Packing your home and everything you own
Ask a backpacker to reveal the contents of their packs, and the chances are that you will find many of the following: camera (with a multitude of accessories), phone, laptop/netbook, iPod or other music device, DVD player, electronic book reader. There may even be a spare camera. Of course many pieces of kit can serve two or more of these functions, but for many of us the weight and bulk of our gadgetry can take up a large part of our luggage.
Given that so many of us carry these electronic components on our travels, it may be worth stopping for a moment to ask ourselves: how do these gadgets actually enhance our experiences, and are they as necessary as we think?
Our hi-tech travel baggage is probably aimed at serving three broad purposes:
Communication – we can now talk and share messages with people at home and people we’ve just met or are about to meet. We can also plan parts of our trip a day or two in advance, rather than several weeks or months ahead as was once the case. We can even maintain our social media activity as if we were at home, all the while sharing the latest updates from our travels.
Capturing memories – we photograph more than ever before, such is the simplicity of taking image and video clips of anything and everything. I wouldn’t call myself a prolific photographer, but if I sat down to view every picture and video I’d taken over the last four years it would take a very long time!
Escape – sometimes on our travels we find comfort in the familiar. Whether it’s in a DVD we can watch and enjoy a laugh, a book, or the music collection we’ve built up over the years, most of us will carry something that allows us to sit on that bus, in that airport or on that guest house bed, and transport ourselves into another place.
But if I stop and consider our most memorable travel moments, they are not related in any way to any of the above. They might relate to activities: hiking on volcanoes, flying to remote islands, standing on the top of windswept mountains and admiring stunning views. They often relate to encounters: with other tourists who became friends, with local people on a bus or in their homes, or with random strangers with whom we may have shared a funny moment. They can even relate to misfortunes that we encounter: the broken down van, the burst tyre, the missed connection; all of which resulted in an unexpected adventure.
The greatest memories are still derived from the most simple moments, none of which require any of our gadgetry; in fact, one could argue that not having the array of paraphernalia allows us to open our senses more to the world around us as we travel. If we rely less on those trappings of home and immerse ourselves in the environment in which we find ourselves, will it result in a richer travel experience?
I am not suggesting that we ditch our cameras and our phones, and leave our i-Pods at home. I certainly would struggle to manage to travel without any such tools in my bag. But perhaps if we consider the essence of what lies behind the real magic of our travels, of what it is that makes so many of us feel so passionate about travelling, we can question how many gadgets we stuff into our bags and whether we really need to take as much as we do.
How true! Wetravel because we want to live in present not escape
it reminds me of one of my article about music device in travel http://su.pr/1xOhSF
Wonderful article Andy!
Great post and totally agree. I would personally happily go without any form of communication. I am a big fan of having a well stocked Ipod (and some speakers) with you, because I find music enhances long journeys (nothing like a little Phillip Glass as you stroll through the madness of a terminal) and it also helps create a home away from home in your room for those moments you just want a little space. As for cameras, I find them a distraction, I shoot rarely and would much rather sit and look and try to imprint the moment in my memory than on a jpeg file. Still given the memory is a little shakey at best I will take a photo too for good measure…
Thanks Juno and Ben for your comments and for sharing your stories.
Like you Ben, part of me would like to travel without a camera at all; but it does help remind you later of some of the places and moments that dim with time in the memory.
I have no problem with leaving technology at home, and have previously written about the possibility of travelling without a camera (and been roasted for it).
http://letsdosomethingdifferent.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/can-you-travel-without-a-camera/
But my personal situation means I have to try to be contactable at all times, and then I got an iPhone … and next big trip I take I will be taking my laptop with me to update my blog! So while part of me wants to be as lightweight, gadget free and disconnected as a traveller in the past, the reality is I am going to be as wired as every other tech-head out there on the road. And it is not worse, just different.
Thanks Natalia, I enjoyed reading your post – and the comments and links your words provoked. I guess it’s a highly personal perspective, and as you say there is no right or wrong – we travel with different priorities, different reasons, different styles. I have changed my own perceptions on how I best enjoy travelling in recent times to reflect my own wish to escape from gadgetry while away; it’s probably a lot to do with the fact that I spend an ever-increasing proportion of my home life fully wired and available.
Thanks again for sharing your thoughts.
It seems everyone has a comment on whether to be a “backpacker” or a “flashpacker” these days. Like you, and many others, who are attempting to stay in touch with friends and family back home, and keep an online diary of their adventures… I don’t have a problem with carrying around all the high-tech gadgetry, as long as:
1. you keep it secure
2. you have it insured
3. you dont let your “online” presence take away from your “real” presence (sometimes we can use the ipod, twitter, youtube, etc. to keep us entertained when we should be looking for real-life human-to-human connections).
4. you enjoy yourself
I will be taking a laptop, an iphone, a dslr, and a compact camera on my travels. I don’t have a problem with that. But I know that carrying all that weight is a bit of a pain considering how much I will actually use all the gear (not often).
I did my first visit to Italy without a computer but I took my digital camera, my 35mm SLR with all necessary lenses and filters, and a video camera. I felt a bit encumbered but I wanted to capture everything as much as I possibly could because I didn’t know if I’d ever be back.
I went to the UK a few years ago and even though I took my computer, I significantly pared down my camera gear to one digital camera. I used it to shoot video and my stills. The computer helped me to not be so homesick as I could chat with my partner and friends.
Last year I went to Spain and Italy and I took my computer, my iTouch, my camera, and my phone. I’m an avid travel blogger now and I like the ability to upload pictures and share my travels with my followers as they are happening. My friends and family also enjoy “traveling” and “visiting” new places with me. my iTouch has some great apps plus all my music and I love how I can use my music and podcasts to help me pass the time. I’ll probably leave the phone at home next time unless my mom (who gets very nervous when I travel) guilts me into taking it.
All said, I like my gadgets and I’ll probably continue to pack them and schlep them along with me, not just for me, but for everyone who always travels along with me.
Nice post!
I love my electronic gadgets, but sometimes it is necessary to stop traveling through the eye of the camera and experience travel through our traditional senses.
I’ve been to every continent except Australia and with each trip I’ve come to realize that I don’t like traveling with gadgets.
When I went to Europe for six weeks in 2005, I brought nothing electronic, not even a digital camera or a phone. It was wonderful. My then-boyfriend and I got lost a lot and probably missed some sights or whatever, but we had an amazing trip, during which no time was spent staring at a screen or worrying about staying in touch with anyone. I have the most amazing memories of stumbling upon a little town or a great restaurant with no help from a gadget.
After that trip I went to West Africa for five months and brought a cell phone, laptop, DSLR camera and an ipod. It was too much. I found that most of the time I didn’t carry my camera because it would change the way people interacted with me. I didn’t have reliable electricity or internet access so the computer was wasted space, and I couldn’t talk to my fellow tro-tro (local bus) riders if I was listening to my ipod, so I left it off most of the time.
For subsequent trips I downsized and have been really happy so far. I carry a cell phone for emergencies (used after a motorcycle accident in Indonesia and after I fell off a roof in Argentina), an ipod shuffle which I try to use only on long flights, and my grandfather’s Pentax K1000. I found that switching to film helped me really enjoy the process of photography more and also take less photos. During most of my three months in Asia and two months in South America and Antarctica, I left the house/boat/tent carrying nothing.
To be honest I feel that getting lost (like film photography) is a lost art. Just a few weeks ago I got lost in Brooklyn with a few friends and instead of enjoying an afternoon expedition, three people whipped out iphones and argued about whose map application was the most accurate. My friends spent the whole afternoon staring down at tiny screens instead of enjoying the atmosphere of each neighborhood we walked through.
It’s the same abroad. What ever happened to interacting with locals?
Eh, this could go on. I still have days here in the US when I leave my apartment and purposely forget my cell phone. Thank you for the post!
Jackie Rose
Jackie, your words ring true to me, esp. the part about wandering around a city with a GPS. It’s so much fun to be lost in a city and to be able to explore, and it has become something of a lost art as you say. I’m sometimes guilty of this too when in London, yet our best adventures occur when we get lost and find a neighbourhood we never knew about by chance.
Keep up the good work and leave the gadgets at home. I’ll try and do likewise! Thanks for sharing.
For me, I can totally empathize with both sides of the coin in the camera debate. Early on in my travel I only carried one simple film camera, and all of a sudden now a days I carry my DSLR and my little digital point and shoot, and I have to mention that my phone is in a convenient spot to take out for that photo moment that may pass before I get my DSLR out! But in saying that, the travel moments I remember the most (and have truly enjoyed), using every sense of my body is those times I don’t have a camera.
I just did the Mt. Everest Base Camp trek and took it as a great opportunity to leave behind everything except ONE camera. It’s was great, time to interact with my family and friends and also fellow travelers on the trek. I was horrified to see someone at 4500m above sea level take out their e-book reader. I felt like he ruined the moment for everyone.
But anyways, I think it’s worth leaving all the gadgets at home at least once a year (if you travel that much). Or at least just try it once ever!
Thanks for sharing Beryl. Less is more in this case. The e-book reader? That conjures a funny image, sat at Everest Base Camp.