To all experienced travelers of /trv/: What were some things

getting dumped by the girl you moved there for a week after getting in country was kinda a curveball

>>1154502
cuck

>>1154030
Crossing the border from Lao into Cambodia, I didn't realize that there were no places to get USD within 30 km of the border when you need to pay for your visa in USD, and also to be able to bribe the Laotian border guards who are working with the bus drivers in order to shake down as much money as possible from you under the threat of taking you to commie jails.

Yellow dust coming from China.

I live in Korea. Fucking bullshit man.

>>1154502
Welp.. so you changed countries for a girl and she dumped you a week after settling in? Tell us the full story, Anon.

>>1154518
Similarly, I wound up short of USD cash at Kathmandu airport, when I had to pay for both a passport-sized visa photo (there was a little photo booth right at the visa on arrival desk) and the visa itself.

There were no working ATMs anywhere in the airport at the time (most parts of the airport have limited electricity), and none between my arrival gate and the visa desk anyhow. I tried to pay for the visa in Hong Kong dollars, which I had in my wallet; nope. Exchange booth didn't want them either. I was saved when a fellow passenger on my flight, a guy from Zhuhai who for some reason had a wallet full of Nepalese rupees, was willing to trade me some for my HKD. Got the pictures, used the last of my USD on the visa, and went on my way, but I was sweating bullets for a bit.

Lessons learned:
>you should always have a supply of USD on you when in transit--hopefully crisp, since many countries won't take worn bills. Nowadays I don't go anywhere without at least $200 available on my person.
>Carry passport photos. You can get them for almost nothing almost anywhere. But if you don't have them when you need them, you'll regret it.

>>1154518
Kekt and rekt, I did it the other way around but was aware of that beforehand. Lots of others weren't tho and they they were not allowed to continue on the bus. Always prepare yourself for border passages like that.

>>1154628
>supply of USD
For us non-Americans, do other big denominations work? Think €, £, heck even rubles?

>>1154638
No, although I managed to use Euros in the middle of fuckin nowhere in Lao at a gas station once. It was after I already filled up and was basically pushing Euros into their hands for 2 mins tho, pretending like I didn't understand a fuck. Fuckin kek, thanks for making me remember.

If being told off lots of times with Euros tho in SEA, Africa and SA.

>>1154639
If = I've

>>1154638
€ will often work at visa desks, and are always going to be accepted by exchange counters, as will pounds. If I recall correctly the Kathmandu visa people would even take £ from UK passport holders for visa fees. But USD are definitely the most commonly requested currency I've seen among officials in Asia.

>>1154639
>>1154648
Interesting. Now to find a way to get $ from a € bank account without being fleeced by exchange rates!

>>1154657
there's no avoiding exchange rates desu, I don't even Bother to check them. I always get a nice amount of dollars at the airport for cases of energency.

>>1154657
There are an increasing number of international banks in Southeast Asia, at least, that will offer USD from their ATMs in addition to local currency. It's long been universal in Cambodia, where the economy has been dollarized for many years now (riel are given as change, or used for very small transactions among locals, but dollars are the primary currency), but when I was in Laos last year I was surprised to see that one of the BCEL ATMs in Vientiane also had an option to dispense in kip or USD; that wasn't possible until pretty recently. It's also almost always possible to use Thai baht in Laos, although there may be some grumbling and it has been officially discouraged for years now. I'm pretty sure there are international ATMs that dispense USD or dong in major Vietnamese cities, too.

But really, I think euros are nearly as useful in Asia--if you can't hand them to an official they will have an exchange booth nearby. Yeah, you will lose money to fees, but not THAT much money.

And once you are through immigration and inside the country all transactions are going to be in local currency anyway (except in Cambodia).

>>1154617
I went as a tourist and was gonna stay there for the duration of my visa, so it's not like I left my entire life behind.

Either way, I think she was just going through post travel depression, was hormonal because she'd gotten a new birth control, and was facing a bunch of crap from her school and bank. When I came over and nothing magically got amazing, she probly thought "I've fallen out of love" and dumped me. I think she jumped the gun but it is what it is

>>1154030
Went to a country where i didnt need a visa, didnt make reservations for hotel, get stopped and semi detained by customs for not filling in a local adress / contact person on entry form.

Call first hotel in Travel Guide, using customs phone. Nodding spelling name, uhuh uhuh ok thanks. Hang up. Give customs guy thumbs up. Write down the adress.

So from now on I make sure i have a bogus adress to write down if needed.

>>1154879
'Are you me'

>Went to a country where i didnt need a visa
Check.

>didnt make reservations for hotel
Check.

I actually had researched one and had a printed map with the street name and location (which did jack shit), when they were handing out the cards in the plane I didn't care for them

>get stopped and semi detained by customs
Check.

Scrambled to find a damned pen in the airport

>Same trip
>I wasn't ready for people around me not to speak perfect English

Not Anglosphere myself, but I assumed everybody everywhere was fluent.
Boy was I wrong.