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.
I did it, staying in hostels. Nothing stolen but it is a bit harder/more stressful sometimes. Take a bike combo lock to lock your gear to something in your room, like a water pipe. Plus an extra padlock to put on your door where possible.
Most of SE Asia, where I went at least, is pretty ordinary for kiting. Light winds, poor water quality. There are exceptions of course.
I wouldn't do it again, but i'm older now and kiting less of a focus. I'd just hire here or there if conditions were right. Anywhere that's good for kiting will have some local kite industry or at worst you can approach a kiter on the beach and offer some money or beer for a loan of their gear.
Select to expand quotetravelingnomad8 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.
There aren't very many good kiting spots in SE Asia. Light winds, fickle weather and short seasons. Unless you're heading to a specific kiting spot to stay for 2 weeks or more - Mui Ne, Pranburi, Sanur, etc - I wouldn't bother trying to travel around with your gear. It will be a hassle. If you luck into some good days in a kiting spot, just splurge the cash, hire the gear and fully enjoy the day. You'll be glad you aren't dragging tons of gear from place to place to not be using it most of the time.
Having said that, Mui Ne, Vietnam has a fairly long and predictable thermal season. But it does get pretty crowded. Errrr...and I have to say, the place is full of pretty rude Russians. ;-)
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)..
Can anyone shed some light on why the Russians arent very popular? Sounds like some interesting stories.. I have never had much contact with Russians in my travels (few speak english and want to communicate I have found).
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.
Select to expand quoteas people have pointed out its very dependent on where you're going in se Asia to take your kit or not. I prefer the Philippines to Vietnam and there's solid wind,(until late march)lots of good spots outside boracay if that's a little crowded for your tastes. Union beach next to boracay twenty mins by kite and kingfisher up north is a ripper.
clearly not all russians are horrible but those ones don't seem to have passports, have to second the comments here, remember seeing " no Israeli's" signs in some parts of south America back in the day, the ruskies can't be far behind
