This is the first in a new series of posts intended to give some more practical advice to would-be travellers; thoughts will mainly be drawn from my experiences of travelling, particularly India and Nepal, but if you have any suggestions then let me know. I’d love to hear your opinions so please leave a comment.
Wherever you’re going and however long you’re going for, the chances are that you’ll be taking at least one of the following: a laptop; a mobile phone; a digital camera; or a camcorder. This applies whether you’re heading to New York on a two-day business trip or spending a month trekking through the jungle in Borneo.
I even keep taking photographs when I'm in the picture...
So you’re going to need extra power, particularly for your camera, when you’re away. A lot of digital cameras run off lithium-ion batteries which often have quite disparate performances in terms of how many pictures they’ll take before they conk out. The best ways to conserve power are to keep the camera turned off when you’re not using it and try and resist the temptation to keep looking back through your photos where possible.
If you’ve got a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, or you have a mobile phone or laptop with a rechargeable power source, then you’re going to need a power adapter. The top-end brands such as Samsonite are very reliable but you’ll pay at least about £13 (especially if you commit the cardinal sin of waiting to buy one in the airport departure lounge) for a worldwide adapter; Sainsbury’s do a version for about half the cost which is just as good, or you can find one online at a reasonable price.
Me snapping a Jain temple at Ranakpur, India
One thing to remember, though, is the likelihood of access to power where you’re going. In North America and most of Europe, for example, you can expect wall-plugs in even very basic accommodation, but in parts of Asia by contrast you can struggle. In this case, your best bet is to be as well-prepared as you can: when I went travelling in the summer this meant buying a new camera which took AA batteries and charging two mobile phone batteries before I went and then being very sparing in the use of my phone, turning it on once or twice a day.
Cameras which take AA batteries, such as the Fujifilm model which I went for, mean that you can be much more flexible. However, they do tend to wear out the batteries very quickly (I’d get through a new pair of batteries every day, taking around 100 pictures), so your best bet is to get some camera batteries like these; the difference they make to battery life is incredible, lasting around a fortnight (c.1200 photos).
Happy snapping!
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