Keeping organized and "in touch" with your work, friends, and family while on the road can take on many forms. There is the old school method of pen and paper. I've carried a journal and small address book with me around the world. Internet cafes are pretty common wherever I have been: Nepal, India, Thailand, and Laos... beyond the USA. The prices of internet cafes seem to drop. If you are in a city big enough to get away from tourists, you can find internet cafes for locals at $0.50 USD or less. More remote touristy areas like the Everest Base Camp trek, or Ton Sai in Thailand will have some internet for a price! Ton Sai's internet was around $3/hour, which relatively is cheap unless your are on a $5-10/day budget. In Namche Bazaar enroute to Everest, the price was around $1-2USD/minute. Usually printing, scanning, and CD burning are available, though often at tourist prices. The internet cafes are generally Window's based. My last 8 month jaunt to S.E.Asia, I carried a small 1 G USB travel drive. I didn't use it much. My email and blog are web based. I mainly used it when I wanted to work on Reiki Manuals, or if I were checking my online bank accounts, I used the browser on the USB for extra security.
If you only need to check email, there is no reason to bring anything with you. But if you have other work to do, such as writing, or office work, then you might want to consider some other options, such as portable flash drives, PDAs, or a laptop.
Another method is to use web-based services for your addresses, calendar, or simply to store information. For instance I usually save important numbers such as passport, visa, credit card, traveler's cheques in a draft email to myself on a web based email account. I've also emailed myself copies of Reiki manuals and certificates so I can download them and print them as needed if I teach on the road.
The next cheapest and lightest option is a USB travel drive. You can find 2 Gig models for well under $50 USD. If you have a camera, you might just get extra memory cards and a USB card reader. The USB drive will allow you to carry your data with you. I've used "U3" drives which come with proprietary software on them. U3 is a common platform for certain software applications that can travel on your travel drive. Another platform is PortableApps (http://portableapps.com) with a range of free open source software. The advantage of this is that you can have your photo editor, website builder, spreadsheet, wordprocessor, etc. software with you! You can also carry a web browser with all your favorites loaded. You can't always count on the internet cafes to have MS Word, or Adobe Photoshop, or.... whatever software you use. Carrying your own software on your USB drive will ensure you can open your documents when you need to. You can also get programs that store your important travel information in secure electronic form. By the way, security programs are also available to provide protection against viruses and spyware. Internet cafes can be havens for viruses and trojans, etc.
The amazing thing I have just discovered is the availability of good, free software. PortableApps.com is amazing! Mozilla Firefox internet browser's are available, along with Thunderbird email manager. PortableApps.com has a openoffice.org suite that parallels Microsoft Office with spreadsheet, database, word processor, graphic editor, etc. And these programs can read Microsoft's versions of your documents! There is even a free chat interface called Pidgin that can work with your AIM and Yahoo Messenger accounts. If you are concerned about covering your data trail, there are programs designed to leave no trace of your doings on the host computer. Check out Democrakey. You can also carry your own photo editor and uploader for managing your digital photos. Ifranview is a decent batch photo processor for resizing photos.
The U3 platform has quite a few free listings, but also many programs that you can buy. I've read mixed reviews about the U3 platform. So far I've enjoyed it and found it works OK.
Right now I have a Sandisk Micro 4G U3 travel drive, and I plan to get a cheap Kingston Traveler 4G for $25! It's likely not the fastest drive, but I can back up my other drive with it. I'm really excited that I can carry all my writings, addresses, and important documents with my favorite software on a thing smaller than my thumb! I'll put the two drives in an old pill bottle for protection. And will email documents to myself for backup.
If you can't bare the idea of going to an internet cafe whenever you need to write or do computer work, then you might consider a PDA or a laptop. You can find an old Palm 125 that works off of AA batteries and has an SD card slot for less than $75 USD. You could use a "smart phone", though if you want to use the phone without paying outlandish roaming charges, you need one with a replaceable SIM card. That and a portable keyboard could be a good way of writing on the road. You could save the documents on the SD card and use an USB card reader to get the documents onto the computer. If you save them in RTF format, then you could read them with most any program on the computer. That would save carrying synchronization software with you and having to download that onto the computer.
If you really want to, you can also carry a laptop. People do it. Some swear by it... saying they can edit their photos, listen to music, write, edit videos... all in the comfort of their own room! It depends how much you want to work on it and how much you are willing to carry. Also, it depends how heavy your laptop is. So far, I haven't felt the need.
If you want a cheap small laptop, check out the Asus Eee PC. At $400 UDS and the size of a paperback, it seems like a great option. It's between PDA and a PC in functionality.
Resources:
Asus Eeee PC http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24
PortableApps: http://PortableApps.com
U3: http://U3.com
Democrakey: http://sourceforge.net/projects/democrakey/
Free Portable Software: http://portablefreeware.com
Traveling with a Palm: http://www.moxon.net/travel_tips/travelling_with_a_palmtop.html
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