Tips for the canny traveler

 

 
 

Tips by country

Indonesia

Malaysia
  

There's a difference between a canny traveler and a mean one. It's great to find unexpected savings and fun to go looking for bargains, but if you're going to spend a long time haggling to get something for $1.97 instead of $2 or get angry because you can't get the exact price locals pay for something, you're not going to have a very good holiday. Here are some general tips, monetary and otherwise, as well as links above to more specific tips on places we visit.

EATING

As there has been some confusion with the terminology I use, I am clarifying it here with a little pictorial assistance. Doesn't matter which country you go to, you'll always find the same line-up. Pictures of all the types most would be unfamiliar with will be here when I can upload them.

Posh restaurants

 

 

 You won't be reading anything about posh restaurants on these pages, so I won't bother

Tourist Restaurants

 

 Aimed squarely at the tourist and middle class locals, these restaurants cost about half the price of posh restaurants. For your money, you get air conditioning, sturdy and probably comfortable chairs, printed menus, waiters who speak English, china plates, matching cutlery and clean toilets.

Local Restaurants

 

 Because their clientele is the local middle class and the occasional tourist who wanders in, local restaurants rely on repeat trade so they have to be consistently good and provide good value for money. You can probably take a zero off the price of a meal in a posh restaurant. Again, you get air conditioning, sturdy chairs, printed menus (they will usually have one in English although it may take time to find it), waiters - at least one member of staff usually speaks a bit of English - china plates, maybe matching cutlery and maybe clean toilets.

Canteens

 

 A step below local restaurants and usually 10-20% cheaper, canteens are for locals. They are in open shop-front buildings, often with extra capacity outside. Chairs and tables are of the cheap plastic garden variety, plates are plastic and cutlery is rarely a matching pair. The menu - when they have one - is on the wall, never in English and it's rare to find someone who speaks it, so ordering food is often by pointing and sign language. Toilets are usually best avoided.

Warungs

 

 Warung is the Indonesian/Malaysian word for eating place, and we use it to refer to a particular kind of establishment where ever we are in the world. A step below canteens and usually about 10% cheaper, warungs are also for locals. They are permanent but generally makeshift buildings, usually with only two or three tables. They have running water and electricity (or battery powered lights and gas cooking). Either wooden benches or really cheap plastic chairs (that try to do the splits under westerners weight) make up the seating. Plates are plastic and cutlery, when they have it, is never a matching pair. There are no menus although occasional warungs will have something up on a wall. It's very rare to find anyone who speaks English, but they tend to specialise in one or two meals, so it's easy as there isn't much choice. If you're game, they're great value and do good trade in take away's.

Food stalls

 

 Costing slightly less than warungs, food stalls tend to congregate together at night along a street, in a car park or area of a market. The stall holders have regular pitches and regular customers. If it is an organised spot - either organised by the land owner, council or traders themselves, there are communal cheap plastic, wooden or folding chairs and tables and it all works a bit like a food court. There may even be an electricity supply which traders can hook into, and (rarely) a water supply. Food stalls not in organised "courts" bring along their tables and chairs and set up in the same place each night. They all use gas or fire to cook and a bucket of water lasts all night for washing up the plastic plates. They specialise in one or maybe two dishes, and will point you to a neighboring stall where you can get bread to go with your chicken and rice and to another stall where you can get drinks.

Food Carts

 

 Very mobile but not always on wheels, food carts only have one item on their menu - often grilled satay, soup, steamed dumplings or sticky sweet things for pudding or drinks. Often they have regular spots around the edges of food stall gatherings. As with food stalls, warungs and canteens, a bit of common sense has to be exercised - high turnover means regular customers and hopefully that the food hasn't been sitting around for too long.

Padang Restaurants

 

 Named after the town in Sumatra, Indonesia, Padang style restaurants are the ones most travel guides tell you to avoid. In a true Padang restaurant (which is hardly ever a local restaurant and almost always a canteen) you get a plate of rice and your table is filled up with small plates of everything they sell to go with it. At the end of your meal, someone looks at how many dishes you've had and you're charged accordingly. Mostly there are Padang style restaurants, where someone puts the rice on your plate and you help yourself to whichever dishes you want - the larger ones are just like self-service buffets with bain-marie type serving dishes, the smaller ones have a collection of plates and large bowls at the front counter, displayed so they can be seen from the street to tempt customers. Once you sit down, someone will check out what's on your plate and tells you how much it costs. In all types, the rice is warm (either in a rice warmer or more likely in a large insulated tub) and the curries, veggies, fried and grilled chicken and fish is hot when it's put out but not kept warm and is cold within an hour at most. It doesn't sound very appetising, but you really don't notice that it's cold when you're eating - probably because it's spicy and the rice is warm. The standards of Padang style restaurants differ widely. Some are spotless while others look really grubby and it goes without saying that you don't know how long the food has been sitting there (the reason the guide books tell you to avoid them), but they are all permanent eateries and can't afford to poison their regular customers. We've never had a problem eating from these places and have had some of the best meals ever in them. Often the owner or a staff member will indicate that we shouldn't try a particular dish we're hovering near, probably because it would be too spicy or hot for western tastes. A very good feed can be had for less than A$1.50/60p. Indonesia and Malaysia are full of them, can't remember if the have them in Thailand (will update when we get there).

Eating different foods when you're traveling is great fun. Sadly, so many people are paranoid about eating with the locals and refuse point blank. While it pays to be cautious it isn't something you should be scared to do. There has only been one time we have both copped a really bad dose of food poisoning, and the only thing we'd eaten that day was breakfast at our 4 star hotel. Food hygiene depends not on the kitchen but the person. No matter how good the chef is at a top class restaurant, it takes just one single member of the kitchen or waiting staff with poor food hygiene standards (either through lack of knowledge or laziness) to cause you to spend a bit of quality time counting the wall tiles in the toilet. At the other end of the scale, I've been surprised several times to see very high standards at the bottom of the food chain. Mostly, where ever you go you'll find food hygiene somewhere in the middle. If it's busy, it's probably OK. Repeat business is the lifeblood of these eateries, so they can't afford to make their customers sick or they'll be out of business very quickly. The other thing if you stick to the cheaper places is that the food costs so little it won't matter if you don't like it. Just order something else, or go somewhere else.

PACKING

It's been said so many times, but it's true. Lay everything out on the bed. Take half of it away. Now take another half of it away. You probably still have too much. Nobody is going to notice that you wore the same clothes to dinner every other night. Even if they do, they won't care. Ditto swimming costume. Ditto everything else. Take a sachet of soap powder, or better still buy one when you arrive. Where ever you go, if the hotel doesn't supply it or you really want your own brand of soap or shampoo you can buy it. And deodorant and all other things you might need. Forget the perfume and aftershave -they attract mozzies. You're on holiday so give your hair a holiday from all the sticky stuff and heated curlers and staighteners and hairdryers. Your face can get a break from the makeup too. In any case, if it's hot your make up will probably be sweated off or due to its nature melt with the heat. In either case, not a good look. Forget the "just in case" things - you can buy them if you need them, although you probably won't. And ditch the hand luggage. Please. I get really annoyed when our one small bag (between us, and we have to have it for the laptop) won't go in the overhead lockers because everyone else brought more hand luggage than we checked in. Thankfully, discount airlines are a lot stricter in applying the maximum number/size/weight than full service ones.

PAYING

Being ripped off is, unfortunately, part of the deal when traveling in developing countries. Paying a premium is something I can live with - compared to many people in poor countries we are very rich. Being taken for a sucker however, is not something I take lightly. I've walked away, thirsty, from a shop which tried to charge me 3 times the going rate for a bottle of water. The best way to avoid being overcharged is to NOT ask how much something is. Hand over a note looking confidently. More often than not it will be assumed that if you do this you must know the correct price so will be charged accordingly. If it seems a lot, you can put a questioning look on when they give you the change - this often results in their discovering an error in their calculations and giving you more change. This goes for everything from buying things at mini marts to paying bus fares or anywhere else where a premium might be added to the price. Obviously two times you can't do this is when eating or in taxis - it's too late to argue when you've already eaten or arrived so make sure you know what you're going to be paying in advance.

MEETING THE LOCALS

Man and woman go into a bar, people nod hello, go back to their drinking. Man walks into a bar, someone strikes up a conversation or a group invite him to join them. It's not made up, it happens. Everywhere. Fortunately for us, we're different from each other. Peter is a very sociable creature, likes meeting and talking to people. Also likes going into bars. And beer. I'd rather cuddle up with a good book or the laptop. Like meeting new people but don't like going into bars. It's boring - probably because nobody talks to us. So once or twice a week, Peter ventures out into the night (not to trendy bars, just to the local watering hole), leaving me to my own devises and comes back with arrangements, invitations, a list of places we've got to see and food we've got to try and a host of new friends. Sorry to all the Sisters out there, but the best way to mingle is to keep it male. There's a strong (or should that be sad) solidarity amongst the lone male drinking fraternity.