I started travelling for work after switching to my first regional role in a multinational company in 2008. I forgot to bring lots of small little stuffs that made my life simpler when travelling during the first few trips. Gadgets, that's what I call them, mainly for work and making life easier away from home.
Here goes.... most important item, either you are travelling for work or pleasure, the travel adapter. If you are travelling within ASEAN be prepared... lots of different types of wall socket outlets within this region. Bring the wrong one and you are screwed, bring too many types you carry a pouch wherever you go...:) So my best pick is the unit below from Wonpro... Small, lightweight and has all the types in one.
Next item... I am sure everyone travels with at least a notebook/laptop. Some laptop adapters can be pretty heavy and bulky. So buy a replacement adapter from ACBEL, these guys make smallest adapters in the market and lightest too. Check it out.... less then 300grams and slightly bigger then a wallet. These adapters are normally 2 pin sockets, when used with the above travel adapter you will still have 1 more 3 pin socket left. Neat, so now you can plug in a second device into the travel adapter.
3rd item... regional job means lots of calls. Either via skype, softphone or via the handphone... some of these calls can last up to an hour or so...:( so you need a handsfree kit. Nope not the one that plugs into your ear. That's good for a 5 min conversation but not a 60min conference call... So get yourself a bluetooth handsfree car kit system. It's small, it's light and it's bluetooth...
4th item... small but very useful... everyone travels with at least 1 USB cable. Short or long is entirely up to the individual. Now if you have a newer generation phone you will realise that it uses micro USB and some of your other devices(like the bluetooth handsfree above) will still be using the older mini USB. So you bring 2 cables??? Nope... you get this... mini to micro USB converter and try to get one with a lanyard and tie it around your cable so you won't lose it.
There are always surprises when you travel and one of them would always be a dead phone because you have been busy SMS/emailing while you wait for your flight and realised that you have used up all your juice. So item 5 is... backup battery charger. It's able to charge my Samsung Galaxy S 2 -3 times and it's good to power the next important gadget too... Also do travel with the provided USB power adapter(left of the picture) as it can plug into the travel adapter easily to charger anything on USB 5Volts.
Next up... internet, without it... I would be dead, at least when I am working...:) The problem is when you are travelling you can have various kinds of access. 3G if you have a local SIM CARD, hotel broadband which normally comes in either wired or wireless. So it's always better to travel will a router. Best if the router can do everything... I have one, I call it the king of travel routers. The Sapido pocket size router does everything from wired/wireless router, wifi repeater, wifi adapter, 3/4G with USB stick and best of all USB powered... so if you have the item above you can power it on the go...
Last item is very important, a clone of your current HDD contents, all in a USB thumb drive and make it bootable so you can reload everything. USB thumb drives are pretty big capacity nowadays and can fit almost all your 'business' info including your OS. I have seen some cases were travellers are hit with a corrupted hard drive and you will be stuck if you don't have a backup. If you are on an SSD, you ought to have a complete hard drive with you. When SSD goes down, 90% of the time it's dead and there is no reformating or cloning. The only option is to swap the drive out with a new one.
Once you have all the above items you should be safe 99% of the time travelling and you will be ready for almost anything. IMHO if you do lots of travelling, buy a lightweight notebook, something that weights less then 1.7Kgs... there are lots of options out there. Light and powerful but it doesn't need to break the bank. Travel light but travel smart... that's the key.
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