Flashpacking 101 - Gadgets

Flashpacking. A new term in the travel community, flashpacking, or flashpackers, basically denotes travelers with a sense of adventure, an arsenal of travel gadgets, and a somewhat larger budget. This situates them (and us) somewhere between the traditional "who needs electricity?!" backpacker and the high roller, five star hotel reserving, tourist. That is unless of course, they can get a five star hotel on some kind of deal! So if you were interested in being a flashpacker yourself, we thought we would share some of the tips and tricks of the trade.

Gadgets

In addition to the typical camera/video camera travel accessories, there were a few additional gadgets that were really helpful to have on the trip:

Acer 10 inch Netbook

This is essential for any flashpacker traveling for an extended length of time. It allowed us to communicate with our family and friends via both the blog and web cam. As many hostels and hotels across Asia offer free wifi, we were often able to do so from the peacefulness of our own room. It is important to note that the certain sites (gmail, facebook, Skype, etc.) on the internet in China and parts of Vietnam require a download like Hot Spot Shield (http://hotspotshield.com/) to hide your ip address (edit: create a false American based IP address) and allow you to browse unobstructed. Another great free resource was Windows Live Writer (http://explore.live.com/windows-live-writer). We downloaded the tool onto our netbook and were able to write drafts of our blog, pictures and all, offline. Then, when we got somewhere with internet access we could upload them very quickly.

 Monopod

The camera monopod or power-rod as we called it allowed us to capture great pictures and video casts wherever we were.  It is a small, light-weight telescoping rod that attaches to almost any camera.  Seriously, Allyson is the champion of the arm-length self portrait.  However this little portable gem made for some great shots that avoided the usual close angle pictures.  This got used so much that it broke before the end of trip, but it was well worth the investment.

(http://www.amazon.com/Canon-500-Monopod/dp/B003OSPCJO/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1318256459&sr=8-3)

Monster Travel Powerstrip

This brilliantly designed power strip, if used with the appropriate adapter, allowed us to charge multiple electronics at once. This meant that we would not have to have separate adapters for each of them, not that there was ever more than one outlet per room to actually do that! In addition, it had a really good grip and would stay lodged in the wall even if we had multiple things dangling from it.

(http://www.amazon.com/Monster-MP-OTG400-BK-Outlets/dp/B000F9YN2M/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1318256696&sr=1-1)

Steripen

Seeming like a magical wand, the steripen use UV light to sterilize clear water by destroying 99.99% of protozoa (including Giardia and Cryptosporidia), bacteria and even viruses. It was extremely helpful in both Mongolia and China as we could drink water from streams, faucets, or pretty much anywhere you could see through the water. We would have actually used it on our whole trip, but after awhile our Nalgene's started getting a funky smell and we realized we weren't drinking as much water as we should have.

(http://www.rei.com/product/799003/steripen-adventurer-opti-water-purifier)

Kindles

Electronic readers were practically made for flashpacking.  A long trip with plenty of down time and you have to carry everything on you.  No one wants to lug a bunch of books around.  So then you might be relegated to a "backpackers" tradition of finding the local book exchanges or the modest libraries of hostels in which other packers leave their discards.  The kindle can store more books than you can read in a life time and is lighter than most of the things we brought.  This is a no-brainer for the flashpacker.

There were also a few things we brought on the trip and didn't need.

Laundry Kit

Everywhere we went you could either use an in-house washing machine or there were laundry services nearby. For the flash-packing set, the cost is definitely worth it. I carted around laundry detergent, a sink stopper and line for no reason.

There was only one thing that we thought would have been useful on our trip that we didn't bring.

The I-phone. This is an interesting suggestion as one, we don't even own one now and two,  I was vehemently against bring any cellphones on the trip. But, seeing the advantages it afforded other travelers, I would consider bringing one on future trips and here are some of the reasons why:

• GPS/Maps - In countries like China where it is very difficult around, this would have made our lives so much easier. Plus you can track whether the cab drive is indeed driving you in circles.
• World Customs App- check to see whether bleching after a meal is a good thing.
• HearPlanet - tells you about nearby attractions and then plays the Wikipedia location description aloud; basically a personal tour guide.
• Currency calculations - as I am mathmatically challenged, this would have made haggling so much easier.
• Ifarefinder - locates the best deals for airfare across multiple search engines. This would have saved Pearce and I hours of scouring the web for good deals.
• Lonely Planet Phrasebook -it speaks the translated phrase aloud to help you communicate where ever you are.
• Idistress - In case of emergency, this app will locate the local emergency number and alert your ICE contact with your current coordinates via sms and email.