Just a super fast, seemingly common sense list of items that I someone often keep forgetting…
- Pen: This happens to me almost every trip. You are trying to fill out a customs card after your arrival, there are 100’s of others trying to do the same. There are, at most, 10 pens. The “que” morphs into one big mass. The British people are at the back, absolutely horrified at the inhumanity of it. Every man for himself! An extra 20 minutes trying to get the form filled out could easily end up being an extra two hours in line to clear customs after two AirBus A380’s deplane a bunch of punks we were given custom forms to fill out on the airplane. They breeze right past the mob.
- Address where you will stay: Customs might give you a hard time when you list the address you will be staying at in Malaysia as “123 Main St, Kuala Lumpur”, which is apparently not a real street… Now they are asking more questions, and your phone is not connecting to WiFi to show them the email confirmation with the address. Now I not only have the address of the hotel, friend, or AirBnB I will be staying at, I include: A printout of my reservation, phone number, and if staying with a friend, printout of email from friend inviting you, their address, full name, email, employer, phone number of employer, and birthday. Yes, I have been asked for my friend’s birthday to prove I did actually know them. London customs were not kind to me.
- No Fruit or Veggies: Flying from Vancouver to Auckland and those clever dogs at the NZ customers discovered an apple in my checked luggage. It was not a fun experience. The only reason I got off without a massive fine is because it was in a Ziploc bag, with a note from girlfriend at the time telling me to eat more healthily. I had no idea she put it there. Also saving me was the fact that when they asked if I knew how serious it could be, I was able to rattle off a bunch of apple blight types. I had worked in an apple factory in Australia (Plunkett Orchards hollaaaa!) years ago, and also knew the names of a few big orchards in NZ. Those were the only reasons I got out of that room without my wallet being thousands of dollars lighter.
- Power Outlet Adapters: Yep, these savages are using wall outlets that are 100% un-American. Just shocking how the rest of the world refuses to follow the golden American standard.
I’m just trying to charge my phone, and the wall socket appears to have a face and is staring back at me while I look back and forth from my charger to the outlet. At the airport, if you have not exited yet and remember, plenty of shops are happy to sell them at about a 500% markup. Order before you go. Order more than one, you always end up needing it. I now order them from AliExpress, trying to cut out the middleman and Amazon at once. I suggest you do the same. -
Check Your Chargers: It turns out, not only does the rest of the world refuse to comply with wall outlet shapes, they also send different voltages! Just look at these peasants:
Crazy stuff. Americans use 110v-120v, and these yahoos overseas often use a totally wasteful 220v-240v. Check your electronic device charger labels, you will want to see the American 110v and also a 220v or 240v. This tells you your charger can handle communist electricity. If your device does not have that on the label, you could damage it trying to charge it. Ask me about my Ninja Blender incident. If your device is not compatible with 220v/240v, or vice versa, you can buy a voltage converter. AliExpress is my go to for this. -
Don’t Convert Money at the Airport! I’m still blown away by how many people do this. You are getting raked over the coals here on conversion rates and/or fees. Think of it is a legalized robbery. Avoid at all costs. If you need cash ahead of time, such as for customs, see if your hometown bank can get you some. I converted USD to Euros at a Chase branch in NYC before flying of to spend it all wayyy to fast in Sweden. Also, once you are overseas, a debit card with a good conversion rate and ATM network is clutch. Bonus points if they refund any ATM fees. Fun fact, ATM fees can be set by the ATM owner. Double check it says “$2.00” and not “$20.00”. Strip clubs, I have heard, are notorious for this.
Street money changers are also a bad idea. Lots of slight of hand, and questionable bills passed back to you. I stick to my ATM card for getting cash in the local currency. For converting cash you already have from one currency to another, I either take it home with me or find a legit brick and mortar business locally by searching forums online. There are usually some good ones. Cambodia has one on a corner that is a madhouse, but everyone is using them with not complaints.
- Bring a Jacket: Heading to the tropics? Pack a jacket. Easy to wind up on a cold night in nothing but your sleeveless Chang beer shirt. Movie theaters? Freezing cold. In some random que in a government building? Think they are paying the electric bill personally, nah it’s on full blast all the time. Bus rides? THE WORST. Anytime I travel by bus I freeze my butt off. Next i stop off the bus into a city hovering around 120F. Going from near hypothermia to that is like getting punched in the face.
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Assume Your Checked Luggage Will Not Arrive: Plan for this, and be happy if it does not happen. It has happened to me. Lots. The number of missed flights and transfers increases this risk exponentially. Usually, it will turn up a few days (or months…) later. But don’t rely on it being there when you arrive. Pack your carry on with a change of clothes, and for Pete’s sake, a bunch of socks and underwear. Nothing like old, damp, dirty socks to kill your spirit getting dressed in the morning. On that note, I LOVE wool socks for travel. Look into it. Darn Tough, out of Vermont, makes some choice gear. Lifetime warranty. Wear it out, send it back. They don’t retain smell like regular socks, seriously. The bacteria have trouble taking hold on the wool and producing the smell. Along that note, synthetic shirts are super easy to wash and dry in sinks.
Anything you absolutely need on arrival, that is big enough to fit in your carry on luggage, take it. Pack your carry on like it is the only luggage you will have. My checked luggage, with around 10k worth of gear in it, was lost in Moscow while flying from Berlin to Shanghai. The gear was one thing, but I had no pants and only one pair of shorts. Putting on my parachute for work caused the shorts to ride why up on my legs, turning them almost into daisy dukes. I looked like an Australia truck driver. No one deserves that fate.