Asia Adult Guide

Reference

Before you go

A pre-trip checklist for adult travellers heading anywhere in the eleven countries this site covers. The point is not to scare you out of going; it is to surface the small set of preparations that materially reduce risk and that almost everyone forgets until it's too late.

1. Legal review of your destination

Read the country page for your destination before you book. The single most common avoidable mistake is arriving in a jurisdiction whose legal regime is materially different from what the traveller assumed. The two surprises that catch people: (a) Indonesia's revised Criminal Code (KUHP), in force since January 2026, criminalises extramarital sex generally — this is a major change from pre-2026 Indonesia and applies to tourists. (b) South Korea's 2004 Act criminalises buyers as well as sellers — Korea is actively enforcing this, not nominally.

Also read the comparative legal table for a one-screen overview of all eleven countries.

2. Travel insurance that actually covers what you need

Standard travel insurance covers accidents and hospitalisation. What you specifically want to confirm for adult-travel risk: that emergency-room visits including STI testing and PEP are covered without "moral hazard" exclusions; that drink-spiking and related theft are covered as theft (not as voluntary loss); that you have a 24-hour English-language claim line. Most premium policies (World Nomads, SafetyWing, AXA) cover these; the cheapest policies frequently exclude them.

3. PEP awareness — the 72-hour rule

Post-exposure prophylaxis is a 28-day antiretroviral regimen that prevents HIV infection if started within 72 hours of exposure (sooner is much better; within 24 hours is the meaningful efficacy threshold). PEP is available across every country on this site at major hospital emergency departments. Know before you go which hospital in your destination city stocks it on weekends and at night — the health page has the country-by-country snapshot.

4. Embassy and consular contact

Save your embassy's consular emergency line into your phone before you fly. Don't rely on finding it after an incident. Most embassies publish a 24-hour emergency number that is distinct from the daytime business line. Carry a paper card in your wallet with: your name as on passport, passport number, embassy address in local script, embassy emergency number. The card has rescued more travellers in Bangkok hospital emergency rooms than any other single preparation.

5. Cash, card, e-wallet

Money strategy varies sharply by country:

Set a hard cash limit for an evening out and stick to it. Most reported major financial losses in the region trace back to a customer who set out with "some" cash and made unplanned ATM trips during the evening.

6. SIM / eSIM and connectivity

Buy a local SIM or eSIM at the airport on arrival. Roaming is sometimes adequate but in many countries data roaming is throttled or expensive enough to nudge travellers toward not using their phone — exactly the situation in which a scam plays out. Reasonable data costs essentially nothing in any of these countries; have full data the entire trip.

7. Passport and document backup

8. What to leave at home

9. What to download

10. Mental-health prep

This sometimes gets eye-rolled but matters. If you are travelling alone and unwell mentally going in, an adult-travel-heavy schedule does not improve things. The Tokyo English Lifeline (TELL), Korea's Lifeline Korea, and Bangkok's Samaritans Thailand have English-speaking crisis lines for travellers in distress. Save those numbers alongside the embassy line.

Quick checklist (printable)