On your back or on the ground

There is the never ending topic of what luggage to travel with and what type is better. Having mainly used a backpack for personal travel for over ten years now I finally decided to give the other side a go, the flash-packer side. Reequipping myself in Kuala Lumpur with a Mont blanc wheelie of the smaller kind I've now hit two continents so far during this last month and a half and that was how far it lasted. So far the leather on one corner has broken after a flight, the extendable handle partly broke after a careless airline shuttle buss slave handled it, The zipper seems to be ready to break soon as well and finally the extendable handle came off during a walk in Paris.

So far in the evaluation of Backpack versus little chic wheelie this is how the scores are.

Lifespan

Backpack: 10years +

Wheeler: less than 2 months

Expandability

Backpack: great

Wheeler: very little

Look

Backpack: outdoorsy

Wheeler: classy and chic

Convenience

Backpack: Portable and hands free

Wheeler: Roll-able in a few places

Price

Backpack: a bit more expensive

Wheeler: a little cheaper

All in all the backpack win with a devastating score of 4-1

One could argue that since the wheelie was bought in Kuala Lumpur the default quality drop made the comparison unfair. I say fuck it, they are all made in china these days anyway.

My shopping addiction

I have to admit that I too enjoy shopping. Today I spent a bunch of cash on sports gear. I tend to spend my money or sports, travel, tech stuff, food and nerdy stuff. Can’t say it’s any different from anyone else I guess.
I am curious about my ability or lack of restrain in spending far too much of my available funds on a whim when it comes to these things. I think that if one made a graph of spending over time I’d be similar to a heartbeat. quite low for a long time and suddenly consumption rises enormously with some smaller variations in spending amount before and after.

This time I happened to spend it on a new Badminton racket. Last trip around the world I think I bought a couple too. Anyway it ended being a nanotech 200. It felt good so I hope it works well too. Stringed it with BG 66. tried to find BG 80 but I’m not sure if it doesn't exist any more due to my long time absent from the world of Badminton or if they just didn’t carry it.
Did learn that it is impossible for me to play with a traditional grip in this hot weather due to not being able to hold it sweating like crazy. I changed to a towel grip long ago but I never realized it was vital for me to even being able not to drop the racket.

Everything

Little over a month ago me and a few close friends of mine, we'll call them Simon(ancient friend) and Michelle(girlfriend) for now, minted an expression that follows: It's cool, I'm everything. It was mainly derived from two things. #1 movies and situations where someone has an accident and a doctor says it's OK, I'm a doctor. The #2 reason is that every time you find yourself in a zombie apocalypse and the airplane you're in is crashing because the pilot was turning into a zombie and you had to off him. Then it's so nice to say: it's cool, I'm a pilot. Anyway this post isn't really about that but it is about bringing everything with you as you travel. What do you really need that takes up that much space?

I first thought that this issue was something over-discussed and pointless for me to write about but I just had to after seeing all the people travelling with what I consider excessive gear. Mind you I'm not a nothing mode traveller like these guys.

Being a tech and gadget junkie more than half the stuff I bring are camera equipment, computer and sports gear. This brings me up to a total of one not full 65l backpack.

So what do people with a giant ass roller the size a small house bring? And maybe an even better question: what do backpackers with giant bags and spare bags bring? Did they all do a shit load of shopping to bring back home. If that is the case, where do they put all the stuff when they get back?

One of the sites where you may spot this walking around with plenty of bags is Khao San Rd in Bangkok. So if you're ever in the neighbourhood remember to take a pic ;)

Oh right maybe I should give an update of my situation.

Travelled down to Koh Lanta by now. Will do my dive masters here so you can look forward to some sections on life in a dive shop. But what I really noticed on the way down was a customer service close to the legendary Spanish experience.

The trip down to Koh Lanta from Chang Mai in the north took about 3 days and 2 nights, riding maybe 6 different motor vehicles. One section of the way I was riding on the back seat of a motorbike with my backpack on my shoulder. I call it Thai style travelling. At least I saved some money doing it. Money quickly vanished indulging in food and what not.

I was struck by one of the buss companies that had a little place to wait at during buss changes. Waiting for the next buss I used a wall outlet to power my computer and the lady there wanted to charge me for it. Seriously wtf! And that was the most expensive of my tickets too. It's like they never heard of customer service. Another interesting thing was when one of the drivers decided to drive some kids home, take some laundry somewhere and go have a chat with a friend, all during the time he was supposed to transport us to our next destination. It's like hitching a ride if more efficient sometimes that riding with some companies. Personally I found it so amusing I just had to laugh. The two Swedes in the back of the car that really needed to pee didn't find is as amusing though.

Travelling for a long time and doing dangerous sports like putting my head under, water I find insurance to be more than a bit of a nuisance. I'm definitely of the opinion that insurance is vital when travelling. I remember this one time at band c.. no but once when I had to be checked in at a Malaysian hospital. 80.000 SEK was the bill of which my insurance covered everything except 800 SEK or 130$ which was the price for putting me in a private suite instead of a normal room.

Wanting to dive though which none of the normal Swedish insurances covers I need an extra insurance. Been looking at DAN Europe's diver insurance and right now I'm trying to figure out if it covers what my travel insurance covers too. Then I need to cancel mine asap and get that one instead. Ah well it will all work out.

See you guys next time with an update on my attempt at getting into shape and the island life.

Are Chips Maggots?

When travelling, one mission always stays the same. The endeavour to sample new and exiting foods. You might not know yet but I love food. I love to eat every kind of it and a lot too. Well a lot for some people at least. Can't say I even ate an averaged sized serving last weak in Seattle. Those Americans really know how to eat. Maybe stuff themselves is a more appropriate description though. Moving away from a rant about how hard it is to stay in shape in the US and back to the current time and location, I'm doing my best to sample the local Thai cuisine. Besides going with the Thai stomach it's also a very affordable way staying alive and well.

I'd like to recommend the curry noodle from northern Thailand. It's an egg noodle dish of moderate heat and your choice of meat. Most predominately it goes with chicken. Ones mind might wander to the curry udon of Japan but the similarities ends there. The curry sauce in itself has the consistency of thick soup as is perfectly enjoyable all by itself. The noodles are good but nothing special by them self. They are plain egg noodles but go well with the curry sauce. It's a yellowish curry similar to paneng curry but with a meatier and spicier flavour.
So far this was my favourite dish among the northern style dishes I had. Other food worth mentioning are the fresh crab salad and fried insect mix. Oh and by fresh I mean raw.

To describe these foods the crab was similar to oyster in consistency and tasted mostly of chili and citrus. Surprisingly the fried maggots share many qualities with your every day store bought chips.

From Life On the Go

Eating cheaply, of course, leads to other vices that drain the small funds I have. One of them being ice cream. It's crazy that an ice cream at Seven Eleven can cost me 40 baht and more when I can get a meal for 25 baht. It's not even like it's a super fancy bucket of ice cream either. Oh snap now I miss my Ben and Jerry's.

Taking the day off in Bangkok to study and get my internet fix. Planning on getting a dive masters down in Koh Lanta so I figure I'll get a heads up and do as much of the theory when I can. Also I've been a good boy and read some articles on mobile banking and diffusion patters. Not exactly the topic of my blog but this is what I'll be doing for two months in Indonesia so could be good to prepare properly.

Thought long and hard about where to do my dive masters and Koh Lanta's six islands weren't actually my first choice. But due to other circumstances it's where I'll be spending quite a bit of time anyway. So why not.

Oh and I'd like to share a tech tip for anyone going to Thailand for an extended period of time. Data roaming services are not too expensive if you get a Thai phone card. A prepaid card with a months unlimited data services and around a 100 baht worth of texting and calling goes for roughly 1000 baht. An investment I've never regretted and had use for many a time. It's especially fun when you tell the cabdriver that the traffic is heavy on this specific route and he might take another one. Damn are they surprised you know these things. Go go technology.

Stay tuned for a post on backpackers and customer service