Welcome back!

First travel tip - I was talking to a friend who is off travelling at the end of November.  She said the best

thing to do, with regards taking travel books travelling, is to take just the book which relates to your first country, i.e. Thailand.  Then when you get to your next destination, say Australia, find a second-hand book shop and exchange it for a book on that country, or you might just be lucky and find someone doing a RTW trip in the opposite direction who might like to swap books.