Advice for travel: focus on survival skills. Learn how to decipher a map, a menu, a label in the supermarket (some people have mixed up fish paste and toothpaste), and the instructions for operating the toilet. Be able to navigate an airport or train station or hospital without a cellphone (because you might not have it). Learn how to order food, how to give your destination to a taxi driver (and pronounce it so they can understand). Be able to tell the difference between a coffee shop, a mahjong parlor, and a real-estate office.
