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iPhone Applications on the Road

August 19, 2010 By Danny

Everyone on the Internet has come up with their list of the most important iPhone applications and travel bloggers are no exception. We have come to completely depend on our iTouch for everything from a quick check of the email when we can find free WiFi to portable storage and use of all of our guidebooks which we have in PDF form. As much as I may dislike the way in which Apple controls its products, these are good projects whose power and portability add dramatically to our ability to log-in and log-off that much quicker.

The applications below are ordered from most important to least, obviously skipping over many (Facebook, Gmail, Tweetdeck,Kayak, etc) that we have and use but really aren’t quite that special. The one thing all of these below applications have in common is that they all work offline.

Travel Guides:

PDF Reader: With this application we are able to store our guidebooks on our iTouch and call on their data with a few swipes of the thumb. In South America one big book carried us all the way through the continent but no other region we’ve visited has had that sort of geographical travel guide available to us. Without this application we would literally be carting around 2-4 guidebooks at any given time and they would probably be all outdated.

Encyclopedia: This is probably the best tool of all. The entire Wikipedia database at my fingertips, off line, no connection needed. The nearly 2.5GB file contains only English and no pictures but otherwise it is no different than using Wikipedia itself. We can figure out where we’ve seen that actor before, read the mythologies of the Nazca lines while flying overhead, and study up on quantum mechanics from the train. More information than we know what to do with for only $9, which makes it the most expensive application we have by about $8 but it is worth every cent and even includes a donation to the Wikipedia foundation.

Factbook: No, not Facebook. This is the entire CIA World Factbook available off line and at my fingertips. With this we have an instant idea what the transportation issues are going to be, any transnational border disputes we need to be aware of, and what waterborne diseases we need to be careful about.

Currency: We used a free currency application but finally switched to a paid version when we realized a number of places we’re going to in the next 4 months weren’t listed. These applications download spot exchange rates when you connect and are available off line for you to do conversions when necessary. If we were only traveling to a handful of places we might not need this but sometimes we switch currencies multiple times a week and keeping track of all those rates can be extremely frustrating.

SkyGazer: A map of the stars, which matches easily to what you can actually see above you. It also comes complete with all mythologies and you can fast forward and rewind to any second in the future or history. As we fell asleep in the Kalahari listening to lions we were gazing out our tent at the constellation Leo and while watching the sand in the Sahara I found myself admiring Scorpio. For $3 this is the sort of thing that ‘makes me happy’ but there is a free version called ‘Planets’ that works quite nicely as well.

Tripwolf: This is one of many online apps that provide us with an additional bit of destination information. Many of the most popular destinations have additional ‘paid’ guides but all the free ones contain information that can help us plan what we want to do. We have to online to download a guide but it is fully functional offline. Much of Tripwolf’s information is supplied by Footprint Books.

News Applications: There are a million, most don’t work offline. We’ve found the AP application to be the fastest to load when online and easiest to use offline of all the major news apps. We also like the NY Times application even if it is a bit slower and slightly less customizable.

World Nomads Language Guides: We were in a Kenyan market and were trying to negotiate with local women who spoke only Swahili. With the exchange rate around 80 shillings to the dollar, 10 fingers just weren’t enough for the numbers we needed to express. I suppose I could have opened up the calculator and typed in the number but the Maasai were far more impressed when I stated my price, verbally, at 1,600 shillings, in Swahili.

Filed Under: Featured, Headline, Travel & Planning Tagged With: travel&planning

Malaria: Our Decision

August 4, 2010 By Jillian

If you think something small can’t make a difference in life, think of a mosquito. One sleepless night, ruined picnic or one sore arm, a single mosquito can be the cause of so many of life’s displeasure’s. Unfortunately for travelers and many in the developing world, it is a little more serious. Mosquitoes carry two serious vector borne diseases: dengue and malaria. While there’s no vaccine or cure for dengue, there are chemical prophylaxis to help prevent malaria.

We’ve gotten a lot of questions over the last 16 months about malaria medications and we’ve asked plenty ourselves. Here’s how we came to our decision.

To drug or not to drug, that is the question.

The ever growing global discussion on vaccines, use of pharmaceuticals and immunizations is alive and well in the world of travel. We met several long-term backpackers in South America who took no prophylaxis against malaria. On the other hand, we didn’t meet a single traveler in Africa not using a chemical prophylaxis. To put that in perspective consider this: approximately 90% of deaths due to malaria occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.

We began researching our options and speaking with our doctors regarding the different drugs. We wanted to take a chemical prophylaxis for a few reasons: 1) we didn’t want to get malaria, 2) we believe that the potential side effects of the drugs are less damaging than the disease itself and 3) we did not want to contribute to the spread of malaria across regions. Spreading Malaria is no joke, if we were to be infected with a particular strand in one region we risk spreading that strand to another region when we travel there. In some countries malaria accounts for over half of hospital admissions and public health spending. We try to be responsible in our travels and for us we didn’t want to take the chance that we could carry a new strand to a previously unaffected region.

We based our decision on where we would be, the potential side-effects and the convenience of the drugs. We knew we didn’t want to carry a daily drug with us, the storage space aside, its never good to show up at a land border carting around boxes of pills. Also, we wanted to take a drug that’s effective in nearly every region on our itinerary. I wish I could say my regular doctor was helpful in leading the discussion about the options, but she unfortunately was not. Although Danny’s doctor was more willing to educate himself on the possible side-effects and have an informative discussion with him, I think the situation I faced is probably more normal. If your regular doctors is unfamiliar speak with someone at a travel clinic who can guide you through the options.

Besides taking a chemical prophylaxis, we also bought an insecticide treated mosquito net. Although most places we slept in had mosquito nets, it was good to have our own for the few places that didn’t.

The Options

There are several chemical prophylaxis options on the market. You should discuss with your doctor which one is best considering your time frame, travel locations, risk of transmission and medical history. No matter your choice you should always take precautions against mosquito bites, especially dusk to dawn when transmission occurs.

Chloroquine
COST: inexpensive
FREQUENCY: weekly
AREAS: Central America
OUR EXPERIENCE: 5 months in Central America, no problems.
 
 
 
Doxycycline
COST: inexpensive
FREQUENCY: daily
AREAS: South America, Asia and Africa
OUR EXPERIENCE: None. Doxycycline was impractical for us, it upsets Danny’s stomach and we didn’t want to carry 365 or more doxycycline pills each. We’ve met several travelers taking this and the most commonly side effect seems to be sun-sensitivity. An added benefit of Doxycycline is that because it is an antibiotic, it also helps when you come across a questionable meal or two. If we had trouble with Lariam this would have probably been our backup.
 
 
Lariam (Generic: Mefloquine)
COST: expensive
FREQUENCY: weekly
AREAS: South America, Asia and Africa
OUR EXPERIENCE: Lariam is probably the most controversial anti-malarial on the market. We took Lariam for several consecutive months in South America, Africa and Asia and have experienced no negative side effects. For us this was the most practical choice: weekly, effective and not as outrageously expensive as Malarone.
 
 
Malarone
COST: very expensive
FREQUENCY: Daily
AREAS: South America, Asia and Africa
OUR EXPERIENCE: None. We’ve met other short-term travelers taking it. Most frequent complaint we hear is the cost. For us this drug was impractical because of cost and frequency; too many pills to carry and too expensive at that.
 

Immunity?

Several promising vaccines are under development around the world, however none has yet been proven to develop immunity to the disease. You cannot build up immunity to malaria by drinking the local water. Seriously. People with sickle-cell disease or carriers of the trait have a substantial protection against malaria. Because the disease causes a deformation of the red blood cell, the malaria causing parasite attached to the red blood cell is destroyed before it has a chance to reproduce.

Filed Under: Africa, Central America, Featured, Guides, Headline, South America, Travel & Planning Tagged With: medicine, travel&planning

Review: Eneloop Batteries and Charger

April 3, 2010 By Jillian

These are the rechargeable batteries of the future.

These actually come pre-charged because they hold their power just like a regular battery…only these can be used a thousand times. Like other rechargeables their energy capacity is higher than standard batteries but unlike those other rechargeables they do not lose their energy over time. This gives them the best of the rechargeable world and the best of the non-rechargeable world. There is absolutely no reason to purchase another battery on the market…if you do you´re throwing away your money. Great for travel, we haven’t had any problems recharging these batteries around the world- currents be damned!

These can be purchased from several places and often include a battery charger than can charge both AA and AAA batteries. Nothing else touches our electronics. Nothing else needs to touch our electronics.

Highly Recommended.

Filed Under: Electronics, Featured, gear, Reviews, Travel & Planning Tagged With: travel, travel&planning

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