Random tips from us

I'll add to this over time. Just a collection of things I hadn't thought of before we got here!

Info (if you need anything in addition to the wonderful CGOAB of course!!):
- Travelfish is a great online travel guide for SE Asia, that saves you carrying tons of books and also seems to go to a few more places than Lonely Planet / Rough Guide. If you subscribe, you can access the forums and PDF downloads.
- You can get some Lonely Planets for free via Amazon Prime and Kindle unlimited (not all of them though). This works much better on the iPad/phone than the kindle itself.
- We bought both 'Pedallers Paradise' guides for New Zealand but didn't actually find them that useful. They focus on the main highways, and only tell you about road conditions rather than safety for cycling. I wouldn't bother again, personally, but it's a nice little venture to support.

Things we are really glad we brought that seemed a bit trivial or OTT:
- Sleep sheets - you often only get a blanket, and it's also nice to have if you're staying somewhere a bit grungy. Have to say, though, even the grungy places seem to be pretty clean if you look past the wear and tear.
- Canvas shopping bag for carrying valuables around in the evenings
- Foldable backpack for another option (folds sooo small)
- Huge 'bag for life' to stash our emergency food supplies in, bungeed to my rack!
- Bungee cords :)
- iPad and Logitech case/keyboard. Great for blogging, movie watching etc!!

Things we haven't brought and really wish we had
- Kick stands
- Higher factor suncream that you can reapply - we had 'calypso' once a day, factor 20. Not good enough - you also sweat it off and then it doesn't really reapply. It's hard to find outside of the touristy areas, and isn't very cheap when you do. Also, watch out for fake stuff. We bought Banana Boat despite paying a premium!
- Not really a necessity, but a GoPro would be nice....

Navigation:
- We love our Lezyne macro GPS for navigating and recording. You can build a route on strava / komoot / cycle.travel and upload it (download it to google drive or icloud drive first, then upload it to Lezyne from there). I think you might need a tablet or laptop to do this, although the mobile app offers navigation - not sure how good this is.
- You need maps.me in your life. Offline maps (openstreetmap).
- Hobomaps are great for Northern Laos - packed with info and even some guesthouse recommendations. You can get PDFs for $1. Useful safety blanket if, like me, the thought of no wifi for a free days horrifies you!
- Googlemaps seems to have more roads in Vietnam than openstreetmap. Google also has cycle lanes in some countries (eg Belgium) but randomly not all (eg Italy).

General food tips:
- We've successfully bought porridge oats in various places (Tesco Lotus has them, and the small supermarket in Luang Prabang, Coopmart/Vinmart in Vietnam, widely at mini-marts in bigger towns in Cambodia). If you don't have a stove, buy some Lactasoy milk and soak the oats overnight. Peanut butter is an excellent addition (available in the same places!)
- 7-eleven in Thailand sells sliced bread, which is great for making sandwiches for hearty snacks on the road. They also have jam, but you'll have to search elsewhere for peanut butter (see above).
- Malaysia also has 7-eleven which DOES have peanut butter, and a good selection of instant noodles. Also, Tescos is 'proper' Tescos and sells pretty much everything - oh how we love them.
- Thailand has water filters everywhere. 1 baht for loads - cheap and much better than buying yet more plastic every 5 minutes. Malaysia also has them, but not so many.
- We managed to find some sort of salty snacks and biscuits pretty much everywhere. Mini-marts are everywhere in Thailand and pretty prevalent in Cambodia too. You're a bit more restricted to local shops in Laos and Vietnam (aside from the major cities) - sometimes you need to visit a few to find everything you want.
- Thailand's answer to Starbucks is Cafe Amazon. You may scoff (as we did) but it is a haven of aircon and iced drinks. There are a few in Laos, and they start popping up pretty regularly in Cambodia. Find them at some of the larger PTT petrol stations.
- Look out for 'Royal D' rehydration powders - good for hot days. They are a Thai brand, but are certainly also available in Cambodia. Available in mini- marts and pharmacies.
- For self-catering / camping, we have eaten plenty of cup noodles and recently bought a bag of dehydrated soya mince to add to them - this is brilliant for making a more substantial meal. We found it in Tesco Lotus in Thailand.
- New Zealand is a lot easier of course, but we found food very expensive (in comparison to the UK, not just SE Asia). It's worth knowing that prices of fruit and veg vary wildly with the seasons, but also day to day. For example, broccoli might be $1.50 one day, and $2.99 the next day, in the same supermarket. Fruit and veg shops tend to be cheaper and often better, particularly in the big cities. Wellington also has a great weekend market with fabulous produce at reasonable prices.
- In Europe, for self-catering, Lidl is very cheap, and good for simple foods. Note that it also has an excellent bakery (until you get to eg Holland, where it reverts to the paltry offering you'll be used to if you're from the UK!).
- Italy also has Eurospin, which varies in quality, but is certainly cheap.
- Switzerland has its own budget supermarkets which are worth seeking out, eg Denner Satellite and Migros. Steer clear of Coop, as it will bankrupt you!
- Food was noticeably cheaper from France northwards.

Tips for vegetarians:
In Asia, it took me several weeks to stop feeling stressed about finding food I can eat. Maybe that's just me! Touristy areas are fine and nearly everywhere seems to have veggie dishes. Elsewhere is more of an adventure, but we haven't gone hungry yet!
Thailand:
- The word you need is 'mangsawirat'. Vegetarian. Most people understand this.
- Vegan is 'jay'.
- There are vegan buffet restaurants in most towns. Look out for the yellow and red sign that looks like '17'. The 7 sometimes looks more like a backwards 'G'. Very very cheap!
- 7-eleven is your friend. They have vegan instant noodles, and some of the food in the freezer is veggie (look for the green labels, but the writing is in English anyway). They also have hot water and microwaves, so you can actually get a meal here. Not very romantic, but sometimes and easy option is very welcome, especially in the early days!!
- Most restaurants will make you a veggie version of something, but you might end up eating a lot of fried rice!! Noodle soup places seem less reliable (based on very little experience, so still worth a try!)
Laos:
- The phrase you need is 'bo kin sin' - I don't eat meat. Best plan is to get this on your phone via google translate (you can save it as a favourite) and show it to them - no one seems to understand my Lao!!
- Most restaurants have menus (noodle stalls don't seem to ) and we've yet to find one without an English translation. That said, it's useful to have a few key dishes to ask for - eg fried rice, fried egg, fried noodles. I also have these on my phone in case they don't understand me!
Vietnam:
- Vietnam is FULL of vegetarian resturants. Look for the word 'chay' in big letters outside. The quality of the food varies from fine to incredible - you can't really go wrong! They are also usually VERY cheap. It's worth being able to identify key menu items (pho and bun for noodle soup, com for rice) as they often don't have an English version. Sometimes there's no menu and they just bring you 'dish of the day', sometimes you may have to resort to pointing!
- Find chay restaurants on Happy Cow, or by searching for 'quan chay' or 'com chay' on google maps. You will also stumble across many others that aren't yet online - this does not mean they aren't good!
- Other resturants seem to cook what they cook, and aren't too flexible. You can ask for things 'khong Thit' (without meat) - this works best in our experience for fried rice - look for somewhere advertising 'com chien'.
- If you eat eggs, many banh mi (sandwich) stalls will be able to cater for you. Look for 'op la' on the sign, or look for eggs in their supplies! Note that many chay restaurants will also offer vegan banh mi to take away.
Cambodia
- We didn't do quite as much off the beaten track on Cambodia, so barely found anywhere without an English menu / English speaking staff. We thought this website looked useful though: https://eatyourworld.com/blog/a_vegetarians_guide_to_cambodia. We were all set with key dishes to ask for (fried rice, fried noodles, mixed vegetables) but never needed them.
- We did find one very local veggie place in Kampong Cham, which was fun. It had red chinese lanterns out the front - not sure if this is a way to identify them! We found the restaurant on Happy Cow.
Malaysia
- This has been a little tricky! Saying 'vegetarian' works with some people, but not others. 'Sayuran' means vegetables. We have successfully ordered nasi / mee goreng (fried rice and noodles) using these words, but also had to pick chicken and prawns out on other occasions (fine for us because Ed will eat anything rather than waste it!)
- We found this page useful for finding out the sorts of things to ask for: http://www.veganfoodquest.com/vegan-guide-to-malaysia/
- The best standard restaurant option seems to be the more Indian-type places that have a buffet of (mostly meat) curries, but also have roti and dosa (usually spelt Thosai). Roti canaii is the plain bread (it's so yummy!) and you can ask for it with daal - they also usually understand the word 'vegetarian' in these places. Lots of the roti and dosa options are veggie, so get to work with google translate - there's usually a menu on the wall. Telur is egg. There are also often veg dishes on the buffet, which you can ask for or help yourself to.
- Nasi lemak can be veggie, but will come with meat as standard. It can work to say 'vegetarian' and to ask for 'telur' (egg) but not 'ayam' (chicken).
- There are actually quite a lot of veggie Chinese buffet places, if you know where to find them! Some are listed on Happy Cow, but google is your friend, as they often use the English word 'vegetarian'. These are usually only open til 3, but always seem to offer takeaway. We have found other veggie restaurants this way too (ie that are open later).
- Standard Chinese restaurants can be a good option but be careful, as the tofu dishes often have pork as well! The few that we tried had English menus, and staff could speak a little English.
- All of this is very easy in the touristy places of course!!! We have been surprised, though, by how few people speak English elsewhere (not what we'd heard before we got here, but we are pretty far into the sticks!)
New Zealand and Australia
- Less veggie-friendly than the UK at least, but there's still pretty much always at least one option on the menu. For self catering, veggie alternatives (eg sausages, mince) are at least double the price of the UK. Happily, tofu is pretty reasonable, and tinned pulses are cheap. Dairy products are expensive, however. Milk alternatives are widely available, but again, expensive (eg $4 per litre for soya milk).
Europe
- Veggie options are surprisingly widespread. Well, we were surprised! Some supermarkets are better than others, and it varies by country (eg Lidl was really good in Italy but less good in Austria).

Toilet related things
- Petrol stations in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Malaysia have free toilets that are often pretty clean. Vietnam petrol stations can also help, but are a lot less appealling!
- Take your own paper. And maybe wet wipes / hand gel.
- You can always grab a coffee and use their loo :)
- New Zealand was actually more of an issue than I'd have expected. All towns have clearly sign-posted public loos, but you can go quite a long way without passing through a town.......and they LOVE roadside fences, which can make it tricky! Bottom line - go when you can!
- Italy doesn't really do public toilets. You will find them in touristy areas and larger stations, but you'll have to pay, sometimes up to a euro. Buying a coffee in a bar is a good option (Espresso only costs about a euro anyway!). Shopping centres have them, and we also found them in the Familia supermarket chain.
- Squat toilets are widespread at Italian campsites, but there is usually at least one 'proper' one.
- Campsites in Italy and France (and, we are told, Holland) often don't provide toilet paper.
- Google maps / maps.me can help with toilet locations in Europe