Essential Items when travelling Abroad

What are the essential items when travelling abroad?

• Cash. You never know when your ATM/debit card will fail, or worse, be eaten by the machine. Your bank in the USA will probably not help you at all either — they’ll insist on calling you at your (obviously not going to work!) cell phone instead of e-mail, and stop your cards if you don’t answer enough times. Fraud departments are incompetent and also stop your card without notice, even if you tell them. If your card gets eaten, your bank will tell you to show up in person (Hello? I’m on the other side of the planet … can you actually be a bit more helpful with all this, you know, technology?) They’ll tell you to show up at a branch if your card gets eaten (I need my card to buy an air ticket first! Can’t you, um, FedEx me a new card overnight?). Bottom line is, your bank is more interested in protecting itself than helping you as a customer. Your bank is not afraid to leave you stranded helpless. Keep cash on hand. I also always travel with enough travellers checks to buy a one-way air ticket home if necessary.
• A second wallet. I travel with two wallets, each of which has all of the following: one ATM card, one credit card, cash, and a photocopy of my passport. It has never happened, but if I lose one wallet due to theft, I call up the numbers and cancel the cards of the missing wallet, enjoy the rest of my vacation with the other wallet, and deal with it when I get back.
• Medical kit. Keep your preferred brand of fever-reducers, painkillers, antacids, diarrhea medication, band-aids, antiseptics.
• Writing implement. When you can’t use language to communicate, draw pictures.
• Spare plastic bags. Useful for everything from being reused grocery bags to makeshift waterproof storage for electronics.
• Resealable zipper bags (such as “Ziploc” bags). They take up no space and are also handy at times. They also keep food from attracting insects.
• Utensils. You’ll never know when having your own utensils will come handy. If you’re traveling to Europe, supermarkets tend to have some good selections of tasty things you can buy and eat at bargain prices, and if you have at least a spoon handy, life is much easier (I say spoon since forks and knives are always uncertain items with airport security, but metal spoons are almost never a problem in hand baggage). If you’re traveling to Asia, having your own reusable chopsticks is a good measure for both hygiene and environmental reasons if you plan to eat at hole-in-the-wall restaurants (which can have good food!) a lot.
• Small LED flashlight. Also comes in handy at the most unusual times.
• Water bottle — avoid wasting a plastic bottle for each bottle of water you drink. It’s extremely taxing on the environment and you often actually waste much more water in the creation of the plastic bottle than what’s contained in the bottle itself, not to mention petroleum. In most developed nations, tap water is drinkable, and in a large number of undeveloped nations it is drinkable after boiling. (Double-check though — in the rare cases that chemical contamination is the issue, boiling won’t help. But in most places this isn’t the case.)
• Tiny, wifi-capable browsing device of your choice (netbook, blackberry, iPod touch, whatever). Wifi hotspots can be found all over the world these days, and you can get whatever information you need that way.
• Compass. It isn’t only adventurers that use compasses; they’re useful even in the streets of cities. When you get out of a subway station in New York City, for example, there are no markings whatsoever as to which way is north/east/south/west. You have to walk one block (most likely in the wrong direction according to Murphy’s Law) to find out.
• • zip lock bags of allsizes:  good for parsing out what’s clean and dirty, wet and dry, keeping papers organized/dry, snacks, trash bags, blah blah blah.  I always travel with a lot of baggies.
  • Baby Wipes:  Wet wipes work as well, but I find baby wipes to be cheaper and often with less of a stink factor.  These are invaluable for the days you won’t be able to grab a shower.  Also good for just a quick hand cleaning when you can’t find a loo somewhere.  But the make-shift shower thing–bigtime.  Also handy if the loo has no toilet paper.  Which brings me to….
  • Kleenex:  Travel packs of kleenex are lightweight and handy.  Your nose will run at sometime.  You will need to clean up a spill at some point.  You may find yourself without toilet paper.  Kleenex is your friend.
  • Pens and a Notebook:  You may want to take notes on something, write down a street you want to revisit, give someone your contact information (wink-nudge), or just journal some thoughts.  Having pen and paper with you is always handy.  There are lots of small and cheap options for this.  No need to go high-dollar Moleskine book and Mont Blanc pen.  Best if you bring something you don’t mind losing or mucking up.  (Put them in a ziplock.)  I’ve made great, lifelong friends in my travels because I always have a notebook to write down addresses.  I also have numerous places to stay around the world because I’m diligent in getting addresses of people I meet and sending postcards occasionally.
  • listerine Strips/Gum/Mints:  Small enough to take with you, powerful enough to knock out morning-hangover-breath if you can’t get to a sink to brush the scuzz off your teeth.  (If you’re female, I find OB tampons–the tiny ones–can be used as a makeshift scuzz-scraper-toothbrush in a pinch.  Don’t wet it, obviously.)
  • Nail File/Clippers:  A Swiss Army Knife with these options is even better, but harder to get through airport security these days.  The clippers and file will help you when you invariably snag a nail and need to get rid of the left over snaggly bits.  The clipper can cut more than just nails. They’re strong little things.
  • adlock:  Try to find a lightweight one if you can.  (They do exist.)  They’ll come in handy if you need to use a locker somewhere, lock your stuff in a hostel, or chain yourself to a tree in protest of something.  (I don’t really recommend the protesting thing.)