Traveling to Asia and within Asia is significantly cheaper than travelling through Europe. Your pre-trip medical expenses will be a lot higher though - but it is good to be prepared and chemists are few and far between and standard items you can buy anywhere at home may not be available so do some research and take sufficient items for the duration of your trip. I packed a first aid kit given we were going into some remote areas with simple additions like stingose, ibuprofen, sunscreen, etc.
I got the standard set of shots required for Asia, but didn't bother getting Rabies shots and whilst I purchased Malaria tablets, I didn't bother taking them after talking to my traveling companions and their experiences. I was covering myself in bug spray/lotion when we were in wilderness areas as the bugs can get a bit friendly.
My travel weight was more than what I was aiming for as I was going to summit a mountain that gets under 0 degrees at the summit so I took my hiking gear, poles, boots, pack, base layers, 3 x camera's, 4 x lens, weatherproof gear, survival gear, electronics, etc and was carrying around 25 kgs of luggage which was a bit much for keeping on the move.
Some good travel hints from my experience is carry your own toilet paper and carry money with you as the use of credit cards is very limited. Sometimes you will be expected to pay for public toilets, but don't expect that they will be clean or have toilet paper! You usually can find western toilets but the locals use them the same way as their pit toilets so expect footmarks on the seat and water everywhere and you won't be disappointed :-o
Most everyday in Asia got to around 33 degrees and humid - bit of a standard all year round in Borneo. Any sort of outdoor activity would leave you with sweat rolling off you and the need to change your shirt a couple of times a day. Lightweight quick dry clothes are a must for travelling in Asia!
Water bottles are available everywhere - don't drink water from taps. We ate at food markets most days to immerse ourselves in the local culture and didn't end up getting sick. You get to know the more risky food preparation stalls so just avoid them. As I was travelling with foodies, we did a lot of googling looking for recommendations for the best food markets and stalls as well as meeting locals and looking for their recommendations as to the best food on offer.
The smoke haze from Indonesia is appalling. This trip was in August/September and apparently the haze starts around July and goes through to November and some days are worse than others! The two days before I left to come home I was considering a face mask as it felt like grit going into my throat/lungs and we were all coughing and heading to aircon whenever we could.
This is the haze around Tawau on the way to the airport - we stopped for a drink at the local golf club to kill some time before our flight.
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