I'd love to help promote others to travel. Someone mentioned this idea in the thread in OOT I started about my video from my travels and I thought it was a good idea.

A bit about the trip. I traveled to:

Indonesia (Bali, Lombok)
Malayasia (Borneo)
Philippines
Thailand
Vietnam
Laos
Cambodia
Burma
India

Feel free to ask anything you'd like about the trip, or where I was in certain sections of the video. I am a 25 year old from Seattle. I funded these travels 100% from pokers. Here's a link to the video if you'd like to watch.

https://vimeo.com/46065599

thanks for starting this. i'm planning a similar trip soon. some questions to get you started:

what determined the order of your trip? did you plan it all in advance or just go with the flow? what about length of time in each place?

how much poker did you play on your trip? how was internet service, generally? any places where internet service was difficult to come by?

of all the places you visited, the phillipines interests me the least. from what i've seen, it sounds like a ****hole without the culture to make up for it. confirm/deny?

how much did the motor bike cost you and where did you buy it? did you get pulled over and bribed by cops a lot when riding?

you've got some great footage of ppl just going about their days as if the camera is not there. i imagine you must have 5x as much footage of ppl going about their days and then stopping and looking confusedly at the camera? seems like it would be difficult to get a lot of this stuff on video

- I actually started in Australia for a bit to see my sister, and Indonesia was the closest/cheapest and pretty obvious choice to start. And then it was just a matter of convienence/price. I planned nearly nothing. I actually planned to do only 2 months in SE Asia, 3 months in New Zealand, and 1 in Australia, then fly home. As you can tell, that plan deteriorated rather quickly.

-I can't stress enough. Plan as little as you have to. Plans only incorporate more stress/thoughts into your travels. It should be your goal to be tied to as little things as possible. That is what makes it so freeing.

-I played no poker on my trip. This was all money I made before I left. I stopped playing much right before the ban. I play almost none now, except for some live play every couple weeks.

-Philippines was probably my 3rd favorite country. It's hard to even tell people what country they should and should not go to, as it is incredibly dependent on so many variables (people you are with/meet, style of travel, what you are looking for). I had a friend teaching English in the Peace corps in Philippines and this added a completely new dynamic to my travels, as it was the first time I got to see someone I knew. Philippines has so much to offer. Mountains and forests to the North, beaches and jungles everywhere else. If you like islands, I can't recommend a better place. Extreme isolation, and relatively cheap. I found the people there as friendly as anywhere else.

-The motorcycle I bought cost me 300$ US. It was a Russian Minsk. I can put a picture up later if you'd like or just google it. It was ****ing awesome. Pretty much a Mad Max bike. I bought it in Laos, and crossed the Vietnamese border (questionable decision, but worked out ok). I quickly became addicted to this mode of transportation and continued onward into Cambodia with it.

I got pulled over once. The cop spoke no english, and I spoke no vietnamese except for hello/thank you/good bye. He showed me his radar gun of me going 15 km over. I returned an apologetic glance. He happily shook my hand and said good bye. I was a little confused as he could have easily taken some Vietnamese Dong (funny currency name) from me or worse. But the Vietnamese are kick ass people, so as to be expected.

you have excellent cinematography and editing skills.. I thought the music matched the video dead to rights.. what kind of camera/camcorder did you use?

Cool Video, I was in thailand last year and loved it. Really wanted to go to neighboring countries as well especially phillipines but somehow ended up degening most of my time around thailand.
my questions:

-How long was your trip in total? amount of days spent in each country?
-What was your budget for the trip? most/least expensive country?
-any recommendations for anyone planning to do this?
-regrets?
-which parts of thailand did you visit?
-favorite city to visit in the phillipines. why? Best city in phillipines for nightlife

Vid comments say 5d Mark II w/ 24-105 and 50mm 1.4

SICK video! That is some real traveling. I think I speak for many in saying I'm very jealous of how amazingly well you were able to document the trip (and in only 4 minutes). How long did that take to put together?

Can you give a breakdown of how long you spent in each country and how that amount of time felt?

Did you at least have guide books for the area for thinking about where to go?

What security precautions did you take with your equipment?

What other trips have you been on before this?

Do you prefer documenting in video rather than photo? Did you do some of both? A guide I had in Africa was majorly trashtalking video basically saying it's an inferior way I guess because it's less technical and precise? I don't really agree with that and in many ways prefer the video, but feel like putting together a video like you did would be impossible for a newb.

That almost sounds like a post made by me. Also spent a lot of time in the region last year. Also think motorcycle is the best way to travel (cover good amount of ground, go where you please, and still exposed instead of being locked and isolated inside a vehicle)

-Which countries did you cover on a motorcycle, and how did you cross the borders with it? Did the Viet sellers give you all the paperwork and you didn't have any issues? (all sorts of registration and permissions problems related to this.)

-Aside from India and Thailand spots, which places were the most annoying in terms of touts and lack of authenticity?

-Which places were the least touristy and really worth a look?

Excellent job on the video.

Which country/city had the worst traffic? (And least regulations)

I was in Mumbai. Did you encounter anything worse than this?

I only spent some time in a couple of big Indian cities. Are the village and/or non huge cities also full of touts and unauthentic? Or would you see real life?

I'm planning to spend more time in India next summer.

I never felt anywhere in India wasn't authentic

did you try to spend more time with other travelers or with locals that spoke english? which places were easiest/most difficult to meet and befriend locals and not just get hassled to buy ****?

of the other travelers you came across, can you give an approximate breakdown of which regions they were from?

Great vid, wish I was able to put something together like that, I've been to most the the places you went to. There was a clip of Varanasi for a brief second, that brought back a memory of people doing what they do in the Ganges there. There was a lady do her laundry in there, there was a guy brushing his teeth in there using the water, and I kid you not in between them was a guy taking a sh..it in the river no more that 6 feet from either of them

Glad you enjoyed the vid! The trip was 11 months in total (so not quite a year). I spent roughly a month in each country (usually visa allowed for 30days) with 3 months in India.

I didn't really have a budget. I knew I wouldn't run out of money by the time it was over, so I didn't want that to be a major concern. The more I traveled, the less I spent and it became habbit to save as much money as I could (without the expense of the experience. Food/sleeping was usually cut)

My recommendations would be; as I said above, plan as little as possible. It seems a bit terrifying to not plan anything, but I promise you it will make your life so much better. Besides that, the only thing else I recommend is to just go. And do it. It was without a doubt the best thing I've done with my life thus far. The longer you can go the better. It takes a bit of time to settle into the traveling lifestyle. For me, it took about 2-3 months. By the time I hit Philippines I was completely immersed in it.

Regrets? Not asking some cutie out in Cambodia.... In all honesty, not really. I wanted to constantly challenge myself, whether that be through social interactions, doing activities I may not feel comfortable, or go places I was scared of (India frightened me a bit when I first left, and I never thought I would have gone there on this trip). That is what I wanted out of the trip though. To push my levels of comfort, and see how far I could take them. Others may not want that, and that's cool too....

In Thailand I went to Bangkok, hoped on a train North and got off at a random spot which turned out to be Phrae. From there I went to Nan (fantastic town in the North NE section bordering Laos), then to Chang Mei, to Pai, to a buddhist monestary where I did some meditation near Mae Hong Song (sp?), and headed up North to cross into Laos.

My favorite city of Philippiness... hmmm. I didn't go to too many "cities", more smaller villages. But everywhere in Philippines I enjoyed a lot (didnt have time for Manila). I'd recommend Dumagette (off Negros Oriental), as well as Siquijor (Island that is 26km across. Gorgeous). Bohol is also nice. Highly recommend renting and driving motorbikes in all of these places.

As far as "nightlife" goes, I am def not the person to ask. I probably went out the most in Thailand/Vietnam but even that was 4-5 nights out of hte month. With that said, Dumagette seemed like a pretty trendy place. Younger crowd though, as it's a college town.

I felt 1 month in most countries was sufficient to experience a wide array of things, without rushing yourself too much.

I often used Lonley planet books while traveling for some sort of map, as well as locations to sleep. They aren't necessary though, and towards the end I didn't use them at all (which I almost prefered). I'd definitely recommend them to the less traveled person. They provide a sense of security as to where the hell you are and where you are going. You can find them easily right in the country you are in for a lot cheaper. Thailand/Vietnam/Cambodia have plenty of photocopies for a couple bucks each.

Saftey precautions were have the camera with me as often as possible. I had a nice little pack for it which was great cause it didn't look like a camera bag at all. Just a 1 sided sling over the shoulder. With that said, I never once felt as though I was going to robbed/threatened/etc...

in 2009 I went to europe with some friends. It was a good time but in hindsight I was an awful traveler. I would do it completely different if I had the chance again. Live and learn.... I also went to Nepal in 2010 for a month with my father to trek Everest basecamp.

I would like to add that traveling alone is a completely different experience. And I think one that can be the most beneficial for those who are looking for something new. Being alone opens you up to so many more opportunities/meeting new people/learning experiences that I am sure I would not have had otherwise.