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  #1  
Old 17 Mar 2015
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Valuables
I'm driving for the uk to South Africa and would like to take. My macbook to write blogs and edit photos

Do other people take theirs on the trips? Have you ever had your vehicle searched and had it stolen?

I'm just after some advise please as to take it with me or not

Thanks
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  #2  
Old 17 Mar 2015
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camera, phone, wallet, computer, vehicle. All invaluable in their own way and all highly stealable.

We are pretty slack with our security and so far have been lucky, but I'd say our time will come.

Refuse to get paranoid about it and do take a few half-hearted precautions regarding backups and having selection of photos and copies of all important documents online.
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  #3  
Old 17 Mar 2015
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Take

On my recent trip around Thailand and Laos I had my MacAir, External hard drive, wallet, GoPro, Montana GPS etc and left my bike all over the place. Even stayed in a village over night and attended a party for hours, my stuff was left in a hut in the village with no lock on the door and remained untouched. You have to be mindful of your valuables but not paranoid

Wayne
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  #4  
Old 15 Apr 2015
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Take what you will use. Do you need a macbook or will a notebook and a bunch of hard drives work like are you editing on the road?

Just be mindful and the rest is luck.
Lock it up and make sure its not an easy target.
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  #5  
Old 6 May 2015
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Hi Mr wood. Like you I already left to Africa, almost at the straight of Gibraltar. I just got my chromebook with me to get online and post pics on a blog. I do have my wallet with me but nothing in there except some money. All my docs will be locked away on my bike the whole time, at least i hope. I do have a fake wallet with me for if I get robbed with some change in it to give quickly. For the rest some old stuff like camera and some sd cards. The less expensive the less it hurts when lost! Cheers
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  #6  
Old 6 May 2015
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Dummy wallets are a good idea for "stick up" robberies. But if the thief has time ... or if you're under arrest, then they might find your "real" wallet and valuables anyway. Just make sure the "real" valuables are well hidden.

I agree about storing valuable pics and document copies on line. Some like money belts, some stash on bike, lots of ways to approach this.

My dummy wallet is fairly convincing ... has local currency, US dollars, some expired Credit cards and old driving license. If it's taken I loose about $50 USD, a bummer, but not end of trip.

Never had to use it ... but I keep enough money in it for day to day expenses (fuel/food). Replenish it from "real" wallet, which is hidden. A PITA, but could save you if robbed.

Hard to hide a lap top and Camera. I think a low cost computer or Tablet is a better idea. Maybe $500 vs. $1500? Camera? No advice. I use a Lumix point and shoot.
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Old 6 May 2015
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I just finished (early) my 3 year trip.
Had expensive camera stuff, computer, hard discs etc. Nothing stolen during the trip (maybe I was just lucky?).

I would be most careful in hostels where are western backpackers. Most of them are nice and good company, but have heard many stories of them stealing stuff...
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Old 7 May 2015
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I travel by car, so I have a bit more space.

I strongly suggest to carry a real Tablet, not just an iPad or similar.

With an microsoft surface or an Macbook Air (or similar) you have a lot more functionality. For bikers the Macbook Air with 11" may be one of the smallest and most powerful solution.

Surfy
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Old 7 May 2015
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Surfy View Post
I travel by car, so I have a bit more space.

I strongly suggest to carry a real Tablet, not just an iPad or similar.

With an microsoft surface or an Macbook Air (or similar) you have a lot more functionality. For bikers the Macbook Air with 11" may be one of the smallest and most powerful solution.

Surfy
If simply doing email, posting up on forums and storing pics, why is anything Microsoft make better than the latest iPad Air 2 for these basic purposes?
What specific functionality do you need (or is absent) beyond what the iPad can do?

The connectivity tech of the latest iPads seems pretty amazing. I guess the Surface is the same ? ... except it's in a language I can't understand and a system that is continually hacked and constantly crashes?

Not being a computer guy and never having learned MS/dos I have no desire to be mired in anything from Bill Gates and company! ... and of course YMMV ...
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Old 7 May 2015
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I struggled with a Windows thing for years, only managing to get it to connect up to hotel wi-fi about one time in ten (even my Kindle managed better than that) so an iPhone was a revelation. It worked (more or less) every time and led me on to looking at iPads. Even in a case the full size one may be a bit fragile for bike travel (we've broken the screen twice in a year) but an iPad mini in a case has survived the last 12 months unscathed. Being small it fits into my bike jacket pocket so not quite so obvious as a laptop

When I have the need / space I have a small bluetooth keyboard for it and that's probably the setup I'll use across the US this autumn. For low level stuff (web searches, email, Skype, blogging etc) it's just as good as the MacBook Pro I'm typing this on and I'm not sure I'll be doing much video editing or Photoshop stills work as I travel.
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  #11  
Old 7 May 2015
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I carried MacBook Pro mainly because I wanted to edit photos and videos.
Another reason why I selected MBP was for it´s aluminium casing = strong.
I had SSD drive on my MBP, no problems at all.

I also carried several hard discs for photos and videos + back-up disc for them.
2-3 HDDs got damaged due to vibration, so I would strongly recommend to carry back-up disc and make those back-ups regularly.
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Old 8 May 2015
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mollydog View Post
...The connectivity tech of the latest iPads seems pretty amazing. I guess the Surface is the same ?...
Yes. My experience has been that the Microsoft Surface Pro (the one that runs the full Windows operating system, not the 'Surface' that runs Windows RT) is perfect for travel. It does everything that a normal full size computer will do, including running applications such as Garmin's MapSource and BaseCamp.

I'm not that familiar with the capabilities of the Apple iPads, but I think that they can do pretty much everything that a traveller would want. There certainly is a big installed base of them out there.

The New York Times (formerly known as the International Herald Tribune) published a very funny article about iPads yesterday, it's worth reading if you would like a smile... even the most dedicated Apple fanboys will appreciate it. Here's the link: Magic for the Modern Child

Michael
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Old 22 May 2015
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I would always buy a second-hand Netbook for a hundred pound and use that for travels. It wasn't as fancy or remotely as nice to work on as a MBP15" but then I can afford to lose a netbook but not a machine that cost over 2k at time of purchase.

For my last trip where weight was a concern I travelled with a USB chargable 40 dollar camera and a usb chargable iPod 32gb, for music and WiFi connectivity (skype, email, e-banking, downloading podcasts to listen to in my tent, the essentials).

I wrote notes on my iPod too and would write or type them up. But then I don't mind so much about blogging and I'm not going to sell or enter any competitions with my photos, so it was a good trade-off in terms of weight and not always worrying about having important stuff go missing.
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  #14  
Old 7 May 2015
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hemuli View Post
I just finished (early) my 3 year trip.
Had expensive camera stuff, computer, hard discs etc. Nothing stolen during the trip (maybe I was just lucky?).

I would be most careful in hostels where are western backpackers. Most of them are nice and good company, but have heard many stories of them stealing stuff...
YES! When traveling off the bike, staying in Hostels, several robberies happened ... and not by locals ... done by other backpackers.
Sad but true.
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