Travel Hacks

Noise solution.

With its dogs, early-rising roosters, motorcycles, loud music and myriad other sound sources, South America is notorious for noise.

Asia can be loud too.  I remember being awakened pre-dawn on my first morning in Pattaya, Thailand, years ago .. by a guy who thought the world should share his love of music by playing his instruments in a hotel district all morning for Chinese New Year's.

--

My noise solution is usually Flents Ear Stopples.  These waxy ear plugs shut out most noise once you figure out the ideal way to wear them to minimize sound.

I have received shipments of the inexpensive product in South America.

Full disclosure -- some countries, such as Ecuador, will take a healthy cut of the shipping costs as their bounty.

But if it buys you extra full nights of sleep, as these generally do, IMO it's worth the extra expense.

cccmedia

I agree it is a good tool... never thought on it like a travel tool because when I travel my cooking (if so) comes down to the use of raw ingredients on a sandwich or so.

But it could be good activity to go out and find a shop where to buy one when you arrive to a new place rather than taking it with you.

Also because when you use it on different setup than the one for cooking rice, its life-time decrease significantly.

In warm climates, I find that a portable battery-powered cooling fan is invaluable.

Many restaurants, for instance, tend to be warm places where some extra cooling air is welcome.  The consumption of air conditioning in hotel rooms can be reduced or enhanced by the use of a cooling fan, especially in the daytime.

These are typically small fans.  The one I brought with me on my current trip to warm Bucaramanga has a cooling surface that is about 6 inches by 6 inches .. and folds up for easy packing.  The brand is 02 Cool, a product made in China.

These fans can be hard to find in many countries.  They can be readily ordered where Amazon and Brookstone products are available.  Most such fans run on either two or four D batteries, sometimes on C bats.

cccmedia in Bucaramanga, Colombia

cccmedia wrote:

First up, the rice cooker.

BIg yes to that.
The things are amazingly handy for warming a wide variety of foods ... and even cooking rice. add some water and pop any food you like into the steamer tray and you have quick and easy reheat for food.
I always have a small one in my car when I'm out and about.

cccmedia wrote:

In warm climates, I find that a portable battery-powered cooling fan is invaluable.

I keep a small one about 6" or so. It charges with any USB supply and is easily small enough to fit into a computer bag or just pop into your luggage, As with yours, Chinese made - isn't everything?

A super light sleeping bag - make it yourself.
Take a piece of thin cotton material at least one meter wide and two and a half times your height.
Sew it to turn it into a long bag, open at one end.
Clean, just warm enough to be comfortable, and no biting insects.
I still carry mine when I wander.
Tip - squirt insect repellent on the outside at the open end and the ants won't walk inside.
Tip - This can also be used as a wrap to keep you warm on buses and trains.

A small Swiss army knife is an amazingly handy tool to have floating around. The tin and bottle openers can be really handy to open stuff to heat up in your rice cooker, and the screwdrivers have proven terrifically handy.
Strangly, the knife is the least used part of the thing.

A pack of wet wipes (Don't ask, just thank me later)
Another pack of antiseptic wet wipes in case washrooms don't have soap

Fred wrote:

A small Swiss army knife is an amazingly handy tool to have floating around. The tin and bottle openers can be really handy to open stuff to heat up in your rice cooker, and the screwdrivers have proven terrifically handy.
Strangely, the knife is the least used part of the thing.

Travelling on the cheap in Turkey back in the day (a long way back - 1964) I carried a small knife in a sheath on my belt. I was with a girl I'd met along the way, so there was the potential for danger. Fortunately, some fellow more experienced than I, warned me that my armament might be taken as a challenge, by someone who really knew how to use a knife. I recognised it as good prudent advice and never wore the weapon again.

Nearly fifty years later I mentioned the incident in my personal online journal (blog), but I can't find the actual post. All I've been able to lay my hands on is a brief mention (link below) of a couple who were knifed in their tent for the crime of cuddling in public in Turkey. I think it was that incident that prompted the warning to me.
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012/01/ararat.html

Gordon Barlow wrote:

I carried a small knife

I started carrying one when I bought my first motorbike (you'd be amazed at what they can be used for) and I still have one with me unless I'm traveling by air or going into a secure building. I keep it in the currier bag I use for my Samsung tab so it can't be seen at all, much less seen as a threat.

The things are useful for a million things so are an absolute must. The tweezers get splinters out of my fingers and the can opener opens cans. The little scissors are used as part of my mini first aid kit.

There goes another hack. I use a net type pencil case that has 2 compartments to carry a selection of plasters and other very simple first aid stuff. It's enough to look after a bad cut or other pretty minor stuff.

Another net pencil case is used for my chargers. One side for the tablet, the other for my phone.
You'll never have to hunt through your case for a charger again.

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … n-t-8.html
I'm not sure if it qualifies as a "hack", CC, but I hope you will stretch a point and let me include a reference to "getting by in foreign languages". I don't mean languages one can speak fluently - that wouldn't count as "getting by", would it. Getting-by is when one has to scramble for just about every word and doesn't know the grammar. When I was young and drifting around the Middle East and Eastern Europe, all I had was schoolboy-French, which was useless except in Istanbul and Cairo (once each) but nowhere else except in France itself. But somehow it was German that was most useful to me and the girl I travelled with. I picked it up in bits and pieces, and never spoke it with even the slightest fluency. Only once in all my travels was I forced by circumstances to actually converse in it, and these fifty years later my neck still goes red with the embarrassing memory of that incident. That's the story behind the link above.

And, what would a forum titled "Travel Hacks" be without a word or two about currency-dodges? Back in the day (1964/5) when Linda and I were on our Great Adventure in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, there were a few times when we felt obliged to skip some of the border-formalities. Not many times, because it was risky work, but enough to warrant including some of them here on CC's thread. I included one about the USSR in my personal online journal a few years ago, and it's covered in the link below. It's an interesting two minutes' read, I think. I probably could have cut it a bit shorter, but it's worth setting the context first.
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … lette.html

Language skills, even basic ones, used to be a big thing but mobile phones have seen off that need now.
Google translate is far from perfect but it is amazingly useful as it allows you to communicate reasonably well with pretty much anyone.

There are something well over 6,000 languages in the world, but only 12 that cover the vast majority of people - Google has 108.
The upshot is, carry a smartphone ... but download language packs as appropriate just in case you don't have a signal.

Smartphones are the single most useful item on the planet for travel.

Google maps means you never get (very) lost, and taxi drivers can't rip you off by going the long way round.

Translate as in the post above

Entertainment - especially if you have a lot of storage so you can keep your movie collection with you.

Communications keeps you in touch and, if you're out and about, a twitter account can keep family and friends informed as to where you are - big safety thing if you go missing

Almost forgot - Put one of those sticky back ring things on the back. It works as a stand if you want your  phone on a table to make a video call or watch a film, but also means it's harder to drop when your finger is through the ring.

Fred - don't tell me you have never in your travelling life done a wee bit of compromising with regard to currency exchanges. Or at least heard of some done by somebody else. Yes, that's it: some done by somebody else! Come on, man!

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Fred - don't tell me you have never in your travelling life done a wee bit of compromising with regard to currency exchanges. Or at least heard of some done by somebody else. Yes, that's it: some done by somebody else! Come on, man!

Sorry, not with you. Could you rephrase?

Fred wrote:

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Fred - don't tell me you have never in your travelling life done a wee bit of compromising with regard to currency exchanges. Or at least heard of some done by somebody else. Yes, that's it: some done by somebody else! Come on, man!

Sorry, not with you. Could you rephrase?

My fault, Fred. I was being facetious, suggesting that you could tell us one of your currency-exchange adventures by passing it off as somebody else's, so as not to put you in the embarrassing situation of admitting to an illegality. I presume you have had one or two incidents of that nature - similar to mine, at least in spirit. If I have misjudged you in that regard, then I apologise.

I have one other minor misbehaviour to confess to on the currency front - this one, bluffing a border-post into letting us leave the country illegally with unspent local currency. That happened at the end of a week in Bulgaria, back in the days of the Iron Curtain - 1965. Next time.

Might as well post it now... This is an extract from my blog-post on the incident. The rest of the post is at the link below, if anybody's interested. It dates from 1964/65 - the incident, that is: not the post.

Entering Bulgaria with Linda four months later was simplicity itself, with a visa from Istanbul. Leaving the country was rather more memorable, occurring on yet another back road. Yet again, my car was the only traffic for miles around – the only vehicle wanting to cross into Romania at this godforsaken spot, at least.

My side of the conversation went something like this, in pidgin German interspersed with occasional words from my Bulgarian-English dictionary. “It has been a pleasant stay in your beautiful country. Now please change our unspent local currency into Romanian currency. Oh, well, any currency will do. Well, if you don’t have any foreign currency, never mind; we will exchange it at the Romanian post just over there (a hundred yards across a bridge). What?! It’s illegal to take Bulgarian currency out of the country? Never mind, we’ll go back to the petrol pump a few miles back and spend it there. What do you mean you’ve already stamped us out of Bulgaria? Well, stamp us back in again, please. We would need another visa for that? And you aren’t authorised to issue visas? Sheesh. Tell you what, you keep our passports and we will drive back and get the petrol. Oh dear. We can’t travel in Bulgaria without a passport. So we must just give you the money, and you will give us a receipt? Hmm. I don’t think so.”

I demanded to speak with the Ministry of Tourism, then Foreign Affairs, then Internal Affairs, then the Prime Minister’s Office; oh, and the British Embassy. Please. Pronto. The phone rang hot for the next three hours, while we sulked in the car and wondered if we might have to stay in it all night.

In the end the Romanians changed the money for us without a fuss. It wasn’t illegal for them, which was just as well, I guess.
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2012 … garia.html

Plug-in light.

I love having my portable little night-light for travel.  Anyone who visits el baño during sleeping hours will appreciate such.  It's so tiny and lightweight it presents no problem when packing.

Hotel and apartment lights are often too brilliant for overnight visitations.  The little night-light with just enough illumination to navigate is ideal.

cccmedia

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Fred wrote:

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Fred - don't tell me you have never in your travelling life done a wee bit of compromising with regard to currency exchanges. Or at least heard of some done by somebody else. Yes, that's it: some done by somebody else! Come on, man!

Sorry, not with you. Could you rephrase?

My fault, Fred. I was being facetious, suggesting that you could tell us one of your currency-exchange adventures by passing it off as somebody else's, so as not to put you in the embarrassing situation of admitting to an illegality. I presume you have had one or two incidents of that nature - similar to mine, at least in spirit. If I have misjudged you in that regard, then I apologise.

I have one other minor misbehaviour to confess to on the currency front - this one, bluffing a border-post into letting us leave the country illegally with unspent local currency. That happened at the end of a week in Bulgaria, back in the days of the Iron Curtain - 1965. Next time.

Worst I managed was a hidden wallet with a few thousand quid in it - probably beyond the limit for leaving the UK. I was totally unaware of how to transfer money so I loaded up my credit card into a very large positive balance as well.
The card alone lasted me the first year.

cccmedia wrote:

Plug-in light.

I love having my portable little night-light for travel.

I use a USB charger and a USB lamp. Tiny but just right to light up a room and it works on a battery bank if the power goes out. I have a super tiny USB fan as well now - It's surprisingly good

Fred wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

Plug-in light.

I love having my portable little night-light for travel.

I use a USB charger and a USB lamp. Tiny but just right to light up a room and it works on a battery bank if the power goes out. I have a super tiny USB fan as well now - It's surprisingly good

The flashlight on my Android smartphone was more than sufficient for me during my 2nd time living in Vietnam.

It's always charging within arm's length nearby when I'm sleeping, so It doesn't need to be turned on until I actually need it.

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

Fred wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

Plug-in light.

I love having my portable little night-light for travel.

I use a USB charger and a USB lamp. Tiny but just right to light up a room and it works on a battery bank if the power goes out. I have a super tiny USB fan as well now - It's surprisingly good

The flashlight on my Android smartphone was more than sufficient for me during my 2nd time living in Vietnam.

It's always charging within arm's length nearby when I'm sleeping, so It doesn't need to be turned on until I actually need it.

My youngest wants a night light so a phone is no good except for emergency use. However, the little computer light with a charger works great. It's crazy small and light so really easy to carry.
I use one when I'm alone as well. Just enough light to see where I'm walking if I feel the need to trip to the bathroom at night.

OK, here's one more of my travel stories from the 1960s. This one illustrates quite well the truth of the wisdom I claimed in the post, that "... a smattering is sometimes much better than fluency". I really don't think we would have gotten through this border if I'd spoken fluent German. People in authority tend to feel sorry for foreigners who are trying really, really hard to be understood. In the story, I reported what I hoped I was saying - God knows what words and grammar I was actually using - and I really do believe the guards felt sorry for us. It didn't always work, but it was always worth trying!

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2011 … arlie.html

cccmedia wrote:

First up, the rice cooker.

I just watched the nanny cook mashed spuds in a rice cooker. Talk about a red hot item to have with you when traveling.

My travel experience from "back in the day" is not always relevant today - not directly relevant, at least. The principles haven't changed, though. My general advice on playing the black market in currencies is still fine (for young "budget" travellers), and how one can sometimes bamboozle border-guards, and how to sometimes get by with a smidgen of pidgin in a foreign language. I've given links of my reports in posts above.

Two other things I can generalise on: how to eat safely in unhealthy places and how to spread international goodwill. As to the first: don't eat anything raw, and don't drink anything cold. Nothing wrong with raw coconuts, of course - as long as they're not sold by weight. The word in India used to be (in my day) that street market oranges were injected with gutter water to make them heavier. And the world of travel even today teems with dysentery cases who added ice to their cokes.

As for the goodwill... get down with the natives whenever possible. In Haiti (1966, in Papa Doc's time), I spurned the offer of an inside seat in a bus from Cap Haitien to the capital and rode on the roof for the whole ten hours, helping to load and unload the luggage at every stop - the sole white face on the bus and no language in common with any of the others. I won't say I made any lifelong friends, but I was recognised as something more than just a "white man of privilege": a small victory. The driver went out of his way to drop me at my crappy hotel in the slums, to friendly shouts of "au-voi, blanc!" All those months of backpacking in the Middle East had shown me what to do.

As a general statement: youngsters who stay at middle-class hotels might as well stay at home and see the sights on TV. Middle-class people share the same culture all over the world, pretty much.
https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2013 … haiti.html

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Two other things I can generalise on: how to eat safely in unhealthy places  .................... don't eat anything raw, and don't drink anything cold.

That works.
Out here, one of the big causes of dicey tummy and underwear danger isn't the food - more the plates and metalwork. Many places wash in buckets rather than running water - enough said.
I order street food (always stuff that is cooked to order) wrapped up. That gets you a piece of greaseproof paper and a brown paper wrapper - perfect plate. I keep reusable plastic cutlery handy so that part of the issue is solved as well.

Gordon Barlow wrote:

As for the goodwill... get down with the natives whenever possible. In Haiti (1966, in Papa Doc's time), I spurned the offer of an inside seat in a bus from Cap Haitien to the capital and rode on the roof for the whole ten hours, helping to load and unload the luggage at every stop - the sole white face on the bus and no language in common with any of the others.

Top    (yes, it was deliberate)

One thing that really bugs me is tourists (and more than too many expats) who behave like total and utter arses, treating local like servants or so much dog mess.
Yes, hotel staff and so on are there to serve, but that's no reason not to be nice and make their interactions with you smooth and pleasant.

I keep being asked to the front of queues -there's number 1 thing to refuse.
Most importantly - don't be a dick.

An Australian in a hotel near Jakarta was as nasty as he was loud (and lewd). Quite why he was shouting at everyone and being that nasty I do not know, but his actions were abhorrent. Fools like him give everyone a bad name.

An American in a small newsagents/money changer in KL went ranting on about how they didn't have brand new Dollar bills. This was a kiosk in the corner of a tiny shop, not a bank - that makes him an idiot.
They were having trouble cashing my traveller's cheque and were apologising to me like you wouldn't believe - so I bought a newspaper and told them I'd hang around.

My personal favourite total arse was British bloke in a cinema - he was having a really nasty shouting event at the poor lad on the concession stand because the kid couldn't speak English so was having problems getting the order over. I was next in the queue and the kids face was "OMG - another one". I decided my best bet was to start with a very polite apology about the poor state of my Indonesian, then order as politely as I knew how with my language skills of the time.

The most important thing to learn in any language is 'Thank you'. It isn't a lot of use as far as doing things is concerned, but that simple interaction does a lot to help everyone, especially the traveller.

https://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2013 … ffair.html
The link above is to an old blog-post of mine that was very complimentary about France and most things French. The paragraph below is from that post, and was a curtailed version of an incident when (back in the day) I was next in line to a loud and ignorant American man who berated the clerk for not speaking English properly. The clerk was well within his rights to be offended, but he had no cause to take it out on me. I spoke my wretched schoolboy French - bad grammar, pathetic pronunciation, and slow - and refused his dismissive invitation to speak English. He was the "rude" one featured below. The post above contains two wonderful examples of the sheer practicality of the French.

Nobody’s perfect, of course. French people can be very rude, especially to foreigners who don’t speak French well enough. I’ve been the victim of that. What you do is insist on speaking French to the rude one – badly, loudly, and at length. Keep at it until he or she runs away sobbing. Then turn to whoever is still around and ask gently (in French) if they speak English. You’ll be surprised how many are willing to try.

Gordon Barlow wrote:

. And the world of travel even today teems with dysentery cases who added ice to their cokes

I used to think that too, until I learned/realized that the ice always comes from ice factories, at least in S-E Asia. Reason being that electricity is relatively expensive, apparently it’s cheaper to get ice from a factory rather than running a freezer 24/7.
Since then (about 5-7 years ago), I’ve been enjoying plenty of drinks (fruit and sugarcane juices mainly, plus the occasional milk shake) from roadside vendors and never had a problem. Of course these ice blocks aren’t handled correctly, several pairs of unwashed hands will have touched them before they arrive at the juice vendor, and they are usually transported in open bike trailers or trucks, at best covered with an old blanket. But I figure that not many germs can survive freezing temps, and even if they do, they are probably getting washed away by the melting ice-water dripping off it.
Maybe I was just lucky so far, but I do know a few other people who also drink their beverages regularly with ice, same result (no problems).
However I usually use bottled water to brush my teeth.

Yes, I think you have been lucky, Kurt! And just for the record, most of the people I know who have gotten the trots from ice in their drinks, got it in relatively posh hotels, in foreign places!

Regarding hygiene, you should also keep in mind that some people are more sensitive than others:
I once backpacked in India with a fellow student. Despite being very careful about what to eat or drink, bringing his own utensils, etc., he was sick almost all of the time. I, on the other hand, with what I call an "iron stomach", only had one minor incident of diarrhea during that trip - despite not giving a damn and eating everything (inclusing ice cubes, tap water, unwashed fruits, etc.)
I joked that he was getting sick from the dubious things I ate. He did not appreciate my sense of humour.
Over time, he developed a technique to quickly lean forward and vomit, with no more fuzz than others peeing behind a bush, and continued walking right away, The last two weeks of the trip he ate nothing and only drank bottled soft drinks. He lost 10kg, while I gained weight.
We lost contact later (when he became professor for theoretical physics at Stanford), but I believe he never again visited a third world country.

Gordon Barlow wrote:

Yes, I think you have been lucky, Kurt!

Maybe, we don’t know that for certain. I do think that ice is safe enough to not worry about it, and otherwise I’m rather careful. Also, India does have a reputation in this matter, whereas in Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, most people I’ve met never had had a problem.
As far as hotels are concerned, the only difference in this regard is that the larger, better hotels usually treat the tap water, I could actually smell the chlorine in the tap water in some hotels.

beppi wrote:

Regarding hygiene, you should also keep in mind that some people are more sensitive than others:

Certainly true, and some people get digestive problems just because of the different climate, especially if it’s hot and humid.

Fred wrote:

cccmedia wrote:

First up, the rice cooker.

BIg yes to that.
The things are amazingly handy for warming a wide variety of foods ... and even cooking rice. add some water and pop any food you like into the steamer tray and you have quick and easy reheat for food.
I always have a small one in my car when I'm out and about.

I have never used one to cook other stuff, but as for rice, I prefer cooking it in a small pot in boiling water, by far. That way my rice is ready in 15-20 minutes, with a rice cooker it takes an eternity.

And let's not forget to advise young people planning a trip anywhere in the Third/Fourth World to take and use - wherever practical - toilet paper and soap! To the best of my recollection, Linda and I never had to resort to "going native" entirely in our daily ablutions, in the Middle East all those years ago. Yes, the sheets on our beds weren't always clean, or even fresh, but there were some things we drew the line at. Call it Western arrogance, but we did draw that line!

Oh yes: Toilet paper!
I always carry around a roll when in countries where it isn't always provided.
Thankfully I found some in most places - although sometimes had to steal it from my hotel.
The only place where this really was a problem was Yemen in the late 1980ies. After a long search, I found only one small shop in an obscure corner of the capital selling it. I bought from him several times, and on my last visit took the remaining two rolls - he told me that he won't re-stock, since it wasn't sold for many months before I came.
The situation is not likely to have changed until now, but travel to that wonderful country is currently unadvisable for different reasons.

beppi wrote:

Oh yes: Toilet paper!

Never carry bog roll.

If tissue or a hose isn't available, that's where the wet tissues come in. Small, easier to carry, and works better anyway.
However, I always carry a large bin liner or two - Public toilets are way too commonly flooded or filthy and a bin liner gives you a disposable place to pop your things. Also, a strong hook you can hang your stuff on when required.