BootsnAll Travel Community

Hello,

We are traveling in September for 1 year to India, SE Asia, OZ, NZ, south and Central America.

We really want to keep a very detailed blog whilst we are on the move.

I have been looking at hand helds with WIFI access, and was wondering if any body knows if there is much WIFI in ASIA and South America?

If not I may look at getting a hand held with out the WIFI and spend the extra money on something else for our travels.

Any help, comments would be much appreciated.

Pete )

WiFi may be a problem in more remote areas, and the connections may be wonky. I'm actually about to try it out for the first time with a hand-held.

On my last Asia trip, I used a Palm with an SD card slot, and simply transferred files from the card with a reader. That also worked well with my camera.

Only expect WIFI in big cities, and in that, western-type/expat cafes like Starbucks, etc..

Thanks for the input.

I will do a little more research

I've been using my pda for the past 17months and it is an absolute godsend as far as the blog goes. Reason thus: Palm pda's (and I imagine all the others) come with 'word' so I spend all my time typing the blog on the pda (get a portable keyboard - it's worth it) and then saving it to the sd card. Go to any internet cafe and just copy and paste across. 15mins max. Saves you sitting at the putor for an hour and a bit trying to get everything you want to say right, right first time. I edit and re-edit on the pda til it's how I want and then download. If you're in it for the long haul, it'll save you loads

hth

elv
p.s.
It'll take wifi too if you can find a hotsport. Starbucks normally..... even in asia I'm sure.

except the starbucks at the station in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, it was the only reason I bought an overpriced rate

Thanks for the info Elvie,

Do you upload your photos seperately?

Which PDA do you use? I was thinking of getting the keyboard.

We plan to be away for 1 year, so I was thinking that it would save a good couple of days in cafe's

Hello again. I tend to upload my photos at a cafe or hostel. Quite often the hostel putor will be free or I can borrow someones laptop. I upload onto webshots but any will do.
I use a Palm Tungsten T3 with the palm ultra light keyboard. Everything gets saved into word and then put onto the sd card. SD card goes into said laptop or putor and copied and pasted onto blogger.com. The photos and text are on seperate websites as there is lots of each and I'm nto that clued up on blog websites to be honest. It does all work very, very well. The only prob is that connecting to the internet on the palm, many websites are compromised for the size of the pda. I can still access basics but can't complete complex commands (downloading photos or text from the palm, for instance).

hth

elv

Thanks again for the info Elv,

Can you give me the link to your blog, so I can have a read?

Happy to help. Blog is as follows but photos are on a seperate site. pm me if you'd like these:-

www.thisordinarylife.blogspot.com

Have fun

elv

Ahhh so this how people do it? I was wondering how people write such detailed blogs. I'm about to set off and really want to keep a blog. Where I'm from in Ireland it's not too often a young female heads off on her own into the wilderness and people have been asking me to keep them up to date.

I was seriously considering bringing my Apple 15'' Powerbook. The thought of sitting in an internet cafe and writing a blog really doens't appleal to me. I know I'd forget everything and think of it again once I leave the cafe!

Does anyone bring laptops on these RTW trips? The way I see it, it's two years old already and taken a bit of a battering, and when I get back it'll be 4 years old and time to get a new one. So I've nothing to lose. I doubt I'd get much money for it. The sellotaped edges seem to put people off.
Am I crazy?

Hi Cybersusst.
Yeah, people still take their laptops away with them - especially around europe and america. If you're not bothered about a blog then really, leave the laptop at home - it will only be a hindrence. If you like the idea of keeping people in the loop, just write the odd long email and post it to multiple addresses, if you want to keep a blog, take the laptop and a notebook (paper one, not the apple mac type) and just jot things down that'll jog your memory or particular phrases that you hear/create. You will forget half the details if you don't and the devil of these things is in the details.

best of luck and happy trails

elv

Thanks.
I think I will take it. I love writing and one of the things I'm really looking forward to on this trip is actually having something interesting to write about! It probably will be a hindrence, seeing as I want to get boats down the amazon and things like that, but I have some people in Lima I could leave it with. Might also join the South America Explorers so I can leave it there too.