Travel pen with light

Writing in the dark is easy when you've got a pen with a light on it.

When you're on a long bus ride or train ride at night, it can get awfully boring if the lights don't work well enough for reading and it's not time for sleeping. Backpackers making their way around the world run into this all the time--and I encountered this last summer on a $38 train ride in Peru. If you're not going first class, you can't expect bright lights. One solution is a book light of course, if you want to read. But if you just want to write a letter or scribble in your journal, a pen with a light on it can be a godsend.

These light pens range from cheapies you can pick up a trade show and then throw away, to the nice ones with refillable batteries like this one pictured from
Magellan's. The one I have looks more like a regular pen, with just a small light surrounding the tip, but it was a gift before my first round-the-world journey, so I don't know where it came from. It still works though, so maybe keep an eye out at the office supply store or nice pen store.

If you are planning a long period of travel, factor that into your gift requests for holidays, birthdays, or graduation. Fill your list with reasonably-priced, light trinkets like these and you'll be getting things you can actually use instead of another sweater...