Mine is a small bottle of liquid bandage. It stays in my toiletries, can go through that, and is superior to most bandages!
A roll of ‘for rectal use only’ stickers.
I carry a box of assorted googly eyes. I’ll see you out there, fam.
Ooh, that does remind me. I bring wet wipes, for rectal use only.
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.
Gotta have your TOOLS
you like Huey Lewis and the News?
Nothing sus about that
Does this smell like chlorof…
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.
You sound like one hoopy frood
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
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.
That’s a great idea!
I dunno, I’ve stayed in a few moist ones.
I guess it depends on where you go, what time of year it is, and the type of heating system used.
Cold weather + non-radiant heating =
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
Binder clips to bind the curtains together. Sometimes hotels have hangers with pants clips on them, for everywhere else? Binder clips.
Tea. A lot of hotels have tea and coffee making facilities, but a horrible selection of teas.
What out companies founder took along in his hotel bag had been interesting, too. He always had a 100W light bulb (back when they were common), as hotels used crappy, low wattage bulbs in the room. He just switched them for his own 100W bulb so he could actually see something. He switched it back when he left. The other important thing was a set of plumbing tools, so he could remove the pressure reduction from the showers.
I think this one wins the thread. Plumber tools are quite non-standard
As was the old boss.
Coffee making gear, so hand grinder, tiny scales, and either a tricked out picopresso or an aeropress or my wave dripper. I pick based on what sort of coffee beans I am expecting to be able to pick up where I go.
Get yourself a small hotplate and a moka pot if you like thick coffee. Add a milk frother and your choice of milk (I like oat milk in coffee), and sweeten with brown sugar and top with cinnamon.
It is heaven.
I use a foldable cone, and a dual voltage kettle. I’m thinking of adding a vial of electrolytes and minerals to add to distilled water. Many places I travel have absolutely terrible water, and water makes a big difference!
On the last camping trip I was on, someone brought a small coffee maker. Absolute genius. If you think that shitty instant coffee is a god-send when the local wildlife wakes you up after 5h of sleep, the imagine that with a real coffee.
Shoe horn, thermoplastic.
A shoe horn is a good idea. What’s thermoplastic?
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.
Cool!
What’s thermoplastic?
Hot Glue
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.
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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 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.
Liquid bandages?
I didn’t realize liquid got injured enough to have a product like this.
Yeah, they’re like bandages, only liquid.
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.
Vaseline. Is that non-standard? It doubles as lip balm and for those really dry patches of skin that come around (currently in Japan and it’s been dry af). Or even for small cuts, or used as hand cream.
Also can be used as a fire starter (for camping, just to clarify!).
My grandparents ruined Vaseline for me. I will gladly carry multiple things to never use that stuff again.
Oh boy. Please explain. 😬
Chapstick, hand lotion, balms anything but Vaseline.
Why did your grandparents ruin Vaseline for you? Sorry, I wasn’t clear. Just wondering what kind of detriments I could be doing to myself by using Vaseline.
They put it on me. That was all it took i guess. Maybe it was just that i don’t like the stuff. It was like a jar of snot that smelled. Still gives me the ick. I’m 41.
I hear ya. I’m not a fan of the smell either, but for what I use it for, it works wonders. I also use Lucas Paw Paw when I can. It smells way nicer.
