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...

Buzz Off Hat

Last summer I went on a trip up to a state park in Kentucky. This woman I met there was raving about this hat she was wearing around and said it had built-in mosquito repellant. "I've washed it four times now and it still works great!" she chirped.

I was skeptical, but when I saw the hats go on sale, I snatched one up and took it with me on a recent safari trip to Africa. I wore it for five days and have to say, didn't get one bite. Was it the hat, or just my badass aura? Since I get annoying bites on the forehead or cheek all the time at home, I'll have to chalk it up to the former. I'm sold enough to go stock up on a shirt and pants. They even make socks, which would be especially handy when moving through malarial zones.

I only had one problem with it: when it came to big fat buzzy African flies, it was no help at all. No cure for that yet I suppose. Unlike the hippos and zebras though, I could say goodbye to the flies after a few days...

BUZZ OFF Clothing at ExOfficio.com

Free Shipping on Outdoor Clothing at Backcountry.com

Indiglo Watches - A Good Match for Travelers

An article in paper a few weeks ago noted that casual wristwatch sales were down 10 to 15 percent last year. The reason? People carry their cell phone everywhere and the time is always correct, so a watch becomes less important. This is especially true with youngsters, who are starting to see a watch as some anachronism from their parent's generation. "That's all it does--tell time. Can you believe that?!" In a world where an electronic device is expected to multi-task out of the box, this humble little thing seems terribly unambitious.

If you're traveling through developing countries however, riding a bus along a cliff in the Andes, for instance, that cell phone you're carrying might as well be a paperweight in your pocket. If you're out camping in the wild, anything that relies on a signal to give you the time isn't going to work.

If you're a traveler, a watch is still useful. My favorite wrist companion is a Timex Indiglo. I've been through a few now, so I guess I can't say a long life is their strength. However, you can buy one for less than $40, so it's not going to ruin your day if one gives out after a few years.

These things are rugged and they light up at night. That's all they do, but it's a good trick. When you're bumping along on a sleeper train trying to figure out how much time until daybreak, a button lights up the watch face, no fumbling for a light source required. When you're trying to figure out how many minutes of annoying commercials you've sat through at the movie theater, no need to have that cell phone on. The light can even be, well, a light. I've used it to locate a set of keys or a wall light switch.

Search through some Indiglo watches here.