Jim Eagles: Travellers' cunning ways with dental floss

COMMENT

Next time you travel overseas be sure to take your dental floss. Not only is it good for dental hygiene but it can also be used as a clothes line, cotton for darning clothes or string for tying things up.

That's one of several cunning tips for travellers sent in by readers.

The dental floss suggestion came from Flight Centre, which asked its travel consultants around the country for ideas.

They didn't say whether it's possible to hang your socks on a length of floss and then use it on your teeth, but it's still a great idea.

Another multi-purpose suggestion from the same source was a roll of duct tape. "It fixes everything from sunglasses to shampoo bottles, jandals and handbags and even doubles as a plaster."

As a safeguard against theft, the Flight Centre folk recommend a fake wallet, "complete with old receipts and an expired Eftpos card, in which to keep your daily spending money.

"If you get mugged the robber will just get a load of useless items while your other cash and valuables are stashed in your socks or wherever you have hidden them."

The only risk, I suppose, is that you might get confused and try to use the fake cards yourself.

As a further precaution against theft, Brett Johansson suggests that "for pure peace of mind, scan copies of passport/tickets/credit cards/travellers cheques/etc and email them to yourself (on Hotmail if you don't have an account elsewhere).

"Very credible if they go walkabout, as most police stations on the planet will have internet access."

And you could safeguard against pickpockets by attaching your wallet to your belt with, yes, dental floss.

Several readers offered suggestions on how to survive those long flights ... especially if you've got neighbours with bad breath.

Mireille Nedelec recommends taking a small bottle of a special phyto-aromatherapy essence made in France and the United States, "which protects against bacteria and facilitates breathing ... When I fly I like to offer some to my neighbours so it reduces the quantity of bacteria in the aeroplane".

Similarly, Roxane Horton says she always flies with "a small can of Evian facial spray, which helps me to wake up at the end of a long haul flight".

Both she and Marc Jacques also recommend Bose noise-cancelling headphones. "A must for all travellers," says Marc. "One switch and that drone disappears into silence."

Flight Centre agents reckon earplugs and a good book are the top two things no traveller should leave home without.

The growing enthusiasm for earplugs has also been reflected in a huge number of inquiries - following our article on travel gadgets - about where to find the Design Go earplugs with "attenuation filters", which can be adjusted to eliminate sounds with high frequency (background noise) or low frequency (snoring) and include airflow channels to maintain constant pressure between the inner and outer ear.

These are available from www.travelcomfortable.com or (09) 489-5153.

As well as inquiring about where to find some of the gadgets mentioned, readers have also put up several further suggestions.

How about a multi-sized sink plug for all those times when a previous occupant has taken the plug for your room? Or a solar-powered flashlight, small enough to fit on a key ring and able to shine for more than two hours without recharging? Just the thing for finding your way around a strange hotel room when the lights have gone out or in the forest when the moon is hidden by a dark cloud.

You'll find further information on www.businessboosters.co.nz/freelight.htm

For those people heading into places where the water quality is suspect - or backcountry New Zealand for that matter - there's the MSR Miox water purifier, which uses batteries and salt to purify four litres in minutes and claims to leave no chemical taste.

You can get further details on www.ampro.co.nz/products/MSR/water_filtration.htm

Ampro's website also offers a "What's Hot" page, which promotes travel products such as the Silva pedometer to measure how far you've walked, the Gerber Total Eclipse key-chain tool set, the latest in the Therm-A-Rest range of light-weight sleeping mats and the Bushnell wrist-top digital navigation system, which also includes an alarm clock, compass, calendar and thermometer.

Of course, these days several mobiles also give you access to maps to help to navigate around a strange place.

When it comes to cameras I'm a big fan of the marvellous small digital cameras that are on sale now because they make travel photography so much easier.

I've got a Nikon Coolpix 4300 - though there are several other great models on the market - and the big attraction for me is that, with a decent-sized memory card and a bit of judicious editing, you can take all the photos you want and bring them safely home without having to worry about spare films.

Memory cards are not cheap - it's basically $1 for every 1Mb of memory - but if you do a lot of travelling they soon pay for themselves.

On a more mundane level several experienced travellers advise taking a small bag of washing powder.

Others recommend taking several pens, or even one of those pens with multiple refills, so you don't find yourself in an immigration queue with no way to fill out the forms.

And many people obviously rely on the good old Swiss Army knife or one of its derivatives for everything from trimming nails and opening bottles to putting in screws and whittling firesticks.

* Got any other tips for your fellow travellers to share? Email them to travel@nzherald.co.nz