More pointers on packing for the journey

Following on to yesterday’s post, Boston Globe travel writer Tom Haines also recently wrote a story about packing for the journey, and he points to a number of small, essential items to pack for good times:

• Flashlight, for finding the lamp switch or, when there isn’t one, the toilet.
• Toilet paper, for when you get there.
• Baby wipes/sanitizer, for a quick hand wash before lunch in the public market, or to bathe at the end of the day.
• Small gifts, because tokens are common introductions around the world.
• Phrasebook, for making friends and finding everything else you need far from home.

Haines also points out some items that can come in handy in bad times (and suggests leaving these items as gifts for locals in need when heading home):

• Sterile medical kit, including a clean syringe and needle, at least, if not a small scalpel. Yes, for someone to use on you.
• Basic medicine , including antibiotics for stomach and respiratory problems and flu suppressants.
• Water purifier kit or purification tablets, to get you to the next market that has bottled water.
• A lighter or matches, for when the batteries or the heater die.
• Cash, for . . . an emergency ride to the capital? Bond to get out of jail? You never know.

In the article, Haines shares off-the-beaten-path packing suggestions from a number of travelers, including Globe photographer Essdras Suarez, cultural anthropologist Patty Gray, Explorers Corner head Olaf Malver, and yours truly. Here was my three-point recommendation:

1. Ear plugs.
This is a fairly standard item for anyone’s travel kit, since you never know what kind of racket might be going on when you’re trying to sleep. Naturally, this applies to the urban noises of your initial arrival city, but it also applies to more far-flung locations. It may not occur to you now, but the town bus making its morning run in provincial Guatemala will probably be lacking a muffler; the charming town in rural Romania will also feature farmers on noisy two-stroke tractors; and the only hotel in that sleepy Mozambique beach town will double as a brothel. And, while
there are charms to staying in that isolated Lao village, it’s best to prepare yourself for the fact that the chickens will start screaming at four in the morning.

2. A phrasebook.
In major tourist areas, your phrasebook will often go unopened, since the locals will be used to speaking English. It is usually in the more far-flung areas, in fact, that your phrasebook will come out and get dog-eared with use. Just keep in mind that any phrasebook conversation is far from perfect, and will require heavy doses of patience and sign language (which can end up being lots of fun). Also remember that people in isolated regions often speak different languages than in the capital, so your Hindi phrasebook likely won’t do much good in Nagaland, nor your Spanish phrasebook in a corner of Bolivia where people speak Quechua.

On a related topic, when in non-tourist areas where the Roman alphabet isn’t used, it helps to carry a phrasebook or “cheat sheet” to help you order food. I learned this the hard way in China, where I figured I’d just point at random items of the menu and hope for the best. After a few dinners of glazed chicken feet and stewed pig buttholes, I learned to just crack open the “food” section of my guidebook and point to the characters of dishes I knew I liked. If the restaurant didn’t have the item in question, I’d point to another one until things worked out.

3. A shortwave radio
In remote places where there are no Internet cafés and folks go to bed early, it can be nice to spend evenings surfing for news and music on a shortwave radio. Often, the locals themselves will listen to shortwave (I got my own shortwave radio for $8 in a little town in Burma), and recommend stations for you.

The full Boston Globe article can be found online here.