What part of Asia are you thinking of? As others point out, Asia is a varied place. I've only cycled in Russia, China, Thailand, Vietnam and India and those countries were different from each other (even saw large constrasts in China between Yunnan, western China and eastern China).
There is more language variation, though in more popular areas such as Thailand, found it pretty easy to get along. Also true in South India. China was tougher for me and Russia in between. Going with the flow is good, trying to find bilingual maps or other resources is helpful. I was wary of drinking from rivers most every place, though would either drink from same places as locals (often) or buy some water (sometimes). Wild camping in Russia and western China was easy. Southeast Asia and India it didn't make sense, but local accommodation was often not too expensive.