Mine is a small bottle of liquid bandage. It stays in my toiletries, can go through that, and is superior to most bandages!
I always make sure I bring a nice towel on my carry on. We got some high quality cotton Turkish towels that double as blankets when traveling. Not sure if it’s standard outside the hitchhikers guide.
A towel, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value - you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to- hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you - daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitch hiker) discovers that a hitch hiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitch hiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitch hiker might accidentally have “lost”. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with
You sound like one hoopy frood
Alcohol gel, pack of tissues, steam deck with vpn connection to my home server. Next time I’ll be bringing a travel router to test WFH 😉
Those gl-inet routers are really handy. Great if you have a bunch of wireless devices too, login to the hotel wifi with one device, spoof on the router that device’s MAC, then you have “one” device hooked up to the hotel wifi… And everything else connects to a pre setup wifi network and you don’t have to login on all of them.
I have been messing around with a raspi and nmcli to create a WAP out of it. Runs WireGuard back home. Win win.
A small backpackable 2 line parafoil kite in case things get blowy
Shoe horn, thermoplastic.
A shoe horn is a good idea. What’s thermoplastic?
What’s thermoplastic?
Hot Glue
Ignore the thermo part of the word.
Thermoplastic usually starts as small pellets that you can heat up in boiling water and mold into shapes to repair things. Once cooled, it’s pretty strong. I just have a blob of it in my toiletry bag to fix whatever breaks.
Travel router. I can plug it in to a router (if available) and instantly have a network all my devices connect to automatically that can either connect to a commercial VPN or my home VPN. Works to rebroadcast a WiFi network as well. If you have to pay for WiFi, you can pay for one device and clone the MAC onto the router and rebroadcast a signal all your devices can use. Works on planes, hotels, you name it. I have a gl.inet but there are a few.
My proudest script kiddy achievement was at hotel that had paid WiFi and a free tier. I clicked the free tier but it wasn’t very good and there was no way to upgrade to paid, even after changing MAC and deleting cookies etc. I found a piece of gym equipment that used internet in the hotel gym, cloned its MAC address onto the device, unplugged the gym equipment and boom I had full speed internet as it was on the network’s whitelist with no throttle.
Smart!! Do you have any recommendations for what to look for when buying a travel router?
I have the Beryl AX3000, the cheaper one like the mango (when I bought it) didn’t have as fast of an Ethernet port or something like that… they’re $80 so not a huge deal. They have a new one but I have no idea what the difference is!
Thanks for the info… super helpful!
Probably not the most unusual, except for how I never see any other adults with theirs if they have one probably because of how embarrassed they might be, but definitely my favorite stuffed animal. Gotta have some sort of comfort object. Especially in a hotel, if there are no bed bugs.
Body glide blister balm, and laundry wash sheets (so much tidier than washing powder!).
Most of my other stuff seems standard to me…
Laundry wash sheets are a good idea
I also bring liquid bandaid most places, it really is superior but you have to wait for the bleeding to (mostly) stop first
My travel kit includes way too many nails, mousetraps, an upholstery stapler, power drill, syringes/needles, and first aid stuff. Sideshow performer so it’s just par for the course. I also use the needles for medication.
What
I’ve been looking for a portable humidifier. Hotel rooms are so dry!
I’ve just boiled the room kettle a few times, and leave the shower and bathroom door open before bed (not during a shower). Helps a bit, anyway.
I dunno, I’ve stayed in a few moist ones.
Ziploc bags, they weigh nothing, but grest way to separate snacks and other stuff. I use them to store used underwear and socks if I’m on a short trip.
Amongst other things, I always carry some zip ties. They weigh nothing, yet come in handy in so many ways.
Ah yes, zip ties. I also carry them every day. Along with plastic sheeting, a machete, a shovel, and a bottle of moonshine.
Nothing sus about that
Does this smell like chlorof…
you like Huey Lewis and the News?
Gotta have your TOOLS
I bring my headlamp with me almost everywhere. It’s crazy how often you need a flashlight at the most random times, and the best flashlight is one you don’t need to hold.
Do you know those supermagnets that can be found in old computer hardware? I take one of those, a particularly strong one, which my BF and his relatives found for me once during the advent of their metal detecting hobby. Good for things like getting stuff out of hard to reach places or determining the material of something, though I’m told it’s not so good for those who have put their phone or credit card too close to my baggage. I even once took a toy out of a grocery store toy machine this way (screw the rigged crane, especially when you have a kid who just went through a tragedy).
Does it cause any issues with airport security?
I’m not sure. I’ve never tested that out. Though I’ve heard that even just being made of metal risks extra vetting at the airport.
A small Brita filter helps with getting nice clean drinking water. A 20 foot Hdmi cable to connect my laptop to the tv. A universal remote since not all tv’s allow you to switch the inputs. Also a powerbar, which can also be used as an extension cord.
Binder clips to bind the curtains together. Sometimes hotels have hangers with pants clips on them, for everywhere else? Binder clips.
