I was just now asked on Facebook for any travel tips, by a friend soon to join the silly amongst us humans and stick a multitude of things inside of various containers, jump into a big metal thing with wings, and arrive somewhere hot, leaving the rest of you English, sniffling cold-sufferers alone for a bit.
My advice, predictably enough, turned into a short essay but I'll make use of it and share the crux and nubbin of the matters here, for the benefit of all 
This is the cynical advice of someone who just may have been in India a tiny bit too long:
"....regardless of your desire to not backpack it and live in a little more luxury, and your ability to take vast truckloads of luggage if you wanted to, don't bother.
You really do not need curling tongs and hair straighteners in the middle of Indonesia, nor hairdryers, nor more than about 6 sets of clothes (yes, only six sets maximum, even for a woman!! 
) and basically you can eliminate a whole bunch of the creature comforts you may have been thinking of taking. They weigh a lot, and every item you bring brings with it a small amount of inherent worry ("will it work? Have I lost it? Will it get stolen? Why does it weigh so fucking much?")
If you're staying in mid-range hotels, all you need are your MINIMUM toiletries and suchlike, forget all the voodoo potions you women love to anoint themselves with (the friend in question is actually not one of the crazy ones but still I had to mention it - and a certain lady friend of mine is likely to poke me in the eyes for saying this much, too 
) keep it to a minimum - and basically enjoy the fact you'll be getting hot, or at least warm water everywhere, probably room service if you want it, and the daily cleansing and changing of your bed linen which is something I find such a luxury in some of these nicer places that I'm practically hanging from the doorman's leg when I check out screaming "Can I live here Can I live here Can I live here PLLLEEEEEAAAASSSSE????"
On a more sensible, realistic note: work out your daily budget, work it out in English then in whatever currency you will be using - and allow for percentage reductions in the exchange rate.
Whatever the rate is it'll be a bit worse when you change it of course - and it has a nasty habit of going down once you've got somewhere!
I was banking on 83 rupees to the pound when I left on November 5th, easily allowing we to convert daily spends from 80 rupees and being pretty accurate, only slightly too optimistic - but it has dropped to 76 rupees per pound now which means I NOW have to calculate everything at only 70 per pound - which is a big difference, one seventh less affordable!!!
The problem is whenever you draw money out, Indian banks take a fee. English banks take a fee too if you're not prepared, and if you're not prepared you will end up losing maybe a hundred quid or more over time! Not good.
What you need, this is almost my best advice ever by the way, is to open a new bank account if haven't got the right one already. The Nationwide Flexaccount with the Nationwide Visa Debit card is the ONLY cashcard you can use abroad without being charged, by the english bank at least. Foreign banks may still charge, but you can cut the cost of all this fee-charging evilness in half by getting the right account and the right card - and it's a Visa, so it will work in every cash machine ever made.
If I hadn't done this, I've estimated I would have lost well over £50 just in the English bank fees already, which is enough to keep me living in this country for over week...
Do it. Go to nationwide and open the account, if you haven't already got it
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I do miss Romsey, the latest thing about the trek in Madikeri even mentions the Olive Tree - lol!
Other tips... be ready for when you arrive because you're gonna be a target for touts and low-level cons straight away. Basically, this is probably the best thing to bear in mind when travelling anywhere and especially where you don't speak the native language fluently, NEVER go along with anything anyone approaches you with.
Always find it yourself.
If the people right outside your airport come and ask if you want a taxi, they are gonna rip you off completely, possibly even worse, bad and evil things could happen to a young lady - how do you know who the hell is a proper taxi driver in a country you've been in less than 90 minutes?
Book taxis from inside the airport, there's always a desk, don't leave the airport for any reason until you have done because security wont let you get back in (all part of the same scam network, in many places) and the taxi desk will give you the license number of your car or bring the driver in for you or something - and always, always, always agree the price before you go anywhere!
Even now I never get into a taxi until the driver has given me the price, or punch-started the meter. I accidentally got into one while distracted just a week ago and realised I hadn't got a price - I was given triple the rate and once you're inside, they can argue and argue and argue until you agree, and if you refuse they simply wont stop driving, seriously.
The German guy Stefan from that last blog about trekking? He got into this situation and ended up stopping the cab by grabbing the driver by the throat, besically he only got proper treatment and a proper price because he knows can handle himself - he was just being driven around and around because he wouldn't agree to the inflated price. He even actually paid the right rate after all that, even if he did just throw the deflated sum at the driver in disgust before walking away!
Messy old business - it's part of the honour system in parts of Asia; agree ALL prices for everything in advance and they will be a fair - start receiving any service like a taxi ride, or take hold of some goods or something without them first telling you the price, and they are virtually ALLOWED to rip you off, pretty much.
The culture supports this, and sometimes you can end up arguing with a small crowd over a hiked-up price because someone has dragged their mates into it. This happened most often in Goa with taxi drivers, I heard plenty of stories about it and vaguely involved myself with other sympathetic passers by in other, random traveller's arguments a few times, on their side of course, knowing what was going on.
Being harassed in broken, limited, intimidating English ("You pay!!" "You take it, you Pay!! Pay, pay now!!") by a whole group of shouty foreign people is something you can probably do without ;o)
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Anyway that's all I can think off right now - of course in India it's quite a lot more hardcore than some other places, but if you're going to Bali, bear in mind it is a HUGE tourist place as well and where the tourism is big, the exploiters of tourists are both hardcore and brutal.
And by the standards of some societies, right is on their side not yours when in the middle of a ripoff, so they can drag passers-by into the argument.
Now I dunno if S.E. Asia (Thailand, 'Nam, Laos etc) is as harsh as India, in that respect and by all accounts it's actually a lot nicer, but still, agree prices up front, and find whatever you need YOURSELF. From haircuts to food to taxis to money changers. Especially money changers ;o) Get everything with your Visa card.
Don't follow touts to "hotels they know, very cheap, very nice", don't take bottled water from kids who just come up and offer it to you, don't buy anything anyone brings to you - go to it yourself.
Here endeth the lesson - have I become hard and cynical, at all? 
Laters mate"
I hope that wasn't too jaded a message to send someone about to leave for another country...
Travel advice is welcomed when it comes from a person that just came back from a trip. It's always more interesting and personal than any other guide. The first traveling agency to have a web page for its clients was European Cruises. They gave the clients the freedom of saying exactly what they liked about a country. Liked and disliked. A woman said she's never going back to India because there were no trash bins anywhere!