I was just back in the States for a week or so, flying home to surprise my parents for Christmas. The flight really put a strain on my budget since it was a last minute idea and I was paying holiday rates, so I limited myself to spending no more than $150 on new gear. Time was short, as well, so I was limited to things that would ship immediately. This is what I ended up with:

Alfa USB Long-Range WiFi AdapterI love my Macbook Pro but I’ve never been happy with the wifi reception — while traveling with a friend, he could regularly see 3-4 more hotspots on his Android smart phone than I could with my laptop. I remembered reading a post a couple of years ago where Anil over at FoxNomad had mentioned a wifi booster of some sort, so I poked around the interwebs a bit and found the Alfa USB long-range WiFi adapter on Amazon. At less than $30, it seemed worth trying, even though I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to get it to work on my Mac.

After some head-scratching and digging through forums I did get the driver and application installed and I can say that so far it’s speeding up my download speeds and grabbing signals I can’t see without it (I’ll post a full review after I’ve had a chance to test it). The app is a little clunky and it’s a pain screwing on the antenna every time but if that means I can work in my room rather than in a hotel lobby or at that cafe across the street, I’m all for it.

It’s fairly easy to use: screw in the antenna, plug in the USB and launch their app. It will show a list of wifi nodes. Select one, click ‘connect’, wait for it to log in and then switch from wifi to the the USB connection in your network preferences and you’re done. I haven’t found a way to get it to remember passwords, though, so it can be a hassle typing it in each time.

They offer two additional antennas that should reach even further but I wasn’t able to have them delivered in time. I don’t know how durable it is –it’s made of cheap plastic– but it weighs nothing and if I can get 6 months use out of it it’s worth the price to me.

Barska 10×40 MonocularWhen I first started this trip, I brought a sharp pair of $300 Nikon binoculars. Unfortunately, they weighed two pounds so they tended to stay in my main pack and didn’t see much use. After six months on the road they disappeared, either while in a bus’s cargo hold or from my hotel room.

There are times when I’d like to see something closer up, so a monocular seemed like a good option. It only cost $40, has the same power as binoculars and only weighs 9 ounces, so I don’t mind cramming it into a corner of my day bag. And at that price, I’m not paranoid about it walking off again. The optics are pretty bright and sharp. It is a little slow to focus but I can live with that considering how little I’ll be using it.

Timbuk2 Messenger BagI’ve been really happy with my old Timbuk2 Swig backpack but after almost two years of daily abuse, it was starting to come undone. The stitching was coming apart on the main strap and –more importantly– the waterproof rubberized layer was in ribbons.

I generally carry my laptop and camera with me, so being safe from an unexpected downpour is pretty important to me. And the Swig certainly performed well in that regard — my only real complaint was that it was just a hair too small for the SLR and required careful packing to fit everything in.

I’ve used Timbuk2 messenger bags for years — my main transportation has been a motorcycle for a decade or more and I have always been impressed with their durability and ability to keep the wet stuff on the outside of the bag. This one features a lot of pockets, which is always welcome, and has a narrow pocket for the laptop (though not a padded laptop sleeve as the old pack had). Everything fits easily and so far it’s comfortable. I generally carry my day pack slung off one shoulder so it feels pretty natural.

At $70 for the large size, it’s more than I wanted to spend but I expect to get 2-3 years worth of use from it. Considering that I once spent $50 on a fancy high-tech shirt that I threw in the trash just 2 weeks into my trip, I think it’s a good investment.

Added anything new to your kit lately?

Please note that these are affiliate links, meaning that if you purchase one of these items from Amazon I’ll get 4% of the sale. Buy that monocular and I’ll make a buck and change. Buy a Mercedes and I’ll name my first born after you :)

I’d been looking for awhile for a smaller bag to carry just my iPad and maybe a journal. There are times when I don’t want to lug around my day pack with the laptop and SLR — I just want to have a coffee, read the news and catch up on email.

I found the perfect solution while roaming through the market in Antigua – it was just the right size, lightweight and easy on the eyes. Unfortunately, I somehow dropped a zero while juggling numbers and spent 10 times more than I thought. And I wasn’t even drunk.

I was starving, making my way to a nearby cafe when I spotted it. I’d been out shooting early and had skipped breakfast. The vendor asked for 300 quetzals (the current rate is 7.75 quetzals to the dollar) and instead of dividing in my head by 8, I divided by 80. Umm… Yeah… Bit of a difference there…

Considering that I’m only spending 50 quetzals per night for my hotel, you think I might have caught that. But in my defense, I’d gotten used to dividing by 20 in Honduras, so dropping the zero came naturally. And I’m not very smart.

Also, I’m pretty sure she hypnotized me.

Convinced that she was asking for about $4 US, I still hesitated, thinking I could get it for even less in a smaller town (Yes, I’m a cheap bastard). Antigua is the main tourist destination in the country and one of the most expensive. Sensing my waffling, she dropped the price to 225 quetzals and I went for it. What a deal! Can’t go wrong for 3 bucks!

Except that I had actually handed over $29.

So what’d I get for my money? It’s handmade, stitched suede leather, which allows the whole thing to roll up fairly well in my main pack when not in use — just right for travel. Best of all, it’s double-sided, with main pouches on each side — I can fit my iPad in one side and my SLR in the other — perfect for that early-morning coffee run and doesn’t scream “I’m carrying valuable electronics!” It’s just what I needed.

Back home I wouldn’t think twice about spending that much –I spent $39 on a ‘smart cover’ that only covers the front– but here… well… Had I realized the real cost, I’d have waited and bought it elsewhere for probably $15 or less.

Each country is different and after awhile, they all start to meld together in your head. In Thailand, I dropped a zero and divided by 3. In Cambodia I dropped 3 zeros and divided by 4, while Laos required you to divide by 8 — the one thing I hated about Laos. Vietnam was easy — drop 3 zeros and cut what’s left in half.

It’s not the first time I’ve made bad decisions based on shoddy math, many of them more costly. I’d like to say “lesson learned” but I know it’s not — I’ll do it again eventually.

At least I really like my bag.

Now, c’mon and fess up: what’s your worst currency conversion screw-up?

I’ve had a few people ask what equipment I use for blogging so I thought this would be a good time to break down my setup. After 18 months of travel, I’ve ditched a few items that weren’t as useful as I’d hoped. I carry more gear than most travelers would need but with working from the road and doing so much photography, I can’t really get by with a lighter load.

Digital Gear:

My 2-year-old 13″ MacBook Pro is still holding up well, despite very heavy use and and a fair amount of all-out abuse. It’s starting to show its age a bit — Lightroom does bog down a hair while slinging around 18MB RAW files, but I think it should last me another year or two. The new Macbook Air laptops look tempting but I need the extra hard drive space to handle photos and video. (And I can’t afford one anyway).

The Booq Vyper Case has proved to be well worth the money, protecting my laptop from dings and scratches as well as saving it from spilled drinks on at least two occasions. It’s taken a real battering and looks nearly new (or it would, probably, if I bothered to wash it).

I carry 2 1 TB External Hard Drives with me. One has a bootable clone of my laptop OS and serves as my Time Capsule backup (I try to backup my system once a week). The second one is my external photo storage, where I backup my images when they start to overwhelm my laptop. As this fills up, I’ll probably have to add a third. Both are USB-powered so I don’t have to carry extra power adapters.

I picked up a couple of Cases at Best Buy for less than $10 each and carry both in a small Dry Sack for added safety. One of these sacks houses the various cords, plugs and chargers.

A Logitech Wireless Mouse is a must for me when working in Photoshop or Lightroom and a cheap USB charger keeps the batteries charged (I get about 2-3 weeks of use between charges).

I got this Belkin Mini Surge Protector for free at a trade show and it’s been extremely handy, allowing me to charge my laptop, camera batteries, video camera and iPhone all from one plug. The surge protection gives an added sense of protection, which is handy when you’re in a remote place that uses a generator to power the lights.

A new addition, the iPad 2 is proving to be incredibly useful. In the past I used my dying iPhone 3G mostly for email, note-taking, reading and checking my blog stats. The iPad does all of this and more and offers a solid 10 hours of battery time, which will come in handy on long bus rides. The larger keyboard size should allow me to actually write posts while in transit, rather than just making notes.

Photo Gear:

I love my Canon EOS Rebel T2i — shooting a pro-quality full-frame DSLR with high-end lenses would be great but this is the camera I can afford now and it’s treated me well. It’s fast, takes sharp 18 megapixel images and has surprisingly good low-light capabilities. After nine months of heavy use it’s still problem free and I hope to get much more work out of it before upgrading to a newer model.

I passed on purchasing the 18-55 kit lens, having started the trip with one and finding it too soft, and picked up a Canon 18-135mm Lens which has proved to be my everyday walk-around lens. It’s pretty sharp for a consumer lens and the range is ideal for everything from wide-angle landscapes to sneaking a candid shot from across the street. Again, a pro lens would certainly improve the quality of my shots but for the money it’s a solid lens.

I also carry a 55-250mm Telephoto Zoom Lens but I rarely break it out, despite the fact that it’s a good lens. I hope to give it more of a workout in the jungles and forests of Central America.

Although I own a quality Gitzo tripod with a great ballhead mount, I don’t travel with it due to the 6-pound weight. Instead I use a cheap Slik Mini II Tripod that I bought used for $25. Sure, it’s somewhat wobbly and slow to setup but it also weighs less than 2 pounds. Someday I hope to upgrade to a lightweight carbon tripod but for now, the Slik gets the job done.

For wet weather, I carry a 10L Dry Sack that I bought in Laos. It rolls up into a small package for packing and came in very handy when I was shooting the Songkran Water Festival in Chiang Mai.

The Flip MinoHD Video Camera has been fun to play with but I really haven’t got much real use out of it. Due to the odd shape, I find it hard to hold steady and the resulting footage tends to be shaky. I hope to shoot more video with the Canon DSLR but its slow auto-focus is taking some getting used to.

Gear that I’m Leaving Behind:

I thought that bringing an extra battery for my Macbook would be a great idea but in practice it rarely works out. The main problem is that since the battery has to be in the laptop to charge, you can only charge one at a time. This usually happens while I’m asleep, so unless I want to wake up in the middle of the night and swap batteries, battery #2 is almost always dead.

I’ve carried a small audio recorder for the last year and a half, thinking I’d make some high-quality recordings of local musicians and such but the opportunity rarely presents itself and since I haven’t been shooting as much video as I’d planned, I haven’t really needed it. Sure it only weighs a few ounces, but it is one more thing to worry about losing or breaking.

I packed a small USB hub but have rarely used it — apparently I’m not the power user that I thought I was.

I carry most of this with me every day and yes, it weighs a ton (over 10 pounds) — my shoulders get quite the workout. The tripod and dry bag stay in the room with the main pack, as does one of the hard drives but the rest I can’t afford to lose so I lug it from place to place. It’s not an ideal solution, but it beats worrying about theft.

So that’s my gear list. What would you add or leave at home?

Nine months of travel in the developing world will test your equipment to the limit. My gear list has changed quite a bit since I left, with some things being sent home and others being discarded along the way. About the only thing I’ve added is clothing I’ve purchased along the way — my pack is a good ten pounds lighter than when I left.

Here are ten essentials that have proven the most useful and durable:

What’s your favorite piece of travel gear?

Sorting through the scores of hi-tech features of modern sport wear can be extremely confusing and stressful. Here are a few tips to help you decide what’s useful and what’s not, and which –if any– live up to the hype.

Any Material with a Trademarked Name — Translation: “Our marketing team has discovered that adding a registered trademark to our nylon/polyester blend allows us to increase the price by at least $20. If the name ends in “EX” or we can get the guy in the graphics department to knock out a hi-tech tag illustration, we all get a bonus!”

UPF Sun Protection — I don’t know when they started rating clothing for sun protection, but I’ve hated every piece I’ve tried. Blocking out the sun also blocks out any and all air flow. In hot climes, you’ll risk a sweaty case of sunstroke, but at least you won’t get sunburned through your shirt. Save the money and wear a plastic bag. For a worst-case scenario, read this.

Moisture-Wicking Material — Okay, this is a tricky one. For a base-layer, such as a t-shirt or long underwear, this is a great feature. Unfortunately, someone got carried away and began making short-sleeved shirts and pants out the stuff, where it works a little too well. Walk around in the heat for a half-hour and your armpits and butt crack will both be sporting huge sweat stains. And, the ladies love that, don’t ya know.

Pants with a “gusseted crotch” — As guys, we all like to think we need extra space in that area, but unless you were born with a gonadal deformity, it’s just more marketing horse shit.

Built-In Insect Protection — Apparently, it’s now possible to bond some kind of hippy organic insecticide to fabric. Who knew? What this means is that instead of swatting your sides or back, you’ll be slapping yourself in the face instead. Unless you’re buying a burka made from this stuff, don’t bother.

Those are my tips. Let’s hear yours.