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Before You Go - Travel Essentials September, 2007

These are the most important items, the things I would not leave home without. Luggage – I have the REI travel pack named the Voyager. It is 2100 cubic inches, has comfortable shoulder straps, opens at the top for easy access to everything, and has plenty of tidy zipper compartments. A great value at $99. Recently, we saw this same pack on sale for $34 and thought of purchasing a backup. My wife prefers a rollaway, and the Osprey Sojourn was a great choice at 2400 cubic inches for $220. Trust me; do not get anything bigger, this is all the space you will need. We were amazed to see so many people lugging so many huge backpacks around these hot and humid climates. Travel light and buy what you need along the way. Asus EEE Laptop – My #1 item, it has adequate storage (4 GB), two hour battery life, a card reader for my camera SD card, wireless capability, Word and Excel, all for the modest price of $350. I also subscribe to a service (www.carbonite.com) that automatically backs all my files up to offsite storage whenever I am connected to the internet. At $50/year, it is a great value, and frees you from worrying about burning CD’s or copying files to a flash drive. Do not lug around a large laptop, it is inconvenient, prone to theft, and simply not worth the effort. These small Net books are perfect for travel, and if it is lost or stolen, you are only out $300. The newer models have enhanced storage and longer battery life, although we traveled over a year, and these were not issues. In the beginning, we tried to get by using public computers at internet cafes, but it just is not convenient. When we started using our laptop, it made life so much easier. From our room, we could research destinations, write articles, send email. We had no trouble at all connecting to wireless networks around the world. However, these networks are all unsecured, so be careful. We had no problems, but I was paranoid whenever I typed in a password. Canon SD30 – I bought this simple camera for $90 the day before we left. With six mega pixels, it is nothing fancy, but our pictures were all shot at the lowest resolution for quick posting to our blog. What I like is the way it fits in the palm of your hand, its simplicity, and the remarkable pictures it takes. Purchase two extra batteries and keep both charged – make a practice of doing this every night as part of your housekeeping chores. I also purchased three 256MB memory cards real cheap ($4 each). Try to limit each card to about 300 pictures, so it is more manageable that way. Every night, download your pictures to the laptop, where they are efficiently backed up to offsite storage (using Carbonite). Sadly, after thirteen months of travel and 30,000+ pictures, this constant companion started wearing down (left side of pictures were starting toblur). I purchased the Canon 1100 as a replacement, and although it takes great pictures, I preferred the SD30. Calendar Book – This is your basic yearly appointment notebook, with room enough to track daily expenses, note hotel reservations, and plan where you are going. Well worn, years from now I will look back on it and remember that particular day or that hotel, and so on. This is essential for long-term travel. IPOD – I went back and forth on this item, finally deciding to toss it in the bag at the last moment. Small, big in payback, it’s the perfect antidote on the long and tedious bus and train journeys and I’m continually amazed when songs pop up that I’ve never heard before. And, it has the entire U2 collection. Mesh Bags – One for the electronic gear (rechargers, etc), one for medications, another for miscellaneous stuff, they are nice because they bring order to easily misplaced items, and they fit into unused recesses of your bag. Travel Shirts – The most important thing is zippered pockets. Deep, zippered pockets. I had two of these shirts custom made at a tailor in Vietnam, both cool, breathable cotton. Passports fit easily in each pocket; close enough to reassure me of their presence, yet safe from groping hands. I also carried an ATM card in one pocket, a credit card in another, and maybe some local currency. I personally do not like the money belts. They are just not comfortable. We were disappointed in the nylon travel shirts sold at REI. Advertised as cool in tropical climates, we roasted in them and did not find them comfortable. They were quickly sent home and replaced by cool cotton gear purchased locally. Travel Pants – Again zippered pockets is the key. I have a lightweight REI pair with three zippered pockets that look somewhat dressy, and another pair of those trendy zip off pants that convert to shorts. My wife had the same configuration. Again, they are not cool in tropical climates, although the super thin fabric of the Columbian zip offs was not as bad. I had a pair of nylon shorts with zippered pockets that I wore 95% of the time in Asia, with the pants being worn only when necessary. Footwear – We both brought a pair of Keen sandals, rugged enough for trail hiking and scampering around mountains, yet open for ventilation. We also purchased flip-flops along the way and wore them almost all the time, especially in the hotter tropics. Bring one pair of something like Tevas or Keens, and purchase flip-flops along the way. Toiletries – My wife had a little purple bag with the essentials that zips up and is stuffed in our bags when we travel. I brought a rechargeable electric razor and an old-fashioned toothbrush. All essentials – shampoos, toothpaste, and deodorant – easily replenished on the road. Notebook – Something to write down information as you travel – train schedules, things to do or check on, email addresses, phone numbers. We had one medium sized one while I keep a small one around for jotting things down. Phone – If you have a laptop, install Skype (www.skype.com) and call home to America for two cents per minute. You cannot beat the price, although you do need an internet connection to use. We also purchased an unlocked cell phone for around $50 in Singapore. This allows you to purchase new SIM cards (a new phone number in each country) as you travel from country to country. Once you have a SIM card, purchase ‘top up’ cards to add calling minutes to your number. These are efficient, sold everywhere and cheap (except for China). Other Miscellaneous Things – Copies of prescriptions, extra set of eyeglasses, list of your Favorites kept in your Yahoo account, list of accounts with user names and passwords (keep password protected in Yahoo account), quick dry underwear (2 pair), quick dry ankle socks, quick dry t-shirt. Another useful item is a six-foot plastic coated cable with loops on each end. We used this to tie our two pieces of luggage to a pipe, or the bed frame, and then locked the two loops together with a combination lock. Remember to use combination locks on your luggage. One thing I forgot and wished I had was my Omron Pedometer.   Organization – ** Before you leave, scan important papers and documents into Word documents. This includes your Passports, Credit Cards, and Insurance Cards. Password protect the Word documents and email them to your Yahoo or Gmail Inbox. ** Set up all your bills so they can be paid online while you’re away. Automate those monthly recurring bills that have the same amount each time. ** Collect and organize any phone numbers and addresses you will need in one location. We used the Contacts in our Yahoo email, but I was not thrilled with it, and feel there are better products out there – some sort of electronic Rolodex. ** Acquire backup ATM cards by opening more than one checking account AND make sure you link together so you can transfer money between them. Keep all cards separate in your luggage – do not carry all in one place with a big rubber band around them. We have an Ameritrade account that holds all of our funds in a Money Market account that earns interest. When we needed money, it waselectronically transferred from Ameritrade to one of our two linked checking accounts. Everywhere we went, we had access to ATM’s, with our only problem being in Russia. Here, both credit unions refused PIN based transactions due to fraud, so we could not withdraw money using our ATM cards, although we could do cash advances on our Visa cards. One other thing. Try and get one each of Visa and Master Card. We were in a situation where the Visa ATM worked while the Master Card did not, which caused problems for some people. Again, this provides redundancy and a backup strategy. Immunizations If not for that annoying mosquito, we could have passed on many of these shots, but better safe than sorry. Moreover, after seeing all the roaming dogs and aggressive monkeys, we were glad we had our rabies shots. For practical reasons, we decided to do the weekly malaria pills. Taken once a week, they do have potential side affects, although we did not have any problems. We also took a prescription for Cipro antibiotics, and another antibiotic for stomach infections. Your insurance may or may not pay for these inoculations, and some (like rabies) cost $100/shot. Note that you require three months of lead-time prior to your departure to acquire all of these immunizations (some are a series of three shots at 30-60-90 days). Many people travel with no immunizations and are perfectly fine. Since we were traveling for an extended period, and visiting so many areas, we decided to be safe. At the very least, get the Hepatitis and Tetanus booster. Hepatitis A (2 shots) Hepatitis B (3) Influenza (1) Tetanus (1) Japanese Encephalitis (3) Meningococcal (1) Rabies (3) Pneumococcal (1) Typhoid (1) Polio (1)

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