San Pedro market is very photogenic!

Here you can have a first-hand look at how locals live day-to-day, outside the confines of Cusco’s tourist zones. Get off the beaten path a little bit and head to market for a truly Peruvian experience. And bring lots of film—or make sure that you have abundant space on your memory card. Cusco continually reveals itself as the perfect setting! It’s a very photogenic city.

One of the oldest markets in continuous operation in South America.

Part of the fun is listening to the witty exchanges between neighbouring stall holders, as they compete for the attention of customers. Once the goods are selected, buyers and sellers set about bargaining.

Farm fresh chicken.

Often referred to as the “Big Market” or the “Central Market”, San Pedro was one of the earliest markets to open in Cuzco. It’s been in continuous operation since the beginning of eighteenth century. As Cuzco has grown, other markets have opened up—including big box grocers—but San Pedro Market still stands out.

A butcher shop unlike any other.

It’s comprised of different stands housed under a roof of corrugated metal. The stands are organized according to their wares, so that all the butchers are grouped together as are the fruit juice vendors and the vegetable stalls.

Tending to her wares.

There are also vendors that have dry goods for sale so that it’s possible to get pretty much everything you need without stepping foot in a grocery store. You’ll find blankets and clothes here, too.

Vendors spill out of the market into nearby alleys.

Early each morning, the proprietors come in from the countryside around Cusco and deposit their goods—or spread them out on the ground and spill over onto the steps of the nearby church. While the main market is interesting in its own right, you really need to wander through the back streets to capture a different kind of vibe.

Offering a ladle of...

When we visited in 2009, San Pedro was crazy, with stall holders illegally squatted on the sidewalks, rubbish litter and pick pockets. Although we’ve heard over the past year that the municipality is seeking to stop vendors without licences and are now removing them.

Fresh fruit by the bushel.

What boggles the mind is that each of these vendors closes down their stand every evening and return home, coming back the following morning in the dark with their good. We are talking about a massive inventory of goods—rivalling the big box stores of the West—brought in each day and taken away each night.

Carving up dried alpaca.

Markets are the melting pots of culture—a travellers gateway into a locale’s unfamiliar, indigenous lifestyle. The tight, meandering aisles, the frantic hubbub, the pervasive energy, the exotic stenches and the vortex of colours make markets the perfect place to start a journey. If you really want to get a feel for the sights and smells of an ordinary day for the residents of Cusco, San Pedro is a side trip not to be missed.

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If you’re travelling round-the-world out of just a bag, you’ll quickly learn to do laundry in hotel rooms, bathroom sinks and other areas without a washer and dryer. Unless you’re willing to over-pack, or spend valuable time in laundromats, you’ll want to wash some items in your hotel room sink. But, how to dry?

If you’re like most travellers we know, you’ve given up on those laundry lines with suction cups because they never seem to stay up. Or you could pack a piece of cord—but then you’ll need some clothespins. A great solution is a multiple-strand travel clothesline. It’s great for drying as your clothing tucks between the strands so you don’t need a clothespin.

You can buy one for around ten bucks online (we recommended a great product in our 2011 Gift Guide for Round-The-World Travellers) — but they’re simple to make and only require around a dollar’s worth of rubber bands if you have a little patience.

How to Make a Rubber Band Travel Clothesline (for Less Than $1)

Instructables user br3ttb used 60 rubber bands to make a travel clothesline by soaking the rubber bands in water to make them more pliable, separating the bands into three even piles and tying each pile into a long strand, and braiding the strands together.

Check out his instructions here over on Instructables. Have you ever checked out Instructables? It is a web-based documentation platform where passionate people share what they do and how they do it, and learn from and collaborate with others.

Have your own creative backpacking hacks to share—tips which may help someone to overcome a problem or limitation quickly and cheaply? Leave ‘em here. Or sound off in the comments below! Check out ourcollection of travel hacks by clicking here.

"Hackpacking: Make a Rubber Band Travel Clothesline" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Cubes

1. Eagle Creek Travel Gear Pack-It Cubes

Packing cubes make organizing your luggage a lot simpler and are a simple to save space when packing and become a more efficient traveller. They are, simply, lightweight fabric cubes (although most are rectangular) which hold your clothes and allow you to sort and separate different items. The great thing about using packing cubes—it’s so easy to unpack and repack clothes. When you arrive at your destination, its simply a matter of taking out the cube thats needed. No more rummaging through a bag! Packing cubes are essential for round-the-world travellers. Amazon’s got ‘em.

Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding

2. Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding

Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. He provides the necessary information on: financing your travel time, determining your destination, adjusting to life on the road, working and volunteering overseas, handling travel adversity and re-assimilating back into ordinary life. Not just a plan of action, Vagabonding is an outlook on life that emphasizes creativity, discovery, and the growth of the spirit. Click here to purchase Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel from Amazon.

Altec Lansing Orbit MP3

3. Altec Lansing Orbit MP3

The Altec Lansing Orbit MP3 Lite offers incredible volume and clarity from a speaker compact enough to fit in your pocket. This portable speaker uses a standard headphone jack to connect to your music device, allowing you to effortlessly amplify your favorite tunes from virtually any iPhone, iPod, MP3 player, music-enabled mobile phone, or laptop. With balanced components delivering clear, distortion-free sound, the Orbit MP3 Lite is an ideal solution for broadcasting music on the go. Of course it lacks any real bass element or depth, but then that’s not really the point. It is all about giving you volume and the chance to share your music in your guesthouse or dorm rather than being a replacement for your home PC stereo system. Amazon’s got ‘em.

Flexoline Travel Laundry Clothesline

4. Flexoline Travel Laundry Clothesline 

Unless you’re willing to over-pack, or spend valuable time in laundromats, you’ll want to wash some items in your hotel room sink. But, how to dry? It’s so easy to wash out a few clothes in the basin and hang them up to dry overnight when you’re travelling. If you’re like most travellers we know, you’ve given up on those laundry lines with suction cups because they never seem to stay up. The Flexo-line, designed in 1945, was the brainchild of an American inventor who also developed the first electric stove and flexible ice cube tray, It holds up to 12 lb of wet clothes, thanks to its surgical-quality, natural latex rubber tubing which is woven in three braids—not the usual two. Just loop its ends around a doorknob, hook, shower head, or rod (it stretches to seven feet), then poke a corner of your wet garment in the tight braid to dry. No clothespins needed. It’s so compact and lightweight, it will barely take up any room in your bag! Amazon’s got ‘em.

Keep Your Gadgets Dry with LOKSAK

5. Keep Your Gadgets Dry with LOKSAK

A must-have item for anyone who wants to protect important papers or electronic gadgets with ease. Check out this set of four waterproof, flexible, strong yet lightweight LOKSAK storage bags. Stow your wallet, medication, passports, documents, cell phones, maps, PDAs, books, film, food, batteries, GPS, jewelry, clothing, cash and much more. These resealable element-proof storage bags are hermetically sealed with a slide and squeeze of the finger and thumb. That means absolutely no water, air, dust or humidity can get into the bag. Sort of like a Ziploc, but much better. Amazon’s got ‘em.

Light My Fire Titanium Spork

6. Light My Fire Titanium Spork

The most versatile outdoor eating utensil, the spoon-fork-knife combo makes eating–and cleaning up–on the go a breeze. Designed by Scandinavian designer Joachim Nordwall, the spork is perfect for your backpack, boat, picnic basket, lunchbox, purse or briefcase. This spork is made of titanium, one of the toughest alloys on the planet, widely used in aircraft construction because of its lightness, extreme strength and long-lasting durability. Its high biocompatibility means that it is also safe and non-toxic. And guess what? Amazon’s got ‘em!

Kensington All-in-One Travel Plug Adapter

7. Kensington All-in-One Travel Plug Adapter

A simple but excellent travel adaptor that we’ve tried and tested on countless trips for many years. A good travel adapter will last a lifetime. This simple device will replace your current socket set in a neat, compact body and with the USB  charger you’ll no longer need to carry all the particularly heavy mobile phone, camera and mp3 chargers. Perfect for the globetrotter with gadgets, this compact world travel adapter works in more than 150 countries, allowing you to plug in wherever you are. The elegant compact and safe way to plug in your portable appliances worldwide.

Donations

8. Donate!

If like a lot of people, you’re tired of giving commercial gifts no matter how neat they may be, consider doing something charitable for your favourite RTW travellers. A donation made in their name to Planeterra makes a great gift—and provides travellers and their friends and families a way to contribute to investment in sustainable community development that focuses on different destinations around the world. The organization supports a steady cycle of giving and investment, via a global network of travel industry partners, in the social and environmental needs of people and places in the destinations we serve worldwide. A donation makes the perfect gift for the traveller in your life!

You’d also do well to consider, Kiva—the world’s first online lending platform connecting online lenders to entrepreneurs. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of microfinance institutions, Kiva lets individuals lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world.

Still stuck? Check out these great gift ideas from last year’s gift guide—there’s something for everyone from kids to grown-up adventurers!

This post contains affiliate links, which means when you click on links to various products that we recommend and make a purchase, this can result in a commission that is credited to this site. We have chosen to only recommend products in our articles that we use or have thoroughly researched. We, too, are travellers, so our credibility online means everything to us. Our following is growing by the month, and there are a lot of people who come here for advice, help and support. Therefore we take our responsibility as an affiliate very seriously.

"2011 Gift Guide for Round-The-World Travellers" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Check out a sporting event

“Sports are not just competitive events between teams or individuals in their quest to win titles, trophies, and championships” writes Jeremy Branham of Budget Travel Adventures. “They have a way of connecting with people and culture beyond tourist attractions and museums. If the history of a city broadens the mind then sports is the soul and heart of its people.”

Football in Cusco. Photo by Two Go Round-The-World.

He continues: ”A museum can teach you what people have learned and how a place evolved—art, war, politics, and education.  Sports allows you to experience who people are—raw, spontaneous emotion and passion passed down through generations through relationships, shared moments and culture”. For more check out his post entitled “5 ways sports and travel unite passion and culture around the world” on his blog here.

Get a haircut

“Make the mundane memorable” writes Adam from Travels with Adam. He continues: “I think this may be one of my more favorite pastimes—getting a haircut while travelling. It’s such a regular occurrence and is bound to happen while you’re abroad for any extended amount of time. Unless you’re a dirty hippie. Not only does it involve finding a place to get a haircut, but you’re almost guaranteed a local experience. I mean, how many other travellers are getting a haircut?” Adam concludes: “That’s what makes long-term travel so wacky—and so fun! Doing things just like you normally would, but in a totally different way”. Check out Adam’s post — and his excellent blog here.

Mumbai shave. Photo by Francois Bester.

Keep a blog—or don’t

Two very interesting perspectives on this one. Whereas Mariellen Ward of Breathedreamgo advocates keeping a blog, Rolf Potts of Vagablogging recommends against it. “Blogging while you travel can enrich your journey in more ways than one,” writes Mariellen Ward of breathedreamgo. “It helps keep your friends and family back home informed, creates a permanent record of your trip and gives you the opportunity to take time to reflect on your experiences.”

Keep a blog—or don't!

On the other hand, Rolf Potts of Vagablogging sees it differently: “One dilemma many travellers face is reconciling the personal and public sides of a journey… the effect travel has on us is sometimes far too profound to reveal to the world, and our metamorphoses needn’t always be broadcast so strangers can post inanities about their validity or lack thereof. We leave out saucy escapades, not to mention precious impromptu travel snippets. Because of this, it’s the rare blog entry that can match the honesty and authenticity of a handwritten journal. 10 years from now, which will you want to remember, the true story or the watered-down one you fed the public? Check our the rest of his article on World Hum here. You’d also do well to check out Mariellen’s top tips for getting started as a travel blogger.

Haggle in a market

Haggling is something you have to be in the mood for. Patience and a sense of humor are essential—or you won’t enjoy the experience. And if you aren’t careful, you may find yourself struggling back to your hotel under the weight of your purchases and with no money to finance the rest of your round-the-world trip. Haggling and shopping will provide you with a chance to practice your language skills, meet some locals and have a little fun—all at the same time.

Haggling in a market in Beijing. Photo by Ivan Walsh.

Sarah Schlichter at Independent Traveler writes: “Some travellers get to know a place through its museums and monuments, others through its scenic landscapes or traditional cuisine. But for globetrotters who love to shop, there’s no truer way to experience a place than by haggling with merchants in a bazaar, browsing the handcrafted wares of local artisans or sampling designer duds at the poshest boutique in town.” Check our her article: “Shopping Abroad: A Traveler’s Guide” here.

Check out the street meat

“As travellers we want to experience all that we can from a country. ” writes Ayngelina from Bacon is Magic (guest posting on Caz and Craig’s Y Travel). “When you ask people how their impression of a place one of the first things they will talk about is the food. And the foundation of any strong culinary heritage is street food.”

Gwangju street food. Photo by Two Go Round-The-World.

She continues: “I have had some amazing meals in my life but the most memorable food experiences have been from street vendors: crickets in Mexico, bun cha in Vietnam, ceviche in Peru. In fact, the first memory of a country tends to be something delicious I ate there.” Check out her piece “The Real Reason You Should Eat Street Food” here.

Conclusion

Just as we were about to publish this post, a piece from Joel Carillet popped up on our Google Reader in which he discusses experience vs participation. Carillet’s position is worth considering—and certainly has a bearing on this post—and to a greater degree, on how we approach travel and what we emphasize in it. He writes:

It is the men, women, and children in the places we visit, not inanimate things, that allow us to relate to (and not just experience) the world. I don’t at all want to knock experience — I love it! — but it’s important to be aware that traveling in the name of “having experiences” isn’t the same as traveling to participate in the world. The one is rather self-referential; the other is more interested in being a part of a community, even if only in a very modest way.

Do you have any recommendations for experiences that connect you with the essence of a place and its people—and should be included here? Let us know in the comment stream below.

"5 Ways to Enrich Your RTW Journey" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

As long as you don’t try to cram too many destinations into your itinerary, you’ll be fine.

Is it possible to do a round-the-world (RTW) trip in three months or less? In 1873, Jules Verne wrote about Phileas Fogg, his valet Passepartout, and their trip Around the World in Eighty Days. Today, since the actual time it takes to circumnavigate the planet on commercial airliners is about 40 hours, a three month RTW trip is technically feasible. In fact, earlier this year, Dan Poynter roughly followed the same route that Verne wrote about and circumnavigated the globe in just two days aboard regularly-scheduled commercial airliners. Of course, we don’t recommend it — Poynter, of course, was doing this in promotion of his Air Travel Handbook.

But, as long as you don’t try to cram too many destinations into your itinerary, you’ll be fine. The prevailing wisdom, of course, is that you’ll likely have a far more enriching experience than someone who travels for eight months and tries to see three or four times as many places.

Check out Jenny Mciver’s blog Round the World in 30 Days. She writes:

You may be thinking that you could not possibly find enough time in your busy schedule to take a trip around the world.  To this I say, you are probably wrong.  While most people who take RTW trips do quit their jobs, sell their possessions and hit the road for a year or more, I’m living proof that there are other options.

Jenny goes on to state that the only qualification for a true RTW trip is that you circumnavigate the globe. And of course —only you can decide how long that will take you. She writes: “After all, not everyone needs a week to see the Pyramids, I did it in an afternoon and it was magnificent”.

While there’s no ‘correct’ length of time, most RTW trips last six months to a year; however, the length of the adventure is up to the traveler (and their budget). In our opinion, a year is the perfect amount of time to challenge yourself; it’s a period short enough to envision an end goal but long enough to be significantly challenging to keep up with over the long-term. This, of course, is just our opinion.

That being said, we were certainly dismissive of the notion a couple of years ago in a piece we wrote entitled: “Round the world in 29 days? No thanks!” That thinking came out of our desire not to hurry a trip — which we find to be a kind of poisonous twentieth-century attitude. Like Robert Pirsig writes: “When you want to hurry something, that means you no longer care about it and want to get on to other things”.

What we’ve come to realize in the intervening two years, however, is that this has less to do with length of time spent on the road — and more to do with style of travel. Rolf Potts — although he advocates long-term travel — sums it up thusly: “You must keep in mind that the whole point of long-term travel is having the time to move deliberately through the world.”

According to Doug Lansky in his First Time Around The World, travelling too fast and trying to see too much is the number-one traveller’s mistake. He writes: “Spend at least two days longer than you think. Maybe even two weeks. The faster you go and the more ground you cover, tempting though it may be, the less you’ll see.”

As we’ve said before, growth and insight are attainable for anyone who opens their eyes, whether their itinerary is 30 days long or 365 days long. That ‘authentic’ travel experience does not require you to rush out to your travel agent and book a year-long open jaw ticket. What it does require, however, is for you to slow down leave your preconceptions behind, whether you do that on a thirty-day trip or low and slow over two years is up to you!

So, readers of Two Go Round-The-World, what’s your take? Is it possible to do a RTW trip in three months or less? Is it advisable? In your opinion, what’s the the perfect length of time for a RTW trip?

"A RTW trip in three months or less?" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

We share some of our favourite hacks for backpackers and vagabonds…

Occasionally, Kathryn and I come across some great travel ‘hacks’—tips and shortcuts that help backpackers, vagabonds and long-term travellers get things done smarter, cheaper and more efficiently. So, with no further ado, here’s an inexpensive solution that might be deserving of a place in (or on) your backpack.

Over on BootsnAll—a web-based travel publisher, online travel community and provider of services and information for travellers need—we discovered a post by fellow Bootie Mr Tree. He writes:

I had a clever idea, but need some specifics. What I’d like to do is store a four-season sleeping bag during the warmer months at a post office—and swap it with my two-season for the winter. I figured, this way I could also mail the bag to a different location, so that I could make a swap at any post office. Is this possible?

We suggested that Mr Tree go the route of Poste Restante. Poste Restante (dubbed ‘General Delivery in the US’ and ‘Lista de Correos’ in South America) is a service whereby the post office holds mail until the recipient picks it up. Before the advent of email, it was commonly used by backpackers who were visiting a particular location and had no need, or no way, of having mail delivered directly to them.

Services vary

Poste Restante in most countries will hold mail for a few months before returning it to sender (or throwing it away). Some countries, like China, send it back in just a month.  Be advised, however, that other countries, especially those in Europe, have stopped accepting Poste Restante for security reasons. Check on your destination in advance to see if this is an option. In Canada, for example, General Delivery is  offered to the travelling public for a period of up to four months.

Avoid lugging around books

While we didn’t use it to swap out our sleeping bags, we’ve used Poste Restante in the past to deliver a package of travel books to ourselves—from Hong Kong to Bangkok. These were books to be used in our next leg of travel (Inida), and it saved us the trouble of either lugging them around South East Asia or searching for hard-to-find titles in Bangkok or Hanoi (which would likely be very time consuming and costly).

We’ve also asked our parents to send us additional books later on our trip (since most post offices will only hold poste restante mail for a maximum of thirty days). We’ve also used poste restante to ship packages within a country—when we purchased a large souvenir early in our trip through Mainland China, we sent it onward to Hong Kong’s post office so that we could pick it up on our way out.

Conclusion

Be warned that Poste Restante services vary wildly. Sometimes they are even better in developing countries than they are in developed countries. The only sure way to ensure that your stuff will be safe is to confirm directly with the Post Office that you are considering. Services are generally good, but email or call in advance to confirm size and weight restrictions.

Have your own creative backpacking hacks to share—tips which may help someone to overcome a problem or limitation quickly and cheaply? Leave ‘em here. Or sound off in the comments below! Check out our collection of travel hacks by clicking here.

"Hackpacking: Using Poste Restante or General Delivery" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Grapefruit Seed Extract: Panacea or Hype?

Occasionally, Kathryn and I come across some great travel ‘hacks’—tips and shortcuts that help backpackers, vagabonds and long-term travellers get things done smarter, cheaper and more efficiently. So, with no further ado, here’s an inexpensive solution that might be deserving of a place in (or on) your backpack.

Travellers gastro, or diarrhoea, is the most common ailment of backpackers travelling abroad, particularly to developing countries. And, as travellers, we’re generally well-versed in the three-rule guide to preventing gastro problems—boil, bottle and peel.

But in the last few years, a new weapon has been added to the backpacker’s arsenal—grapefruit seed extract (GSE).

In the years since its discovery, GSE has become more widely applied to help fight against gastrointestinal illness, including problems of a bacterial, fungal, parasitic or viral nature. In fact, some backpackers believe GSE drops are a great way to prevent parasites.

According to some, in fact, GSE has proven to be effective as an emergency water purifier, as well. They maintain that it can be used to purify water instantly if you are camping out or traveling in areas where the quality of drinking water is questionable.

GSE is often touted as a ‘natural’ product, and your local health food store sells it in a capsule as an antifungal supplement. However, GSE is not derived from juice, nor is it an essential oil and it is most certainly not a herbal tincture. It is derived from grapefruit pulp through an intensive chemical process. And while the active ingredient of grapefruit seed extract is non-toxic, a number of chemical catalysts are used in its manufacture. It’s decidedly not organic—but it’s marketed that way.

But is it effective? The jury’s still out. In our opinion, it’s likely a good alternative to broad spectrum antibiotics that are usually preventatively prescribed to travellers for gastrointestinal problems. That being said, GSE acts as an antibiotic in the truest sense—antibiotic means anti-life. While it is believed that GSE has no harmful effect on beneficial bacteria, if given internally in excessive doses over a long-term period it can kill off ‘good’ bacteria much as regular antibiotics do, with the same adverse effects.

According to its advocates, the rule of thumb is to use one drop of liquid concentrate per 10 pounds (5kg) of weight. Moreover, you can make your own organic disinfectant by adding one or two drops per ounce of distilled water. This can also be used to rinse vegetables and fruits—or for a more thorough treatment, soak them for fifteen minutes and rinse thoroughly.

While Kathryn and I have used GSE for its anti-microbial properties, we generally don’t ingest it. Instead, we use 5–6 drops of GSE to clean our toothbrushes, 30 drops in a sink to wash our fruits and veggies and and about 15–30 drops to wash your dishes and utensils. As far as purifying water, we’ll stick with iodine, thanks. It might taste terrible—but it’s a better, safer alternative.

That being said, GSE is an elegant, somewhat cheap and generally available alternative to commercial anti-microbials—so it’s found a place in our backpack!

Have your own creative backpacking hacks to share—tips which may help someone to overcome a problem or limitation quickly and cheaply? Leave ‘em here. Or sound off in the comments below! Check out our collection of travel hacks by clicking here.

"Hackpacking: Grapefruit Seed Extract" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

The Two Go Round-The-World 2010 Holiday Gift Guide

The holiday season is right around the corner, and we figured it’s time to start coming up with some useful, thoughtful and hopefully interesting gift ideas for the traveller (or travellers) in your life. While most of these suggestions are quite affordable, we’ve been sure to provide a wide range of ideas for all budgets (from $8 to $800).

When we receive pitches for the holiday gift guide, we get a lot of mainstream ideas and suggestions that are a bit off the beaten path. So—with no further delay—here’s a bunch of product suggestions that are unique and cool enough to consider this year.

1. Joby GP1-D1EN Gorillapod Flexible Tripod

Say goodbye to holding your camera at arm’s length to take a photo of yourself. Joby’s Gorillapod is designed with self-timer photography in mind—so it’s great for solo RTW travellers. And it’ll fit easily into your backpack. The Gorillapod firmly secures your compact digital camera to just about anything. Unlike traditional tripods, the Gorillapod doesn’t require an elevated flat surface. It lets you mount your camera just about anywhere. All you need to do is use the universal 1/4-20 screw to attach your camera to the standard tripod mount, then wrap the three flexible segmented legs securely to a nearby tree branch, fence, park bench, or anything else that’s convenient. Purchase the Joby Gorillapod from Amazon here.

2. Rick Steves Packing Cube Set

Packing cubes are a great way to stay organized. They allow you easy access to you backpack without having to pull everything out. We love how these cubes save us time and frustration while on the road. Our pack stays organized and packing/unpacking is  much easier and quicker. For sheer price and functionality, it’s hard to beat these mesh compression packs. The cubes themselves are cleverly designed, with wire framing that helps them retain their shape. Purchase these packing cubes from Amazon here.

3. Dry Pak Alligator Wallet

Keep your money and documents dry, safe and close at hand with this Dry Pak Alligator Wallet. This heavy gauge vinyl pouch is hermetically sealed with a bright yellow cam-lock clip that seals out water, sand and dust. An adjustable neck lanyard helps keep pouch close at hand. Enough room for ID, cash, credit cards, keys and even a small phone. Check out the Dry Pak Alligator Wallet on Amazon.

4. Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF1

The build quality of the GF1 is solid—it feels like a sturdy truck in your hands—a piece of gear that won’t be any worse for wear on the road. To squeeze this level of image quality into a camera of this size was unheard of until just recently. The Micro Four Thirds standard delivers results that approximate the results achieved with entry-level DSLRs. Ultimately, the GF1 does not measure up as a substitute for DSLR, but serves as a great complement to one—especially for travellers wanting to carry a small light body. For more information, check out our full review of the DMC-GF1. As far as we’re concerned, this little unit has won itself a place in both our real-world —and our virtual—backpack. Feel like buying? Head on over to Amazon.

5. Petzl Tikka Headlamp

The Petzl Tikka Headlamp is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and offers plenty of burn time for outdoor adventures, and reading in overnight trains and buses. Weighing less than a golf ball, it’s perfect for use in tight quarters. The fully adjustable strap is comfortable and equipped with a cushion forehead pad, so you can leave this one on all night in the sleeper car from Bangkok to Changmai—no headaches! Three LED bulbs offer up to 150,000 hours of burn time. And, powered by three ‘AAA’ batteries, the Tikka illuminates the trail ahead or that that page-turner novel for up to 150 hours. It is both very durable and solidly water-resistant, so it won’t short out when it’s soaking wet. Check out our full review here—or head on over to Amazon here.

6. Grand Trunk Silk Sleep Sack

At just 5 ounces, the Grand Trunk Silk Sleep Sack will keep you warm on chilly nights (adding 10-12 degrees to your sleeping bag). Plus it’s ideal for use as a stand-alone sleeping sack when staying in hotels, hostels or anywhere you sleep. Silk is a natural and breathable material (that’ll keep out bed bugs) and provides a comfortable sleeping environment. The Grand Trunk Silk Sleep Sack also comes with a twist—an attached waterproof stuff sack that will prolong the lifespan of your liner and is great for storage. Check out the reviews on Amazon here.

7. Pacsafe’s TravelSafe

Of the array of products we took a look at in our article, “Travelling Safely: Personal Safety Products“, there’s one that we can wholeheartedly endorse—Pacsafe’s TravelSafe. As such, it has won itself a place in both our real-world and virtual backpack.  As the manufacturer claims in its marketing literature, the lightweight TravelSafe folds small and is easy to take with you whenever you need to lock and leave your valuables. It is a lightweight, malleable and portable ‘safe’ for your valuables which can be locked secured to a fixture. The TravelSafe cinches and locks closed using an integrated, high-tensile stainless steel cable with padlock and locking device. Check out our full review here—or head on over to Amazon and pick one up!

8. FlareSafe

Travel smoke detector, personal alarm, and LED flashlight in one. FlareSafe is an essential piece of kit for today’s global traveller, keeping you protected and prepared wherever in the world you find yourself. FlareSafe weighs only 200 grams and uses the latest LED technology to ensure you are carrying the most reliable personal safety device available. Read about it at the manufacturer’s website or check it out at Amazon.

9. Heys USA eScale Luggage Scale

The eScale Luggage Scale from Heys USA is a a tiny digital luggage scale that helps you save on airline’s overweight fees. The Heys USA eScale Luggage Scale is molded to fit perfectly in your hand. It weighs luggage up to 110 pounds. Portable and compact for easy traveling, it provides digital accuracy with easy-to-read display while strong metal hook hold on to your pack.

10. The Wave Multitool From Leatherman

The most popular full-size Leatherman tool is  better than ever—larger knives, stronger pliers, longer wire cutters and all-locking blades make it an essential piece of equipment for any round-the-world adventure. The pliers have been redesigned to withstand more than double the previous squeezing load, and the new bronze bushing makes one-handed knife access a smooth operation—plus, the one-at-a-time blade selection function means that the tool you want is the tool you get. We love it. Check the reviews out at Amazon.

That’s it, folks!

We hope we’ve given you some ideas for interesting and original gifts for the travellers in your life. Feel free to let us know about other great gift ideas in the comments—we’ll post a follow-up with reader suggestions!

At Two Go Round-The-World, we value the conversation that exists between us and our readers—and the trust on which that relationship is based. Here we’re committed to creating an environment informed by that trust. So, too with endorsements and advertising. So, it goes without saying that we are very selective in what we endorse. If you know of a product or service that has enhanced your travels, please contact us. Our goal is not just make money from the products we advertise, but to build our reader’s trust. Over the years, we’ve found only a few affiliate programs that we feel truly benefit our readers. These products offer significant value and will improve your travel experience.

This post contains affiliate links, which means when you click on links to various products that we recommend and make a purchase, this can result in a commission that is credited to this site. We have chosen to only recommend products in our articles that we use or have thoroughly researched. We, too, are travellers, so our credibility online means everything to us. Our following is growing by the month, and there are a lot of people who come here for advice, help and support. Therefore we take our responsibility as an affiliate very seriously

"Great Gift Ideas for the Round-The-World Traveller" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Sunset over Koh Lanta Yai. Photo by Patrik M. Loeff (Creative Commons).

There’s no doubt that music can evoke powerful emotional and physical reactions. In many cases, as soon as it is heard, it can transport you back to a particular place. For example, Jack Johnson’s ‘Brushfire Fairytales’ immediately takes Katie and I back to our stay on Koh Lanta Yai. We first heard Jack Johnson beachside. He was playing over the stereo at a bar we frequented. I can even recall what we were drinking that afternoon—gin and soda with a squeeze of lime. In like manner, Paul Oakenfold’s ‘Travelling In Asia’ takes me back to mainland China—it was the only disc I had with me for my discman. Hard to believe my travels through China predated the mp3!

Throughout the years, we’ve compiled playlists to capture certain memories, or evoke a particular time in our lives. To this day, it’s the single best way Kathryn and I know of to recall a memory and to be transported back to a moment in life. Stronger, it would seem, than even the power of photography.

Matching our intuitions about music, researchers have found that music is an important influence on our memories. We associate songs with emotions, people and places we’ve experienced in the past. By mapping the brain activity of a group of subjects while they listened to music, a researcher at the University of California now believes that he has the answer. Reports Science Daily: “The region of the brain where memories of our past are supported and retrieved also serves as a hub that links familiar music, memories and emotion.”

This isn’t to say that songs or music are the only influence on memory. Of course, the photos we took, the sights we saw and the words we wrote about our trip will also help to preserve it in our minds for many years to come. But music might be the most immediate and powerful connection.

Ray Mueller, a member of the Arts Council of America says, “Research has located specific areas of mental activity linked to emotional responses to music.  Therefore, it seems music is a human need and the brain is able to act as a function to satisfy that need.” The most interesting thing about Mueller’s suggestion is he regards it as a human need—just as we require food, air and water. Mueller’s research suggests that a lack of music in a person’s life can actually be detrimental. As Boethius, a highly regarded philosopher of the early 6th century wrote: “Music is so naturally united with us that we cannot be free from it even if we so desired”.

What are your thoughts?  Can you think of a specific song that brought you back to a time in your travels?  What memories did it recall?  Did it bring up individual emotions?

Recommended Reading

• Brain Hub That Links Music, Memory And Emotion Discovered: We all know the feeling: a golden oldie comes blaring over the radio and suddenly we’re transported back — to a memorable high-school dance, or to that perfect afternoon on the beach with friends. But what is it about music that can evoke such vivid memories?
• Ten Tunes to Download Before your Next Trip: For many travellers and backpackers, their iPods and MP3 players provide the soundtrack of their trip. Remember way back in the old days—like the 1990s—when music was stored on plastic discs called CDs? Or, even further back to the 1980s, when we carried music around on vinyl?
• Metafilter—Songs About Travelling: Suggestions for a list of travel-oriented songs in any genre, specifically ones that hit on the independent, vagabonding, adventure, exploration style.

"Music and Memory: Travelling Without Moving" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

We share some of our favourite hacks for backpackers and vagabonds...

Occasionally, Kathryn and I come across some great travel ‘hacks’—tips and shortcuts that help backpackers, vagabonds and long-term travellers get things done smarter, cheaper and more efficiently. So, with no further ado, here’s an inexpensive solution that might be deserving of a place in (or on) your backpack.

Backpackers have become quite adept at stretching a few things as far as humanly possible while on the road—money, for instance, and, of course, the days between loads of laundry. When faced with a lack of laundry facilities—or a prohibitively expensive laundry service—Kathryn and I have learned to do what many backpackers have before us—we turn to the bottle for relief. Vodka, of course!

Unlike the beverage itself, the origins of vodka are a bit cloudy—more than a few nations lay claim to vodka’s birthplace; although, according to recent research, the two countries likely to lay legitimate claim to one of the world’s most popular liquors are Poland and, of course, Russia. The drink is so ubiquitous that the Russian word ‘voda’—believed to be the root from which vodka originated—means ‘water’. Regardless, vodka is just as popular in Poland.

Originally produced for medicinal purposes, this crude anaesthetic and disinfectant was distilled from rye. However, it was not until the middle fourteenth century that vodka was distilled to sufficient potency to cause intoxication. Shortly thereafter, communities were producing the drink—to serve as both medicine and beverage!

For the purposes of this post, however, Kathryn and I aren’t interested in either of the more common applications for everybody’s favourite alcohol. In fact, vodka has a great many uses besides imbibing.

If you have clothing that is starting to get a little ripe, you can keep your clothes smelling fresher with vodka. Really! Simply spritz your duds with the stuff, then hang to dry in a well-ventilated area. Pick up a spray bottle from the dollar store and make a solution of water and vodka—then spray your clothes with the solution. Vodka kills odour-causing bacteria but, amazingly, doesn’t stain or leave a scent when dry. The alcohol in the vodka evaporates, killing odours while disinfecting!

If you turn to vodka on a regular basis, you also help your clothes last a little longer as they will not be washed as many times. In fact, vodka works better than commercial fabric sprays such as Febreeze since vodka kills smells on clothing but commercial alternatives only serve to mask odours. Also, vodka costs less and you need to use less on clothing when eliminating smells.

It’s an elegant, cheap and widely available alternative—the perfect hack!

More vodka hacks for the backpacker

• Try this remedy for healthier, lush hair—add a jigger of vodka to a 12-oz bottle of shampoo.
• To remove a bandage painlessly, saturate the bandage with vodka. The solvent dissolves the adhesive.
• If you have a blister that has opened, pour vodka over the raw skin as a local anaesthetic that also disinfects the exposed dermis.
• To cure foot odour, wash your feet with vodka. Comparison of a commercial foot powder wash vs a vodka wash showed that the odour was eliminated on both feet.
• Vodka will disinfect and alleviate a jellyfish sting.
• If all else fails, just turn the bottle upside-down and enjoy.

In the comment stream below, Uncornered Market’s Audrey Noll offers up a few additional uses for vodka, writing: “When I lived in Estonia as a Peace Corps volunteer, vodka seemed to be an important ingredient in every remedy.” Here are a few more of Audrey’s tips to add to the list—thanks Audrey!

• If you can’t break a fever, soak your socks in vodka and put them on.
• Vodka mixed with pepper is good for stomach issues.
• Vodka rubbed on mosquito bites help takes the itch away.

Have your own creative backpacking hacks to share—tips which may help someone to overcome a problem or limitation quickly and cheaply? Leave ‘em here. Or sound off in the comments below! Check out our collection of travel hacks by clicking here.

"Hackpacking: Vodka’s many uses" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

The importance of planning!

An international study—published in January 2009 in the New England Journal of Medicine—found using a checklist when performing surgery reduced the rate of complications by four per cent. It follows that planning for a long-term or round-the-world trip is not unlike performing surgery—on your life, no less! So a checklist should be mandatory!

That’s why we’ve drawn together this ever-evolving pre-departure checklist from a number of sources around the web and in print and are sharing it with our readers. You can view our ‘Round-The-World Pre-Departure Travel Checklist’ by clicking here. Designed to help you make your transition to round-the-world traveller as smooth and effective as possible, this checklist will ensure you manage the transition to vagabond with ease.

Print the the page locally and cross stuff off as you go, or just bookmark it and return to is as often as you need. The list is meant to provide a starting point to guide you in creating your own round-the-world checklist—remember, really great checklists are usable because they’re tailored to suit your own situation.

We are big time believers in checklists.  If it it’s so easy for an otherwise competent doctor to miss a step (to return to our earlier analogy) or, in the stress and pressure of the moment, to fail to plan properly for every eventuality, then why do we believe that we’re immune to the same pressures ?

If you can negotiate the complex process of preparing to go, the complications you encounter during your round-the-world trip should prove to be a piece of cake. Ready to go and unsure if you have thought of everything? Look at our handy checklist for an outline of some of the most important things to consider before you hit the road. Click here.

"A Checklist for Planning and Preparing for Your RTW Trip" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Managing day-to-day spending on the road

In most regions of the world, international ATMs are the best way to manage money while abroad. They are convenient, safe and often provide the best exchange rate—discounting, of course, their sometimes exorbitant service charges. This is generally the cheapest and most convenient way to get cash in the local currency.

Travellers cheques—a dying breed

Increasingly overlooked by card-wielding travellers, travellers cheques are a dying breed. Five years ago, travellers cheques were the preferred means of payment by most international tourists, equal in importance only to cash and more widely used than debit cards. However, with the exponential growth of ATM cards and the emergence of e-commerce, travellers cheques are now facing a slow death as the impact of other newer technologies is felt around the globe. That being said, travellers cheques do have their place—especially where ATMs can’t be found and can serve as an excellent form of back-up, especially as you can claim a refund if they’re stolen (provided, of course, that you’ve kept a separate record of their numbers). However, they can prove to be costly and even worse—a pain to use.

The two-account system

Therefore, ATM use is much more practical and, in our opinion, the way to go. In order to manage your budget—and for added security—we recommend using a two-account system. You likely already have a day-to-day chequing account—one from which you pay bills and make purchases.

We recommend opening a second bank account or a savings account and one for which you do not receive a debit card. It should be accessible only for online money transfers and deposits. We use ING Direct and are very happy with them—but there are a lot of options available. An online savings account has the added advantage of being accessible from anywhere you can log in and usually boasts industry-best interest rates.

The benefit of automatic money transfers

Because it gains solid interest, this account should hold the bulk of your savings—from which you’ll transfer money into a day-to-day account on a periodic basis. We schedule transfers monthly. It isn’t always possible to reach a computer when you need one on the road, so be sure to schedule automatic payments between the accounts if you can. The real advantage, here, is that it creates a wall between your savings and your spending. With an account at a bank completely separate from your primary bank, you can’t just make a big withdrawal on a whim. This will help you better control your spending on the road—and provides additional protection if your debit card is compromised. A side note—remember to get a four-digit PIN for ATM and Visa cards (some foreign ATMs only accept four digits).

Beware the cost of service charges

Always consider the cost of fees when you open additional accounts. Your day-to-day account should have free debit card and ATM withdrawals and your savings account should offer free online transactions.

We suggest that you limit the amount of money you keep in your day-to-day chequing account to a reasonable amount. Therefore, if your debit card and/or PIN number are compromised while you are on the road, your entire savings account is not at risk. To keep ATM fees low, you will want to withdraw more cash than you immediately need. But beware of carrying too much cash on you, as the risk of theft is, of course, ever-present.

Tips and Warnings

• Make copies. It’s prudent to make photocopies of the fronts and backs of all of you ATM and credit cards that you bring with you. Leave a set behind (with someone you trust and can reach easily when abroad) and stash the other set somewhere separate from the originals —a lock box at your hotel or guest house. If you lose your wallet or purse, the photocopies will provide you with the necessary information to call your credit card company or bank and get things worked out quickly so that you can enjoy your trip. See more information here, in our article entitled: “Travelling Safely: Before You Go”.
• Don’t stuff your pockets. Don’t carry too much cash around. Using your credit or ATM cards while on the road is a safe and convenient option, so there is no need to have large amounts of cash on you.
• Read the fine print. Check your bank’s terms and conditions. In particular, be sure to check the small print regarding ATM transaction fees and currency conversion charges. Make sure your card has the Cirrus, Plus or Maestro symbol —otherwise you may not be able to use it while on the road.
• Consolidate withdrawals. If you’re making ATM withdrawals, reduce your fees by making fewer (yet larger) withdrawals rather than lots of small transaction (but don`t carry around too much cash). Find the perfect balance!
• What’s the password ? Make sure you have a 4-digit PIN code for your card, since longer codes don’t always work in other countries. And remember, ATM keypads in other countries are not likely to have roman letters on them. Keep this in mind if your PIN code is word-based!
• Let them know! Let your bank know that you’ll be travelling overseas to prevent the bank from restricting access to your account

Conclusion

How do you handle money matters while you’re traveling abroad? Does anyone out there still use travellers cheques? Do you get a little foreign currency before you leave, exchange money at the airport or just try to hit the nearest ATM as soon as you arrive? Share with us your money strategy!

"Managing day-to-day spending on the road" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Six books to help you plan (and inspire) your round-the-world adventure

A visit to you local neighbourhood bookstore will reveal a massive array of travel-related books. Here is a small and very carefully chosen selection of what Kathryn and I consider to be the “best of the best” when it comes to helping you plan your round-the-world trip.

Below you’ll find a few superb books certain to enhance your round-the-world travel skills. Some provide detailed information on specialized topics; others are more inspirational in nature. Each one, however, has proven itself to us as a significant cut above the usual crap. And buying them through our affiliate links helps to support our blog!

1. Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding is about taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. Veteran shoestring traveler Potts shows how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. He provides the necessary information on: financing your travel time, determining your destination, adjusting to life on the road, working and volunteering overseas, handling travel adversity and re-assimilating back into ordinary life. Not just a plan of action, Vagabonding is an outlook on life that emphasizes creativity, discovery, and the growth of the spirit. Click here to purchase Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel from Amazon.

2. The Rough Guide First-Time Around The World, 3rd Edition

Planning a trip around the world? Let First-Time Around the World get you started. Loaded with the very latest travel information, including all you need to know about round-the-world tickets to teaching and working overseas, this pre-departure guide will help get you make the most out of your ultimate journey. The guide begins with a full-colour ‘Things Not to Miss’ photo section with suggested itineraries, route maps, details on what to bring, when to go, how much it will cost and which vaccinations will keep you healthy. The individual country profiles highlight the best places to visit with country-specific websites and necessary budget information for your first-time world trip. There are plenty of useful tips to help save you money, keep you safe and maximize your time on the road. The guide comes complete with concise regional information, with overland maps and details on weather, major attractions and unmissable festivals. Click here to purchase The Rough Guide First-Time Around The World from Amazon.

3. Where To Go When

Packed with detailed weather info, events, festivals and practical advice, Where to Go When has everything you need to plan the perfect trip at the perfect time to go. Thirty destinations are presented for each month, with 11 covered in depth. Tuscany, Italy, is recommended for October, when the grape and olive harvests take place, and when porcini mushrooms, prized truffles and other specialties appear on regional menus. The listing includes a six-day itinerary on the “Chianti Trail,” from Florence to Siena. With travel inspiration at your fingertips, planning your round-the-world trip has never been easier. Click here to purchase Where To Go When from Amazon.

4. The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World

The world is a breathtakingly big place, and in this big book Lonely Plaet has undertaken the big task of detailing as much of it as they can—every single country, many of the larger dependencies and other, smaller destinations. With the traveler’s experience at its heart, this book shows a slice of life in every corner of the globe, and all points in between, engaging the reader’s senses in an adventure which conjures up the sights, smells, tastes, sounds and feel of our amazing world. Click here to purchase  The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World from Amazon.

5. 300 Unmissable Events and Festivals Around the World

Unmissable: 300 Events & Festivals Around the World is a four-colour inspirational guide book to events and festivals, celebrations and natural phenomena in the world’s top cities, secret retreats and far-flung places. It also offers practical information and insider tips, from how to get there, to where and when to buy tickets before they sell out, the best vantage point for a street festival or cycle race. First-person recommendations and lively descriptions bring the sound, smell, feel and taste of each experience to life. Click here to purhase 300 Unmissable Events and Festivals Around the World from Amazon.

6. The Packing Book: Secrets of the Carry-on Traveler

From choosing the right kind of luggage and the appropriate travel gear (money belts, ear plugs, etc.) to customizing your wardrobe according to the length and type of your intended travel, Gilford covers all the bases. She provides plenty of checklists so you won’t forget the essentials, gives detailed instructions (complete with illustrations) on just how to pack items such as skirts, jackets, and slacks to minimize wrinkling and maximize space, and offers suggestions on packing for children and teens. Medical needs, entertainment needs–even security tips–are included in this invaluable guide to getting the most out of the least amount of luggage. The Packing Book takes the anxiety out of preparing for a trip, and even the most seasoned travelers may be surprised at how much they never knew about packing light. Click here to purhase The Packing Book: Secrets of the Carry-on Traveler from Amazon.

Conclusion

Travel blogs are amazing but the printing press isn’t dead—yet. Travel writing of all kinds is more popular than ever, and there are books on every aspect of travel and every kind of traveller. Remember, too—the books make great gifts for the person who loves travel or is planning a trip round the world. Here are a few recommended books to inspire and to help you plan.

Know a publication that should be included here? Let us know. Feel free to recommend titles in the comment stream, as well!

"Six Books To Help Plan Your RTW Adventure" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Your personal preference is the most critical component in choosing a direction of travel

“Go East, young man” — Elvis Presley
“Go West, this is what we’re gonna do” — The Pet Shop Boys 

Is there any benefit to going in one direction over the other? This is a pretty common question among round-the-world (RTW) travellers. It was recently posed by a fellow Bootie on the BootsnAll forum who asked: 

My wife and I are planning a RTW . . . I’ve planned a tentative route leaving the US and heading east. This seems to be pretty common; in fact, I can’t recall reading a travel book or blog or post or anything where the travellers move west. My wife suggests we travel west, and she had a logical reason for wanting to go that way. I know conventional thinking isn’t always the best way to go but I have to ask the question: Is there any benefit to going one direction over the other? 

If you’d like to check out the thread that inspired the post, click here. In our opinion, there is no right or wrong direction—it all depends on factors such as where you start, the time of year, speed of travel, money, weather, routing and most importantly, personal preference. But you may want to consider the following few points. 

Starting Point

A RTW trip’s direction of travel is often influenced by the region from which people are booking. We’ve found that the vast majority of Australians embarking on RTW trips travel east to west. On the other hand, a lot of UK travellers choose to travel west to east. This is of course due to a number of reasons—but one influencing factor is the availability of working holidays visas down under—which a lot of people use to continue their travels through Asia. Travelling west from Europe may mean that your itinerary could become front-loaded with relatively more expensive countries like the US, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia—which might be the most expensive part of your trip. On the other hand, for people who start in South America, there’s a a greater selection of eastbound flights. Writes Neil from the BootsnAll forum: “There’s only one flight to Australia (or maybe New Zealand) from South America—and it’s expensive.” 

For our own RTW trip, we’ve decided to start in Central America before taking on South America—thanks to the advice of our readers to which we posed the following question: “Faced with the prospect of leaving North America in July on a long-term trip, where would you go?” (check out their answers in this post here). We were hoping to determine the best region to start from that would allow for easy onward travel while incurring the least expense. Hence, it looks like we are likely going to head east to Europe after Central and South America—which is in the direction of cheaper fares. 

Money

Western Europe, Japan, and North America can be the most expensive part of your trip. Eastern Europe can be both one of the cheapest and most rapidly changing parts of the world. Writes Twowander, from the aforementioned thread: ”We figured our money would last longer if we hit Europe near the end or our trip. And money goes a lot farther in most Asian countries”. Another consideration is the cost of airfare—prices for RTW tickets often depend on the number of continents (or regions) you’re visiting. Some have limits on the number of flights that you can take in a given region. All of them (that we found, at least) don’t allow you tobacktrack after you’ve started, which could add incrementally to your costs. 

It looks like we’ll potentially be travelling through Europe in the middle of our year abroad—which concerns us a little bit owing to our budgetary constraints. We do take a little comfort in the fact that we are likely to arrive in Europe near the end of the summer; hence, costs will be mitigated somewhat by the fact that we’ll be travelling around the continent as shoulder season starts to take hold. For Western Europe, the months of April, May, September and October are considered prime travel time for those of us (ie backpackers, vagabonds and long term-travellers) who don’t have to worry about schedules and holidays. For more information on timing your itinerary, click here. 

Routing

If your RTW ticket requires you to head in a constant east or west direction, you’ll need to decide which direction you will choose before you depart. These fares require all travel be in a single continuous routing around the globe—and the itinerary must cross both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The trip may be in either east to west or west to east, and oftentimes backtracking is severely restricted. However, most directional fares allow for unlimited stopovers. 

Travelling west to places such as New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific from North America means that you can take advantage of the two-piece luggage system which allows for 64kg per person compared with a limit of 20kg elsewhere in the world. We suggest you pack your heaviest guide books. 

We’re still not sure whether or not we will choose to book a tradition RTW ticket. The emergence of long-haul low cost routes means that we might try to arrange and book their our RTW itineraries on the cheap, costing much less than a traditional RTW ticket—without the restrictions! Otherwise, we might consider using Air Treks (which we’ve enjoyed using in the past). 

Speed of Travel

A major factor in deciding which direction you take can be the speed with which you plan to travel. If you are on a quick RTW trip, then going westward may be an important considering, primarily because you won’t  have to successively get up earlier to catch your next flights. If you are going for, say, a year or more, this is all pretty meaningless, but if you are going for six months or less you’ll likely notice the difference and might want to consider travelling westward. 

Weather

When choosing your direction of travel, it’s likely that weather will be one of your considerations. Writes fellow Bootie Andromeda in the aforementioned forum thread: “Weather is by far the biggest factor—often it’s a lot easier to nab the better seasons in one direction or another, and this should take priority.” 

In an effort to make such planning easier, Babakoto.eu has developed an Excel travel planner. Their travel planner encompasses weather data from a number of countries and includes information about the best periods to travel in respect to average temperature and rainfall. Hence, the travel planner allows you to plan your trip through one or more destinations and can provide you with a starting point from which to consider your direction of travel—from the perspective of weather at the very least. 

Personal preference

Your personal preference is the most critical component in choosing a direction of travel. Direction of travel should suit—and complement—your individual needs, interests, hotels preferences and budget. However, do not base your direction on expenses alone, or you might let a few once-in-a-lifetime opportunities escape you! 

Conclusion

So what do you think? Is there any benefit to going in one direction over the other? What’s you preference: East or west? Have you embarked on a RTW trip in the past? Which direction of travel did you choose?

"East vs West: Which is Best for Your RTW?" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

We know this article comes off a little cynical and we know we’re being a bit—well, smarmy. But these questions tend to irk us after a while!

Without fail—as soon as you check into a guesthouse or hostel—out comes the perennial backpacker conversation, ie “where ya from?”—and out goes any notion of independent travel. A backpacker’s decisions on where to go, what to see and what to are influenced by social interactions to a much greater extent than other forms of tourism. Indeed, this is because backpackers are storytellers. And our conversations —and their relation to adventure, risk and hardship—often present themselves as good opportunities to impress one another.

Of course, we understand the backpacker conversation is a way of finding common ground to build rapport with new people — but we feel that you need not rely on these questions to establish a firmer relationship. Think outside the backpack!

If you prefer to avoid the generic formula for backpacker conversation—we’ll give you a couple of questions that you would do well to avoid!

Don’t say: “Where ya from?”

Why: It’s too formulaic. You can almost hear a sigh of resignation shortly after asking it—it’s the most oft asked question of backpackers. That’s because most travellers believe it to be a magic conversation starter.

Instead: Have a quick look and see if you can get any ideas about their possible interests—a band’s tour shirt is an obvious sign about the kind of music that person likes. Look for other clues in the person’s clothing. Check out your surroundings. Is there anything interesting in the area? Is there some sort of unusual art or architecture nearby? Just anything to avoid the dreaded question — “Where ya from?”. That’s not to say you won’t eventually ask it — just don’t break the ice with it. At the very least, you’ll win points for being creative.

Don’t say: “How long are you travelling?”

Why: It’s an invitation to brag. On the road, there is a certain stripe of traveller that you will quickly learn to avoid—it’s the person whose ears perk up when they hear the question: “How long have you been travelling?”. Even if it’s not addressed to them, they’ll swoop in, corner you and begin to enumerate the countries to which they’ve backpacked. Pretty soon you’ll realize that the question more often than not is seized upon as an opportunity to brag. No matter how many countries you’ve travelled to, no matter how many two-dollar-a-night YMCAs you’ve stayed at, no matter how exciting your travels have been — you will never win this contest.

Instead: Ask “Where are you off to next?” It’s a good way to avoid the invitation to brag offered by the aforementioned question, and instead makes the destination the subject of discourse. Of course, you’ll still be able deduce where a person’s interests lay when they talk about what they would like to do — but you can avoid the ‘pissing contest’ that usually develops when two backpackers talk about what they have done.

Conclusion

Of course, there’s also “Where have you been?”, “How long are you here?” and “Where are you going?”—these questions generally round out the most-often asked questions of backpackers by backpackers.

That being said, we realize that the deeper and more personal questions tend to come once the obligatory questions have been asked. And, when you meet someone it’s clear that you’re likely to talk about things that are pertinent to whatever situation in which you both find yourself, ie travelling.

So what’s our point? Well, just that it’s okay to think outside of the backpack once in a while. On the tourist trail, we tend to all go to the same places, using our guide book as a kind of divining rod and stick to a script of questions when meeting someone new. And I say we — because we’ve been guilty of doing it on more than one occasion. Why? It’s easy.

So the next time you find yourself on the tourist trail talking to a fellow backpacker, make “Where are you off to next?” your very first question. With answer firmly in mind, thank the person with whom you’re speaking and head off in the opposite direction—refuse the guide book and remain truly independent!

Don’t worry—you won’t get lost. And, if you do, you know which questions to ask to land you firmly back on the tourist trail!

We know this article comes off a little cynical and we know we’re being a bit—well, smarmy. But these questions tend to irk us after a while! Are there any questions that simply drive you nuts when meeting folks on the tourist trail? Let us know!

"A Few Common Phrases to Avoid in Hostels" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Proprietors looking to increase traffic to their hostel, shop, dining establishment or other business will employ touts.

Judging by the number of times you’ll be propositioned for a massage in Cusco, Peru, you’d think that there must be a surfeit of massage therapy schools and therapists in the province. Walk a few blocks from the city’s Plaza de Armas in any direction on the compass—and you’ll walk straight into someone offering to rub you down! Cusco is no different than other large tourist centres—think Khao Sarn or Agra, or Cairo and Marrakesh—where touts are ubiquitous. After a while, you begin to feel that your destination is not really a country so much as a giant machine designed to extract money from you.

To most people, touts are seen an annoyance—they routinely get yelled at and told off. But to their families, they are the source of a meagre income. And to a local economy in a developing nation, they are just a cog in a giant machine of tips, commissions and bribes that makes the industry go round.

Following our travels through Asia, Kathryn and I had become so attuned to touts and scams that we remained wary, even after returning home. In fact—Kathryn’s wariness almost ruined my planned proposal to her several years ago.

How to Deal with Touts and (Almost) Ruin a Marriage Proposal

Shortly after we’d begun dating, we travelled to New York City for the first time together. As we dated, the city became a place that we would return to with increasing regularity—and we developed a great affection for it. Hence, I decided that Central Park would serve as a great place to propose.

When the day arrived, I planned to lure Kathryn to the park under the pretence that we were meeting a friend—one who would invariably not show up. Unbeknownst to Kathryn, I had arranged for a ‘tout’ to approach us and offer a horse-drawn carriage ride. The plan was to take a carriage through the park before pausing in front of Cherry Hill’s fountain long enough for me to pop the question. On the way, I’d arranged for the driver to bring along a bottle of champagne.

The ride didn’t exactly turn out as planned—but Kathryn’s actions served to properly illustrate what one should do when dealing with a tout. Despite the fact that I had secretly arranged payment in advance, Kathryn insisted that we negotiate a price before getting into the carriage—a habit that served us well when dealing with taxi drivers and tuk tuk touts in Chiang Mai. Luckily, the driver went along with the negotiation. After settling on a price, Kathryn suggested that we get a couple of other quotes from competing drivers. It was only after I convinced her that it wouldn’t be necessary did she get in the carriage.

Shortly after the ride began, I reached under our seat to retrieve a bottle of champagne—just where I’d arranged for the driver to hide it. Before I had a chance to pop the cork, Kathryn again insisted that I ask how much the bottle would cost us. Luckily, our driver again played along and reassured her that it was included in the price.

When the carriage stopped well short of our agreed upon hour ride—Kathryn reluctantly climbed down from the cab. She was disappointed that the ride had stopped and wanted to know what was going on.

It was then I dropped to a knee and proposed—the rest, as they say, is Two Go Round-The-World history. And as much as I tease her about it, Kathryn’s actions perfectly illustrate the steps that one must take to mitigate the risk when dealing with touts. Always remain diligent—even when you fiancé is doing his best to propose to you.

A Few Highly ‘Touted’ Tips

Kathryn and I have assembled a few tips from here and there on how to deal with touts:

1. Tip 1 — Be polite but firm. Smile—but only once. Don’t make the mistake of shaking hands or answering the question of where you are from. Be polite, but firm, explicit and unambiguous. If you feel you’re getting thrown a pitch—cut it short with ‘Sorry, no thank you’. And if you get frustrated, don’t lose your temper. Remember—acting rudely may offend somebody nearby that would never think of bothering you.
2. Tip 2 — Everybody’s got an uncle—and he wants to sell you something. Just remember that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Offers of a free cup of chai will invariably turn into pitches to purchase a Persian rug. Art students in Tiananmen Square will invite you back to their ‘studio’—just to ‘have a look’. If you’re new to the tourist trail, touts will see you coming from a mile away. Remember — this is just a ‘pitch’ — the act may be convincing, but at the end of the day it’s still an act. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking to have to say ‘no’ to someone who looks like they could desperately use your money. If you feel compelled to donate, it’s best to do so at a church or temple, where your money is more likely to get into the hands of those who need it. Avoid donating to touts who claim they are collecting for charity—even if they an identity card. Despite their seemingly plausible stories—they are usually nothing more than con men.
3. Tip 3 — Book ahead. If you’re arriving in the evening in a major tourist destination, it’s worth making a reservation with a hostel or guesthouse before you arrive. Your guide book will likely offer up a few phone numbers—or you can book a place online through hostelbookers.com or HostelWorld. And remember, don’t stay at the first place listed in your guidebook — as others have said, it’s full of people too lazy to read past the first entry! Suck it up and book ahead — even if you have to pay a little more for your first night in town.

Conclusion

As soon as you step outside the airport in any given destination, a crowd of people will approach: tuk tuk and auto rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers, hotel touts and beggars all want a little bit of your coin. You’ll begin to feel a little like chum in a shark tank. It’s a hassle, but remember — you are dealing with people who are desperately trying to make a living in a developing country.

Taking the time to learn a few key words and phrases (ie “No thank you”) in the local language can also go a long way and is appreciated by the local people—including the touts. Remember, no matter how annoying these interactions are—you are representing your country and your culture. This is a chance for them to learn about how you handle yourself under pressure. A little bit of patience and a sense of humour goes a long way in coping with such situations.

What are your techniques for dealing without touts? Any good stories? Sound off in the comments section below. With your permission, we’ll include some of your suggestions in a future follow-up post. Thanks in advance! There’s a good discussion going on over at BootsnAll entitled “Best Method for Dealing With Touts“. As always, the Booties give excellent advice.

"Tips for Dealing with Touts" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

The journey is the reward—indeed!

The good news—you’ve been bitten by the travel bug! The bad news? That was the easy part. Getting excited about travel is easy—it’s sustaining your excitement that can be difficult.

Confronted with a long wait, it’s not unusual to lose our motivation to travel, thereby making it difficult to stay focused on a goal that seems so far away. Over the past year, we’ve learned that our motivation waxes and wanes over time. So how have we stayed motivated in the intervening years while working towards our goal?

We’ve been saving up for our round-the-world trip since November 2008—and in earnest since March 2009. In fact, we’ve recently passed the halfway mark to our goal (check out our progress in the sidebar). And it hasn’t always been easy. So we thought we’d share with you a few of the methods we use to get and stay motivated while waiting for the long term payoff for all the sacrifices we’re making.

Of course, everyone is different, and each person will have their own formula to keep themselves on track. So while our article offers some possible solutions, it is up to you to make the right choices to keep yourself motivated. Maintaining motivation requires paying attention to your behaviour, listening to your instincts and learning how to encourage yourself as you progress towards your goal.

The difference between a goal and an objective

Here we think that it’s important to differentiate between an objective and a goal. That is, while your goal might be to take time off for long-term travel, your objective may be to gain a better understanding of the world in which you find yourself. There are a few reasons behind doing this, and one of those reasons is to explicitly recognize your progress. People tend to track progress automatically with most activities—like saving money, for example. But to stay motivated, we need to recognize our progress, not just track it. In our mind, ‘recognizing’ your progress is taking the time to look at the bigger picture and realizing how far you’ve come. It’s the difference, for example, between checking the balance in your savings account and assessing your personal growth. That being said, there’s a lot you can do alongside saving for your trip that will prepare you to travel. The personal growth afforded by travelling need not begin with your actual journey but should start as soon as you’ve made up your mind to take the plunge. Reading and travelling locally, for example. Or perhaps learning a language.

Armchair travel and adventure

Live vicariously! Embark on journeys across distance and time without leaving your couch! Check out blogs or read travelogues. Get inspired. Admire them (with caution, but do admire them). Reading about travel will make it more available to you and will fuel your efforts towards getting out there yourself. And of course, you are preparing yourself for the road, in mind and spirit! As far as books are concerned, I suggest a little Paul Theroux or Bill Bryson—especially Bryson! On the blog front, there’s a plethora of travel blogs available—check out some of the web’s most popular here. And be sure to check out those on our blogroll, here.

Travel locally

Don’t worry, we refuse to call it a ‘staycation’. But it’s worth mentioning as a great way to stay motivated to travel—practice travelling on the cheap by becoming a tourist in your own town. Instead of taking long-distance (and therefore more expensive) trips, why not explore some of the many options closer to home? We’ve read that most trips take place within 70 miles from home—which gives you a lot of room to roam! Plus, it’s good to know your area before setting out to see the world. While travelling through Asia, more than once Kathyrn and I were embarrassed to admit that we’d never been to visit the CN Tower, despite living in Toronto for the majority of our adult lives. Assured by people the world over that the view is fantastic, we’re planning to head downtown next weekend to check it out.

Surround yourself with travel

Susan Forshner from Transient Travels writes:

Hanging up a map of the world in your apartment or house is a constant reminder of where you’ve been and where you haven’t. My map hangs on the wall right behind the screen of my little Macbook. Flipping through the pages of a magazine or newspaper, with all the in depth stories and beautiful photos, is like flipping through old photos except instead of creating a feeling of longing for the past, it creates a yearning to go.

Be sure to check out the rest of Susan’s thought on the topic here. Like Susan, we’ve hung a map in our home office — and keep track of the cities, continents and countries we’ve visited with little colourful map pins. Moreover, we keep a copy of Rolf Potts’ Vagabonding on the back of our toilet. Classy, eh? To see what else is on the back of our toiler, check this post out.

Conclusion

It was former Beatle John Lennon who proclaimed in a song that “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” Of course, Lennon was referring to the way so many people miss the important moments of life because they are too focused on other things to truly appreciate the moments as they pass by.

Lennon’s sentiment is echoed by Alfred D. Souza, who writes:

“For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.”

Just remember — we all have a finite amount of time here on earth. So be sure to take stock of where you’ve been and where you’d like to go—often. When setting a goal with a long horizon, many of us tend to cruise through that time on autopilot, just hoping to get to the end so that we can get ‘started’.

We believe that it’s okay to sacrifice and to save and to wait — but do it mindfully and for good reason!

"How to Stay Motivated to Travel" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

While Canada may be known more for its grizzly bears and cold weather, the truth is that in the summertime we love to hit the beach! According to Wikipedia, more than 60 percent of the world’s lakes are in Canada. That’s right, in the true north, beautiful white sandy shores, sand dunes and clear, blue waters abound. But of the country’s hundreds of thousands of lakes, just two are officially recognized as being ‘clothing optional’, the world-famous Wreck Beach in Vancouver and the increasingly popular Hanlan’s Point Beach in Toronto.

Municipal and provincial governments in Canada are starting to realize that clothing optional beaches are good, not only for tan lines, but for the bottom line. They attract tourists to some of the country’s most beautiful beaches. And, for that reason, local governments are starting to sit up and take notice. In Europe and Australia, for example, clothing optional beaches have long been the norm. But in Canada acceptance has been slower; lately, however, its uptake is starting to accelerate. The Federation of Canadian Naturists maintains that a large minority of Canadians would “happily” go to nude beaches if they existed. And the vast majority of respondents reported that they “didn’t care” if others shed their clothes while at the beach.

According to a survey from Cheapflights.co.uk, almost 10% of North American holidaymakers would leave their clothes behind on holiday. Moreover, participation in nudism is growing by 20 pe cent annually in North America.

So if you find yourself in Canada this summer, and would like to ditch your swimsuit in lieu of something more natural, Kathryn and I have some suggestions for you—right across Canada. For those keen to experience nature in the buff, check out the following!

5. Crystal Crescent Beach, Nova Scotia

Crystal Crescent Beach

According to those in the know, Crystal Crescent Beach was more of a haven for those wishing to shed their garb in the mid-to-late 80s. These days, however, a few hardy souls still treat a small section of the beach as clothing optional. Crystal Crescent Beach is a bit of a misnomer—it’s actually a series of beaches. The last and furthest of which is an unofficial nude beach. Be careful, if you stumble down the wrong path you may end up with a few unexpected ‘wildlife’ sightings! Be forewarned, however, the water here is pretty darn cold. Costanzas of the world need worry about shrinkage. Seinfeld! Anyone get that? Bueller?

4. Park National d’Oka, Québec

Park National d'Oka, Québec

Another stretch of beach in Québec at Oka Park (west of Montréal) is also unofficial but is well known as a clothing-optional beach. I actually grew up a short ferry ride away in Vaudreuil. The low mountains here and various waterways invite day trips and the lush landscape attests to the abundant precipitation in the area—great for privacy! This beach on the shore of the Lac des Deux Montagnes, with its pleasant and peaceful atmosphere, is one of the best known in Québec. Feel like shedding your clothes? At the extreme east of the public beach, a short walk will bring you to Oka’s “other beach.”

3. Bennet Lake, Yukon

Bennet Lake, Yukon

The Yukon has no official nude beaches, but locals maintain that the folks from Whitehorse sunbathe nude up here quite frequently. The lake sits partly in the Province of British Columbia and partly in the Yukon. During the Klondike Gold Rush, Bennett Lake was where the gold seekers who had crossed the Coast Mountains built rafts to float down the Yukon River to the gold fields at Dawson City. At the height of the gold rush, a large tent city sprang up on its shores, numbering in the thousands and offering all the services of a large city.

2. Hanlan’s Point Beach, Toronto

Hanlan's Point Beach

Hanlan’s Point Beach is situated on Hanlan’s Point near Toronto on the shores of Lake Ontario, a 15-minute ferry ride from the downtown. As mentioned earlier, a one kilometre long part of the beach has been officially recognized by the Toronto City Council as being clothing optional. For those who prefer tan lines, there is an adjacent stretch of beach where swimsuits are required. Despite its proximity to the downtown core, the beach is known for its extremely good water quality—since it faces southwest and away from the mainland. And no, it follows that you won’t see anything from the CN Tower. Perv!

1. Wreck Beach, Vancouver

Wreck Beach, Vancouver

Wreck Beach is the only other sanctioned clothing optional beach in Canada. Maintained by  the Greater Vancouver Regional Authority, this is a beautiful beach. It’s main shortcoming—and one that affects all beaches in Canada—is the short season related to the fact that it’s located in the Great White North! Of course, the beach is opened to all and the clothing optional section is clearly marked with signs. It stretches six kilometres from Acadia Beach, in the north, to the Booming Grounds Creek on the north arm of the Fraser River. 

Conclusion

If you’re going to tackle these beaches as a naked ‘naturist’ or a semi-clothed ‘textile’ (a slightly derogatory term that nudists and naturists for those that prefer clothing) you would do well to remember the famous quotation, often atrributed to William Blake — “Art can never exist without naked beauty displayed”. Nothing wrong with showing a little skin!

"Bare Country: Canada’s Five Best Clothing Optional Beaches" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

Bottom line—how big is the risk, really?

Identity theft is an increasingly common occurrence—and the situation is likely to get worse in coming years. As a backpacker, working and blogging at an internet café puts you at particular risk because there is no simple sure-fire way to ensure that the computer on which you are working is free of malware, such as trojans or keyloggers. But how big is the risk to your average everyday traveller?

One simple step backpackers can take to better protect themselves from becoming a victim—never enter personal data while on a public computer. It is simply unsafe to enter passwords and private information while in an internet café owing to the proliferation of spyware, which is capable of tracking your keystrokes.

Keystroke recorders—known colloquially as keyloggers—are particularly dangerous because they are capable of recording your keystrokes and therefore can be used to steal logins and passwords to online accounts. That being said, there are a few simple ways to mitigate the risks posed by keystroke recorders.

1. Check for hardware keyloggers

A hardware keylogger dongle...

A hardware keylogger is a small, inconspicuous USB device that is plugged into a computer between the keyboard and the tower. Unfortunately, a keylogger may be virtually indistinguishable from an extension cable or other device. Once installed, however, it captures all keystrokes into its own memory. This kind of device is completely self-contained and works just as well on a Mac as on a Windows system. The principal weakness of this particular keylogger—at least the varieties that are commonly available—is that it’s not remotely accessible. Therefore, the person who installed it has to return to retrieve the data from the device.

How can you protect yourself from this particular threat? When first logging into a terminal at an internet café, it’s a good idea to physically inspect the keyboard PS/2 or USB cables for ‘security breaches’. However, external hardware keyloggers are very difficult to detect. For example, there are a number of keyloggers that that built right into the keyboard! That being said, I suspect that hardware keyloggers are not very common in internet cafe—malicious software is a much more attractive option for those that want to gather information. Let’s face it, physical keyloggers attached to directly to a computer increase the likelihood of getting caught.

2. Run an operating system from a USB stick

It’s not always practical for vagabonds to carry a PC when on the road (even if it’s a netbook) and it’s often handy to do a quick Google search or check browser-based e-mail  at an internet café. But terminals at internet cafés don’t have your familiar desktop and personal files on them. Depending on where you are, they may not even have the applications needed to read and edit your data files on them. Still worse, they might be infected with viruses, trojans or worms. The solution?

With fast high-capacity USB thumb drives, you no longer need to bring a laptop along with you when you want to run your own applications and access your own data. Indeed, many people are adopting open source applications that load and run directly from a USB thumb drive. This means that backpackers can take along important applications and files along with them—a “computer on a stick” if you will! In fact, many of these USB thumb drive computers have applications which encode keystrokes in order to fool software-based keyloggers!

One such solution is an open-sourced Linux-based operating system, which comes complete with a suite of great applications. What is the advantage offered by such a solution? You will no longer be dependent on a PC running Microsoft Windows! Instead, all you will require is a PC that capable of booting from a USB port to run your “computer on a stick”!

Pendrivelinux.com is a site which offers a wide selection of available operating systems suitable for booting from a USB stick. The site includes simple and detailed instructions on how to load and run your very own USB flash drive–based Linux OS. And the best part? The software is free!

The downside?  Most internet cafés in countries which see a lot of backpackers are going be pretty well run—and they’ll all have software in them to keep their systems locked down. Most proprietors won’t take kindly to you rebooting their PCs and working ‘off the clock’. Of course, if you grease the palm of the person behind the counter running the café, you might be able to convince them. Bottom line, however, I would not plan on being able to run an OS off of a USB drive.

3. Bring your own system

This is the best—but not necessarily the most practical—solution. Netbooks offer a secure alternative to the ubiquitous internet cafés that line the tourist trail. Coupled with a good virtual private network (VPN), they offer a means to pay bills, make purchases and check bank accounts.

In our opinion—the HP Mini 110 is one of the best netbook options in the sub-$400 budget netbook category. It offers a nice hardware configuration, a good-looking design and an excellent keyboard. The HP is a very nice option for those on the lookout for a low-cost netbook that they can toss into their packs. For these reasons, it has won itself a place in both our real-world and virtual backpack! Check out our article here.

Conclusion

Ideally you should simply avoid online banking, shopping or other transactions that require you to enter sensitive information such as credit card or personal bank account details. If the matter is urgent, however, and you have to do it, take the precaution of changing all your passwords as soon as feasible from a more trusted computer.

Anil Polat, who worked as a security engineer for almost six years, has become an expert on advising companies how to better secure their networks and systems. He has since taken this expertise on the road and now does freelance security work, in addition to writing about technology and travel. In an article entitled “How To Keep Your Online Accounts Safe At Internet Cafés”, Anil offers up the following:

Don’t access any sensitive accounts. An obvious one, but it’s not a good idea to check your bank account, personal email or other sites that may be sensitive depending where in the world you are visiting. There are many parts of the world where you may not want anyone to know your nationality or would want to keep your browsing confidential. The best bet is to bring your own.

Bottom line—how significant is the risk, really? The answer to that is: “It depends”. I would expect busy internet cafés not far from the tourist track to be fairly reasonable risks. Busy internet cafés, airport terminals, libraries and the like seem like ‘target rich environments’ for potential keyloggers. These are certainly places where I’d make sure to take safety measures.

Less busy areas? Perhaps not so much. Regardless, it is possible—and moreover—it’s not all that hard for someone who’s technically savvy.

"How to Play it Safe in an Internet Café" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!

We share some of our favourite hacks for backpackers and vagabonds...

‘Hack’ has become a ubiquitous word these last forty years and is today used to refer (among other things) to a ‘solution’ to a problem or task. That being said, the word is packed tighter than a backpacker’s compression sack on a Mumbai commuter train. It has been employed variously to describe a disdained writer, a horse kept for hire and a prostitute.

For all the meanings that the word has today, its roots boil down to two different origins—one of them means “to chop” and the other means “horse”.  It was first recorded in American English in 1955, employed in the figurative sense of “getting through by some effort,” as in to ‘cut’ or ‘hack’ through a dense jungle. The term was popularized by American mathematician and ‘beautiful mind’ John Nash as a putdown; he used it to refer to a clever or quick (but clumsy) fix to a problem. Forty years on and solutions that may be inelegant (but ultimately robust and relatively quick and cheap) are called ‘hacks’.

Occasionally, Kathryn and I come across some great travel ‘hacks’. When we’ve saved up enough interesting hacks to be deserving of a post, we’ll share them with you! So, with no further ado here are a few inexpensive solutions that might be deserving of a place in (or on) your backpack:

• Silica packages. Jeff Duford from Gap Adventures suggests saving silica gel packs (you know, those packs usually bearing warnings for the user not to eat the contents). He writes: “These take up no space and can prove to be life savers, or at least camera savers. Moisture got inside your camera? Put your camera in a zip-lock bag with a few silica packages overnight and voila, your camera works again!” Check out Jeff’s hack here.
• Backpack cable lock. Francoise Methot describes a quick and easy method for fashioning a homemade steel cable to secure your backpack while you travel (similar to more expensive solutions from companies such as Pacsafe http://www.pacsafe.com)!  She writes: “Most of us have a padlock or two, so the only cost is the cable and the aluminum sleeves which shouldn’t cost more than $3–4”. Check out Francoise’s hack here.
• Camping stove. In 2003 Mark Jurey posted the original instructions for a portable stove that he had been developing for many years—one that is dependable, safe, lightweight, fast, efficient but is still simple to make and use. Fashioned from three 12 oz. Heineken cans and a penny, it is good enough to compete with gas stoves and keep propane canisters out of landfills. According to Mark, “It will bake scones, or simmer a pot of real rice for 20 minutes and make tea for two with just a little denatured alcohol”. Check out Mark’s hack here.

“Hack” is a word with a rich array of connotations and need not be limited to narrow definitions. Have your own creative backpacking hacks to share—tips which may help someone to overcome a problem or limitation quickly and cheaply? Leave ‘em here. Or sound off in the comments below!

"Hackpacking: Hacks for travellers" is a post from Two Go Round-The-World. Join Kathryn and Daniel as they plan, prepare and pack for a year-long RTW trip! Ready to dive in? Click here for a few easy ways to stay connected with us!