We keep a colour laminated copy of our passport page in our handlebar bag for quick access, which says all of the information that anybody should need to know about us on the road. We also have a black and white copy of our visas if applicable.

If this is not cutting it with whoever you're talking to, tell them you can show your passport to them at a police station or in a military building. If they are genuine, they will take you there and you should have no further problems.

For more on keeping your passport safe, click HERE.

But not to worry, we use a hot water bottle to keep warm during these chilly times.

You will need:

- A Nagine Bottle (or any other hardy plastic container capable of holding boiling water)

- A really thick sock (we use our Sealskinz waterproof socks)

The Thing to Do Now…

Boil some tap water on your stove, fill up your bottle and wrap it up in your thick sock.

Give your bottle a good hug for us! We like making sure our feet and hands are warm prior to sleeping…

Not only will this hot water bottle keep you warm at night, but once the water is cooled you'll be able to drink it in the morning.

Cash / Credit Cards

- Try not to carry more than a few hundred dollars at all times, although sometimes it will be essential to carry more (Iran).

- When in higher crime areas, keep your cash stored in a stuff sack with your clothes. Having the cash mixed in with your clothes is great for if you're camping or staying in dodgy hotels as it is hard to find for those dishonest enough to look for it.

- It is also worth spreading your cash about your bags a bit, we leave a bit in my clothes bag, and a bit more in Kat's.

- If you need to carry cash on you, it is best to have it in a money belt concealed under your clothing. Make sure you have your money in a plastic sleeve so that sweat doesn't get to it.

- If you're in lower crime areas, leave your cash in your handlebar bag. You can then take it off the bike whenever you go to a supermarket, shop, restaurant etc.

- If you carry a wallet, store it inside a closable bag. It is far too easy to get pick pocketed or have it pinched from inside an open bag.

For more cash management tips, click HERE.

Don't leave your cash laying about like this…

Passport

- When we're travelling through countries with higher crime rates, we like to store our passports at the bottom of our rear pannier bags. As these rear pannier bags are strapped down underneath our rackpack bag, there is little to no chance of rear bag theft on the road.

- Make a copy of your passport page and laminate it. Store it in your handlebar bag and if asked to show your passport, you can show a copy rather than the real thing. For more read our detailled article HERE (coming soon).

- If you need to carry your passport with you, it is best to have it in a money belt concealed under your clothing.

- If you're in lower crime areas, leave your passports in your handlebar bag. You can then take it off the bike whenever you go to a supermarket, shop, restaurant etc.

Computer / Tablet

- Keep it stored in a pannier bag which is hard to take off quickly. We use our rear rackpack bag.

- Take it with you whenever you go into a supermarket/shop/restaurant.

- Try not to use it in public areas if your destination is known for theft.

Cameras

- We store our cameras in our handlebar bag for easy access, and so that we can take them off the bike when we stop at supermarkets, restaurants etc.

- Cameras are worth a bit of coin on the second hand market, so these are one of the most likely things to get taken from you. We recommend backing up your photos regularly. Remember, in the event your cameras do go missing, there is no way to replace all those precious photo and video memories.

- Try not to wear your camera. Keep it hidden in a bag when you can.

Do you have any other theft prevention tips for us?

A 'kitty' is an amount of money, made up from equal proportions from all parties, that is used to pay for everything that you need while you travel together. Eg accommodation or food. Read more about how to do it HERE. As a couple, we believe that you'd be crazy not to have a kitty. It also makes sense for a group of friends travelling together.

Taking Cash Out

We like to have about a weeks worth of money at one time. With this amount we don't worry about getting low or having to find an ATM at an inconvenient time. Half of the money we take out goes into our pannier bag, and the other half into our wallet. We sometimes carry more cash in our pannier bags when we have limited access to ATMs.

We use credit cards with no transaction fees attached to get our money out of our bank account at a good rate – read more HERE.

Hiding Cash

High Crime Areas

Sometimes you will need to carry large amounts of cash (eg. in Iran). We carry a small amount of cash in our wallet and the majority in our two rear panniers because they are the hardest of the lot to take off. We feel if someone wanted to rob us, our front panniers or handlebar bag would be the most likely to go given how easy they are to take off – in dodgier countries, keep your valuables away from these bags!

More specifically, when we are in higher crime areas, we keep our cash stored in a stuff sack with our clothes. Having the cash mixed in with your clothes is great for if you're camping or staying in dodgy hotels as it is pretty hard to find for those dishonest enough to look for it.

We hide our cash in clothing stuff sacks… shhh

We also recommend spreading your cash about your bags a bit, we leave a bit in my clothes bag, and a bit more in Kat's.

Low Crime Areas

If we're in lower crime areas, we leave our cash in our handlebar bag. We can then take it off the bike whenever we go to a supermarket, shop, restaurant etc.

Exchanging Money

We normally check out the XE currency website to determine what kind of rate we should be getting before we need to change it. Changing money on the border can be a bit shady, but sometimes it's essential. Do your research with regards to exchange rates as the “official” exchange rate on the internet can be vastly different to the street exchange rate – we've experienced this in both Myanmar and Iran.

To combat this we recommend getting in contact with a local in the country you will be travelling to. Ask them what a good currency rate should be – asking Couch Surfing hosts is a great start.

More Info

For more on keeping your valuables safe, click HERE.

Have you got any other cash tips for us?

Sleeping bag

Our Macpac zip-together sleeping bags have kept us warm in temperatures from around -5c. Apart from the down in some parts of the sleeping bag gathering together (leaving other areas with less down) we have been totally stoked with our choice – in fact it makes our Top-10 Favourite Bits of Gear.

The only issue we have had is that I have managed to twice puncture the foot area of his bag. Given that I am at the maximum height for the bag (my toes press the bottom at night) and it is lightweight, it is not a concern for us. It's an easy fix with a needle and thread.

Rim

The wheel that Kat rode for over six months was flawless under Kat's body/bike/bags (~100kg). We then threw it in the back of the tandem – the Mavic XM719 rim was expected to now operate under Tan-nay-nay, her passengers and all their gear (over 200kg). After ~2000km the Mavic rim called it quits and we are now limping towards Tehran where we will locate something more suitable.

It seems the eyelets have proven to do nothing, the sidewall is cracking and there are major cracks everywhere on this wheel! We wouldn't recommend this rim under bicycle tourers with bike/rider/gear weight much over 100kg!

Tent pole

Our poor Mountain Hardwear Skyledge tent has been used very often. It has seen snow, storms and really, really strong wind. It is still going strong, but we did manage to snap a pole a few months ago. I broke it when I was emptying the tent of dirt, holding it upside down in the air. Perhaps I was holding it in an inappropriate way.

In addition, the seam sealing on the floor of the tent has also seen better days – it is starting to flake away.

iPad Screen

I have no idea how my iPad screen got this crack. I can only assume that I stood on its corner, or dropped it from a decent height. Luckily the crack doesn't go over the screen and hasn't grown since the day it occurred.

Clothing

Our clothing has held together pretty well considering how often we wear it! I have two tshirts which are starting to collect small holes all over them. My three pairs of FAVOURITE EVER Pearl Izumi socks are showing age with holes at the end of the toes, and under the balls of my feet. My undies are getting hole-y too.

Kat has done pretty well so far, just a split in a pair of old jeans.

Exped pillow

My Exped air pillow lost it's form early on in the trip. This is not the first known case, although the sleeping pads are probably more susceptible to damage than a pillow. We were luckily in Germany and found a retailer who could warranty this product for us.

Rear pannier

Our rear Ortlieb Backroller pannier has broken (and been repaired) in two ways. One problem has happened before (see THIS post about preventing it somewhat) but the other is new to us. Our Racktop bag seems to put a lot of pressure on the top clip of the pannier – so much so it split from the bag. Kat sewed the clip back on a few thousand ago and it seems to be fine now.

Musettes

The musettes get used almost daily, so seeing holes develop in them is no surprise.

After seeing pictures of universal sink plugs on the internet that looked like big, flat rubber discs, we thought we could find the materials to make our own. We found a glass container with a lid, leaving the glass bit behind. Our first plug-made-from-a-plastic-lid worked! We later realised that there are actually suitable containers for plug manufacturing available everywhere in supermarkets… especially in the dairy section.

Make your own sink plug:

1. Eat a tub of yoghurt. The lid needs to be large in diameter and the plastic needs to be thin. The plug next to the lid is a standard plug for comparison.

2. Cut off the plastic rim on the lid. We want this lid to be as flat as possible.

3. Cut, cut, cut… all the way around.

4. Once you have made the full 360, trim around the edges to take out any impurities from your cut job.

5. You will now have a big plastic disc ready for action!

Does it work?

Hmm… Lets find out!

You will need to hold the plug down for a few seconds until the water weight carries out that task for you!

A perfect job!

If you can, we still suggest that you use a rubber universal sink plug (like the one pictured) for just one reason: it seals sinks better. Especially during clothes washing when you're likely to bump the plug a lot. We still carry two plugs – just in case our small plug doesn't fit a hole, or if we need to both wash our clothes at once (yep, we're totally impatient).

If you're plug-less because you left your plug behind, or in a location with no universal sink plugs available – our homemade plug will plug your hole!

Most good quality sauces and spices come in glass containers. If we carried every spice we had in it's little glass bottle Tan-nay-nay would probably crumble beneath us.

Which brings us to our travel tip: replace your glass bottles with plastic!

An example of the plastic containers we use to replace glass

Our salt is kept in a plastic peanut butter container, our vegetable oil in a fruit juice bottle and our kindly donated Nando's sauce and Peri-Peri spices (thanks Bernard and Siti) in yogurt bottles.

The glass often weighs FOUR TIMES the weight of the product inside, so we figure we save kilos just by offloading our glass.

How do you keep your food organised on tour?

But twin rooms can be annoying for couples who sleep together every night.

We generally don't use the hotel bedding in cheap hotels because it is not always long enough to cover my feet, it is not always hygienic and it is harder to predict the night room temperature / how well the bedding will keep us warm. As a result, our zip-together sleeping bags are the choice of champions!

Make a Double Bed!

We've found the best way to turn two singles into a double is with blankets. We pull the beds together, keeping them as close as possible. We then use the blankets supplied to fill the void, rolling them into a nice shape and stuffing them between. We cover the bed with a blanket or sheet to finish.

This trick seems to create a good enough double to get a good nights sleep.

If you can, ask where is good to eat. Couch Surfing hosts, hotel staff, police, randoms on the street… whoever. We have found amazing restaurants in towns we knew nothing about just by asking somebody.

2. Truck Drivers Know Best

We met a guy named Ali in Turkey who advised us that the Turkish truck drivers will NOT settle for anything by the tastiest, freshest food. We ate in restaurants with hoards of truck drivers and we can confirm that they know best! A word of warning though, bus drivers often have deals with restaurants, so if you see multiple buses sitting outside, it's probably because the bus drivers get a cut of the revenue – not that the food is good!
We still look out for roadside restaurants with lots of cars or trucks parked out front, no matter what country, and it works well!

3. Busy Restaurants

An obvious one. Busy restaurants are most often busy for a reason. They are cheap and awesome, or expensive and incredibly awesome!

4. The Quick Snoop

Look in the window or at the plates sitting in front of the outdoor diners. Does the food look decent?

5. Going to a Place You Already Know

There is NO shame in going to the same amazing restaurant more than one time. Alleykat often finds a 'local' and have even been known to go three times in a day to our favourite places!

6. Use your nose

If we smell something amazing, we have to stop. Your nose… nose… best, and it hardly results in any… no-nose!

7. Specialty Shops

We often stop at places that specialise in one variety of food. For example bread shops that sell just one type of bread do this because they have nailed the recipe. We always have time for this… mmm, fresh bread! Conversely, if a restaurant sells EVERY type of food, this can be bad, bad, bad.

Slightly more time consuming…

8. Food Apps

For mobile devices, food apps can be the best way to find a place to eat, although they are often limited to big cities. UrbanSpoon is a great resource with the ability to rank restaurants and find places close to where you are located.

9. Travel Websites

Websites such as TripAdvisor have lots of reviews written about restaurants in all cities, as well as many towns worldwide. They are written by unbiased people like us, so you can expect your food to be as described in the reviews.

10. Guide Books

If you have access to a Lonely Planet or a Frommers, read it. The reviews, although probably outdated, are often pretty accurate to our experience.

Have you got any other food finding tips?