The short and skinny of it (or tall and fat, whatever) is that I'm going to need entertainment. I'm also a child of the technology age and am attached to my electronics at the hip. I got my macbook, I got my e-reader, I got my massive iPod, I got my iPhone and talk to Siri all the time (we're best buddies). But do you know how much a macbook weighs? And how many people want to steal one? I ain't carrying that theft magnet around, no thank you.
Three months without my beloved laptop. I spent about five minutes being sad for it and then got over it when thinking of all the back pain that I'd experience if I lugged it abroad with me (the thing weighs like 5lb with the charger).
So instead of my computer, I'll be bringing my iPhone with me. When you hook it up to wi-fi it works about the same as a tiny, single-function computer. It takes pictures, it's got e-mail, it's got cool apps and games to keep me occupied. I decided to upgrade from my iPhone 4, which does not work internationally, to the 4S, which has some fancy international thing so I can use it if I really get into a bind and I'm in the middle of bumfuck nowhere and need to call my mummy or something.
In a typical month I use half a gigabyte to a whole gigabye in data, but international data is really expensive. REALLY expensive. $25 for 100 mb. That's $250/gb, or around $750 for the duration of my trip. And that doesn't even include texting or calling. Yeesh.
So what I'll be doing is during that bad boy onto "airplane mode", and never taking it off. Unless I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere and need to call my mummy. Which won't happen.
I'll just be stuck with wi-fi. At least I won't be entirely disconnected.
The other thing I did with my phone was outfit it with a Lifeproof case. The last thing I want is to break my phone while abroad.
So far I've dropped my phone a million times and I take it into the shower and the bath with me all the time (to get it all sudsy and germ-free of course) and it's still 100% awesome. It's kinda expensive but I managed to get my parents to buy it for me as a birthday present, so I didn't really have to deal with the money aspect of it. But I gotta tell ya, it sure is nice not having to worry about your phone all the time. I let a toddler eat a mango and play with my phone and I didn't even sweat over it. People were looking at me like I was crazy, but I was like I ain't even mad bro. This shit can go to hell and back.
Disclaimer: You cannot send texts underwater. I've tried.
The next piece of electronic technology I've decided to bring is my iPod. If you don't have too much music for your own good like somebody else I know, you can just bring your iPhone and listen to music on that. But the aforementioned person is me and I need my 160gb iPod to survive in any kind of situation. Because what if I am on a train and want to listen to that one song and it's not on there because I had to pick & choose what music to bring with me and that one song didn't make the cut?
(I've been there. It ain't pretty.)
So here's that, in a clear protective case (purchased on eBay for $4 eons ago):
A final pro of this music device-and-phone-pair? They share the same charger, so I only have to bring one!
The final piece of electronic gadgetry I have decided to take with me is my e-reader, the Sony PRS-600. Sadly, it's not the lightest e-reader known to mankind, and I could have easily chosen a smaller e-reader - but I don't like squinting and I like underlining. My Sony PRS comes in a case that folds out and has a nifty little reading light in it. It's also not worth that much money (maybe $40) so there isn't a lot of incentive to steal it. You can't really do anything on it, although I did add some ware to it and now it has a really slow chess game and a few other features on it, very reminiscent of the pocketpc my dad purchased in 2003. But with a black and white screen. If someone tries to swipe this I'll be like yeah, nice try thieves. You can't do anything with this piece of crap except read books. You have fun with that why don't you.
Hey... wait! Aren't you bringing a camera? You can't go on the trip of a lifetime without a camera!
Yes. Yes, I am. But I'll save that for another post because it's a little bit different from your typical backpacker setup.
