Put all the clothes you’re going to take on your bed. Remove a third. Then another third. Now pack. It’s cheaper to buy new ones in Asia anyway.

Don’t assume that flights are more expensive than bus, for instance – it’s cheaper to fly from Brisbane to Cairns than get the bus – and it’s a hell of a lot quicker. Check several airlines, too. Competition is good for the consumer and Asia alone must have a dozen budget airlines.

An important thing to get right are your visas. You can be refused entry to a country, or even on the flight there, if you’ve neglected to organise this.

Project Visa

lists visa regulations for every country.

Before visiting somewhere, check out the Foreign Office web site. The information is predominantly for Brits, but also includes useful information on crime rates, customs, departure fees and so forth. Not all the same information is available for all countries, but it’s a good start. Also worth a look is Couchsurfing.com – join up and ask questions in the chat room.

Two handy web sites: XE.com and Google for currency conversion. I think Google uses XE, but if you know the shorthands for the currencies, Google can be quicker than messing with drop-downs. As a test, go to Google and enter “1 GBP in INR” (no quotes) to get the number of Indian Rupees in a British Pound. As an aside, Google will also do unit of measurement conversions and maths!