ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here ALFONSO was here

Losing your passport in a foreign country can be a really irritating experience. If you lose it in conjunction with your credit cards etc, then you have to also be concerned about identity theft. But people can and do get their passports stolen and lost. So what do you do to avoid it?

The obvious thing is to not lose it in the first place. That means basic personal security. Keeping your passport and credit cards in a “passport wallet” is an idea, but don’t fool yourself into thinking that thieves aren’t smart enough to figure out that the fat dude with the Polo shirt and Omega watch is also carrying a “hidden” wallet around his neck.

In some cases a passport wallet is just a good way to get garrotted.

Remember that most hotels have a safe, so consider leaving your passport there. Don’t ever carry your passport in your hand luggage as this is the item most likely to be stolen. Keep it on your body.

But when and if you do get it stolen, you need to get a police report (your travel insurance will pay for a replacement) and then call your embassy. Your embassy will usually be able to replace your passport pretty quickly, but it will cost you.

If you are in a country in which your government doesn’t have an embassy, then don’t panick. Governments will usually have a standing deal with one of the embassies to take care of foreign citizens. For example, an Australian losing their passport in many African countries will be able to find help at the Canadian or UK embassies. Remember also that the expat embassy crowds are pretty tight knit, so any embassy will be able to point you in the direction of your own embassy if you get lost.

Remember also that most western passports are a valuable commodity in many countries for fraudsters. Some fetch as much as $10,000 on the black market (don’t think of selling yours and claiming it was stolen - the guys at the embassy have seen that trick a hundred times). As many as 20,000 Belgian passports alone have found their way onto the black market. The trade in passports is big business and yes, they want yours too.

Make sure it isn’t the next one on the market.

We have found a pretty cool offer of a free 40 Gig iPod which should light up the faces of a few of our regular readers (these units usually go for between $300 and $400).

As we’re sure you’re aware, Apple iPods are one of the most popular ways for travelers to store music and image files - really handy as a storage device if you’re into digital photography too.

For you photographers, the 40 Gig iPod has a 2 inch diagonal LCD screen with 65k colours and an LED backlight.

One thing that a lot of travellers have reported however, is that iPods are not the most durable devices with regards scratches and bumps so you might want to consider getting a desent hard cover for it.

They have about 15 hours of battery life which is decent (especially if you are only using it as a digital photography storage device) which takes about 5 hours of charging time. They also have firewire or USB 2.0 interface so you can transfer your files between your devices.

There are probably slighly better devices for travelers on the market but for the price (free) you probably can’t complain too loudly.

Check out the free offer.

Seriously hardcore traveller that needs a laptop?

The Rough Rider Max might be just what you are after.

When you need a laptop that is as tough as Arnie, then your options are a little limited. Going bush for weeks at a time means you are going to drop, drench and dust your laptop and you aren’t going to be in a place to get it serviced if something goes wrong.

The Rough Rider Max is built to military specifications (810 f) and has been tested on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. Moreover, the lads at Rugged Notebooks got their mitts on it and found that it could survive being droped from 3 feet onto a wood plate 26 times and keep working (that’s a potentially expensive experiment).

It even has a removable HDD bay which means the laptop can be shared by multiple users (on an expedition for example) without the harddrive needing to be shared.

Specs
Screen: 14.1 inch TFT XGA LCD
Processor: 1.6GHz Centrino
Memory: 2GB or DDR SDRAM
Harddisk: 40GB

This one is for the hardcore elite of the travelling world and at almost $5k, you will want to make sure that you REALLY need one.

If you are a regular air traveler within or to the US, then you have probably at some stage had your luggage opened by airport security.

This can sometimes present a problem if you want to actually lock up your luggage to protect it from prying fingers (or anything else). Many people have reported that their locks have actually been broken by luggage inspectors.

Well some enterprising people have actually come up with a travel lock that allows inspectors in airports to have a master key that can unlock their luggage locks without the need to break them. Basically a skeleton key.

At first thought, this might seem like a good idea and it probably will be… for a while.

Me, well I don’t exactly have a lot of faith in the integrity and honesty of minimum wage luggage inspectors and to be perfectly honest I think it won’t be too long before other people also get access to these skeleton keys.

While these locks may dissuade opportunistic thieves to a degree, I don’t think they are the answer.

If you want true security for your luggage when you travel, then the only real option is to take luggage that is small enough to be classed as “carry on” so you can take it with you into the cabin and keep and eye on it.

But for those who insist on the facade of security, these locks might be a helpful stopgap measure.

If you try walking around any major city in the world, you’ll notice that at least one person is tinkering with an electronic device. Most likely, you’ll see a person jogging around the park while listening to an mp3 player, or someone in a coffee house setting up a task list on a Personal Digital Assistant. However, these gadgets don’t have eternal batteries. Most likely, they would even die out during the most inconvenient times. Cell phones are notorious when it comes to this – the batteries usually die out when you’re making or expecting a very important phone call. You’d either have to go home or use a car charger to bring your hand-held device back to life. While there’s currently no such thing as an everlasting battery to save you from all this trouble, MarcoGizmo.com has found the next best thing.

The Soldius 1 Solar Charger can save your dead batteries during emergencies. It’s a foldable and lightweight solar panel that you can take with you wherever you go. It has adapters for 7 different kinds of devices such as phones, mp3 players, and PDAs. It’s even compatible with over 250 types of mobile phones. Here’s a chart that let’s you check if the Soldius 1 is compatible with your gadgets.

The best thing about the Soldius 1 is that it is very simple to use. Just plug in the adapter on the solar charger, connect your device, and wait for it to be fully charged. This usually takes a few hours, just like any regular charger. Keep in mind that you’ll get better results if you place the Soldius 1 in direct sunlight.

The charger will also save you a lot of electricity and money since you’re practically powering up your gadgets for free. The initial price you have to pay for the charger may be a bit expensive, but it’ll pay for itself in the long run. Also, it’s worth every penny to have a convenient, portable charger that doesn’t need an electrical socket.