Archive for the Travel Essentials category
You’re setting off backpacking. And even if you’ve spent a fair bit of time on the road before, it’s almost always necessary to put together a packing list. Otherwise (as a hostel manager recently told HostelBloggers) you can end up lugging a George Foreman Grill around Europe with you, all the while wondering why the hell you decided to bring it along…
Along with digging out a crumpled list of travel gear essentials, it’s never a bad idea to jog your memory by thinking of ways you can make that backpack just a little bit lighter. A good place to start is Indietravelpodcast.com’s Ten Ways to Reduce Your Toiletries on Long Trips.
There are some travel staples in there, such as buying a mini-towel (or travel towel) and using two-in-one shampoo. But there are also a handful of other handy hints in an article, which (like the site in general) is a great source of on the road travel information.
Quite frequently on the internet you stumble across something about which it’s hard to know what to think… The Dog Backpack is one of those things.
Is this the classic case of designing a product that solves a problem which never existed in the first place?
Why a dog would have any need - or more importantly, desire – to wear a backpack is completely beyond us.
Anyway, of one thing we’re absolutely certain: that dog is feeling extremely sorry for itself!
The next morning, we spent an inordinately long time staring blearily at the above over breakfast. And as we did so, it struck us that there was no better symbol of the roaming Australian backpacker than the little jar of yeast extract that tends to follow them around wherever they go.
HostelBloggers’ favorite Vegemite-related story (and believe us when we say we’ve got a list as long as your arm) is of the European backpacker who, unfamiliar with the stuff, thinks it’s chocolate spread and ladles inch-thick quantities of it onto their toast… with fairly predictable results!
Great piece from slow travel bible bravenewtraveler.com about six ice-breakers you can take away on your trip that are bound to get you a bit closer to the locals.
HostelBloggers has always sworn by two things that didn’t make the list, though: It may not be cool or clever, but a crumbled (and inexhaustible) packet of cigarettes to be brought out and proffered to any friendly looking bystander is guaranteed to make you friends.
Then, of course, there’s the tried and tested small bottle of something nice and strong in the bottom of your backpack. Never fails.
