Changes in my Travel Style for 2019

This year will be another exiting year of full-time world travels for me. I detailed my year’s plans in this article.

As usual, I’ll be traveling slowly, exploring several countries in depth, moving mostly overland from area to area and country to country. My focus, as usual, will be on local culture, art & architecture as well as nature and outdoor adventures.

I also have a full agenda of luxury and boutique hotels to review, beginning in Morocco with 45 hotels and resorts to visit. I will land in Marrakesh running, that’s for sure.

So I will continue my life-long world travels much as I’ve done for the past 20 years. However, I’m also making several significant changes, all of which should enhance my travels even more.

I’ve made upgrades in much of my travel gear, improved some tech habits and altered a few travel habits. Following are the details.

New Travel Gear

I’m super excited this year to hit the road with several significant new pieces of travel gear. I’ve upgraded myself with a brand new, name-brand backpack, day pack and money belt. And believe me, all of old ones were well overdue to be replaced!

1. New Backpack

Through 20 years of travels I’ve only used two backpacks!

My first one I bought in Singapore in 1992 while on vacation from Japan, where I lived for six years. I didn’t use that pack much until I started my world travels in 1998, but then it became my main backpack, all the way until 2010. It sustained 12 solid years of use. And I still have it in storage, filled with memorabilia.

In 2010 I finally bought a new – bigger – backpack in Thailand, which I’ve been using up til now. It’s a fantastic hybrid pack that opens like a suitcase and has wheels & a pull handle. But it wasn’t actually the best quality bag, so it steadily fell apart over the years and has gone through many major repairs.

First the flimsy pull handle broke, then one wheel collapsed. Next various handles and straps busted, as well as the zippers that open/closed a panel to conceal the backpack straps during transport. Every time someone handled my pack, they invariably broke yet another strap, handle or tab.

In recent years I knew it’s days were limited and I started worrying about the time it would bust open in transit or finally collapse for good. Finally last year the main zipper started malfunctioning and I knew I had to put it to rest and replace it.

So as soon as I reached Florida late last year I started researching for a new hybrid backpack. They’re really difficult to find! I wanted the same style as my previous, with wheels & pull-handle, a suitcase-style opening and a way to conceal the backpack straps.

I only found one pack on the entire internet that has wheels. But it’s so heavy (over 10 pounds!) that I gave it a miss.

The only actual hybrid pack I found with a suitcase type opening is this awesome Eagle Creek pack that I ordered for Christmas. It also comes with a rain-fly that doubles as a full zipping bag to completely encase the backpack during transport. 

Luckily for me, I have a very co-operative, helpful family who granted my Christmas wish and delivered up this fabulous new pack. It’s also a wonderful deep maroon-grape color. Yippie!

2. New Day Pack

As mentioned, I travel slowly and thoroughly. I generally spend at least one week in each city, town, beach, island or other destination. Sometimes I stay in a place two weeks or even one month.

While staying in each place, I tend to make ½ day and day trips, carrying my day pack around. In fact, that’s the bag I use the most.

My day pack is usually quite heavy. I routinely carry 1-2 meals, at least 1 L of water, extra clothes, some sort of map/guidebook or notes on my destinations, and often an umbrella.

I’ve noticed for the past couple years that lugging around such a heavy bag without a hip strap has been straining my back. A lot.

During the last few months of 2018 I decided that I really needed to find a day pack with a built-in hip strap, like a regular large backpack, to get the weight onto my hip bones and off my back & shoulders.

While searching for a new backpack, I also took up a search for such a pack. Once again, it proved pretty difficult to find!

But with persistence I finally found a whole line of Osprey day packs with built-in hip belts. The straps are not nearly as sturdy as hip belts on full backpacks, so I’ll see how well the rather thin straps function. But, at long last I bought myself a new day pack, with the same dimensions as the one I’d previously been using.

I didn’t have the best luck with the color, unfortunately. Osprey was completely out of the gorgeous deep purple/trimmed in fuschia bag that I ordered. Sigh. So I had to settle for ‘Sandstone Orange’. I’m not a fan of orange. But at least it’s bright & cheery and will be easy to keep an eye on.

I’m curious to see how well the hip-strap method works for my back. I’ll report in on that after I try it steadily for a while.

my new & old money belts

3. New Money Belt

Amazing as it seems, I’ve been using one money belt since 1998!

Like my last backpack, it was gradually deteriorating over two decades of use and I had repaired it multiple times to keep it functioning.

After 20 years of constant use, it was ugly as hell. It looked more like a dirty pair of underpants or an old rag. Lol

Also like my backpack, late last year the zipper started failing. And that was the last straw for my faithful ole money belt.

With a little research I found a new money belt with the same dimensions and color. This is probably the only item I own for which I intentionally choose a muted neutral color, that I hope won’t catch anyone’s eye and will blend into its surroundings, whether locked into my hard-case suitcase or tucked into my hip bag.

4. New Designer Sunglasses

In recent years I’ve opted to buy good-quality full UV protection designer sunglasses, especially since I generally travel in the tropics. My most recent pair I bought in Mexico in 2017. The frames are still perfect, but the lenses are so scratched that they’re rather exasperating to look through.

So I asked for new sunglasses for Christmas, though I thought it would be impossible for anyone to buy a pair for me that I like. They have to be large, round-ish and pink or purple. Not so easy to find.

Well, my brother and sister-in-law astounded me by selecting a fantastic pair of Ralph Lauren sunglasses that are just perfect! Good job, guys and thanks very much.

More Camera Tech

1. Extra camera battery and memory cards

Nothing exciting here. I just bought a few more items so I’ll never run out of juice or photo storage while taking photos.

I’ve also decided that the memory cards make a good back-up storage for my photography. When I’ve completely filled a memory card, I just put it into storage and start a new one.

2. New Tripods

Some great little Christmas presents that I wasn’t expecting are three small portable camera tripods. My brother gave me a stick-style tripod and a tiny, flexible leg tripod.

When my step-dad saw how useful they’d be for me, he gave me his old, but much more sturdy, mini-tripod.

For years I’ve been carrying around a full tripod. But I rarely use it, primarily because it’s so long and heavy for lugging around all day. So I’ve been debating whether to continue carrying it with me.

Now I can set aside the heavy one and try out this combo of much smaller, lighter-weight tripods. Let’s see how it goes!

New Tech Practices and Travel Practices

1. SELECT Membership

SELECT is an international VIP luxury membership that gives its members great discounts on all sorts of luxury hotels, restaurants, entertainment options and services. They’ve offered me a year’s membership to try it out and see if I can recommend it to others who have a lifestyle that would benefit from such discounts and services.

Since I review luxury and boutique hotels professionally, I anticipate that my SELECT membership might come in quite handy for me. Plus I’ve got this slick black metal members card that looks really chic. Lol

If this peaks your curiosity, I wrote more about SELECT in this article.

2. VPN use

I’ve been wanting to try out VPN (Virtual Private Network) service for several years, but just haven’t done it. In case you’re not familiar with this, it’s a way to work online more safely and incognito since it encrypts all your information and hides your location.

Finally this year I’ve decided to take the plunge. I’m looking forward to see how using a VPN helps me while working online around the world.

I’ll be reporting on my findings later this year, so stay tuned.

3. Photo and Document Back-ups!

In 2018 I lost all my documents and photos. Not once, but twice!

First off, in late January my laptop and all accessories were stolen in Costa Rica. That included my back-up hard-drive, which was in my laptop case at the time. Duh.

I had to make an emergency purchase of laptop and everything else in the closest city – Liberia in NW Costa Rica. Gradually I discovered that I actually had many of my photos elsewhere – on LashWorldTour, on my SmugMug photo site and on a hard-drive at my mom’s house in Florida. So not all was lost.

Then, to my utter amazement, in late October my new laptop crashed! Hard drive failure. And I lost everything again.

Stupidly, I hadn’t bothered backing-up much that year since I’d be back I Florida soon and, well, what could go wrong with a new computer, right?

Amazingly, the hard-drive had failed so completely that the tech guys couldn’t take one single file off it! I lost everything again. And this time I really lost most of my photo for the year. No extra copies anywhere.

So I finally learned the great importance of backing-up everything, and on a regular basis. I’ve already developed a weekly back-up system for myself. And I’ve concluded that back-up online / in the cloud is best.

CouchSurfing – free accommodation for travelers in people’s homes

4. Mixed accommodation options

I generally tend to stick to one type of accommodation option, depending on the country or region I’m traveling in. In SE Asia I could always get a private room or bungalow, no matter where I traveled, with the exception of costly Singapore.

In Central America I ended up staying almost exclusively in hostels. In Cuba at ‘casas particulares’, private homes with owners who rent out one or two rooms.

But in northwestern Mexico I ended up using a huge mix of budget hotels, CouchSurfing stays, AirBnB and hostels. That reminded me of the diverse options now available in most places of the world.

I’m going to continue checking various possibilities as I travel around Morocco, Europe and the Balkan countries in 2019. I might also join some more Help Exchange gigs in the more expensive countries I visit.

5. Streamline my stuff

Despite over 20 years of solo independent world travel, I have never mastered the art of streamlined, lightweight gear. My first few years I was cycle-touring. So I had my bike, bike tool kit and my personal gear.

Then I became a dive instructor for many years. So I had to lug around all my diving equipment.

After that I began working online. So I’ve had to haul around my laptop and paraphernalia.

In addition, my mounds of personal gear seem to be growing. I have way too many clothes, toiletries, back up items, electronics, guide books and miscellaneous stuff. I’ve also been hauling a tent and full length tripod.

marching around Coolum Beach

It’s definitely become out of hand!

So this year when I pack up my brand new – smaller! – backpack and day bag, I’m determined to leave behind heaps of things that I rarely use, to ditch most of the back-up items and to leave out any guidebooks. Wish me luck.

Summary 

While I will primarily continue traveling the world in much the same manner as always, this year I’m making several key gear upgrades, alterations in tech practices and slight travel habit changes.

Follow along on my grand adventures this year as I forge through several new countries and cultures. Here’s my full itinerary for 2019.

=================================================

You might also enjoy:

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2011! NEWS: LashWorldTour Named One of ’28 Travel Blogs that Rock’ on All Colores MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012! – I’m Taking a Vacation! LashWorldTour News: I”ve Been Dubbed the ‘Pink Nomad’