Rachel Strohm

Today in travel advice: sundry logistics of travel.

You almost certainly don’t need to bring:

• Traveller’s cheques.  With the advent of ATMs these are rarely used any more.

Do consider bringing:

• Your ATM card.  In larger cities, ATMs are everywhere.  Ask your bank if it has international partners in your destination country which will waive out-of-network ATM fees.  You should also be sure to alert your bank to your upcoming travels, as unexplained transactions occurring in foreign countries are often otherwise tagged as fraud.
  
• Dollar bills printed later than 2005 to use as forex when ATMs aren’t available.  This isn’t a problem everywhere, but when I was in Rwanda, a recent counterfeiting scare had moved banks to reject any dollars issued before 2005.
• The same credit card used to purchase your plane tickets.  Airlines will occasionally insist that the purchasing card be presented during check-in, or used to cover other charges.  A colleague of mine once had to purchase a duplicate ticket on a separate card after forgetting the card used for her original purchase (on South African Airways).
• Printed copies of your itinerary, just in case there’s a need for additional confirmation.
• Photocopies of your passport, driver’s license, vaccination records, health insurance, and credit/debit cards.  You’ll need them if the originals get stolen.
• A flashlight.  Vital for places with frequent power outages.  Many locally-available mobile phones now come equipped with flashlights.
• Extra bedsheets.  Extremely useful for everything from stays in under-furnished hotels (bedsheets, towels, a curtain for that window that looks directly into the shower) to long bus rides (pillows, blankets) to visits to the pool/lake/river (assuming you’ve already checked that it’s free of schisto).
• A bike helmet and cable lock, if you expect to be riding.  Bikes can often be purchased cheaply, but helmets and locks are rare commodities.

Do consider buying:

• Evacuation insurance.  InternationalSOS, Medex, and Travel Guard all offer international medical and evacuation services.  It’s relatively cheap for short trips (I paid about US$40 for my recent three-week stay in Ghana from InternationalSOS), but do read the fine print carefully – there have been occasions where these companies have restricted their evacuation services to the capital city without informing their customers clearly.
• An international driver’s permit.  If you plan on renting or purchasing a car or motorcycle this will be necessary.  AAA offers them for US residents, and there seems to be an international application as well.

Today in travel advice, we present: (un)necessary accessories!

You almost certainly do not need to bring:

• A travel vest with a million pockets, unless you’re clear on what you’ll use them for (or don’t own any pants with pockets for some mysterious reason).  It’s unlikely that you’ll need to carry every pocket-sized item you own with you at all times.  I usually leave my small valuables/passport/cash at my hotel/house or in my shoulder bag and call it a day.
• Nice leather shoes.  The rainy season will wreak havoc on them, even if they’re waterproofed.  (But do see the exception at the end of the apparel post.)
• A fake wedding ring.  I know a number of young women who’ve tried this approach to fending off men whose standards of courtship were more, well, direct than is common in the West, and trust me, it doesn’t help.

Do consider bringing:

• Shoes made of synthetic materials.  Life is much easier if you don’t have to worry about getting your feet wet.  Women have some good options for work-appropriate waterproof shoes, like Reef’s sandals and J. Crew’s rubber ballet flats.  I think I would be wearing Top-Siders to work if I were male, and commentators Dave & Stephen suggest Rockports for times when more formal shoes are needed.  Waterproof hiking boots are great for hiking, obviously, but rather informal for urban wear.  Cheap rubber flipflops are perfect shower shoes, but shouldn’t be worn to work.  I find wellingtons too bulky to pack easily, but if you’re traveling to an extremely remote area they may be useful for grappling with roads that have dissolved into mud.
• An umbrella and a waterproof bag.  I’ve been satisfied with the waterproof lining on my Herve Chapelier shoulder bag.  A waterproof messenger bag or backpack is ideal if you expect to be commuting by bicycle or motorcycle.
• Sunglasses, and possibly a hat.  The latter is a question of personal preference – useful if you burn easily, but not necessary otherwise.  I love this sunhat for women (also from J. Crew).

• A passport pouch.  As mentioned above, I don’t worry too much about carrying my passport and money around in my shoulder bag.  Theft is a widely prevalent but relatively low risk in many places, be it from a hotel room or on the street, and after taking basic precautions (such as using hotel safes, keeping my bag zipped and held firmly in front of me, and not walking around alone at night), I’ve never felt threatened enough to guard my valuables in this way.  However, visitors to more insecure areas might consider doing so.  In a pinch, women can also tuck items into the side of their bras under the arms, where they’ll lie flat against the rib cage.

Having gotten a few requests for information on this subject of late, I thought I’d share my list of tips for traveling in the developing world.  This draws upon my experience in Africa, so I can’t speak to its applicability for other regions, but I’m guessing that many of the same principles hold.  You can see all of the posts in this series here.  First up: what (not) to wear.

You almost certainly do not need to bring:

• A head-to-toe khaki ensemble made of rip-stop, permethrin-treated, UV-blocking fabric.  Unless you will be spending weeks at a time in the jungle/the desert, this type of outfit simply isn’t necessary.  There are cheaper, easier, and more fashionable ways of protecting yourself from insect bites and sunburn (which I’ll discuss later in this series).
• Your rattiest clothing.  Dressing neatly is a point of pride in many places, and it’s rather rude to show up looking like you’ve forgotten to do your laundry in months.
• Shorts or skirts that hit above the knee, for men or women.  Such outfits are often considered either extremely informal (and not work-appropriate), appropriate only for children, or simply incongruent with cultural standards.  I was once told off in the DRC for wearing a miniskirt to work whilst I was in fact wearing a skirt that hit right at the top of my knees, which would have been work-appropriate in the US.  That said, people do dress less conservatively when they’re going out in larger cities, so plan accordingly if you’ll be tearing it up every night.
• White clothing.  It’s at high risk of getting stained in the wash.
• Anything that needs to be dry-cleaned.  Cleaners are rare outside of more affluent capitals, and your wool sweater will not benefit from being handwashed and line-dried.

Do consider bringing:

• Loose, lightweight, business casual clothing in natural materials.  (You truly do not want to be wearing polyester at the height of the dry season heat in some countries.)  For women, I’m a fan of loose shirts and dresses belted at the waist for some definition.  Toss them over lightweight leggings or cotton pants if they’re too short to be worn by themselves.  When I’m not wearing this I usually wear a knee-length skirt and short-sleeve shirt, which I pair with a cardigan for meetings.

(Images from J. Crew)

• Athletic clothes made of synthetic fabrics.  Long pants and longsleeved shirts are useful if you’ll be hiking in wooded areas.  Hooded raincoats are essential rainy season material.
• Non-cotton underwear, which breathes more easily and dries more quickly than cotton.  This is a virtue when you’ve just snatched your laundry in from the rain and need to get dressed for work in an hour.
• One set of warm clothing.  Evenings can get cool at high altitudes and high latitudes, and you may well find yourself on a bus with an overenthusiastic air conditioner for hours on end.
  
• At least one formal set of day and evening clothing (which may well break the above rules).  If your work brings you into contact with high-level government officials, you’ll need something more formal than business casual.  People also dress quite well (and, as mentioned above, less conservatively) to go out in larger cities.  Consider bringing a suit, a pair of nice shoes, and a fun outfit for dancing in – and simply try to avoid getting them dirty/wet.  (And, if you’re male, note that some clubs won’t permit entrance to men wearing flipflops.)