Preparations

Last time I travelled I was kicking myself because I didn’t bring a better phone with me on the trip.  I bought a piece of crap phone in India and used that until I got back to the US.  The way phones work in most countries is you buy a SIM card for each country that you’re in and prepay it with some minutes and text messages.  It cost something ridiculous to call home to the US, but it’s great for calls inside the country you’re visiting.  This time I bought a cheap but recent blackberry that’s designed for use in other countries.

For computers we have an iPad and a little netbook.  We’re trying to keep the electronics to a minimum.  I don’t think we’ll have anything stolen but I don’t want to be crying about anything expensive if our stuff does end up missing.

The clothes we are packing as light as possible.  1 pair of jeans each for when we’re on the bike, a few shirts, some socks, some knickers and a swimsuit or two.  I can’t begin to describe the lack of space.  The thing that takes up most room in the bag is shoes.  I bought a pair of trainers that squish down into nothing but I’m also taking a set of dress shoes.  Double that with Anna’s and that’s most of our bag right there.

The Shadow doesn’t come with a center stand so I ordered one and will mount it before we leave.  I will need to be working on the bike a ton and I wasn’t about to waste bag space on a jack.  It was kind of expensive ( $180 ) considering it’s just a hunk of steel and a couple of springs.