Katarzyna Potocka
I finally made one of my dreams come true. Working remotely from a beach. Destination: Koh Lanta with its great co-working space: KoHub. Still I am really happy that although being in paradise I remembered to pack 5 tech gadgets I would have really missed. So without any further introduction, let’s talk about the 5 most-wanted tech gadgets.
#1 of top 5 gadgets: Mobile Wlan Router
This was one of the most useful gadgets we brought with us.
Of course you could just by a sim card and switch it with your own one. But I somehow wanted still to be reachable on my Austrian phone number. So having the Mobile Wlan Router with us was amazing and gave us also the possibility to not only give one device the possibility to access WiFi but all of our devices at the same time.
So going for a trip to Old Town or a snorkkeling tour to Koh Rok was not an issue anymore — at least not if you would have second thoughts about needing wifi. Especially if you are travelling with your buddy and you both need wifi that’s a really convenient solution.
3 steps to setup your mobile wifi router:
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Get a mobile wifi router:
We have the TP-Link M7350 mobiler 4G/LTE MiFi Dualband-WLAN-Router, which you can buy for approximately € 90 on Amazon - Get a local sim card
If you are not sure which provider really works for you, there are almost always some 1-day for 15 Baht trials, which give you the possibility to try the provider.
You still will have to buy the sim cards for all providers you want to try. But sometimes it’s worth trying to find the best fit, than struggling for 2 months with your wifi.
We tried two different ones and decided on TrueMove because it definitely had the better reception in the area we were staying. - Get some data volume
There are thousands of different plans for all needs that you could possibly have. We chose to use the 1-day for 15 Baht solution, because we knew that we wouldn’t need it each and every day. Sitting at KoHub and having a great Broadband Internet Connection makes it somehow unnecessary. The 15 Baht solution was really convenient for us — as soon as we knew we would need “mobile” wifi, we loaded some balance and had wifi for the next 24 h.
The plan we used was: Save Safe 512 Kbps — 24 h maximum speed of 512 Kbps Total 300 MB
(FUP 64 Kbps.) for 15 Baht which equals € 0.38.
#2 of top 5 gadgets: Headphones
This one is probably obvious for a lot of people who travel more than once a year, but it’s still worth mentioning.
I almost never leave my home without my headphones. Apart from using them for making phone calls you never know when they could come in handy.
Situations I am happy to have my headphones with me:
- being out in the city and feeling like wanting to make a spontaneous sightseeing tour with an audio guide
- having to make a reeeeaaaaaly long phone call while being on your way
- answering the phone when your mother calls for the 3rd time in the last 10 min while carrying at least 10 shopping bags
- spontaneous museum visit
- going by plane — especially long flights where you will be sure to watch the newest movies 😉
- working from a co-working space trying to block out all the additional noise
- watching YouTube videos while your spouse is already or in my case still asleep 🙂
- sitting in a cafe and not wanting to be one of those people who annoy their fellows by sharing their cat videos with the whole world
The headset that I’ve been using now since a couple of years is Bose Sound-Sport In-Ear headset for € 129. You can find them on Amazon or in every Bose store. I chose the Sound-Sport over the Sound-True hoping that those would be more robust.
This is the one I had before: Bose MIE2
As far as I know all Bose In-Ear headsets come with three different ear-plugs sizes, which makes it really easy to get the perfect fit for your ear.
The nice thing about Bose in Austria is, that if you have issues with your headset and you want to buy a new one, they are willing to give you a better price for the new headset you will buy.
After using the original Apple iPhone headset for a couple of years and having to switch it almost every single year, I love my Bose In-Ear headset and I think they are really worth the much higher price.
#3 of top 5 gadgets: Card Reader for my Micro SD Card (GoPro)
Although my MacBook Pro has an integrated card reader, you’ll still need a Card Reader for a Micro SD Card which you will need, when having a GoPro in your luggage.
So I have one of these small SD Card adapters that you can get on Amazon for less than € 2.
I noticed that sometimes connecting your GoPro directly to your Mac can cause some trouble. So having one of these comes in handy when your MacBook has one of “those” days 😉
#4 of top 5 gadgets: Extended Battery Pack
This gadget is one of the most important things I have not only when I’m travelling. Having a mobile phone and really using it, can use up your phones battery really quick. So there are times, when I even take my battery pack with me, when I go to work and know that I want to be able to take some pictures while attending a meetup after work.
So even if you are working from a co-working space and have access to power the whole day, you’ll need your extra power for weekends or different trips.
I never leave my house without my battery pack, especially not when I’m having my GoPro with me. Connecting your iPhone to your GoPro for using it as a preview and remote control, really eats up your phones battery within a blink of your eye.
I’m not 100% happy with my current battery pack, but while buying it my biggest requirement was that it had to be small and should be able to provide one full iPhone charge cycle.
I then decided to buy the Amazon Basic Battery Pack — 3.000 mAh. With its 121 x 38 x 14 mm and only 70 g it’s really small and light and comes with a nice carry-on bag where I can fit all the cables that I need. I can recharge my iPhone more than just once, so that’s a requirement that it met.
The only thing that I’m not really happy with is that I can’t really tell how full the battery pack is. So I end up recharging it all the time, just to be sure, that if I need it, I can recharge my iPhone or any other of my devices that are low on battery.
#5 of top 5 gadgets: Kindle
I have always been a bookworm and I can’t imagine a world without the possibility to lose yourself in a fantasy world, while fighting amongst your heroes to save the world from all evil — just one last time.
So yes, I have been travelling with books before and they have always had a special place in my luggage. But I also have been buying books while being abroad, which sometimes didn’t turn out that well.
A couple of years ago I couldn’t have imagined to live my adventures through an electronic device. I always thought I would need the paper, the turn over, the smell, the touch, the feel and even the sound of turning each page. I also had the feeling that e-readers back then couldn’t somehow match my requirements concerning weight, size, feeling and turning pages time. And I was definitely not willing to wait even 3 ms to find out if Ginny would kiss Harry or not just because the page on the e-reader wouldn’t turn over!
But two years ago and several e-reader updates and innovations later even I became a e-reader user. I got my first e-reader as a birthday present and can’t imagine taking on another adventure without it. Like Harry needs his wand I need my Kindle 😉
I have to admit after having the Kindle for 2 years now I can’t imagine reading the 7th Harry Potter book without it. I tried it once and OMG that’s a heavy book 😉
So yes, reading on a kindle is something you have to get used to. But you know what? You can read even the 7th Harry Potter book while lying in bed on your back and holding it over your face, without getting a cramp after the 3rd page.
My faithful companion on each and every journey is the Kindle Voyage 6″.
Being even smaller than his predecessor, which was 169 mm x 117 mm x 9,1 mm, the new Kindle Voyage is 162 mm x 115 mm x 7,6 mm big or shall I say small.
And with the smaller size comes the lighter weight automatically. Instead of having 205 g the Kindle Voyage comes with only 180 g for the WLan only version.
Check out my ”Kindle vs. Real Books” post to find out how I managed the switch.
5 tech gadgets I will never travel without
There are probably a lot of tech gadgets I haven’t thought about, while still having them with me. But for now these are the 5 most important gadgets, I wouldn’t travel without:
- Mobile Wlan Router
- Headphones
- SD Card Reader Adapter
- Battery Pack
- Kindle
