Presentation:
Many people like travels because it is associated to holidays. But a travel can be much more than holidays. A travel is a personal adventure, a mean to see the world from another point of view and to completely relativize your own everyday life problems. A backpack (not organized) trip will also help you discover yourself, how you're able to adapt yourself in a foreign environment where language is not always understandable and customs are different. It isa mean to go beyond your limits, beyond your fears, and to better know your reactions (and improve them). One important thing is to prepare your travel to avoid basic problems.

My advices:
take with you the Lonely Planet guide of the country you plan to visit, and think of where you want to go, in how much time, and possible shortcuts scenarios. Be careful, do not buy guides older than 1.5-2 years, for poor countries it would lead to half of the whereabouts wrong. If the LP guide is too old, then take for example a Rough Guide.

Take good equipment with you, strong & comfortable (shoes, pack, clothes). if your pack crashes in the middle of nowhere, it will be a big problem

Take a small survival kit...

FYI, here is the stuff I use:
- a strong backpack (now a 75l Lowe-Alpine for long trips and a BlackHawk 3-day Assault Pack for long week-ends)
- a CamelBak (hot seasons only)
- a Swiss Army knife (not too thick, but with at least the basic functions of screwer, can-opener, bottle opener, saw...)
- a Mag-Lite light (with new batteries and an additional lamp bulb)
- lockers or rather plastic 1-time zip (less heavy, no key trouble) to lock the pockets of the backpack: when it is not possible to travel near your bag (bus, plane), it may delay a thief
- a survival blanket
- a water filter
- a anti-venom kit
- a anti-mosquito spray (sometimes impregnated anti-mosquito material)

Take several payment means (local money, dollars, traveler checks, VISA or assimilated payment card) to avoid being stuck with no money far from your country

Put your various payment mean in different places: in different pockets, hidden belt, wallet, holster... separate bills & travelers checks in 2 or 3 different places. Take water-proof pockets to protect paper from your sweat, liquids, ...

Check how much money you spend during the trip and don't forget that buying to much at the beginning is much more stuff to carry with you!

Useful links:
BlackHawk : equipment that I use for countries like China (3-day backpack, assault vest, CamelBack, etc.),
LonelyPlanet : Lonely Planet publisher website,
Rough Guides : Rough Guides publisher website.