Pre-planning sucks! My trusty Rough Guide travel book tells me I need a visa for travel to China, Laos, and Vietnam. Visas are really annoying and do much to deter travelers. I can get a 15-day tourist visa on entry into Laos for $30USD entering from Thailand (but only via Vientiane and Nong Khai). However for the same visa entering from Vietnam would cost me $20USD more plus several processing days. Making matters even more complex, I could probably enter with a visit visa which allows an extendable 30-day stay for $6USD from the Laosian Embassy in Bangkok. My advice to developing countries looking for supplemental tourist income: DROP THE VISAS!
I had considered bringing a Pocket PC device along on my travels but I think instead it?s going to be replaced with my laptop, since I intend on spending longer periods of time in certain areas. Pocket PC devices do however have potential for backpackers, although I have yet to encounter a backpacker who has carried one. Imagine a handheld device with integrated speech recognition and speakerphone that can seamlessly translate phrases from one language to another. Searching for ?PDA Translator? in google comes up with several software vendors trying to accomplish this, however processing power and storage capabilities for most PDAs still aren?t quite there. Other travel technology I use religiously: Noise-Canceling Ear Plugs (for long airplane rides), Garmin GPS, and a GSM Cell Phone?the rest of my suitcase is pretty low tech.
My travel buddy who was ditching out on me to interview for a cushy civil servant job, has decided he will in fact join me but only for 3 weeks. This leaves me too much free time to wonder around Southeast Asia, so I?ve contemplating volunteering in the area. Anyway, more information is to come but I?m looking for rural underprivileged youth volunteer work.