Recent media coverage of extreme sports and arduous expeditions seem to attract a largely negative response from the general public. Heli-skiers, Base jumpers and many mountain climbers and the like are generally deemed to be idiots and selfish morons, that is unless the achievement strikes a chord and the individual becomes something of a national hero.

Pemba Dorje Sherpa wants to take an 11 or 12 year old Nepali to the summit of Everest to keep the record in the hands of an indigenous Himalayan.

I’ll be the last person to suggest a nanny state wrapping everyone up in cotton wool. But that is not to say the dangers should be ignored and as these achievements go, youngest it pretty arbitrary. Not to mention that in their youth they must be completely focused on honing the skills needed to complete the expedition, the planning and fund-raising will be largely left to others to shoulder, forgive me if I am being captious but the I imagine the planning and other lead up to expeditions like this is quite involved, not being part of that would be a bit like inheriting millions rather than building that wealth yourself. Sure you would be ecstatic but you can’t know the effort it took to get there.

On the other hand these kids have an adventurous spirit that definitely should not be ignored or suppressed. The truth is if I was given the chance at 16 to sail around the world I’d jump at the chance, or at least the current ‘me’ would. What is more important to you? Your freedom or your safety? You have to ask…

What will the reaction be when inevitably someone sets a new record, the youngest ever adventurer to die on expedition?

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I look to the stars scanning for satellites or shooting stars. There is a satellite, and it’s moving awfully fast, and moving erratically, am I seeing UFO? Its light is pulsing, it’s crazy, nothing man made could move that fast. The light is getting brighter and closer, it seems to be coming right at me, my heart skips a beat and I realise it is. It is completely silent and the size, Fuck!

Huh? What is it? Buzzzzzzzzzzz right by me, an insect? It’s a god dammed firefly.

I’ve never seen one until now, but still I’ve been fooled by bug. I’ll just get back to worrying about my mauling; I’ve been spared the anal probing.

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Memorias de Oriente with a nice video shot mainly around Siem Reap

Diego Lorenzo F. Jose gives us more Siem Reap, these lucky guys have an amazing way to remember their trip with this film. Goes to show you don’t need a top of the range video camera and editing software to make great videos.

Piotr Pacewicz gives us a little more action and heads down south to Kampot.

BUDDY’s video I find very moving, great shots of the Khmer people.

Despite my personal opinion on missions this video by Whisper Productions couldn’t round off this set of videos any better.

These guys have posted a bunch of other great videos so I encourage you to click through and see their work. Then get out there and have a go at making your own.

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I don’t like getting around with even a daypack if I can avoid it, which means I have nowhere to keep a first aid kit. If my kit is going to be sitting in my backpack back at the guesthouse there is no point keeping anything for trauma type injuries, I’m not going back to my accommodation to get my first aid kit if I or someone else is injured that bad, I’m going straight to hospital or the nearest clinic.

This means my first aid kit isn’t really a first aid kit at all, it is more of a medical aid kit that takes care of the things I expect to encounter, not the unexpected things. That is fairly easy to cover, I can usually expect to suffer from hangover and a bout of travelers diarrhea on any given trip.

General Pain: Your standard Panadol, Tylenol, Advil, etc whatever your local flavor is.

Diarrhea: Medication generally comes in two forms, a ‘stopper’ and an antibiotic. A good doctor will provide you with both and a flow chart for doses and other info for treating yourself. These medications are usually effective in stopping Diarrhea within 24 hours.

Giardia: If the Diarrhea medication does not work or you get worse travel doctors usually go straight to Giardia, this is a viral infection rather than a bacterial one. The flow chart mentioned above progresses to this medication.

Dehydration: With a hangover or any Diarrhea causing infection it is a good idea to rehydrate and keep hydrated, really if you drink enough water you’ll be fine but some re-hydration tabs that restore electrolytes also can help.

Bites and stings: Mosquitoes, keep them away, if some got through you might want something on hand to treat the itching so you don’t scratch bites open and get them infected.

Malaria: Unless I’m going into a high risk area I prefer to avoid anti-malarials, if someone who knows the area well suggests it is a good idea I’ll take their advice. Otherwise I’d rather just avoid them. If you get a fever in a Malarial area, go straight to a doctor for blood tests.

Also consider medication for motion sickness and altitude sickness if you know or think you could suffer from either.

This makes for a pretty small but very useful kit. The reasoning behind it is simple, why carry all that first aid stuff when it is unlikely to be needed? Sickness is more common than injury. You’re traveling, leave the cotton wool at home and live a little.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and this is opinion only, not medical advice. See your travel doctor before any trip of length for your personalized needs.

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Recently Gary Arndt of EverythingEverywhere & Chris of MyEggNoodles proposed suitcases as a more suitable alternative, especially the wheeled variety. This is complete blasphemy to some backpackers, mostly the ones who have been sucked in by the whole backpacker image. Is travel is meant to open the mind then take an open minded approach to your luggage as well.

Why Backpacks suck

Ok they don’t completely suck but how often do you see over-sized backpacks filled to near bursting point on the likes of Khao San Road. In Sydney I could hardly believe my eyes at some of them, and I thought mine was bad. People tend to buy packs bigger than they need, you can make the same mistake with any type of bag but at least it’s not on your back if you’ve gone overboard.

The more you pay for a backpack the more straps it seems to have, straps that get caught on, looped around or tangled up on everything however careful you try to be.

Top loading packs. These packs are usually actually designed for trekking and mountain climbing they just happen to hang out on the same shelf as travel backpacks or look coolest in the catalog. Unless you are trekking or mountain climbing you will quickly discover how much they suck, these are the worst pack design for travel you will ever come across.

Crappy fabrics, JohnnyVagabond had a recent post about technical clothing and the case is similar with backpack materials. By the sound of them you could be forgiven for thinking your backpack is bulletproof “Ripstop Ballistic nylon” sound familiar? So it’s not really bulletproof, I wasn’t planning on getting shot anyway. I’ve found these fabrics don’t stand up well to a more common travel problem than bullets, friction. Don’t even get me started on stretch nylon, that shit is like the bastard child spawn of crappy fabric and annoying straps.

The Call of Carry On

If a wheeled suitcase is blasphemy then a carry on might just be the anti-Christ, but I’m converted. Small means packing less and packing smarter, no lost luggage and no waiting at carousels, quick check-in and beating the pack to passport control. And it doesn’t have to be a suitcase, all types of bag come in carry on size.

North Face Overhaul

My take

North Face Base Camp

I have no desire to be in the backpacker club. My travel style is a Bruce Lee inspired “No Style” which has its own pros and cons. I get the impression that people think they will be walking around for hours looking at things or accommodation, in my experience for the most part you load it onto or into the nearest form of transport and that is where it stays until you are ready to dump it on the floor of your new digs. Backpack, suitcase, whatever, I see them all as a burden I want to get rid of as soon as possible, whatever you use, while it is nice if it looks the part it does not represent who you are, it is a repository for getting your shit from one place to another, nothing more.

There is no ideal pack, bag or case for travel. But if you limit your style of travel you can definitely get something far more suited to your needs. To me though having no limits on the style of travel you partake is very important.

Here are a few of my picks. Truth be told if I had one of each of these, I’d be pretty well covered. My vote for the most well rounded luggage isn’t a wheeled suitcase, it is the trusty old duffel.

Recommendations:

For the Flashpacker or Digital Nomad, the North Face Overhaul, a backpack but carry on sized and perfect for tech freaks. Straps cleanly and easily tuck away.

Osprey Vector

For Adventure Travelers, North Face Base Camp Duffel – 42L carry on size up to 140L Goliath. You can even still wear it as a backpack which will make you super hardcore, rub some mud into it and you instantly further amp up your travel cred.

For the Concrete Jungle Traveler, I can’t recommend any one suitcase, if you like the travel brand look at Eagle Creek and Osprey’s offerings. Briggs and Riley and Tumi are very popular with frequent flyers. The biggest thing against traditional luggage is the prices, for what they are they don’t offer much value.

Kelty Redwing

For Backpackers the Kelty Redwing, it doesn’t come in size XXL so you won’t be making that mistake, front loading and made from decent materials, this is a highly rated pack by backpackers.

A word on convertibles (backpacks with wheels), these are super uncomfortable and just generally crap. If you see one, run. If you buy one, “I pity the fool”.

If you are a bit a travel gear geek like me, I discovered Carryology while writing this post, yep there is a blog about carry bags/packs/cases etc and it is actually very interesting.

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This movie has a really, really weird beginning Conner (Christopher Masterson, Malcom in the Middle) is about to get married to his high school sweetheart, they are planning the house, kids, everything. Then at the start of the wedding ceremony he produces a compromising photo of his wife to be and his best man, and so the journey begins.

Conner arrives in Guatemala with some humorous first travel experiences, crazy taxi rides, dodgy showers, robbery and desirous Dutch girls, it works and shows the education of most new travelers.

It all gets a bit cheesy right before the Darien adventure begins though, Johnny Messner isn’t the least bit convincing and everything he says feels like there is some poor guy off camera feeding him his lines who could have played the part infinitely better.

After the jungle adventure Conner begins to travel in a more relate-able way to most backpackers and we are treated to some nice South American scenery, Conner now has a girlfriend and travel buddy and the movie becomes more reflective, it makes its point but when the last scene rolls around I can’t help but wonder if everything after the Darien adventure was just leading to a lousy joke.

It’s no masterpiece but worth a look, the makers of this film also made one called “Somewhere” which looks interesting, unfortunately I can’t find a way I can get my hands on it. See the trailer for Somewhere here.

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This has really bugged me, there is heaps of info for foreigners coming to Australia on how to minimise fees with their accounts in their home country or by opening a traveller’s account in Australia. There are not a lot of options for Australians who are trying to be savvy with their money while travelling though.

I’ve been digging through forums, credit card sites and more to find what the best deals are and I think I’ve found a few really good ones.

Credit Card

There is a hands down winner when it comes to credit cards.

The Wizard Clear Advantage Mastercard has no conversion fee, no transaction fee and no cash advance fee on international transactions it also has no annual fee and gives as good a forex rate as you could hope for. They don’t advertise this anywhere on the site but I’ve confirmed the lack of fees in this forum. Most of these travellers are using it as if it were a debit card by loading their own money onto it to avoid the conversion and overseas ATM fees. As far as using a credit card overseas goes you can’t really ask for anything more. Be aware of daily withdrawal limits and that this card won’t work in a few countries, like North Korea… yeah.

Debit Card

If you can’t get a credit card or prefer to avoid them altogether the next best thing is a debit card.

NAB’s Gold Banking includes a Visa debit card and waives conversion and overseas transaction fees like the Wizard credit card but there is a $10 monthly account fee. NAB accounts also have free access to Redibank ATMs in Australia so you can save at home too. Even with the monthly fee if you are travelling for a while you’ll save more than enough money with the Nab or Wizard card(s) to make it worth it. One or booth is as close to a perfect solution as you will find right now.

Travel Passports

Some people might like to consider these but in my eyes they don’t offer much value. You can load them with a limited number of currencies; you are charged $15 or 1% of what you load, whichever is higher. You are charged a transaction fee and a conversion fee calculated as %, if you withdraw in a currency other than the one you loaded it with you’ll be hit with an even higher conversion fee rate. All this makes Travel Cards/Passports no better than your regular bank card or credit card, probably even worse. Steer clear of them, travellers cheques are a better option.

For further information here are a few resources I used for this article.

• Choice.com.au’s comparison of the three types of cards I’ve looked at here.
• Creditcardfinder’s Guide to Travel Money and Currency Conversion and the Foreign Currency and International Fees applied to credit cards.

Regardless of the way you access your money to avoid fees, if you are using an ATM overseas you will probably be charged a transaction fee by the foreign bank. In some countries all banks will charge foreign cards, in others only some banks will do it, it’s worth checking this info out for your destinations to help minimise fees where possible. Simply make larger less frequent withdrawals to minimise these charges.

Eg, all Thailand’s banks now charge 150Baht(+/-$5AUD) on foreign cards for each transaction.

As for Frequent Flyer style cards they are best used for making purchases in Australia, compared to American programs ours completely suck. Check out the Travel Rewards and Frequent Flyer Credit Card sections on creditcardfinder.com.au, with these cards you just have to find the right one for you. Also head over to frequentflyer.com.au for advice on cards and how to maximise rewards.

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Many of you will be familiar with it but I want to share why I think it is so good.

TripIt basically organizes and creates an itinerary based on your bookings for flights and accommodation, etc. It does this automatically when you forward your booking emails to plans@tripit.com and so far it has done this flawlessly with my bookings. Out of interest I did the same with Dopplr and it couldn’t do it, so it looks like TripIt has the edge there. It’s something where I don’t want to stuff about, whatever works is the one I’m going to use and TripIt has always worked.

On past trips I’ve come very close to missing flights or check-in closing times, it’s no fun hearing your name come over the airport PA. TripIt saves me from myself, I don’t end up confusing check-in and boarding times anymore plus it provides some other information about the places I’m traveling to like the weather, maps airport information and details of flight delays, I can also add tidbits for things I might be interested in seeing or doing with their addtotripit FireFox add-on.

My favorite travel tip is also made much easier with the help of TripIt. @EverywhereTrip pointed out that you can use the manual itinerary feature to fudge onward travel bookings in countries like Thailand and Indonesia where it is required. The people who check for onward travel can only ask to see evidence that you have a onward flight they can’t punch the info into a computer and check if it is actually genuine. This can save you some money or keep your options open if booking onward travel is an inconvenience for you, I guess it would also help you if you plan on overstaying your visa as well.

If you haven’t already checked it out I recommend it. It’s really cool technology tripit.com

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It’s all too easy to rent a motorcycle and ride… wherever.

It’s also often very stupid. Renting a bike in places like Bali, Thailand and most of SE Asia is as simple as handing over your passport as security and making sure there is fuel in the tank. No license required sometimes no helmet and no need for any previous riding experience.

While most bikes available for rent are around the 125cc category, in Thailand particularly there are more and larger 250cc+ bikes as well. Unless you rent from a reputable and normally western run business you won’t be restricted in what you can rent.

On Koh Chang a few months ago I noticed young guys on 250cc sports bikes flying around without helmets on bikes that are falling to pieces and most of the time with loud modified or removed exhausts. I’m sure they felt like the king of the hill but to everyone else with some sensibilities they were complete idiots. In Pattaya where guys like to feel like they are living the high life with fast women and even faster bikes, fatal accidents involving foreigners are all too common.

(Bad audio but good example of Koh Chang’s roads.)

Koh Chang’s roads themselves are dangerous, put speeding Thai minibuses and inexperienced western drivers on them and you have a recipe for disaster. Accidents both minor and serious happen every day involving foreigners.

If you have an accident as a foreigner you are at fault, regardless of whether you are actually at fault. And accidents are common; over 30 people die in road accidents every day in Thailand

If you are unlicensed for a motorcycle in your home country and the country you are visiting you are not insured, most rental businesses do not offer the 3^rd party liability insurance you need. Even if you are licensed in either country you should ask your insurer if you are covered. Unless you have specifically asked to be there is a very good chance you are not. If you are covered it is probably limited to bikes under 250cc.

The chances of having an accident are very real, if you don’t meet someone bandaged up on crutches you’ll talk to someone who has. Many of the helmets provided don’t pass safety checks nor will you have any of the other gear, most get around in shorts and a t-shirt so you have to be aware of how vulnerable you are. That said you can also have a lot of fun riding them and seeing things you might not have seen without it. So if you are still up for it here are a few more tips to keep yourself out of trouble.

• A 125cc bike will do in most cases, unless you are going off road our touring it will be fine, many people take the small bikes off road with little trouble anyway. There is no real need for a sports bike, you will not look cooler or impress anyone.
• Scams like the Jet Ski one in Patong and becoming more common with motorcycles as well, rent a bike that is in new or near new condition and if you have a digital camera photograph it thoroughly.
• If you drop a bike, scratching or denting it or if a mechanical fault occurs during your rental take the bike to a workshop yourself and get it repaired, it will be much cheaper and less troublesome than dealing with the renter when you return it.
• Never admit fault or agree to pay for damage if you have insurance. Sometimes paying may be cheaper than a claim; in that case it might still be worth claiming that you are insured as a bargaining tool. Bikes in SE Asia are cheap, as are repairs, don’t be fooled into expensive on the spot cash deals. Get help from tourist police if you need it.
• Don’t ride in Bangkok!

Ride Safe.

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