I'm traveling to china next Feb for Chinese New Year and was just curious what items people wont leave home without?? i dont mean the usual stuff like money, passport and so on, i mean other things you recommend taking or stuff you wish you took!!
Reply to this Very good question, here are mine:
1) Travel pillow - great for both flights and places where pillows are either too hard or low. Note that this is not those neck pillows but a true travel version that scrunches small.
2) Basin sink plug - this is so helpful when needing to shave as many places have no plugs at all - stops water endlessly running out.
3) Silk inner sheet - one of my newest finds and the best, wonderful for places where the sheets are of dubious cleanliness and/or you need some extra warmth.
4) Portable speakers - I love music but don't always want to listen via headphones, and so a small, light set of speakers is perfect for listening to music whilst pottering around the room.
5) Head torch/flashlight - great for finding things and keeping your hands free. Mine has coloured filters (blue and red are my favourites) so it doesn't blind other people if you happen to look directly into their eyes.
Reply to this Ipod and wire
Portable speakers for the Ipod.
Headtorch - for finding the toilet in the night, shining and the strange dark lump in the room to check if it's an animal or just one of our possessions, as well as for reading at night.
Nintendo DS - for boring bus rides, waits and just generally passing the time.
Mobile phone - a cheap one is fine. Change the sim cards to a local one whereever you go and so never be far away from a member of your family or a friend. Invaluable for homesickness.
Reply to this Great question. I am interested to see what other travelers take. As for myself, here is my list.
1. Travel alarm clock with snooze alarm
2. Protein bars for when I don't have time to eat.
3. A sweater for the airplane. It drives me crazy how it goes from uncomfortably hot during boarding to freezing cold in the middle of the flight.
4. A good sized nylon bag that I fill with dirty clothes as I go. When it is filled more than the clean clothes packing cubes, I do laundry.
5. Small sized Tide detergent for washing clothes in a hotel sink.
Reply to this Hmmm, a trip to China huh?
1. A good pair of walking shoes (every tourist attraction requires a ton of walking)
2. Lip balm. (up North the air is extremely dry)
3. Mosquito repellant (for down South)
4. Ear plugs (since you are here for the Chinese New Year, you'll experience fire crackers round the clock for 3 or 4 days)
5. Thermal Underwear (since you are here in Feb, it gets mighty cold. Recommend Heat tech by Uniglo!)
Reply to this 1. First aid kit.
2. Ear plugs.
3. Headlamp.
4. Flip flops.
5. Alarm clock.
Keep in mind that almost anything can be bought on the road in a descent sized city (some items may require more adventure than others...) so this list is not hard and fast.
Reply to this These are usually the contents of my day pack on a travel day:
1. Ipad mini - for alarm, ipod, games, reading, social media, blogging and camera if I don't have my dslr handy
2. Lip balm and moisturiser
3. Small medicine case with hand sanitiser, tiger balm, aspirin and bandaids/plasters
4. A scarf and a light weight long sleeve top with a hood – helps with sleeping on public transport
5. Bottle of water
Reply to this [Edited: 2013 May 12 06:57 - Sojourner1208:178197 - double entry]
Reply to this Of course this is an incomplete list but generally I always take;
1. Digital camera - I know people take pictures with their phones but then they get the quality of picture that a phone camera takes. Any picture worth taking is worth taking with a decent camera.
2. A laptop – I know it gets to be a problem carrying and seeing it doesn’t get stolen but it is invaluable in keeping and sending out photos and emails to family and friends back home. And if you have Wi-Fi you can get on Skype (the free service), and literally see and talk to those back home free. No concerns about compatible phones and sims cards etc. Also I make up word files of the events of each day and have a useful reference source for future trips as well as something I can copy and paste into my blogs. And of course I send out emails complete with pictures to the folks back home.
3. An immersible heater for heating up water for tea of coffee directly in your cup in your room. I also bring some powdered milk as I like milk with my tea or coffee and trying to keep liquid milk is a problem. I take tea bags and sugar as well. It’s nice to relax for a bit in the morning with a warm drink before getting moving.
4. 2 debit cards from different banks. Even if I notify my bank that I am traveling they sometimes block transactions anyway in foreign countries “for my protection” till I call them and verify that it is indeed me using the card. If one is blocked I can use the other. As long as you can get to an ATM you can access your money…..usually. For that reason I always have about $500 in foreign currency stashed where I can get it if blocked out of my account till I call. Not always an easy task from a Greek Island or such.
5. Some detergent for hand washing clothes if the local humidity level will permit drying them in a timely manner.
6. An attitude that while at home I have better a traveler must be content.
7. Earphones for listening to music in noisy locations.
Reply to this the best thing we took was silk inner sheet - amazingly soft and comforting when you have to sleep in dodgy places or trains like for example in China (the sheets were unfortunately not always fresh and clean)
the one thing we most regret not taking for our RTW was underwater camera....it is a different world down there so worth thinking about:-)
water filter and earplugs would be next on our list:-)
B&T
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