Is it safe to travel Southeast Asia with a kiteboarding setup? I will be staying in hostels and don't want it to get stolen. Trying to decide if I should buy or just hire as I go. Kiting is not my main focus of the trip but I want to do it whenever possible. Also, what size should I get for all around? I am 78kilos or 175 lbs.

travelingnomad8 said..
Is it safe to travel Southeast Asia with a kiteboarding setup? I will be staying in hostels and don't want it to get stolen. Trying to decide if I should buy or just hire as I go. Kiting is not my main focus of the trip but I want to do it whenever possible. Also, what size should I get for all around? I am 78kilos or 175 lbs.

HI

I did something similar earlier this year staying in hostels, kiteboarding, but in europe and Morocco. It is a pain and people generally get annoyed at you in a dorm room for having a big bag that take sup heaps of room and having wetsuits hanging up to dry (probs wetsuit not needed in asia).

I travelled for 5 weeks and really only kited 3 places (netherlands, denmark, morocco) but stopped over in a few cities along the way. My advice is try and stay in places for a week and base your activities from there. Its such a pain moving around. Also i recommend spending the extra cash to get taxies places instead of public transport, I literally almost missed every flight. In summary, its a lot of effort but I'd totally do it again, its fun kiting exotic locations with new people and its a great conversation starter in hostels ;).

HEre is a brief recount I wrote about my holiday: www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/Kitesurfing/General/Kite-trip-to-Holland-Denmark-Morocco-Recount/

Check out if the place syou want to kite have the 'kite clubs' where you can rent lockers and leave your gear there instead of carrying to to and from your accomodation every day.

I did 3 weeks in Mui Ne.

I loved: kiteboys with compressed air help you rig/launch/land but they weren't at my bit of the beach so only useful when having...
Spring rolls and beers dripping wet in your kite gear, sitting at the bar, watching the show outside
That one restaurant where all the long term kite crew ate every day

Didn't rate:
Most of the rest
sketchy launch, super narrow up my end, standing between chairs & tables at high tide to launch...
dirty choppy water
russians
almost stepping on a used syringe
some places pumped music late (noisy)..

RE: Russians abroad. Think of bogans in Bali, then multiply it by ten. They're rude, clueless, arrogant, cheesy, trashy, pushy and annoying. I was in Goa last year and having so many of them around almost ruined the trip. We just learned to go where there weren't as many of them.