JC

Things to take travelling

We’ve been doing a bit of extended travel over the last few months. This is some of the gear and things that I’ve found to be really good for travel.

Apps #

Ubigi #

eSIMs are great because you can buy them before you reach your destination and already have mobile data when you arrive. It’s also kinda necessary these days, with so many restaurants using QR ordering, or activities where they want you to buy tickets through your phone.

Ubigi isn’t necessarily the cheapest, but I’ve found it to be most reliable. Both in terms of coverage, but also not giving you an IP where every site is making you do CAPTCHAs every 5 minutes.

Tailscale #

There’s very few reasons for most people to buy a public VPN, but having a VPN setup through Tailscale is really useful. I’ve found myself to be on lots of networks where certain sites are blocked, and it can be for any reason: the site owner could be blocking the country you’re in, or the government is censoring the internet (e.g Qatar Airways Starlink).

To avoid this, you can setup a Tailscale exit node setup on your normal home internet connection. This tunnels all your traffic through a computer on your home internet connection, which allows you to bypass these restrictions. While there’s numerous other ways to do this, Tailscale is free, runs on everything, and only takes five minutes to setup.

Merlin Bird ID #

This app is very cool, and basically a Pokédex for birds. It show you what birds are in your current area with photos, songs, and other information. It can also identify the bird through photo or sound, and it actually works surprisingly well. To top it off, it’s free and works completely offline.

merlin.allaboutbirds.org

Wise #

Wise (or Revolut etc) is one of the services that I’m surprised not everyone knows about. In New Zealand, nearly every credit card has foreign transaction fees, so you will save a lot of money by using Wise (which has better rates too).

While you can manually exchange currencies, I just load the money in NZD and let it automatically convert when you spend it. Once signing up, it’s also worth ordering a physical card so you can withdraw cash from ATMs. The card is free if you use an invite link.

Hanly & DuChinese #

Instead of doomscrolling, learning a language can be a great way to pass the time. I really like Hanly for learning Chinese characters & words, as it teaches them by component (rather than just learning the most frequently used characters) and has good explanations/mnemonics to help you learn them. It’s also free - no account, subscription, or internet connection required.

I’ve also found DuChinese to be really helpful. Reading is a form of spaced repetition, and being able to listen while following along with the characters is very helpful. There is a free tier, but getting access to all the content is behind a fairly expensive subscription.

Hardware #

Sony a6700 + Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 #

I’m really happy with this camera + lens combo for travelling. The autofocus in particular is amazing. It’s really fast, and I’ve missed far fewer shots on this trip because of this camera. Coming from a Sony a5100, the difference is night and day. The Sigma 18-50mm has also been great: the focal length is versatile, it’s reasonably compact, and not too expensive either.

Carrying a camera on trips is great as it forces you to be a little more intentional with your shots, and you’re more likely to do something with the photos afterwards. You’ll find your phone battery also lasts a very long time when you have a dedicated camera. I also really like this combo because it’s not so expensive to feel you have to have to baby the equipment. I’ve been using it just fine in the rain and just chuck it in a normal bag.

I would recommend a Peak Design strap. One of the thinner ones is fine. It puts the weight of the camera on your shoulders rather than your neck, and it’s a bit more subtle than normal straps.

ROG Ally X + Bazzite #

The Steam Deck isn’t available in New Zealand, so installing Bazzite to run SteamOS on another gaming handheld is the next best thing (or arguably better). You don’t have to use Bazzite, but it has better hardware support and includes a bunch of extras out of the box compared to a regular SteamOS install.

I’m still dual booting Windows, but I’ve actually never used it. Gaming on Linux is just really good now, and there’s almost nothing that doesn’t work.

Retroid Pocket 5 #

It’s a bit weird to be carrying two gaming handhelds, but the Retroid Pocket 5 is small enough to fit in a jacket pocket. This one runs Android, and it’s really good for emulation of pretty much every system up to the PlayStation 2. I’ve been playing a lot of GameBoy Advance (there is a whole world of Pokemon ROM hacks). The screen is also OLED and high resolution enough to use shaders that replicate the look of the original hardware.

There are more powerful handhelds out there, and they seem to be getting better every year. The Retroid Pocket 6 (coming soon), and Ayn Odin 3 look to be similar, but with more powerful processors that can play PS3, and even PC games.

Forerunner 965 #

This was another upgrade for me from an older Garmin, and I’m really happy with the upgrade. Every generation of Garmin seems to add a few features, so you get quite a lot of “new” things when you skip a few generations. It has a nice OLED screen, and I get about 3 weeks of battery is even better than my older Forerunner 745 with a MIP screen. The Black Grid watchface is really nice on this screen, and has the perfect level of information density for me.

The Forerunner 965 is not the newest (the 970 is out), but when choosing a Garmin, you will save a lot of money by not buying the latest model. I purchased the 965 for approximately half of what a new 970 retails for.

Other Gear #

Phrasebooks #

Using your phone to translate is great for signs and menus, but phrasebooks are honestly underrated. They tell you what is normal thing to say, and cover a lot of the common scenarios that you’ll run into. It’s also way quicker to flick through a book than it is to type out a potentially weird sentence on your phone.

We got by just fine with English in Europe, but having a phrasebook for Latin America has been essential. The Lonely Planet ones are great: they’re physically compact, succinct, and inexpensive.

First Aid Kit #

You can’t rely on hotels to have fully equipped first aid kits. It’s always worth carrying some gauze, bandages, antiseptic, plasters, scissors, painkillers, and antihistamines with you. When not travelling, I also highly recommend having a first aid kit in your car.

USB-C Headtorch #

These can be surprisingly handy. I got a lightweight one (42g) from Decathlon, which is nice and bright (150 lumens), barely takes up any space in the bag, and supports USB-C to C charging.

Lululemon ABC Pants #

A bit expensive, but they’re actually so good. They’re high quality, dry quickly, and look good. They’re also perfectly comfortable to cycle in.

Bellroy Venture Sling #

This bag has been great for travelling. It’s compact (9L), but has enough space to fit a camera and water bottle. There’s plenty of pockets for organisation, and I like that the zips open from the ends. It feels a bit more secure, but you can also keep the bag slightly open to have a water bottle poke out the top.