To avoid the chaos, trauma, and potential hell that ensues when reservations can’t be retrieved, addresses can’t be found, and contacts can’t be called, keep these five items on you the old fashioned way.
UNSPLASH Neil SoniWe rely on our smart phones for damn near everything these days. If our phones could feed us and wipe our bottoms, hell, we’d need nothing else. But when the dreaded moment comes when your phone dies while you’re traveling, it will inevitably be at the most inconvenient and “this can’t be happening” time. To avoid the chaos, trauma, and potential hell that ensues when reservations can’t be retrieved, addresses can’t be found, and contacts can’t be called, keep these five items on you the old fashioned way.
1. Maps
Everything seems fine as you cruise in your rental car on a highway in South America, relying on your slow-loading mobile GPS to get you to a city a few hours away. That is, until all of the steady refreshing leads your phone to die. What now? Your shit out of luck, my friend. Number one on the list is bringing a paper map, and writing the address, directions, and route down. If you can’t get there on your own, it’s a lot easier to ask a stranger for directions (especially in another language) when you have a visual aid. Kicking it old school may get you there slower, but it will get you there, and that’s a hell of a lot better than getting eaten by sand fleas on a desert highway.
2. Tickets
Yeah, yeah, we’re the paperless generation. We have barcodes on our phones to swipe us in for flights, concerts, and hotel stays, but when your trusty-iPhone gives you the Apple middle finger, don’t depend on the bouncer to give you a charger. Always print paper copies of your reservations, or at least bring a receipt to avoid losing non-refundable tickets and reservations. Even if you’re sure your phone won’t die, bring hard copies anyways; mobile reservations don’t always scan, and your bus driver won’t give an F if you cry.
3. Watch
This one isn’t life and death, but important nevertheless. When you’re out wandering a new city, loving life and scoping babes, it’s important to have a time-piece so you don’t end up missing the last train back to your hotel (or anything else). Sure you can always ask a stranger, or duck into a department store for a look, but it’s an awful lot of trouble for a very simple thing. The bonus is that you spend less time looking at your phone – no one likes a cross-eyed dufus nose deep in their smartphone.
4. Camera
This one hurts like a bitch when it happens. You think it doesn’t matter when your phone dies, until the sun sets behind an iconic statue in the city you’ve been waiting your whole life to visit. “Hell yes, I’m finally going to blow up on Instagram! Let me just grab my….holy pic-stitch the phone has to be ON to take pictures. IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HEFE AND TOASTED, WHY?!” Bring your ancient digital camera, sassy hipster film, or one time use as a back up.
5. Contact Information
Always, always, always have the names, phone numbers, and addresses of the people you will be staying with on paper. If your phone dies while you’re traveling, or gets stolen, you will be without everything you need to get where you need to go. Save the thrills and risk taking for bungee jumping in Nepal, and keep your host’s contact information on you at all times.
