🇻🇳 Water quality & health Hygiene first

Hard water in Southeast Asia, and why a shower filter is worth packing

Ageing plumbing and high mineral content at many hotels and resorts in the region cause skin irritation and hair damage.

As of 2026-08-18

This is the Water quality & health item for a trip to Southeast Asia. The 3 checkpoints below can only be settled properly before you leave — put them off and you queue at an airport desk or spend the first day on them instead. Work through them once and nothing has to be reopened.

Key checkpoints

Swap the bathroom shower head for a travel filter head at check-in — you will see it discolour within a day or two
Brush your teeth with the free bottled water in the room rather than tap water
Ice at street stalls (the crushed kind, not the machine-made cylinders) is a common cause of stomach upsets — avoid it where you can

What to do before departure, in order

Two rules decide the order. First, anything with a deadline — pre-registration, bookings, documents to be issued: miss the cut-off and there is no substitute. Then whatever also works locally, which costs little to postpone.

Most of the items above can only be done before you leave. After arrival, patchy connectivity and opening hours make them harder, so finish what you can while you are still at home.

What to pay attention to in Southeast Asia

Visa-free stay lengths and entry conditions differ country by country in Southeast Asia, so the region as a whole tells you nothing — check each country. A passport valid for at least six months is a frequent condition.

Tap water is not drinkable in many areas, so decide how you will get drinking water before you go.

Also worth checking for this destination

For this destination it is worth reading these as well.

Official sources behind this article

The steps, fees and deadlines above were checked against 2 official sources listed below — pages published by the bodies that run the scheme itself, with the issuing institution named after each. Where they disagree with this page, they are right. Fees and forms change without notice, so open them once more before you travel.

Baggage rules covered by this article

1 item named in this article is also governed by airport screening and airline rules. Check the cabin/checked verdict before you split your bags. The verdicts below are about what may fly; an item the destination country bans outright is a separate matter.

The rules behind those baggage verdicts

The baggage verdict above follows from 2 Korean rules listed below, named in the original Korean because that is how they are indexed at the national law database. These are the rules themselves, not an airline summary — when screening staff disagree, this is the text that decides. What they settle is whether an item may fly; an item the destination country bans outright is governed by that country's own rules.