View Single Post
Old 01-19-2007, 05:22 PM   #25 (permalink)
abaya
 
abaya's Avatar
 
Location: Iceland
Quote:
Originally Posted by KnifeMissile
Well, I didn't want to trust leaving sensitive information on a public terinal. As always, the issue is a little more complicated than that. As Sharon has correctly pointed out, I do plan to dump my data (including photos) onto my laptop. It'll come in handy for passing time at the airport (if it had been smaller, it could have been used to pass time on the plane, too). Perhaps most importantly, it'll be my main computer when I stay in Vancouver for the month of my sister's wedding.
Fair 'nuff man, I understand about the wedding thing and being bored... and about the photos. Though personally I would rather not risk losing all my once-in-a-lifetime photos in one mugging incident. If I were you, I'd buy a handful of 2 GB memory cards for your camera and carry those in various safe places, rather than storing them all on a laptop... but making back-ups is also a very good idea, if you can tuck them away somewhere on your person.

I don't mean to offend you, I'm just saying that in a third-world country, people won't "mug you for your laptop," they'll just plain mug you... for whatever you might have (especially if they saw you on the train, or in the hostel with it, and follow you into the station or get into your bag while you're in the communal shower). Yes, it does happen, I've seen it.

I guess I'm just trying to offer some advice from a lot of my own traveling experience in poor, crowded areas... I've been to quite a few of the places you want to go to, and I just don't think it's altogether wise to carry a laptop with you there.

Hostels in a group room (bunks) range from $20/person in cheap cities (Prague was the cheapest I saw in Europe), to over $60 in places like NYC. The prices are higher if you want a private room with a locked door. I have no idea about places like Japan. This is for semi-reputable hostels, not the dirt-cheap ones where they really will rob you blind the minute you turn your back. I'd say the average hostel cost is around $40 a night.

All that said, it's your trip, so have fun planning it and let us know how it shapes up.
__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

--Khalil Gibran
abaya is offline  
 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360