During our travels we needed to pack 2 adults and 2 children's stuff into one bag which meant we had to be careful on what we took with us.
we needed to be able to
As technology can be so complex I thought I would write a summary of what we took and how they worked. Other travelers along the way were surprised what we achieved and could do with such small items that all worked together. Many had large camera's and full laptops which invariably broke causing pain and frustration. we took an alpinest approach and went small lite and flexible.
Tablet
Google Nexus 7 inch 16 Gb tablet. with the latest os version 5+ allows Rissa to have her own login and setting etc She used this heavily for her online Veterinary course lasting 6 months of 4-6 hrs a week of study and tests.
"Shaun the sheep" was perfect when someone was really sick and needed the children to be entertained. this was kept on in emergency so as to stay the magical treat it is. Due to no dialogue in "shaun the sheep" it worked perfectly in any noise environment with multiple children around the tablet.
We generally used the Google Eco system where possible as they all integrated into each other with a single password etc
Apps we used
downside to tablet was typing was cumbersome when I made a mistake to go back and edit etc, my solution to this would have been a small Bluetooth keyboard but never go frustrated enough to buy one.
16 Gb was no enough memory when using more than one user login, a few movies for the kids plus a thousand plus photo's, couple eBooks and Music etc 32 Gb would have been perfect.
NB
poor internet connection resulted in offline G-drive files and blogger not working as expected with corruption etc
Banking
We bank with 3 different banks between the 2 of us, meaning if we lost a credit card there was always another hidden away to use.
we setup the ability to transfer between all accounts prior to leaving.
Installed and registered each banking App on both Tablet and phone should either fail or get lost.
OTG Cable
Used to connect tablet to USB drive to share music, images and eBooks.
Web sites that were extremely useful
http://www.seat61.com/ - the ultimate train guide and how to for the planet!
http://www.skyscanner.net/ used the Android App
http://www.xe.com/ used the Android App
https://www.helpx.net/ used to find place's to volunteer and stay.
Mobile phone
Samsung S3 Mini. I installed all the same Apps as and configuration as the tablet.
Each country we would get a local SIM card with approx 1 Gb month of traffic. Approximate monthly costs in USD for this was $6 india, $18 UK $15 Thailand, $7 Nepal as of March 2015
Quality of reception and internet speed varied greatly, you get what you pay for here.
The reality is other than a small screen this device did almost everything the tablet did which made me think did I even need a tablet? The screen did eventually get a few cracks in it but it never stopped a beat.
USB Charger
only carried one to charge all items, Phone, Tablet and Camera. very rare did we have an issue of only charging one thing at a time, usually someone had a spare to borrow should that have been an issue.
USB Drives
I used 2 x 16Gb USB sticks purely as backup (mirror copy of each) for the photo's from the camera (had 16 Gb memory card) in original format and physically kept them separate in our individual passport wallets. Spare 1 Gb drive used to share music and books with others.
Camera
Nikon AW120 with 16 Gb memory card. stores approximately 1500+ photos. Super awesome camera. waterproof, strong, quick from turned off to photo taken. Has wifi connectivity to tablet and phone plus GPS tagging.
Using Google SnapSeed App on the tablet we easily cropped and touched up this image as you can see below.
Padlock
combination lock meant we could split up and did not have to worry about who had a key and if some child lost it . downside was its weight when trekking in Nepal.
Compass
used trekking in Nepal and later found a compass on the camera
Water purification
we needed to be able to
- Manage our banking across 3 banks and check money was going in the right place on time
- Keep in contact via email with our property manager who was looking after our house rented out
- Keep in contact with the grandparents through email, Skype and blogger etc so they were not left of our adventure and the children kept a relationship with them
- Monthly tax payments to IRD using their online forms
- Online veterinary training course with the NZ vet council including tests every 2-3 weeks
- Backup images of important documents such as passports etc
As technology can be so complex I thought I would write a summary of what we took and how they worked. Other travelers along the way were surprised what we achieved and could do with such small items that all worked together. Many had large camera's and full laptops which invariably broke causing pain and frustration. we took an alpinest approach and went small lite and flexible.
Tablet
Google Nexus 7 inch 16 Gb tablet. with the latest os version 5+ allows Rissa to have her own login and setting etc She used this heavily for her online Veterinary course lasting 6 months of 4-6 hrs a week of study and tests.
"Shaun the sheep" was perfect when someone was really sick and needed the children to be entertained. this was kept on in emergency so as to stay the magical treat it is. Due to no dialogue in "shaun the sheep" it worked perfectly in any noise environment with multiple children around the tablet.
We generally used the Google Eco system where possible as they all integrated into each other with a single password etc
Apps we used
- Google Inbox for email - massive improvement in the old mail program.
- Google Drive - for all our travel notes and documents NB flagged key ones as offline.
- Google Blogger - for this blog. tried other apps but didn't make it any better
- Google Maps - used to cross reference where a taxi was taking us. This helped the taxi guy a number of times
- Google Playbooks - uploaded PDF's including lonely planet guides just in case for reference (very rarely used).
- Google Photos - this automatically backed up (in std low resolution) all photos from the tablet and phone into the cloud.
- Skype - used this to contact mainly family in NZ and the UK but also for calling a bank in New Zealand from Thailand easily and cheaply to reset my online banking password as I had forgotten.
- VLC - for playing video and music of varying formats.
- Paypal - used in Thailand for some payments
- Tripadvisor - finding accommodation physically close to airports.
- Cleartrip -used for booking train tickets in India.
- Google Snapseed - used for cropping and altering images super quick for publishing in blogger
- Nikon Camera App- used to transfer via WiFi images from the camera to the tablet.
- Nexus transfer - used with the OTG cable to transfer files from USB to Tablet or phone.
- Facebook - cause I am addicted
- Skyscanner - finding cheap flights
- Kayak flight - finding cheap flights
downside to tablet was typing was cumbersome when I made a mistake to go back and edit etc, my solution to this would have been a small Bluetooth keyboard but never go frustrated enough to buy one.
16 Gb was no enough memory when using more than one user login, a few movies for the kids plus a thousand plus photo's, couple eBooks and Music etc 32 Gb would have been perfect.
NB
poor internet connection resulted in offline G-drive files and blogger not working as expected with corruption etc
Banking
We bank with 3 different banks between the 2 of us, meaning if we lost a credit card there was always another hidden away to use.
we setup the ability to transfer between all accounts prior to leaving.
Installed and registered each banking App on both Tablet and phone should either fail or get lost.
OTG Cable
Used to connect tablet to USB drive to share music, images and eBooks.
Web sites that were extremely useful
http://www.seat61.com/ - the ultimate train guide and how to for the planet!
http://www.skyscanner.net/ used the Android App
http://www.xe.com/ used the Android App
https://www.helpx.net/ used to find place's to volunteer and stay.
Mobile phone
Samsung S3 Mini. I installed all the same Apps as and configuration as the tablet.
Each country we would get a local SIM card with approx 1 Gb month of traffic. Approximate monthly costs in USD for this was $6 india, $18 UK $15 Thailand, $7 Nepal as of March 2015
Quality of reception and internet speed varied greatly, you get what you pay for here.
The reality is other than a small screen this device did almost everything the tablet did which made me think did I even need a tablet? The screen did eventually get a few cracks in it but it never stopped a beat.
USB Charger
only carried one to charge all items, Phone, Tablet and Camera. very rare did we have an issue of only charging one thing at a time, usually someone had a spare to borrow should that have been an issue.
USB Drives
I used 2 x 16Gb USB sticks purely as backup (mirror copy of each) for the photo's from the camera (had 16 Gb memory card) in original format and physically kept them separate in our individual passport wallets. Spare 1 Gb drive used to share music and books with others.
Camera
Nikon AW120 with 16 Gb memory card. stores approximately 1500+ photos. Super awesome camera. waterproof, strong, quick from turned off to photo taken. Has wifi connectivity to tablet and phone plus GPS tagging.
Original
2 minutes later a moment of culture appears
Padlock
combination lock meant we could split up and did not have to worry about who had a key and if some child lost it . downside was its weight when trekking in Nepal.
Compass
used trekking in Nepal and later found a compass on the camera
Water purification
Steripen Classic, lasted 1 month per battery recharge of approx 4 liters a day for the family.
we used the rechargeable battery's where possible but when trekking we didn't know if we could charge so took the dry cells for reserve. we never ended up using them. Next time I would look at the carbon filter type as we found in the lower plains of Nepal and India has a issue with arsenic build up in some areas in the ground water.
