I have been an avid camper most of my life, from early childhood on fishing trips with my dad, Scouting, and with friends as an adult. The year before I left the US my friends and I went at least once a month for twelve months. So not an expert but experienced.
I relocated to South East Asia a few years ago (Malaysia) and part of the stuff I brought was camping gear.
When I decided to go camping here I knew I needed to learn how to camp in a jungle environment but I couldn't find much practical information in any of the usual places; online (which shocked me) in books or from people. Although I did stumble across a blog of a local which got me started.
So my first instructable is to hopefully help others with some tips.
As mentioned above I'm not an expert by any means so if you have tips or information please share!
Step 1: Things to know about the jungle
The jungle is a great place to camp, however it's very different than anywhere else I've camped.
First it is always wet....always, and you will be wet. It's called a rain forest, and well it rains...a lot.
So the ground is wet, there's lots of running and standing water. It's hot and humid so you will sweat, water from the outside and water from the inside.
You will be wet. It's impossible to stay completely dry, so have loose, thin clothing, dry things to change into at night and foot ware that can take being wet.
There are many bugs that will bite, sting, suck, and generally make you uncomfortable or just creep you out. The two big ones are mosquitoes and leeches.
Mosquitoes can be really annoying but more importantly they can make you sick. Malaria and Dengue fever are the main things here. So repellent and mosquito netting are a must.
Leeches won't make you sick but they will annoy and creep you out! You may not even know they're there until you look down at your sock and see it all bloody. It doesn't hurt but it itches like crazy while healing.
The best defenses are leech socks and tobacco and/or strong repellent.
Those are the main differences for now.