50 things I learned while backpacking the past 6 months.

Favourite reading: HPMOR, a harry potter fanfic about rationality exercises. Learned about habit-making, conformity bias.
Language: German. Learned 100 verbs, conjugated in all present tense, and past participle. Approximately A2 knowledge.
Reading: Wolf Hall, Beowulf, The Quiet American, The List, Atomic Habits.
Watching: Ex Machina, Oppenheimer, The Beach, The Mask, Arrival, Interstellar, c
Learned to throw bottle caps in two ways. Can shoot 5 meters reliably, sometimes 10+ meters. Pretty straight and flat.
Best hostel accommodation: Hostelworld. Look for places with 20+ other guests staying. Use map mode to check distance. Usually 1 night in advance is fine.
Motorbike riding: Do not brake while turning a corner. Many people slip out doing this and crash. Instead, straighten up and brake, before turning again. Also, avoid night and rain. These make crashes more likely.
Travel protections: Know your iCloud password, maybe have a backup credit card, backup ID, backup phone somewhere, $50 cash. People often lose stuff, although I got lucky.
Hostel work. When hosting events at a big place like a bar, put a signup sheet at the bar with start time, and a few people already signed up (e.g. you and some friends.). You'll have many other signups in no time and people are committed. Much better engagement than if you just randomly announce that you're gonna start playing some games now.
Hostel games that work well and are easy to manage: Beer Pong (1 hour), Smash Ball (requires billiards table) (30 minutes), Musical Chairs (20 minutes). More planning required but popular: Quiz. You could even include bonus points for physical challenges.
Travel is fun! Very fun. Travelling alone to destinations with lots of hostels is fine. You make friends easily among other solo travellers.
Hostelworld is a useful tool. You can check if a destination is popular by using Hostelworld to see how many people are staying there. This way, you can know that Uzbekistan, for example, has quite a lot of backpackers, but Guyana has very few.
Brits can be annoying. Sometimes you get lucky with hostels and find your people easily. Other times, you can feel a bit separate from large groups of teens travelling together. Don't feel too alone because of this, just chat to the people you vibe with.
In general, you can introduce yourself to anyone in a hostel, especially if they are on their own. Helps to be similar age, but confidence and friendliness is main thing. Be curious and interested in them. Conversation skills like Active Listening comes in handy.
Eating vegan/veggie in south-east asia is hard. Malaysia was easiest, philippines and cambodia harder.
I picked up the ability to recognise a range of ethnicities, languages, currencies.
Ability to convert between GBP and a range of other currencies: USD (Rouhgly is GBP*1.3), EUR (*1.2), AUD (*1.7), CAD (*1.7), Thai Baht (*40), Philippine Peso (*75). Also Cambodia Riel, Laos Kip, Vietnamese Duong, Malay Ringgits, Singapore Dollars.
Carrying a guitar makes you very approachable! Playing at the beach, even carrying it across town made people very friendly towards me.
You don't need to pack many clothes if you are going to countries where clothes are cheap. Markets and malls will have what you need at a cheaper price than you are used to. I found that my style improved lots while travelling and trying new styles in low stakes environments.
Framework for new purchases: Will this be used enough time that it costs $1/use. E.g. will I wear $10 shirt at least ten times? If no then don't buy it.
2nd Framework for new purchases: Daily budget. If buying multiple items, don't spend more than e.g. $10 a day. Keep coming back to the same shop if you must. Sleep on it. I made most regrettable purchases as part of a buying spree. At least I think I did.
Actual backpacks are overrated. Unless you plan to hike and camp a ton, there is no point. A wheely convertible backpack thing (like a duffel back with wheels I suppose) was perfect. Saved me a lot of effort.
When arriving in a new country, you might not have phone signal. It's best to have a plan to get to your destination. The night before, look at hostel, how you will get there, how you will manage without data (get an eSim for one day?). Generally, having a bank card and a translator app is enough to get you anything you need.
Getting phone signal: You can buy eSims online, which give you data anywhere. But these get expensive soon, so better to get a physical sim from a shop and put it in your phone. Packages are more like $10/month for unlimited data.
Vietnam was the cheapest country I visited. Good hostel accommodation is $10 a night, food is about $4 a meal ($12 a day). Motorbike rental is $5 a day. Many people buy and sell motorbikes (150cc or so) for $1000 and do a tour up the length of the country. The prettiest part is from the center upwards (e.g. Hoi An - Ha Giang).
Grab (South-East Asian Uber) is cheaper than hailing taxis on the street, at an airport. Sometimes 60% cheaper. Best to use it.
12Go is the app for trains, buses and ferries. Often get good prices here, easy booking system.
It didn't rain much between jan - july. Some heavy humid downpours, generally fine. Don't pack jumpers or jeans, I never used these. Used raincoats only a few times.
Be wary of friendly strangers. Especially in busy or popular places, e.g. outside clubs, on touristy streets or markets. Lots of scams etc. If you're in doubt, get yourself out of there.
You can use noise to deter crime. If you feel frightened or are being hassled for something, loudly speaking/shouting in whatever language can attract attention.
Socialising lots changes your mood. After days on end spent socialising, people (me included) tend to have a day feeling quite depressed after leaving the group and moving o n.
To make new friends easily, try and make plans and invite other ppl to them. I want to go to this waterfall today, would you like to join? Individuals, couples are easier to engage than groups of like 3+ people.
Generally, I recommend going with the flow, but having a general plan of your route. I worked it out country-by-country, but felt depressed and shit on days where I didn't know what I was doing.
A mistake I kept repeating was linked to indecision. I would get to the last city in a well-known route (e.g. arrive at Laos' capital) and not know where to go next. This caused lots of stress, procrastination, negative feelings, extended stays in places while my friends left. When nearing the last stop in a country, best to plan your next destination in advance of arriving.
The above is sort of applicable in general life. If you don't have a project, while all your friends go places and do interesting things, you feel like a loser. If you can predict that you are about to e.g. finish uni, move back with your parents, lose your job -> best to make a plan (move to Europe? go travelling? volunteer somewhere? get a part-time job?) so you don't feel like a loser.
Instagram is a popular way to keep in touch. You'll find people asking to follow you. Be wary, it is also a great source of procrastination and brainrot.
TikTok is super useful for finding aesthetic cafes and pretty beaches. But again, be wary politics and brainrot. I tended just to rely on the (mainly girls?) who found the cool stuff there.
Try new things. My life has now changed in ways I couldn't have predicted, by doing new things. E.g. a) I like solo backpacking, will do it again. b) I don't like full-time work without a long-term plan, didn't realise I was depressed in London. c) I do like art and poems, will expose myself to more
To make yourself clear to non-native English speakers, speak slowly and loudly, simplify your vocabulary. This is better than being shy and not saying anything. (Watch Seal on Tour's videos to see how he socialises and interacts with people who know basically 0 English).
In hostels, be respectful but don't let people sleeping limit what you do. If you need the bathroom, go pee. If you need something from your case go get it. If you're brave (I'm not always), go wake that person up and tell them to stop snoring.
Earplugs + eyemasks useful for making hostels more comfortable.
Hotels are lonely when solo travelling. You meet no one. Hostels with private rooms are the perfect balance of socialising + comfort.
For a longer trip, it can be nice to break it down by hobby. Like, "I backpackd or 6 months" is less interesting than "I spent 2 months here, here and here", which is still less interesting than "I spent a month in the Philippines with a guitar, a month at a hostel in Vietnam, a month teaching in a school for refugees, a month on beaches in Cambodia" etc. It's nice to find a narrative arc.
Keep a Tupperware for your souvenirs. You might end up with lots of little trinkets and its good to keep them somewhere. At first it was just a pocket in my bag but that was messy and worse than having a little dedicated box.
Similarly, looking after your documents in a plastic wallet or a Tupperware makes you look very organised. If you can get backups of everything (backup bank card, backup phone, second ID) then it makes your life easy in the case where you lose something. Oh and make sure you know your Google and iCloud passwords. If you lose a phone that could rlly mess you up otherwise.
Strike a balance between going with the flow and having contingency plans. I like to just turn up places with little plan, but I was careful to keep my cash, cards, ID separate etc. And have an idea of how I would deal with any tricky situations like losing a phone.
People love to see you happy. Be bold, go at your own speed, be yourself. At the end of the day, no one cares or will remember what you do.
People love to hear stories of you living your life. I'm backpacking and learning languages and finding out what makes me happy is something that older relatives or adults love to hear from you. "I'm working my job" is much less interesting.
Relationships. Some people might tell you they get attached easily, e.g. about an ex they still think about often. If you don't want anything serious with them, best to avoid this kind of person, even if they reassure you that you won't hurt them.