A month back I had packed for a field trip in north-east India for about 45 days, and after several trial-and-errors over several years, I think I got the packing right! A pillow I bought in a train gets filled up with air every night and ensures I sleep well. A marmot sleeping bag that my awesome boss gifted to me keeps me snug. There is a small heating rod, coffee powder and a steel filter that get together in the morning and wake me up.
The equipment is another story. A multi-plug which can convert one plug point to three is extremely useful while travelling. A smartphone has been indispensable in field; it has a gps, google earth, google maps, Birdlog Asia, an offline dictionary, compass, macro and landscape camera, music, internet, voice recorder, a torch, a pdf/book/document reader. The only problem with the phone is that the battery lasts only a day; so I carried back up batteries which even get charged with a small solar panel. This phone was backed up with a black-and-white Nokia phone which has a great battery. I did not know this earlier, but Airtel seems to have as good coverage in the north-east as BSNL or even better; and the internet is great, so Airtel is highly recommended if you are travelling in the north-east! At Goalpara, I got internet speed in excess of 250 kbps and I had downloaded the Ubuntu ISO, which is about 1 GB in an hour by tethering the smartphone to my laptop! There is also an amazing Bose Bluetooth speaker that ensures a lovely musical evening, when we have the time for such things!
Since I am still recovering from a surgery and need to get my legs stronger, for exercise I am carrying a black T-resistance band which is very useful. I still remember the trouble I went through carrying 4 kg ankle weights to Arunachal and back! The T-band is very portable and one can be very innovative with the exercises too. All this together weighs less than 20 kg which ensures at the airport I don't need to pay a rupee extra for luggage! While I write this the Bose is playing Coke Studio Pakistan music and the evening is mellow with a drink. Today I am very close to Bangladesh in Meghalaya overlooking the Goyain river!
1 comment:
Simply awesome bro... The word picture that you paint so effortlessly, I swear, will make the reader (it makes me) as jealous as they can, of oh-so-many things the narration goes about.
The description of the tech stuff you lug around is just a case-in-point, not to forget the music-filled evening .... God Bless ra.
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