Sharpshin

True, but they do thrive in crowded warm environments and dilapidated structures as is typical in the poor tropics. I suspect the "most bedbug reports" thing is more an artifact of who is doing the reporting.

OTOH iif you ARE in such an environment and it is conspicuously bug-free one must suspect the unrestrained and unregulated use of hard pesticides.

Back in the days in Ghana DDT (a persistent chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticide) was commonly used variously as a) shampoo to control head lice b) occasionally applied to cuts in the belief it would kill infections c) dumped into streams to kill fish for market and d) sprayed by hand directly onto our stored grain at the school I taught at to control weevils.

This was back when DDT was given along with other sorts of aid, I dunno how widespread it is today. I imagine I still carry more'n my share.

Mike

Machka 

I guess you don't realise how big the world is and how much time it takes to see it all.


And my point was that Taiwan is a tropical (the topic at hand) place ... and indoor accommodation can be had for inexpensive prices there.

Machka 

It would really help us give better answers if we knew what you were talking about Niles.

There's a difference if you're going to a rural area vs. an urban area.
There's a difference if you're going to be at a beach most of the time vs. jungle. If you look up tropical zones on the
maps, I believe, desert regions fall into that. Sleeping in the desert is another situation entirely.
There's a difference when it comes to the part of the world. The northern part of Australia, where I've travelled and
camped, is tropical or semi-tropical ... but that could be a different situation than going to Asia or Africa or South
America.

Sharpshin

I'll 'fess up.

My own bias would be to conciously avoid looking too geeked out with the latest trendy equipment, besides the fact that simpler is usually cheaper and less costly to replace.

Already, if you're in the poor tropics you're going to look impossibly wealthy, you ARE imposibly wealthy by local standards. The fact that you have the means AND the free time to travel is gonna set you apart, and your bike, unless its local like a 40lb Chinese Flying Pigeon brand or whatever, is going to look waaaay cool.

For sleeping I'd go with what the locals use (which is likely a straw mat and a cotton sheet) with the exception I'd always bring mosquito netting to use if needed, and there's lots of locations where it ain't. Surprisingly even where I was, where the malaria infection rate was 100%, there weren't that many mosquitoes.

Hi tech tents, silk sheets and hammocks? I'd just feel too much like a mark.

All this FWIW from someone who ain't toured yet at all, and certainly not in the Tropics.

Mike

axolotl

Huh? I know quite well how large the world is. Do you know?

It just seems odd that when flying around the world, you carefully avoided all developing countries. A trip around the globe, whether by air, boat, or bike, seems to me somehow less than truly experiencing what the entire world offers if the majority of the world is deliberately avoided. I'm curious why you limited yourself to wealthy, developed countries?

BLYTZPK

Campmor sells a sleeping bag liner...with headnet...and gloves.

Machka 

[HR][/HR]


And now ... back to the tropics ... wherever they may be.