds amazing and you feel like you would have a good time, don’t turn it down because you have somewhere booked already. I allowed myself to do this in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Canada and I don’t regret it one bit.
Don’t move on for the sake of moving on. If you are in a place and are enjoying it stay a little while longer. Don’t chase the next place too much. If you are enjoying yourself stay and carry on enjoying yourself. You won’t appreciate the next place if you move on when you aren’t ready and are comparing it to where you have just left. Travelling isn’t about just ticking places off the map.
Spend time with the locals. Eat with them, drink with them, listen to music with them. You are travelling to experience other cultures and there is no better way than sitting and socialising with them. When you are in South East Asia staying in guesthouses and beach huts there will be times when the guys working there will be having a break in their shifts. Go and sit with them and talk to them. They will be so happy that you have taken the time to do this. Even though the language barrier can sometimes be tough you still end up laughing and joking with them.
Use public transport. If you are on your own and it is late at night and you don’t feel comfortable then don’t use public transport. But when possible catch the train or local bus. The time passes so quickly as you are taking in all the things that are going on. I still think back to the bus I got from Maya (Malapuasca Island) to Cebu in the Philippines. Around £2.50 for a 5 hour journey. Buying food through the window of the bus, posing for photographs with locals, resting a chicken in a cage on my knee while the lady next to me sorted her luggage out.
Allow your budget to flex a bit. When backpacking you are on a budget and there will be times when you have to make decisions on whether you can afford to do something you want to do or not. You can’t do everything when backpacking. You have to make choices between sky diving and bungee jumping, scuba diving and white water rafting. But if there is something happening that isn’t going to blow the budget, do it. Go on the hostel pub crawl, go for a meal with the guys out the hostel, go on the sightseeing tour. Budgets can be flexible, you won’t regret what you did, only what you didn’t do. Stay in a few weekends when you get home and you will have saved that money that you spent making memories when travelling.
Photograph is Malapuasca Island, Philippines.
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