The ‘wired’ Vagabond

In spite of the great quote that Rolf recently posted about not letting technology get in the way of true experience, as a working vagabond and not-so-closet gadget freak, being wired to some extent is a must for me.

As one commenter to Rolf’s quote pointed out though, going whole days or more without touching my laptop is something I try to do but there are times when being as wired as a robot can come in handy and enhance your travel experience or simply keep you safe.

So here’s a look at perhaps some of the more useful gadgets for the wired Vagabond:

GPS system – no longer do you have to cart around a box the size of a small briefcase, you can have built-in GPS systems in your cell phone or PDA. Whilst my husband and I are unlikely to need one on the island of Grenada (there aren’t many wrong turns to take here and if we do, we end up in the sea), having one to navigate the huge metropolis of Buenos Aires might have been nice.

Electronic books – I, personally, can’t imagine using one of these, there is something about turning pages that I like. However in the interests of traveling light for months at a time, books are one of the things that we have had to forfeit. An electronic book reader might solve this problem and allow us to bring the equivalent of the 20-odd books we had to leave behind.

Freeplay gadgets – a range of solar-powered devices including a digital radio, a torch and an emergency power device to charge up cell phones, ipods, GPS and PDAs. Whilst the radio might not look as cool as an ipod, these gadgets are certainly all environmentally friendly and some are fully weatherproof.

Skype cell phone – hot off the press in the UK, this is a cell phone which uses skype or VOIP technology to let you call other skype users for free from a mobile handset (no computer needed). Only just launched in the UK, it will currently work if you travel to Austria, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Hong Kong and Ireland too but outside of these countries will be redundant.

Translator gadget – I could have done with one of these in Panama this year when I got off the plane speaking 5 words of Spanish. Whilst there’s nothing like learning the language before you or the immersion technique once you’re there, having one of these could get you out of all manner of tricky situations and help prolong stuttering conversations with the locals.

Steripen – a very nifty water purifier which Tim Leffel declares “brilliant”. Enough said.

And if carting all those gadgets around makes you nervous about losing them, then there’s a clever solution for that too – the EZFind Global Return Service.