Drinking water: see the post on WATER about how to get safe drinking water without buying plastic bottles.
Other drinks: see the post on PACKAGING AND WASTE about buying drinks in glass bottles over plastic bottles.
Tip two: Food
As we travelled we tried to eat and buy only local and seasonal food that had not travelled thousands of miles on a plane to get to us (very bad for climate change!). It was amazing how many familiar brands and products were available aborad, especially in particularly tourist-y areas... most of them imported and all of it packaged - Instead of trying to eat stuff from home, we went for local dishes made with local products - much tastier, usually healthier, and all part of the trip!
If we weren't sure what was in season where we were, we simply had a look around the local market. What's widely available andcheap is most probably local and in season...
We also tried to buy in markets and local shops instead of big supermarkets. This was an effort to support the local economy which also meant we came home with less packaging and fresher food and we had so many memorable, nice, human experiences wandering through the stands.
Supermarkets v. Super markets
Tip three - Go Veggie!
We were both vegetarian before we left home - there's a lot to be said for the environmental and health benefits of being veggie, and it's often a bit safer to be veg in some countries where the power supply is less reliable... so things get frozen, defrost, then get refrozen, for instance!
In India it was just easier to be vegetarian and most restaurants were veg. When we moved further into Asia there was meat and fish everywhere and the odd little veg restaurant tucked away in some of the larger towns. This is the symbol in Thailand for vegetarian/vegan restaurants - we're not sure if it's done on purpose, but they're often located near the hospital (!) and serve up lots of tasty curries with tofu from about 6am to about 2-3pm. Otherwise, it was pretty easy to get stir-fried vegetables and rice and the fruit was amazing, so no chance to miss out on any nutrients!
For information about the environmental arguement for becoming vegetarian or vegan look here.
