Deciding what technology and gadgets to bring when travelling is a delicate balancing act; you want to remain connected to the world you’ve left behind at home, but don’t want them to end up distracting from experiencing the world around you when travelling.
In years past, I was quite minimal: smartphone (for accessing hostel wifi and phone calls in emergency) and a camera. Basic but sufficient for a month or two travelling. But this year, I am off for roughly four months (I really should book flights soon I suppose….so I, like, know when i’m going and for how long….hmmm yep), and want to take a few more gadgets so I don’t have to spend a third of a year accessing the internet off a screen smaller than my hand.
In addition, the debate about what to take and not take has for me been made far more difficult this year with the purchase of a HP Chromebook (on which I am gleefully typing this). For those who don’t know, a Chromebook is a lightweight netbook which runs off Google’s own Chrome OS. It has some restrictions, the most unexpected of which is a lack of compatibility with Dropbox cloud storage, meaning I’m having to transfer 50GB of photos across to compatible Google Drive (estimated time to completion is currently reading as 5.6 days). But it is portable (weighing 1.7kg), has a battery life of over 8 hours, and its 14’ screen meaning it will be ideal for lonely dorm Youtube sessions, writing blogs and editing photos (when said photos have uploaded...in 5 days time).
Here’s what I am, and perhaps more importantly what I’m not, taking with me abroad:
SmartPhone
A no-brainer for me, As a solo traveller I will feel a lot safer anywhere knowing I have a phone to call for help, even if abroad it will cost more per minute than my daily budget. I went with a UK provider that offers unlocked phones on contract, so I should be able to buy foreign sim cards and load on money to make calls, texts and ...who am I kidding, I mostly want it for mobile internet so I upload to Instagram.
My phone will also function as my main day-to-day camera. It has better specs than my old Samsung camera, and as I will be keeping my phone on me as much as possible, bringing a separate camera just seems to me to be bringing one more thing for me to lose somewhere. My phone has the added bonus of automatically backing up my photos onto my Google Drive, meaning hopefully I’ll never lose any memories. This is especially important as last year I did lose my phone, and because I didn’t have wifi in my hostel nor mobile internet, I lost about 6 days of photos which was really upsetting.
Kindle Fire Tablet
This was an investment that I made last year when I went to Vietnam. I wanted to be able to read books and watch TV off of something larger than a phone screen, and also wanted an additional device to backup photos and scans of important documents. It mostly was very useful, though had a disappointing battery life, and all media refused to play through headphones meaning there were few places I could watch movies without being glared at.
In addition, the Kindle has now pretty much been rendered obsolete by my Chromebook, which is faster, about the same weight, and runs the Overdrive ebook reading and lending program that I used on my Kindle. Furthermore with internet on my phone hopefully meaning I can back up photos on the go, I don’t need it so much as a safety net for my photos any longer. So the Kindle stays at home.
Samsung Digital Camera
I have been very hesitant in deciding to leave my camera behind this trip, probably out of tradition: it feels wrong to go on holiday/travelling without a camera. However, the advancement of phone cameras makes portable digital cameras fairly obsolete. About the only thing I will lose out on leaving the camera behind will be optical zoom, but this disadvantage can be worked around. Leaving it behind means less things to carry in my pockets day-to-day, and one less thing to remember to charge each night.
HP Chromebook 14’’
The chromebook seems to be designed for travel; it’s light-weight, cheap (which will hopefully deter thieves, as it’s fairly obviously so), and fairly immune from bugs or viruses. It’s only weakness is a dependence on an internet connection for anything more than basically functionality, but every hostel i plan to stay as has wifi, as will many cafes and bars (this is Asia, most young people have smartphones, and everywhere has wifi as a result). Aside from making browsing facebook and booking accommodation easier, a key use for me will be editing photos. I do have a habit of taking too many photos rather than risk missing a moment, and i rarely delete too many from the tiny camera or phone screen where it is hard to judge the focus or colours. The chromebook’s 14’’ screen will enable me to check, modify and delete photos on the road, and save me having to trawl through thousands of photos back in the UK.
Nintendo 2DS and games
I brought these along last year to SE Asia thinking they would be good for plane journeys and lazy hostel afternoons. However, I found I played on it...perhaps once. I found on planes music and reading was more interesting, and in hostels, I mostly socialised with roommates. My 2DS is well-used at home because I live in a boring, small town and have little to do in the evenings, but travelling it isn’t really needed, and it just takes up space and weight. So it is staying behind.
So in summary, my packlist is as follows:
- (Unlocked) LG G3 smartphone
- Kindle Fire Tablet
- Samsung 8mp Camera
- HP Chromebook 14’
- 2DS & Games
I would definitely say that my previous travels have taught me the need to declutter and bring as little as possible (and the irritation of tangles and knots of plugs everytime you unpack your electricals pocket), and I feel bringing just two devices is the right compromise between function and space-saving. I’m sure one of them will be stolen or lost on the road, but the phone is insured and the laptop secondhand and cheap, so it’s not the end of the world. I just feel sorry for those people who bring £1000 Macs travelling with them!!
Speak soon, DSP
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