Electronics

As I said in the packing post, clothing is only half of our luggage. The rest of the space is allocated to essentials like meds, toiletries, and accessories, with a significant portion dedicated to electronics. This is Pedja’s department, and he is to be blamed for our overflowing inventory of electronics. Here is what we ended up carrying:

– 3 laptops

– 3 cameras – Sony RX100, Nikon DSLR, and GoPro (all older versions)

– 2 eReaders- Kindle Paperwhite (1 waterproof and 1 w/free 3g)

– 2 tablets – iPad and Kindle Fire (kids edition)

– 2 boogie boards (8×11 and 7×10)

– 3 phones – 2 iPhones 6s & 1 Google Pixel XL phone (w/ Google Fi coverage). Extras – additional data card + 2 old phones as backups.

– 3 battery packs (Anker)

– 1 Small portable travel router

– 3 USB power chargers – 4 ports

– Headphones – 1 headphones for Nina and a dozen earbuds

– Various cords and plug adapters

Laptops: Pedja, Petra, and I are carrying laptops. That’s probably overkill. We initially thought we would only have one laptop, but no one was willing to give up their own. I like using it for writing anything longer than two sentences. I type fast, and I’m most comfortable using my device. My laptop is on its last legs, my screen is damaged, but it will serve me well enough for working with Maksim on his schoolwork and doing my journaling. That was my rationale for not leaving my laptop behind.

During the next 18 months, Petra will take a few online classes to keep up with her HCC cohort. She also insisted that she is the most comfortable using her device and wanted to be able to do her schoolwork at the same time as Maksim. Hence, she brought her laptop so she wouldn’t have to share mine with Maksim. She also has no tablet, and she uses her laptop as one.

Pedja is our IT Director, and he is in charge of all of our electronics. He is working remotely for the first month in Buenos Aires; hence, he needed his laptop.

That’s how we ended up with bringing 3 laptops, everyone in charge of their own, and no complaints from any of us.

Cameras: Pedja is a lot more trigger-happy when we travel. I’m just not in the mood to take lots of photos right now. I got a small, old Sony RX100 (first generation) for the kids to use, and Pedja insisted we take the DSLR and GoPro. Only two weeks into our trip, I think he’ll give up on our DSLR and send it back home soon. Pedja loves this small Sony camera (even though it’s a pretty old one), and I could see him getting a new version of it soon. I’m just using my phone (and occasionally his) for pics, and it’s good enough for me. GoPro, I have no clue why we have it. I’m sure it can be helpful, but I haven’t downloaded anything from it yet, and we’ve had it for the past 2-3 years. I mentioned that Pedja is the one who takes most photos right now, but he is not as diligent as I have been over the years about cleaning his collection or sorting it the way I usually do when I take photos. This presents a bit of an issue as he keeps taking hundreds of photos, expecting me to manage them later. This dynamic has not produced successful results (we don’t really have a great collection of photos so far), but time will tell if this will change over the next few months.

Tablets: Nina is attached to his iPad, and Maki is using his Kindle Fire only when traveling (on plane/train rides). Maki usually has no electronics these days, and starting this rule a month before we left home has served us well.

eReaders: When traveling relatively light, reading ebooks needs no further explanation. Kindle Paperwhites are fantastic, light, small, hold a battery forever, and can download books anywhere. Maksim, Petra, and I share these two Kindles.

Boogie Boards: Kids use them as scratch paper when doing math, and I use them for to-do lists, etc. They are easy to carry, and they have proven to be useful.

Phones and phone/data coverage: Petra, Pedja, and I have unlocked phones with Google Fi coverage. None of us cares much about having the latest and greatest. Petra and I both have old iPhones, and Petra is okay with hers, while mine is not doing as well (battery not holding charge even though it’s a new one). I’m now thinking that I should have gotten a new phone before we left, but it always seems like such a massive waste of money. Phones are expensive, and I couldn’t justify getting a new one when mine was still working fine. If my battery were working correctly (as it should have been, since it was replaced right before we left), I would probably be fine. However, since I don’t use any other camera right now, I would have been better off with a newer phone. Pedja’s phone is fantastic, and it takes fabulous photos.

Google Fi is fabulous. We pay for 12 gigs of data between the three of us and then get up to 15 gigs per line for free, free texting, and 20 cents/minute calls. We’ve had fantastic coverage here in Argentina. We’ve heard that Google FI coverage in SE Asia might not be as good, so if that’s true, we’ll get local SIM cards. We use WhatsApp, Viber, and Skype for calls, so that’s included in the data. We also got to keep our US phone numbers, which is pretty great, and together with a $2.99/month subscription from Skype, we have unlimited calls to all US phones. I love this setup since it’s super handy to have our regular phone numbers and be able to call home and all US institutions without having additional charges. I’m grateful that Pedja is a geek who researched all of our options, and we ended up with Google Fi. In addition to our 3 phones, Pedja also brought with us two of our old phones in case one of ours craps out, gets lost, or gets stolen. He also added a free data card from Google Fi as a backup.

Battery packs: Anker chargers are fantastic; they are so darn helpful, and we all use them. I love the small one (10,000mAh) since it fits nicely in my little purse, but the bigger ones (20,100mAh) have been great for travel too. We’ve used Anker chargers for travel or camping for several years now, and we knew they would be frequently used and helpful.

Portable Travel Router: Since my hubby is a geek, he brought his router so that he can set up his network, amplify signal, etc. He has already used it in our second apartment in Buenos Aires. He loves it, we love it, it’s useful. He did great deciding to bring it with us.

USB power chargers: Pedja got us a couple of Bestek chargers, and we love them (we’ve had them for the past couple of years). They are compact enough, have 4 USB slots, and come with extra plug adaptors. We started with 2 and decided to get one more (Danijela and Jared brought it to us).

Headphones: Pickier (or more sophisticated) folks might need better headphones. We only have one set of okay headphones for Nina (but they are only used when traveling, mostly by Maksim). The rest of us use one of a dozen (cheap) earbuds.

I have various cords and plugs, including 6 iPhone charging cords, to ensure I have plenty of backup. Pedja brought an assortment of adapters and other cables.

In conclusion, we probably have too many electronic devices, but for now, weare okay with what we have (minus the DSLR that will go home with Danijela and Jared). Most seasoned travelers take a lot less than we did. We might change our tune along the way. For now, I’m okay with having all of this stuff as long as Pedja takes care of it all, completely 😉 After all, he is our IT Director.