|
The 2 most useful things I have brought with me when traveling: Phone: Droid 2 Global. Very decent battery life, highly flexible to handle essentially any SIM card there is regardless of network. GPS was a lifesaver in Cambodia when tuktuk drivers had no idea where they were going and figuring out actual distances for bargaining. This also acted as a laptop replacement for me. Grab up an extra charger and a few extra batteries and you are set. Bringing extra large capacity memory cards is a hell of a lot easier than a laptop when all you are using it for is a photo dump. Bandana: Nice and large enough to wrap comfortably around my head, cotton is the best. It's small, it's light, it keeps sweat out of your eyes in the heat, doubles as a face mask in dusty areas, feels great when it's soaked and you are burning up and it blocks out the light when you are trying to sleep. It takes absolutely no space. Backpack: I use dis one The best backpack you can buy will be one that has multiple layers of pockets and zippers. My laptop backpack actually works perfectly for travel. External snap covering a heavy duty zipper which I secure when traveling, velcro compartment inside that, inside velcro compartment there's a thin zipper compartment that is located essentially in the very center of the bag. This is where I tend to keep anything of any value. Just not easy for anyone to get into to gank... highly durable and I've been traveling with mine for a solid 10+ years now. Only damage is some stitching coming undone and a broken buckle that I replaced. Tons of space divided into buried compartments and external compartments for easy access. edit: My general rule for packing is that whatever I carry must be stupidly useful in multiple ways and the smaller the better. To avoid pick pockets, if it's hot I'll wear gym shorts... there are no pockets, keep cash in the backpack and keep the backpack with me at all times, virtually no exceptions. Pro-PRC Laowai fucked around with this message at 19:18 on Jun 1, 2011 |
#
¿
Jun 1, 2011 19:05
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 24, 2024 15:45 |
|
|
Mradyfist posted:The one factor that really stopped me from using my phone as a laptop replacement (beyond all the the others, like wanting to dump/backup photos, type blog posts, read LP PDFs, etc) was that my T-Mobile G1 honestly doesn't get good enough wifi reception to use in a lot of hostels. I'd imagine if I had a newer phone it would've been easier, but by my rough estimate probably 75% of the hostels I've stayed at had poor enough signal that I couldn't actually use wifi there. Plus, when you're in a country where all the wifi is bought by the minute, it's painful using a smartphone instead of a real laptop. Yea... a smartphone wont be a perfect replacement, however a hotel computer or a netcafe, or even borrowing a laptop from someone for a few minutes is usually pretty easy to do. The place I bought my phone from included the docking station and an external wifi antenna though so I have yet to experience any problems. I'll usually drag along my travel router as well for hotels that only have wired internet.... it's small 
|
|
#
¿
Jun 1, 2011 21:50
|
|
|
Mradyfist posted:I'll second your point on multiple pairs of shoes. On my last trip I decided that I needed a decent pair of sandals in addition to the shoes on my feet, because "Dur, Africa is hot!" They made packing my bags twice as hard every time, and the funny thing is that I found myself not wanting to wear them, not because I wouldn't enjoy having them on my feet but because it would've been even harder to pack my shoes in my bag. For footwear depending on when and where I either go with my old birkenstocks/cheap hiking shoes on my feet through the airport and a pair of vibram KSOs stashed in my pack. For me at least it's not just the comfort but also endurance, after a long day of walking around in one, swapping to the other gets me using different muscles and it's like starting fresh again.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2011 05:09
|
|
|
MA-Horus posted:man I wish I could wear Vibram fivefingers they honestly look like the most comfortable thing in the world. But my toes are hosed up, so I can't. My toes were a little hosed up at first, 4th and 5th toe a bit hammered. Been wearing vibrams now for a solid 2 months or so and my toes have corrected themselves on their own. I'll always bring a pair of sandals as backup though, hit terrain that you really just don't want to deal with and slip the sandals on over the vibrams. Looks absolutely retarded, but it works.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 2, 2011 09:37
|
|
|
Rockzilla posted:I don't know if this is the best place to ask, but I didn't want to start a whole thread. I'll be driving across Canada (Ottawa to Vancouver) soon. I've got our route planned out and it'll take five days barring any problems. Here's what we're packing: Rope, duct tape and a tube of superglue. And make sure your spare tire doesn't mysteriously have a gaping hole in it.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 13, 2011 20:19
|
|