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Laptop while traveling?

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wonderboy416

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I'm going to be heading off to Thailand on Saturday (Bangkok 2 nights, then Phuket for 3 then back to Seoul). I am not really bringing anything, just a pair of shorts, some tshirts, socks/underwear and my toothbrush and electric shaver. I'm gonna pick up some swim trunks and sandals there. I have a medium sized swiss army backpack that has a padded laptop compartment. I wasn't going to bring it.. but since there's plenty of real estate in my bag I'm now thinking I might want to. It's going to be a 6-7 hour flight and the airplane will have outlets. Both hotels we'll be staying in aren't of the shady variety and both have wi-fi. I was originally going to make due with just my mp3 player and ds.. but I'm thinking it might be worth it for the plane there and back alone to bring it with me...

Am I crazy? Has anyone had any bad experiences traveling with one? It will spend most of the time in my bag, in the hotel.. but will be nice to whip out in bed at night to load up pictures... check my email and stay in touch... not to mention provide entertainment. It's my only computer but any important data I can throw onto a memory card and keep it here just in case.

It's unnecessary and purely a luxury to bring it.. but I'm thinking it might be a nice one to have. Am I nuts? It's not like I'm going backpacking.. Just going to explore bangkok for a few days and lay on a beach drinking fruity cocktails the other 3 :) What do you travelers do? I'm just poser having only been to the US and Taiwan...
 
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I have taken my laptop to the US several times, Europe a couple of times, but decided taking it to Peru would not be a great idea, maybe more for the style of the trip...

Everything turned out fine each time, but I do find myself worrying about it from time to time. If you do take it, remember to do a full back-up before leaving!

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I have one of those cheapo mini PC's that I take travelling with me. It doesn't have the horsepower of a full laptop, but it lets me sort photos and check e-mail and do basic tasks. If I break it I don't care, if it gets stolen it doesn't have any personal information on it, and it only takes up a third the space of a laptop.
 
Yeah, I bought a Dell mini netbook for occasions like this. Small, light, runs most things pretty well. (You won't be playing games on it, but why would you want to while traveling?) And given that it was only $400ish (and not my main machine), it wouldn't be the end of me if it were to get stolen or broken.
 
Bring a lock. Go nuts.
Click to expand...

Lock it to something in the hotel room? Wouldn't that call more attention to it then packing it away into my backpack?

Thanks for your input.. I'm still undecided as it's my primary computer, although I can back everything up, it would still be a royal PITA (pain in the..) if I had to replace it. Which I had a cheap netbook now.
 
I had a bad experience in LA. I headed for the Hollywood hills which turned out weren't really meant to be a tourist attraction. It's very difficult to get any good closeup view unless you own a million dollar home facing the sign.

This was pre-iPhone era which is now like a mini laptop with GPS so I took my laptop with me. It came in real handy when I was driving around hunting for a place to see the sign up close using Google Maps.

A security guard saw me with my camera in tow and looking at maps on my laptop and offered advice on how to get to the sign. There's a park at the base of the hill and you can then climb up and get very very close to the sign. Great!

I followed the instructions on how to get to this park, and found it to be a very safe looking place: women walking their dogs, kids playing in a playground.

So I put my laptop in its bag and into the trunk, grabbed my camera and off I went.

I began climbing the hill and it got steeper and steeper. At one point, I was at a 45º angle. If I looked back, I got vertigo! I then began to see "WARNING: Rattle snakes" signs every so often. I was up too high to turn back now.

About 30 minutes into my climb, I reached the plateau and voilá!! The Hollywood sign! I got some excellent pics of the sign and of myself in front of it. Perfect...

The climb down now seemed impossible. I couldn't go down the same way I came up. I found a different route and eventually returned to my car, an hour after I had left it.

I saw the broken glass and my heart sunk. I opened the trunk and everything was gone. Luggage, bag, laptop, passport, return plane ticket.

The story gets even more interesting from here but I'll get right to the point. If this is your main laptop and you couldn't afford to lose it, don't travel with it, specially to cities known for high crime and poverty rates.

Get a smartphone like the iPhone or BlackBerry bold as they serve as great travel companions as portable computers for surfing the web, using maps and GPS and communicating with people back home... or just buy a cheapo netbook.

I was indeed prudent enough to back up before I left on my trip so all I lost were photos from that vacation.

I'll skip the juicy details and tell you the conclusion of the story: It was in a dream, months later that I figured out the scam:

Tourists routinely look for a way to get to the Hollywood sign. I found my best vantage point on travel forums, in comments posted by locals.

Well, a scammer can post those comments to draw people to a particular street aaaaand a security guard's uniform can be purchased at any costume shop (specially in Hollywood! You could get a full fledged LAPD outfit!) to come across as a trusted person.

The security guard directed me to the park knowing that I'd take at least an hour to scale the hill and return, giving him plenty of time to let me drive ahead and then drive there himself. He knows my car, he saw my laptop. Easy break in, easy profit. Brilliant scam.
 
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How enterprising!
 
Indeed... and I'm sure there will be the Thai equivalent of "I'm the baggage handler. Let me help you with that.... RUUUUUUNN!!!" Leave your laptop at home. UrbanToronto will be that much more entertaining when you get to read a week or two's worth of news. :)

By the time I get back from my trip in mid August, CityTV will have begun moving into their new HQ, Toronto Life Square will have been purchased by a rich investor who sees the potential of the place and 1 Bloor E. will have been taken over by a developer who intends on building a gleaming 1000 footer.
 
Never had a problem with anything in Thailand (other than tuk tuk drivers - which I avoid like the plague), but I do stay in a fairly well off area in Bangkok when I am there (Mayfair Marriott Executive Suites Serviced Apartments). The only recommendation is not to "pack" the laptop since there have been some incidents at the airport.

Next time I plan to bring a mac mini, two monitors and my laptop :eek:
 
I'm here.. safe and sound... no laptop.
I kinda wish I had it but the hotel has a laptop.

btw.. if you're going to Bangkok I can't recommend this hotel eough, it's called Park Plaza Hotel. it's right smack downtown (by Asok sky-train station) and is far better than any 5-star hotel I've ever stayed. The rooftop pool/excercise room is nice, standard wi-fi (would be nice if I had my laptop lol), free internet use computers, free breakfast (and snacks all day), amazing bed, big lcd with a dvd player in the room, amazing bellhops who don't want tips, everyone speaks perfect english and the hotel is squeeky clean and very secure (they have a close eye on everyone who comes in.. I imagine part of it is to keep out the prostitutes who lurk in one of Bangkok's most notirious streets 3 mintues away). It's much cheaper than the big-name hotels here too.

Ok end of my rant.. still wish I had the laptop :( Time to hit the town again tho! :)
 
I was debating about taking my laptop with me to Chile, but I came to the conclusion it's really not worth the risk, especially as it's my main computer. Although wi-fi is offered at both places I'm staying at in Santiago and Portillo (ski resort), there's also internet cafes and lounges there too to check e-mail every 3 or 4 days and get my UT fix. One less thing to worry about and lug around, my snowboard gear is enough as it is.
 
I take my laptop with me wherever I go, including the third world. I've never had a problem. I don't have to worry about baggage handlers either, since it's usually in my carry-on.
 
^That's not very good. I don't even have a low-power consumption laptop and I get 6.5h.
 
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