Travel technology forum

Normally I would advise against taking a laptop on a simple holiday or vacation because it is pretty easy to find an internet shop and they are pretty cheap.

You do have some security issues when you use cheap hostels and especially dorms. I think a fellow tourist would rip you off first! Even in hotels with security box storage most of the time the box is too small to fit a laptop.

If the laptop is primarily for storing photos you might get by with an external hard drive.

But you will be working in a mostly secure place for 6 months so it would probably be okay to take the laptop. It is the hotel/hostel portion of your later trip that is the problem. After the six months is up you could ship your computer home, or perhaps you could sell it off! Laptops get better and every year, by the time you finish your first 6 months your laptop will be a couple models older. You might even be taking an old laptop with you anyway right from the start! Even at home I use the password protection on my computers.

I bring a Flash Drive with Firefox and Opera on it. Also, notepad and ClamWin anti virus. All are free apps that you can download to the FD.

The Firefox browser has all of the same bookmarks of my home computer, same saves on the toolbar, same layout as my Mac at home. When I plug that flash drive into an internet computer it is almost like having my own computer with me. I use the Opera browser for research and play my hometown radio station while I surf or write posts or something using FF. Notepad is what I use to first write passwords to and then cut and paste them to any bank websites I have to access. Not a perfect security system but cutting and pasting is a little safer than not at all! I also have some data on the Notepad stickie that I often refer to. I use the ClamWin anti virus to check the FD every now and then to check for viruses.

I use password protection on the FD in case someone gets it and tries to use it. This works for me for now. Flash Drives and portable hard drives fit easily into safety boxes in hotels. Easier to lock them in a suitcase or bag, or carry them in your pocket. But there are smaller laptops being sold every day, making it easier to carry them if necessary and not sweat out losing your computer to a bunk mate in a dorm. I don't think that they are reliable enough for me right now - perhaps next year - smallest ones have no hard drive either.

Have a nice trip. This post is probably too late but I was bored tonight.

Hal

Posted from within Vietnam.

I agree, the ACER Aspire One is excellent, my wife has one with her, however a lot of the netbooks have the following caveats:

1. Battery life is not so great.
2. WIFI cards in them are cheap and won't find distant networks.
3. The onboard mice are uniformally crap.
4. The processing wont handle a lot of software.
5. The strange screen resolutions on netbooks means a lot of software wont load to install, including the Canon camera software.

Hi, I agree with dageshi. If you're likely to be doing much computer work then having a laptop or netbook will make life a lot easier as you can work when you want to, especially if any will be offline type work.

Cheers, Bill

Hi there
I'm not exactly techy expert, but I need to keep up with work when I'm away. How does the usb stick help you?
Anyone had any success with wifi dongles in Thailand? I use them a lot at home and they're very portable but I doubt if any of mine will work abroad and if they do, they'll be very expensive.

Also how do you find phone cards or do you use Skype? - sounds great, but I've not tried it.
Cheers
Lizzie

my wife and I are planning on buying a netbook for our impending travels.
one that i like the look of is the Toshiba NB200 series - it has a nice keyboard, surprisingly good mousepad, and with the 6 cell batter has decent enough battery life.

Everyone loves the Asus netbooks too - i guess those guys have been doing the netbook thing longer than anyone else.

coincidence, after posting my reply yesterday - today walked past a computer sale - toshiba nb200 for $398, i'm typing on it right now, i think it's going to be sweet to travel with!!!

Ive just bought a HP Pavillion dm 1-1000 comes fairly cheap at 499 euro incl. Its one of the only note books with a working battery life of 8 hours, tried and trusted!! the screens 11.1 inch which i find alot more comfortable to work on and its 1.4 kilo so its fairly light for traveling, windows 7 en wifi. what more could a man ask for !!
succes

A lot of people have mentioned battery life as a downside... I think that's a BIG downside because you often don't have acces to a power supply when you're travelling.

The Asus 1005HA is advertised as having 10.5 hours battery life and although I haven't timed it, the battery in mine does seem to go on for ever. Right now I have 10% remaining and that's still almost an hour's worth!

i was thinking of taking my macbook pro with me when I go to asia but I was wondering if it would be to big. I think that it will fit in my backpack nicely even though it has a 15" screen. I thought about buying a smaller netbook but I have so much stuff on my macbook, movies and music and what not that would make travelling around go by so much faster. I just don't want to spend the money on buying a new netbook.

ahhh!!! To many decisions to make before I leave.

i've travelled in se asia with and without laptops.

my recommendation is if you're going for 6-9 months you'll definitely enjoy having one. there are loads of wifi cafes in pp (and elsewhere) and if you're travelling longterm its great to be able to sit in a cafe/guesthouse to write your blogs/download photos/look up newspapers etc. I wou;d def take one for this period of time.

but take a small, light one that you can carry with you when you're travelling....

when i went for six months I had an acer aspire one which I highly recommend. small and light with a really good keyboard and screen. my version didn't have a good battery life (maybe 4 hours)....but it survived really difficult trips. (trekking, monssons, lots of drops and wading through a river).

my current netbook, an asus eeepc, has a great battery life and its small - but its heavier and I'm not taking it on my next trip of one month to indonesia although i always take it to EU destinations where I'm not carrying a backpack.

so yes I'd take a netbook for a long trip - but weight and size is everything. get something small and neat...

have a great trip

I have just taken an IPod touch on my travels . Find some free wifi and read my email, facebook, skype a few games and my music .A very handy travel tool . I have just bought a acer tablet pc which is fantastic plenty of helpful travel apps and very light and compact and just $300