Bring a laptop backpacking?

Dano

I'm traveling to Thailand, Oz and New Zealand for 3 months. The reasons why I want to bring my laptop are to watch the odd movie and I think it would be great to be able to book hostels or tours and look up a bit about the area that we might find ourselves landed in.

Uploading photos can be done when i'm home and i've no interest in blogging.

I don't want to bring it for the obvious reasons.. theft, damage and lugging it around.

Any ideas? Maybe there's plenty of net cafes, I could live without watching movies.

Tigerandahalf

If you had a netbook it might not be too bad, but a laptop will be pretty heavy to be bringing around. There are plenty of netcafes around and most hostels will have decent internet connections. There may not be many computers though..depends on the hostel. If you were basing yourself somewhere it wouldn't be too bad.

FreeAnd..

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

If you had a netbook it might not be too bad, but a laptop will be pretty heavy to be bringing around. There are plenty of netcafes around and most hostels will have decent internet connections. There may not be many computers though..depends on the hostel. If you were basing yourself somewhere it wouldn't be too bad.

If you are not using it for photos and care about it getting stolen/broken then I wouldnt bring it...if its light and expendable then its worth its weight in gold

Sorry - quoted wrong message...

Zambia

I agree a netbook is the way to go. All over Oz Maccas has free wireless.

Dano

Thanks for the replies. I'm not willing to buy a netbook just for the trip really. I know that would be ideal though. We're planning on going light, around 40 litre rucksacks. It's actually a balls of a decision to have to make :mad:

mathepac

What about an iPad, less bulk and weight than a netbook?

daftdave

iphone will do the job for ya if ya have one and its in ur pocket all the time so it wont get nicked , as for photo's , when ur memory card gets full , burn em to cd/dvd and post the disc home , and have a back-up memory card so you dont have to delete the pics from ur memory card until you know the disc has arrived home safely.

2G memory cards and pittens these days

alexlyons

daftdave wrote: »

2G memory cards and pittens these days

mainly because they don't hold a huge amount of shots at high res, an 8 gig card delivered from amazon is €25.57. Not the fastest you can get but it'll be no slower than a cheap 2 gig. The last thing you want to do is have to hold back shooting as you repeatedly have to burn to disc. Granted you'll need more than one dvd per full card, but thats not a huge hassle if your taking a break in a hostel and have to burn 2 discs rather than one. If I were you I'd get myself two 8 gig cards. I'm not a fan of relying on dvd's and discs though, so definitely wait until the disc has arrived and if it was me, I'd have all the photos put on a computer at home and backed up properly before deleting them off the card. even that solution wouldn't suit me at all, but then again, I'm a photographer....

daftdave

alexlyons wrote: »

mainly because they don't hold a huge amount of shots at high res, an 8 gig card delivered from amazon is €25.57. Not the fastest you can get but it'll be no slower than a cheap 2 gig. The last thing you want to do is have to hold back shooting as you repeatedly have to burn to disc. Granted you'll need more than one dvd per full card, but thats not a huge hassle if your taking a break in a hostel and have to burn 2 discs rather than one. If I were you I'd get myself two 8 gig cards. I'm not a fan of relying on dvd's and discs though, so definitely wait until the disc has arrived and if it was me, I'd have all the photos put on a computer at home and backed up properly before deleting them off the card. even that solution wouldn't suit me at all, but then again, I'm a photographer....

i could be wrong here as you are the photographer and i aint , but unless the OP is gonna be blowing the pics up to more than the average size , is it pretty much pointless taking high res pics as you wont see the extra quality until the pic is made bigger and you end up filling up the memory card with unnecessary large pics , i and probably everyone i know have been using 2G cards for as long as they have been out without any problems..... no need for high res and the pics are just fine for an average joe soap travelling oz !

Tigerandahalf

Why don't you buy a memory reader?? One option...another...

I know many internet cafes have memory readers and you could borrow them to upload your photos to facebook. Then your card would be clear and ready to go.

Zambia

I brought a netbook here for 360 dollars.

if you spend 10 bucks in a net cafe 30 times over the trip ?

myhorse

Dano wrote: »

I'm traveling to Thailand, Oz and New Zealand for 3 months. The reasons why I want to bring my laptop are to watch the odd movie and I think it would be great to be able to book hostels or tours and look up a bit about the area that we might find ourselves landed in.

Uploading photos can be done when i'm home and i've no interest in blogging.

I don't want to bring it for the obvious reasons.. theft, damage and lugging it around.

Any ideas? Maybe there's plenty of net cafes, I could live without watching movies.

For that length of time nah not worth it.

a) others will want to use it - thats hassle

b) go to internet cafes especially in/around hostels as you will get more info from just stricking up a conversation with the rest of the great unwashed err...backpackers using the cafe

c) you will be to concerned about it getting damaged/stolen etc

kazza90210

Ive brought mine, granted it has been a yr but i think its been so useful like you said you can do some research, book flights, keep in contact with home, photos and watching movies etc. what we did is bought a big school bag thing and hid it in that instead of carrying around a laptopcase and dragging attention to it, brought it through all of s/e asia with no problems.

Dano

I've decided not to bring it. We're packing light around 40 litre bags. I've checked up the islands we're going to in Thailand and even the smallest island, Koh Mak (16 sq. km) has two net cafes.

I like the idea of being able to leave my bag anywhere and not worry about a few smelly tshirts being stolen. When I'm in a net cafe I can just plan a few days ahead. All our flights are pre booked. I can just get a portable dvd player to watch movies if we find the need.

Thanks again

Stinicker

alexlyons wrote: »

mainly because they don't hold a huge amount of shots at high res, an 8 gig card delivered from amazon is €25.57. Not the fastest you can get but it'll be no slower than a cheap 2 gig. The last thing you want to do is have to hold back shooting as you repeatedly have to burn to disc. Granted you'll need more than one dvd per full card, but thats not a huge hassle if your taking a break in a hostel and have to burn 2 discs rather than one. If I were you I'd get myself two 8 gig cards. I'm not a fan of relying on dvd's and discs though, so definitely wait until the disc has arrived and if it was me, I'd have all the photos put on a computer at home and backed up properly before deleting them off the card. even that solution wouldn't suit me at all, but then again, I'm a photographer....

You can get 4GB cards in Aldi for €7, I got one on Monday and they have loads as they are not a special and they seem to have them always. You could use a dual layer DVD which will hold over 8GB also.

I am lying in bed now at 1.30am looking forward to tomorrow when 4 of us depart on a once in a lifetime round the world journey! I bought the Samsung N110 netbook for the trip which doubles as a lovely basic pc and extremly versatile media player and I have it loaded up with dozens of tv shows and movies and over 40 unwatched episodes of Home and Away :pac: recorded from Sky over the last two months which should help whittle away the over 50 hours of long haul flying (if the in flight entertainment is crappy) over the next 4 weeks.

No hostels but it will be an epic trip and the last stop is Las Vegas and the decadance and bright lights will be epic.

Tommorow, first stop Singapore and some serious shopping to be done.

alexlyons

Tbh, trip of a lifetime, aldi, and €7 SD cards doesn't sit well with me... The last thing you want is the card to fail. Buy decent cards with morethsn enough capacity, and remember the trip without worrying about it. Take it from someone who has experienced failures and image loss from all forms of media, bar one or two...

Have fun!

gaoife

Stinicker wrote: »

I have it loaded up with dozens of tv shows and movies and over 40 unwatched episodes of Home and Away :pac: recorded from Sky over the last two months .

Hi Stinicker

Just curious, and prob off topic but how much was your laptop? = how did you get the episodes from your sky= box to the laptop?

Thanks

Enjoy your trip

robinph

Netbook + plenty of memory cards + plus any free wifi you happen accross + online photo storage site.

Netbooks are cheap, light and small, memory cards are cheap (buy more small ones rather than one big one), cheep/ free wifi always available somewhere, online photo storage cheep/free and gives an extra level of backup above posting DVD's back home and you can show the folks that you are still alive and having fun.

jank

Some good advice here but my biggest gripe with laptops and notebooks are that you have 10 people in a hostel instead of talking to each other are glued to a screen posting on facebook etc. They tend to make people into social idiots. Remember to turn the thing off and talk to people!

Stinicker

gaoife wrote: »

Hi Stinicker

Just curious, and prob off topic but how much was your laptop? = how did you get the episodes from your sky= box to the laptop?

Thanks

Enjoy your trip

I got mine for a little less as it was out down as an expense to claim back the VAT. Link plus I got a free Sat Nav with it.

I recorded the tv shows from the Sky box to DVD and then ripped to .avi file using Aimersoft DVD ripper. I am lying in bed now in my hotel room in Perth now typing on it and it has been the handiest thing I brought. In Singapore and again here I have been able to use it with Skype to call home and also with skype premium I can call an Irish landline for 1.7cent a minute.

As I am flying Qantas RTW I find i great for the long flight as their onboard entertainment is the same across the flights and I now seen all the good stuff on it. Another quirkey feature is its size which lets it fit into the small standard hotel safe so it can't get stolen.

Good night/ afternoon whatever time zone your in!