Trusty travelling gear

Traveling free and easy is definitely not easy. One has to be equipped with the gadgets to travel fast, light and hassle or frustration free. My most trusted gadgets shown below.

My trusty old camera now equipped with much better lens, power bank to keep the GPS alive, USB cable to charge the GPS while walking around and lastly a good guide book.

The GPS is extremely useful especially when loaded with city maps. Mine is the older version of Garmin, model 1350T and it is compatible with cityXplorer maps. Only a few model as of now supports the enhanced pedestrian mode. Using the GPS with the pedestrian mode will enable navigation through public transit such as metro, buses and even airports. Along with it, the cityXplorer map will also have transit schedules too, so you will roughly know how long you will reach your destination, so it is a good gadget to have if you are traveling free and easy in a big city.

The power bank is also needed in order to keep the GPS running. The GPS battery lifespan is roughly 3-4 hours. After that duration you will have to turn back to your maps and waste a lot of time and frustration to navigate through a city. The power bank has 5000 mAh, which means theoretically I can charge my GPS roughly 4 times before it runs out of juice.With the power bank, you can have your GPS running practically all the time, unless your travel time is more than 16 hours. The power bank weighs about 140 grams. which is really handy to bring it along for traveling.Using the usb cable, I am able to 'charge' the GPS while walking around in the city.

A good guide book is needed if you intend to travel free and easy. The nice spots, attraction places can be 'programmed' into the GPS to navigate you to the destination, while you enjoy walking and sight seeing without the need to open up the map or ask for help. Also, the GPS can also list down adjacent attraction places that might be overlooked by the guide book too. A good guide book and a GPS with cityXplorer map are the ultimate guide.

Finally a camera for those who likes to take photograph. A good fast lens really help to ease the need for tripod, although a tripod is best for taking low light condition, but traveling with a tripod is not easy, it is heavy and cumbersome. The tripod cannot be taken as hand carry item in a plane, it has to be checked in.

So good luck on your travel.