Blogging on The Move

Before this trip I’d never blogged before so I was learning as I went –  have to say blogging was harder tha I thought it would be.  Sure, you can post text pretty easily but trying to format it and add pictures proved to be a bit of a nightmare.  And that’s without wondering if what I wrote would come across as absolute drivel!  Anyhoo, I’m back in Edinburgh now, trip over, but I’m still going to keep tweaking the blog, add new pics & posts and try out new things.  Hopefully I’ll have a polished, slick site next time I travel……………..but then again.

For those of you interested in how I managed to blog while I was away, please read on…..

I took an Asus Eee 701 Netbook with me hoping I could use it’s wi-fi connectivity to upload posts.  It only weighs about 1.3kg complete with power cord and battery, runs on Linux and has built in wif-fi.  Open Office is installed which made writing posts easy,  it has 3 USB ports for memory sticks/accessories and an internal SD card reader which was great for downloading pics from the camera.  This is one of the first generation netbooks and, despite only being about 14 months old, struggles against the spec of the latest machines, however it still did a pretty good job.

Up to a point that is.  Battery life is a major problem with the Asus giving up the ghost after about 90 mins max – very frustrating.  I took a power adaptor  with me and tried to keep it charged up whenever possible.  In hotels with wi-fi it was no problem using it while plugged into the mains, but where there was no wi-fi,  I used the Asus to write my blogs and then saved them to memory stick, along with any pics, ready to plug into a pc in an internet cafe.

Other niggles with the Asus were that it had no picture editing software, just a viewing/organising program and the solid state hrd drive filled up with digital pictures pretty quickly.  Not major problems and certainly no reason not to take one of these babies along with you.  Like I said, the newer model netbooks, and there are lots of them out there now, generally all have more storage, better programs and longer battery life.

Wi-fi was pretty well available in most places in Bangkok, in hotels and at internet cafes.  Cambodia was a bit more patchy, Siem Reap, Phnom Pen and Sihanoukville were ok with the majority of internet cafes offering wi-fi while availabilty in guest houses ranged from non existant, to free, to outrageously expensive.  In my experience Cambodian connection speeds were ok, maybe peaking at around 1 m/b but sometimes the connection was prone to dropping for no reason.  Internet connection charges ranged between 75 cents and $1.50 an hour and were pretty similar to Thailand.

Vietnam on the other hand was appalling.  Connections in Hanoi, by wire or wi-fi, were not much better than dial-up (remember that, old timers?  try telling the kids of today about the gold old days).  Maybe I was just unlucky with my choice of hotels and cafe’s but I didn’t find a decent connection in the week I was there.  Accept for the brand spanking new airport at Saigon.  Free, fast wi-fi access, lots of space, aircon  –  too bad I was only there for 90mins waiting on a connecting flight to Siem Reap.

Be warned too that if you find a pc in a cafe that a) has USB ports and  b) said port recognises your stick – you’re almost certain to pick up a virus and transport it back to your own portable.  It’s not too much of problem if your netbook runs Linux bit if it’s Windows, better make sure your anti virus is up to date and all your patches installed.

Finally,  my camera is a Canon Ixus 960 IS.  It’s tough, robust, chunky, takes pics in any number of modes, takes video, is 12 months old and so is obviously obsolete.  I put a 2gb SD card in it, took over 1,000 pics plus 20 mins of video and there’s still over half the space available.  Pity I bought a 4gb card as well.  Perhaps I need to take a lot more pictures or just shoot in a bigger format.  At home I use a Nikon D80 but I didn’t want to take that on this trip, too big, too heavy and just something else to worry about being stolen, lost or damaged.

I’ll definitely take the kit with me next time I travel because, if nothing else, keeping the blog up to date gives you something to do when you’re bored.  And it helps make travel travel plans.  And you can listen to your music.  And do email.  And look at your pics.  And how did we ever travel without all this stuff in the past?