As a world traveler you may not have quite the need to dry out as she does:

but drying out may save you some hassle and there are a surprising number of options which will help you pare down the amount of liquids you carry with you. Before the restrictions on liquids started, I prided myself on packing for most trips with carry-on only. In the early days of restrictions of liquids in carry-on luggage there weren’t restrictions but rather an outright ban – so I regressed back to checking luggage and just settled for the mild ordeal of checking & claiming luggage and occasionally having to wait for my bags to be delivered though I’ve had good luck at being placed on the same flights as my baggage, which is really pretty amazing. I once took a job working for an airline – I thought that lost luggage was fairly isolated, but I was dead wrong. Seeing things from behind the scenes made me realize that luggage is lost with great frequency.

Now that baggage surcharges have become the norm and more airlines are adding surcharges for checked luggage it’s time for me to reevaluate my packing habits. True, international flights are currently exempted from these extra fees but maybe you’ve noticed that the price of fuel isn’t going down and airlines aren’t reporting profits – once we’re used to the surcharges and they become an expectation you can bet they’ll be added to international flights as well. Going with no (or very few) liquids should be easy for the traveler who will be staying at a hotel – as you can just use the hotel’s soap & shampoo, but for many of us who travel for extended periods or are gap-year or RTW travelers; well, we’re not sure where we’ll be staying or if the place we end up will have recognizable hygiene products, much less our favored brands. In actually thinking about it my own reluctance to plan on buying things like soap and shampoo on the other end of my flight has more to do with fierce brand loyalty and my doubts that I’ll be able to purchase my favorite brands where I end up than anything, but I’m horribly cheap and will cast those loyalties aside in short order to save a buck or two. The logical solution is to just totally give up on brand loyalty and purchase everything at destination but that comes with its own set of disadvantages – such as arriving at a weird hour and departing to some remote place before any stores open up. Same idea applies if you have a tight connection like a plane that arrives at 5pm and a bus that leaves at 6 – you’re simply not going to have time to go shopping for soap. Another disadvantage to this approach is that it can be wasteful if you were to buy a bottle of shampoo use it for a couple of weeks then ditch the remainder before hopping a flight for somewhere else. A solution worth considering is….well as the title of this article suggests…drying out.

Here is a product which Adam Smith would likely heartily approve of. It’s “paper” shampoo. Here’s a link. While the idea is pure genius and the product is quite interesting – well, it retails for $12.50 for 30 sheets of shampoo. Doesn’t really go too far in the saving money by packing dry department but it gets points for ingenuity though at that price I won’t be buying.

So far as I can tell by browsing the TSA’s evil items list, you are still allowed to bring soap in bar form with you in your carry-on. If that is indeed the case, I may turn to Dr. Bronner’s magic soap. Many of my patchouli smelling friends swear by the stuff (when they bathe) – it must be good if it can wash away that stink. The “magic” in the doc’s soap is that it can be used for soap, shampoo and laundry detergent. Another reason my left-leaning comrades like it so much is that many of the good doctor’s products are certified organic and fair trade. These certifications are beginning to lose their meaning, but that’s a different article and I think the Dr. Bronner products really are the real deal. You can find them here

Rounding out the basic necessities of personal hygiene (non) liquids is toothpaste. A solution for this proved a little tougher to find until I turned to history. Toothpaste in liquidy form hasn’t been around forever you know and save for the British people in most cultures found a way to maintain a reasonable level of dental hygiene without it. For many years baking soda was the product used to clean teeth. Arm & Hammer picked up on this nostalgia several years ago and began marketing toothpaste with baking soda in it. There market share skyrocketed until other manufacturers caught on and started making toothpaste with baking soda in it to compete. The ADA says the benefits of baking soda are negligible or possibly even detrimental. Nonetheless, baking soda provides a solution to being able to clean one’s teeth and travel dry. More and more companies are marketing dry toothpaste or tooth powder – which is essentially baking soda with some sort of flavoring mixed in. It’s quite a bit more expensive than plain baking soda and reviews are mixed concerning the added flavor.

tidbit: In many parts of the world locals use twigs from trees to clean and whiten their teeth.

A note of caution for those who wear braces, fixed dentures or other fixed dental corrector: baking soda will dissolve orthodontic glue. And a note for everyone else, baking soda can wear the enamel off of your teeth. It’s not a good idea to use baking soda as a tooth cleanser for a prolonged period of time. More info

So, for me, it looks like Dr. Bonner’s soap and some baking soda will be replacing my axe and crest. What about you? Any tips to share on drying out?

What do you mean by Alternative Jobs?

Been thinking about checking out of your soul-sucking office job but not ready to completely give up on a steady paycheck? Can’t bear the daily grind and just want to do something different? How about a job in a tropical paradise? There are a myriad of job opportunities available on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.

Much like jobs in Antarctica, the jobs in Kwajalein are geared towards skilled tradespeople and other professionals, but the desired skills are extremely broad and chances are, you have skills that could be applied to a job on Kwajalein.

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Besides living the charmed life on a remote island where the trade winds blow, there are a plethora of other other benefits to working there including company provided transportation, housing and some positions offer company provided meals as well. You may qualify for tax exempt status while working there. Vacation, holidays, and medical/dental insurance are also available to employees. Many of the positions are unaccompanied meaning that if you have a spouse or children, they can’t come with you to Kwajalein but some positions are accompanied. Most positions offered through Kwajalein Range Services are on a 24 month contract basis. I can tell you from personal experience that a job with an end date has many advantages over a full-time permanent position.

Jobs in Kwajalein are in support of the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site. To view current job opportunites, apply or get more information visit KRS

Tips for cheap travel

Traveling costs can be broken down into a few basic categories; primarily transportation, lodging and meals. As a neo-nomad, you probably prefer to travel independently. You don’t want or need to see and do the same things everyone else is doing, but without the convenience of buying all-inclusive packages, how do you budget for your travel and how can you save money yet not compromise your level of comfort?

Budgeting really does boil down to comfort levels. The greater the skeeviness you are willing to put up with, the less money you will spend. For this article, we will assume you wish to minimize your exposure to bodily fluids excreted by others while saving as much money as possible. We’ll try to give tips for the budget-conscious and the ultra-budget traveler.

The first consideration is where to travel. If you’re traveling within the U.S. for example, generally speaking, Florida will have many more bargain opportunities than California. East tends to be less expensive than west. On a global scale, Southeast Asia is much less expensive to travel in than Western Europe. And within North America the obvious budget destination is Mexico (but don’t forget Belize, Costa Rica, Panama and other Central American destinations).

One of the most rewarding and eye-opening travel experiences I have had was to India (destination report coming soon….visit us often). It’s definitely inexpensive and really encompasses what travel is all about.

• tip: check here for the best fares from the U.S. to India Visit India at lowest price !!

Now is a good time to mention that saving money should never be a compromise to your personal safety. For instance, in certain places in South America, Colombia for example, lodging is so inexpensive that one shouldn’t take a chance sleeping outside just to save a few bucks and exposing oneself to potential danger.

Once you have a destination in mind, you can concentrate on how to get the most for your dollar whilst there. Here are some of our favorite tips in the three travel budget categories that we see as non-discretionary.

Transportation:

Forget the rental car. Use public transport. Public transport in the country you are visiting will likely be the least expensive way to get from point a to point b in a timely fashion. Also, you will be able to really experience the culture of the place you are visiting by talking to and interacting with the local laypeople. The bus or train can be a wonderful place to do this. My girlfriend and I, not speaking the local language, had a wonderful interaction with a mother and her young child on a 15 hour nerve-shattering bus ride from hell. Also, there was the time in India when a young boy befriended me on the train ride to the Taj Mahal. My experience was much the richer for having met this boy and his family. They volunteered some great tips for seeing the Taj Mahal that I would have otherwise been oblivious to.

Ultra-budget tip:
Don’t want to spend the money on the bus or train? If you have time to spend, but not the money, consider bicycling or hitchhiking. Think hitchhiking is dangerous? You may be right, but Ben Bachelder, my friend and featured hitchhiker over at digihitch would like to convince you otherwise.

Lodging:

Lodging will typically comprise 50% of your expenses while traveling, thus it is the category which has the most potential for savings. There are many options for budget lodging. This is where you really need to know yourself and know what you will put up with to save a buck.

Hostels are the mainstay of the budget traveler, and they’re not just for kids anymore. Increasingly we’re seeing more and more people in their 40’s staying in hostels. Hostels are also catering more and more to couples – offering private rooms – at a premium price, however (look for our upcoming article on traveling as a couple). Joining a hostelling association can come in handy, as members often get first priority on reservations and lower rates than non-members. Also, if you stay within one network, the quality seems to be relatively stable across each network. One of my favorite features of hostels is the community kitchen. If you will be in one place for more than a couple of days, you can often save big on your food bill by buying groceries and cooking in the kitchen at the hostel. A silk sleeping bag liner is an excellent item to have if you are planning on staying in hostels. It packs small, is light and provides a layer of separation between you and the bed that has been slept in by….who knows?

Couch surfing is a wonderful way to meet people local to the area you are visiting and save money. Visit http://www.couchsurfing.com or http://www.hospitalityclub.org/ to get an idea for how it works – but basically, you contact hosts in the place you are traveling to and ask ‘em if you can crash on their couch. I have used this method a few times myself, and must say, from the viewpoint of saving money and staying in a nice warm place, couch surfing can’t be beat. You should know that there are trade offs to everything though. You never know when your host might turn out to be the crazy cat lady, and you will be obligated to listen to her stories of lunacy until the wee hours of the morning.

Ultra budget tip:
A place to sleep can be found pretty much anywhere you want, but here again, I would point you to Ben Bachelder. He has told tales of sleeping in fire stations, churches and other unlikely places. Also, check out one of my favorites sleeping in airports

Don’t forget camping. This is an especially good low budget option in most of North America and Western Europe but not recommended in Central and South America.

Food:

Where and what to eat involve budgeting of both time and money. As mentioned before, one of the better ways to save money on food is to cook for yourself in the kitchen at a hostel – but at the expense of your time and effort. A compromise is street food. Many people will shy away from street food, thinking they may get sick. I’ve had fairly good luck at avoiding whatever the local name is for “diarrhea” by following a few simple rules. First, never eat raw vegetables. You never know what they were fertilized with. Even if they have been washed, is the water that they are washed in safe? The same goes for fruits. If it’s something you peel ‘n’ eat, then go for it, but fruits that are eaten with the peel on (or they don’t have a peel) cook ‘em first. I always go for the deep-fried option whenever available from street food vendors. I really don’t think many nasties can live through that process. Another indicator of safety when buying food on the street is to look for the vendor which is frequented by the locals; especially if mothers take their children there.

Ultra-budget tip:
The same things that are cheap at home are cheap abroad. Stock up on ramen when you can. It’s light and easy to prepare. You can pick up various items to jazz it up a bit at most local markets just about anywhere in the world.

Have budget tips to share? Leave a comment. Got a question or want to engage in conversations with other budget-conscious travelers? Visit our forum