25DollarTravel

I carry an awful lot of things with me on the road. Some items are used on a daily basis and other pieces go unused for weeks at a time.

Now, what’s my most important piece of equipment?

I know that my answer will surprise many of you (believe me, it surprised my as well!). My most important piece of equipment is simply my $15 Casio watch, with an alarm function and a stop watch. That’s it! Now, you may argue, that there are a million things more important than a watch. And you are most certainly right.

For example, I use my one pair of shoes everyday too, but not when I am lying in bed. But that’s also when I check my watch and set my alarm to catch the 4:30 AM bus out of the jungle.

On top of that, I cannot tell you how often my watch saved my from running around in a not-so-safe-at-night neighborhood for too long and then being surprised by a quick nightfall and that creepy feeling of not knowing where the next bus stop is. We all know that in the dark everything looks different.

BTW: Without a feeling for when and how quick it gets dark in a country, this is one of my first questions after arrival – “when does it get dark?” – and I check my watch according to it.

Other times when I was glad to have a watch is during bus and taxi rides. Before I enter any cap, I usually ask a few locals how long the cap ride I am about to do will take. I then tell the driver that I think the ride should take about as long as the locals tell me. With my watch I can time how long we are on the road, get a feeling for the distance between places and ask the driver if we are close to my destination when the time is almost up. You may think that’s being crazy. And I cannot argue with you, but believe me, when it is dark outside and you are in a taxi in a different country, knowing how long a ride took already is a very comforting feeling.

So, to sum things up. If you are like me and never carry a watch with you back home, take a watch with you on your next trip and get used to wearing it. It will save you more than once and also calm you travel-nerves plenty.

Are you wearing a watch when traveling?