It dawned on me this morning as I set up my laptop on my hostel windowsill where I could borrow wifi from some neighbor, bluetoothed this and that, started charging my US cell phone with the charger from my UK cell phone, neccessitating the use of a Euro plug adaptor which happens to have a surge protector, and shuffling tunes I downloaded ealier on an iPod, using the earbuds I borrowed from Virgin Air because I left my noise-reducing headphones in Munich, that I've completely gone over the edge...
I don't have a GPS with a satellite uplink on a GSM PDA/smartphone, but I totally admit that I wish I did (I freely confess to currently owning a stand alone GPS gizmo). As it is, the techno gear in my backpack already weighs more than my clothes. There's a term for this kind of travel -- flashpacking. A flashpacker can be fairly described as a young-at-heart backpacker traveling with tech toys, often to off the beaten path locales, as wired as any stodgy suit in business class but seated firmly in coach, though with the extra flash in the money belt to upgrade from grotty to grandish on the ground.
Techno travel gear can be a good thing: having guidebooks on DVD and downloading podcast walking tours, like the one I'll do in New York later this week from the terrific iToors, can save space in a bag. Oh, man -- was that a complete justification for carrying these toys, or what?
I'm not sure who came up with the term "flashpacker" -- I had been casting around for such a moniker when I first came across a Lonely Planet forum thread naming the species; one post described the perfect, though imaginary, flashpacker backpack -- it went something like this: solar charger (got one), water bottle
with purifier (got one), GPS plug (see above), talking electronic translator (well...) and security alarm (pushing it).
Flashpackers also tend to stay in single hostel rooms, as I am at the moment, or better, and spend a few more bucks on food -- good street stands or restaurants instead of strictly hostel hotplate and campstove cooking. That's a good thing, because gadgets can otherwise seperate a traveler from the real world -- for instance, travel adventures involving pantomine and the local lingo, highly entertaining to almost everyone involved, wouldn't happen with a talking electronic translator.
One artful dodger fingering my backpack, though, and I'd be techno-deprived; theft-proofing by carrying tech travel gadgets on your body is ridiculously easy with duds such as Scottevest makes, which actually have a "Personal Area Network" designed just for threading wires and chargers through the magnetized and thief-foiling pockets.
Oh -- and on the iPod? "Fisherman's Blues" by the Waterboys. Favorite travel tune of the moment.
Get the toys...
- Best laptop backpack of 2005
- Excellent and inexpensive noise reducing headphones (gotta love 'em on planes)
- iMate KJAM Mini -- best GSM PDA/smartphone around
- Keychain sized wifi finder
- Water bottle and purifier
- International plug adaptor with surge protector
- Gadget grabbing tech travel clothing