Things I can’t live (or travel) Without…Part One

admin — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 12:39:16 +0000

Aaahh the joy of travelling. This is the short list of things that I never travel without, part one, because there are quite a few.

As you can see, I’m not much for travelling light. I like to be in contact and know whats going on at home. I want my creature comforts… within reason.

Ipod

I admit it, its true. I am one of “those” travellers who always has an ipod on me. I bought Dawn many years ago, the battery ran dead and has been replaced, so Dawn has many scratches and nicks, she’s been dropped more times than i care to admit but she’s still going. Filled to bursting with Dylan, Punk Rock and Miley Cyrus (I kid you not). I found a pair of Sony headphones on a necklace type lanyard which keeps itaround my neck and I usually put the ipod under my jacket so it can’t be ripped off by wandering hands.

Mobile phone

I have a phone with me now that i bought in 2001. I remember it well, the first time i bought a ‘nice’ phone. It was the smallest at the time, strangely, phones got bigger for a while, and suddenly they are heavier…. So now my 7 year old phone is just as good as any other phone as far as i can figure. If it gets stolen I will be most upset because we have history. I’d rather my old brick phone than a new phone. How upset will you be if your new iphone gets lifted, or if your crackberry goes swimming in the toilet? Take a cheap phone with you!

For international travel your phone must be compatible – i think its called tri-band? Either way, you can pick up a phone for under $100 pretty much anywhere. Make sure you aren’t locked onto a network before you leave home, and buy a sim card when you land.

In Vietnam, my sim card was around $8, included $10 of credit, and it usually lasts about 3 weeks, depending on how often i call Australia.

Running shoes

Okay, I don’t run half as often as I should, but i always take some sort of sports shoe, even if its just for walking. I randomly joined a touch football team here and these came in very useful.

If you are the running/walking/drinking type, you will need a pair of shoes for Hashing! Hash House Harriers run in just about every city on earth and its probably the quickest way to make new friends. All you need is a pair of shoes and a mouth for drinking.

Laptop

Lets be real here. I’m no flashpacker. I don’t travel with wads of cash, and i avoid backpacker hotspots as I would avoid leper colonies. I listen to punk rock for Gods sake!

But i absolutely can’t travel without my Laptop. Not just because I blog and what not.. But… how else do you stay in touch with the world? In many countries it is almost impossible to get news from home without a laptop (unless you love CNN).

Your laptop must be fitted out with some usefull applications and programs though. The short list is:

Stay in touch with home, chat, call home for free and make cheap international calls with Skype
- what could be better? I use Skype pretty much every time I am connected to the internet.

Bloglines or Google Reader

For the all important Internet Stalking of your friends blogs… um, i mean, reading the news and staying up to date with stuff!

You can pick up most of the things on this list from the new, shiny, wonderful The Pursuit of Adventure Amazon Store. Check it out!

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Post tags: hanoi, Stories from the road, Tips & Ideas, travel, travel advice, travelling, Vietnam

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Just how it is, in Vietnam

zoe — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 03:32:42 +0000

In Vietnam it rains so hard that it’s impossible to do anything. The world stops, the traffic slows and the shops are shut. Locals take refuge and crazy tourists (like me) buy cheap umbrellas and try to find things to do.
Its 8am and I’m trying to find a coffee, or breakfast, without having to pay western prices. Gingerly navigating the marble, spiral staircase I have to step over the sleeping bodies of the young men who run my guest house. I let myself out the front doors and walk out into the rain. I can take the rain. As I carry on up the street the rain picks up and within seconds I am drenched from head to toe. Trying to duck into the small awnings of shops is no good.
“Madam” a lady on the street calls out to me “Umbrella” – oh thank god, I think to myself. “How much?”
“80,000” about 5 USD, a cheap price back home, but this is Vietnam, baby. It should be half that price.
“40,000”I counter
A hail of Vietnamese sounds like she is abusing me for offering such a low amount and she finally says “60,000”
“No no no too much” I feign disappointment and start to walk away.
“Okay okay, 50,000” she calls me back and I hand her the cash.
My new umbrella is pink and keeps the rain off my face, but not off my body. I keep walking. My shoes are soaking and make squelching noises with each step, but I need a coffee, wet or not.
Cafe Moca is the first I come to, and I shake my pink umbrella and step over the threshold. Everything is marble or wood and the prices are extortionate (by Vietnamese standards, of course). Books and postcards are for sale here, and it has the feel of a “safe haven” for westerners.
When my coffee comes it is as black as night, with lashings of thick condensed milk sitting in the bottom waiting to be stirred through. I’m feeling sensitive, so I add sugar and stir, gazing into the cup as the black coffee lightens to a pleasing cafe latte colour. My first sip burns my lips and is strong enough to strip the hair off a gorillas back, but I persevere. This is just how coffee is, in Vietnam.

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Post tags: hanoi, Stories from the road, travel, Vietnam

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The Pursuit of Adventure » Stories from the road

Things I can’t live (or travel) Without…Part One

Just how it is, in Vietnam