My travel gadgets

There are some travelling gadgets, which without I won't travel. This is my 5-top list of mandatory items for my travel:

1) Lock

This lock saved my valuables through the whole journey. Without this one I would have lost money and valuable items at many places. This is the best lock I have faced so far. It has a long metal wire, which can be extended to the lenght you need to have. You can lock your bag e.g. to table or chair or you can just minimize the length of the wire and use it like "normal" lock to lock your bag. This lock was breaken by the f....ng TSA authority in the USA in the name of national security screening process. They have the right to break the logs from the checked baggages on the airports, if they see it necessary. And they are not responsible of compensating the broken locks at all!!!! I was flying from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Nassau, Bahamas, but via Orlando. I didn't know anything about TSA and it's rights. When I was complaining th broken lock, they just say the right to broke it is written in the internet pages of TSA pages.

This is ridiculous. How could I know that TSA authority exists and they have somewhere internet pages where you can find one sentence about this one. And the flight was even international between Dominican Republic and Bahamas.

I just want to stay as far as possible from this country and it's paranoid attitude about the security. Hopefully I don't ever need to visit USA again.

The lock was not even mine. The good friend of mine borrowed this lock to me, when I was discussing this trip with him. He has been using it on his travels and hiking trips. He just said it is the best lock he has used ever and he haven't been able to find the similar lock since he bought this one years ago.

If there is somebody reading this blog and knows where I could find similar lock, I would be grateful. I need to find similar lock for him or compensate this by some other means.

2) Large bag

This large bag is just perfect. When it's empty it will pack very small, but it's extremely large to store my bigger backpack as well as my smaller backbag at the same time. This large bag is useful for 3 reasons. Firstly when your backbags are thrown to the roof of the bus/car, it's keeping all the dust away from your backbag. Secondly this large bag is easy to lock and therefore backbag is safe inside e.g. on the roof of the bus. In the hotel room you can put everything into the bag and just lock it, without taking your valuables every time into the safebox. Thirdly during the flights it protects your backbag, which has always stripes, which are not allowed. Your backbag should be tightly packed and all stripes tighten.

This is just perfect (and it lasts your lifetime guaranteed by the manufacturer) !!!!

3) Canon IXUS digital camera

I have my big and heavy SLR-camera as well, but I like to travel light. Canon IXUS is such a small and light camera you can take it to anywhere. The quality of the photos is very good and this is excellent camera for the long trips. If there were water - and dust resistance model, then this would be a perfect. On kayaking trips I need to have watertight cover for this camera.

4) Notebook

The latest add-on to my mandatory travel items. My Asus EeePC is great. It is small, light and it has everything I need. Wireless connection, SD memorycard slot to directly transfer photos from the camera to the notebook and long-lasting battery (up to 8 hours). And it reminds me from the Finland, because it is white and I bought a blue cover for it (Finnish flag is white-blue and these are the colours of the Finland). They refer to blue sky, white clouds, blue water in thousands lakes, white snow and white trees, birches. Finland is all about nature, and is one of the most beautiful places on our planet :) No kidding, just come to see and visit it during summer time and winter time, it's magical.

5) My travel mate "Masa"

He is just awesome. Small in size, but what a teddy bear he is... I got him when I was suffering from the cancer. I promised to him, if I survive we will be together the rest of my life. And so we have been... I follow him everywhere he wants to go. He has been on top of Aconcagua, in the Base Camp of Everest, travelling through whole New Zealand, uncountable hiking trips all over the world, on the mountains at Himalaya, Andes, Alps, etc..., on many kayaking adventures. He has even his own passport, which was made to him at Kathmandu, Nepal. Now he has been travelling through the Latin America via 35 countries.

He is wearing the "double-twist" jade jewel on his neck. He got this jewel at New Zealand and it's symbolizing eternal friendship. Maories, which are aboriginals at New Zealand, have four different shapes on their jade jewels. Double- or Triple-twist symbolizes eternal friendship for them. So we will be friends always and experiencing this world together...