[Short of time? Read the haiku instead] It could be the most important piece of kit you take on your trip, yet it takes up the least amount of space. No, I’m not talking about your id (unless your id is spongy, divided in two and comes out of your ears), I’m talking about earplugs, without which I would have been deprived of many a night’s sleep in the past 20 years. Of course, if you’re the sort of person that can sleep through a Napalm Death gig (as I did once in a Birmingham nightclub (although the several alcoholic beverages I had consumed may have contributed to my sleepiness at that time)) you are now only reading this for the thoroughly entertaining anecdote that will inevitably follo
[Short of time? Read the haiku instead] If we’re talking travel accessories, which is kind of the whole point of this blog, then we can’t really go any further without mentioning the mightiest and most useful travel accessory of all – a device which can literally open doors all over the world, which will expedite and facilitate hundreds of border crossings, a magic document after which billions of people lust, and for which some would kill – the humble United Kingdom passport. Now I’m fully aware that such an item is not readily available at the airport convenience store next to the Toblerone and the 20 year old Glenfiddich, but that’s no reason not to review it. I’m also aware that millions
[Short of time? Read the haiku instead] Power corrupts: it’s true. Give someone the power to recharge their phone in the remote Himalaya and they’ll use it to ruin your enjoyment of a beautiful trek in the mountains. Watching movies in their tent, telling everyone what’s going on back in the real world or, worse still, trying to make calls at the top of any mountain which might be in range of some signal tower, somewhere. And it’s easier than you might think – cell phone coverage is now available all the way up the Khumbu Valley to Everest Base Camp! Whose idea was that? Come on! Who wants some stressed-out businessman, who’s probably just here to impress his boss anyway, shouting into his p
