Travel Tips a la Loganbilian

Some people have been asking us for travel advice (shout out to you know who), and I thought I might share some of our travel strategies.

We've been staying at hostels mostly. And they'll make you lay down some serious cash for Internet when there are Internet stations down the road for cheap. One place ripped us off by charging $3 to hook up our camera to their computer via USB cable. Scott has been disappointed that wifi (his phone has wifi and Google Maps) isn't as prominent in hotels and urban areas as in America.

We brought a thumb drive here with Picasa on it. We downloaded it quickly and used it to upload everything to picasaweb.google.com/sancho. It took a while, but then you get to erase the camera memory. Picasaweb has a link in the album to "embed a slideshow." Voila, our Fiji pictures.

As for clothes -- we minimized. They tell us to bring as little clothes as possible. If you need some later, buy it along the way. One flannel, one stuffsack windbreaker. Boardshorts double as shorts and swim trunks and dry fairly quickly. So far it has worked for us, although washing and hanging on a clothesline in your hostel or hotel room can be pretty ghetto. Luckily, we've been with family enough that we've only had to wash and dry our own clothes maybe once or twice.

We spent some money at REI before we left. Scott's main concern was to buy clothes that will dry quickly. Cotton will mold in your bag if you don't have enough time to dry it. We got a piece of nylon rope for use as a clothes line. We bought clothes sacks to compress our clothes so we have room in our bags. No computer, but Scott's one novelty was a travel stereo for the iPod. Makes your hotel room so much more comfortable. Dana's was the digital SLR camera.

We also bought some plastic containers for soap (get antibacterial, my sister in law Melissa warned us about skin infections) and for laundry detergent. Bring a Tide stick for stains too. Scott personally prefers to keep toiletries and medicine in thick ziplock freezer bags. You can find stuff so much easier in a clear bag, it's waterproof, and if it's carry-on most of the airlines make you put liquids under 3 oz in a clear bag anyway.

Scott geeked out on his bag too. Whatever you do, make sure it has backpack straps. Scott's has wheels too, but it adds weight to the bag and some airlines make you keep it to under 42 lbs. It is convenient to roll your baggage though. It usually gives him some leverage to carry some of Dana's stuff too.