Traveling in Asia & Pacific Alone??
 

I'm a 21 yr old college student and after I graduate I plan to travel for about a month visiting countries such as India, Nepal, Cambodia, Japan and then down to Fiji and Australia etc. As of right now, I don't have a steady group of travel companions (I'll be meeting up with friends in Japan and Australia but other than that no) and was wondering if backpacking was still advisable? Do they have a hostel system like Europe or due to security, high end hotels are recommended?? How easy is it to travel around alone? I've done quite a bit of traveling through Europe and North Africa so I understand the concept of unwanted attention and how to avoid it. Thanks for any info!

Your biggest worry should not be wanted attention but rather how in the heck you are going to have enought time to visit 6 countries in one month. Did you mean to say one year??

Believe me, Asia is nothing like North Africa. I expect you'll be amazed at how politely you are treated by the locals (fellow backpackers are more likely to be sexually aggressive). There certainly are guesthouses that are inexpensive, and you'll find lots of "fellow travelers" there. While you may want to splurge for more luxe accommodations at times, it won't be because of security concerns.

Please do clarify how much time you have. Obviously, you can't visit all of those places in a month! Also, Asia lends itself better to slow travel than say, Europe, for example.

I've actually got 3 months to travel and it seems like I might need it based on both your responses. How long would you recommend spending in a city in any of these countries??

First, you need to figure out what you want to do/see/experience during your three months. In three months, you could sample a bit of 6 countries, but I don't know whether that would be satisfying to you or not. You could spend all three months in India and Nepal, for instance, or if you were interested in SE Asia, you could visit Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and VN in that time... or Malaysia and Indonesia.

How much time to spend in a city in each of those countries? Well, it depends on which cities and what you want out of your stay. And how many stops do you want in each country? Are you planning to travel overland or do you plan to fly from place to place? Trains are options in some countries.

I'd suggest that you start by reading about this area of the world so you can figure out where you want to go in your limited time.