10 Travelling Questions: Ask Something Different

An alternative to 'Where have you been? Where are you going next?' etc yawn yawn...

Travel.
The inspiration for numerous questions.

If you're backpacking around the world, or even planning a backpacker trip, then an excellent twitter account to follow is @STATravel_UK, and they recently raised a very valid point when they tweeted...

"Everyone asks the same travelling Qs: Where are you from? Where are you going? How long? Ask something different & we'll re-tweet the best."

After a few months of backpacking the standard introductory backpacker questions definitely become repetititive, so it's good to vary things up by asking a few alternative questions.  STA Travel UK's tweet drew a number of interesting suggestions for questions to ask on your travels, and I've featured the best suggestions below...

1) "If you had to pick one place you've travelled to settle down & live where would it be? #travel"
@STATravel_UK

Map Of Haad Rin Hostels

Before booking your Haad Rin acommodation, check out the locations of all of Haad Rin's hostels.

Haad Rin Guide Book features various maps focusing on the various locations in and around Haad Rin, such as Sunrise Beach, Sunset Beach, Leela Beach, Haad Rin Village, etc.  Also included are maps focusing on a specific theme, such as hostels, hotels and restaurants.

You can check out all of the maps in the Haad Rin Guide Book, but to give you an idea of what to expect, here's a map of the hostels found in Haad Rin.

Other Destinations: Koh Phi Phi

Beyond Koh Phangan: Taking a look at other popular destinations in Thailand.

Long Beach, one of Koh Phi Phi's most beautiful beaches.

As you'd expect, the Haad Rin Guide Book focuses mainly on Haad Rin itself, but the guide book does also include a couple of other general sections relating to Thailand.

One such section is the 'After Haad Rin - Moving On' section, which features a brief round up of some of the most popular destinations that people head to after Koh Phangan.  When writing the round up, I’ve tried to take into account the opinions and preferences of everyone I’ve met over the years in Thailand, and not just rely on my own opinion.

The descriptions for each destination are fairly brief, and only intended to give readers a very basic idea of what to expect.  As an example, here's the entry for Koh Phi Phi...

The Fire Hoop: Win Or Lose?

Backpackers risking life and limb in the name of entertainment...

The fire hoop.

I've mentioned before on this blog that a popular late night form of entertainment on Haad Rin Sunrise Beach is the fire skipping rope, where drunken backpackers attempt to skip with fire ... not always successfully.

The fire skipping rope isn't the only fire related late night activity that you'll find in Thailand though, and other fire activities include the fire limbo, fire jugglers, flame throwers and a particularly dangerous fire activity ... the fire hoop.

The video below features drunken backpackers attempting to jump through a flaming hoop of fire ... with mixed results.  To make things a bit more interesting though, rather than just edit together a compilation of fire jumps, the clips are instead presented in the form of a quiz...

Basic Map Of Haad Rin

...and street name index.

I’m not a professional cartographer, so the maps featured in the Haad Rin Guide Book won’t win any awards for graphic design.  However, the locations of hotels, hostels, restaurants and other landmarks are accurate, so the maps in the guide book should be a practical help for first time visitors to Haad Rin.

Where maps have been included, their purpose is to help you find your way around Haad Rin, so rather than use the official Thai street names, I’ve referred to streets and lanes by their 'unofficial' backpacker names.  This should be more helpful for finding your way around, as for example the term ‘Restaurant Lane’ will mean more than ‘Soi Tonson’.

As an example, here’s the first map from the guide book which is a basic map of Haad Rin:

The Key Locations For Visitors To Haad Rin

If you’ve never been to Haad Rin yet, then here's a summary of the key locations you need to know about:

Haad Rin Sunrise Beach pictured in the
early morning when it's peaceful and quiet.

Koh Phangan:

The tropical island in Southern Thailand where Haad Rin is located.

Haad Rin Sunrise Beach:

Haad Rin has two beaches, but the main beach and the most popular beach for sunbathing is Haad Rin Sunrise Beach (also known as Haad Rin Nok, 'nok' being Thai for sunrise).

Haad Rin Sunset Beach:

Haad Rin Sunset Beach (Haad Rin Nai) is only a five or ten minute walk across the peninsula from Sunrise Beach, and although the actual beach itself is not a great beach, the area is popular with people who want to stay somewhere a bit quieter where they can sleep at night without hearing the music from the clubs on Sunrise Beach.