I knew the same amount as you then when I started a 12 day tour in Thailand. Even though the bike had been serviced maybe 400 miles prior I managed to mess up the front brake during the transporting of the bike, I lost a spoke and the back wheel went out of true, and my soft ride soft stem lost one of its brushings and failed.

The front brake sort of worked it had slowing power if not stopping power, so I wasn't to worried about that. The broken spoke and the wheel out of true sort of was a problem as I did not know how to fix it and I ended up doing completely without back brakes, which wasn't too bad as Thailand is pretty flat, and I did have slowing power with the front brake. The soft stem was kind of a problem as it could not be fixed over there, so I had that switched out when the chance arose.

Next time I will plan better and try to know how to do simple things especially with the spokes and tires, and bring more than two of the same size allen wrench.

my story is at www.thailand.crazyguyonabike.com