I Have the Power!
Jan. 12th, 2024 07:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerAustralia Travelog #43
Leura, NSW - Sat, 30 Dec 2023, 9pm
As Hawk and I settle down in our hotel room this evening with our computers open and our phones and my camera recharging— our standard evening practice— I realize that all this week I've neglected to talk about the simple technology that makes it easy to use all these electronics: power adapters.
Yes, power adapters are a critical bit of kit that any serious world traveler needs. Go without and you're at the mercy of whatever adapters are available in your hotel. For example, the Hilton we stayed at in Sydney's central business district this week had an outlet that could accommodate two-prong US and EU plugs... but just one outlet, and it was 240v (not all devices designed for 110v can handle the voltage change), and it had no grounding pin. Oh, and it was in the bathroom. I've played the can-my-computer-cable-reach-from-the-bathroom game before. It's not fun.
It's not hard to plan ahead to get a power converter. I mean, you just have to plan ahead. You don't even have to shop a specialty store anymore; Amazon has dozens of options. All the options boil down to two basic kinds: universal adapters, and country-specific adapters.
Universal adapters, like the one shown in the photo above, are the pick of a lot of globe-trotters. They're handy for people who go a lot of places and never know where they'll be sent next month. By pulling those black levers on the side you can pop out 5 or 6 different types configurations of prongs. These bad boys work in probably hundreds of countries.
There are drawbacks, though. For one, they're big. That's a problem not just for packing them but also for plugging them in. The space around the outlet isn't always huge. Another drawback is they only provide one electrical outlet. What do you do in 2023 when you've got a laptop or maybe two, a tablet, a smartphone, a camera, and a shaver? And what do you do when you're a family traveling together? Bringing a power strip to plug in to the adapter is a lot of extra bulk to pack.
Instead, for this trip, we bought these simple adapters. They just convert a US plug to Australia/New Zealand/Fiji, that's all. But that's all we need for this trip. They were cheap, so we bought three. And they're compact, so tossing 3 in our bags took less space than that one universal adapter. And we have three. That means Hawk can be stretched out on the bed with one plugged in at her night stand for her devices; I'm sitting in the armchair with one over here; and there's still a spare for recharging things on the desk.
Leura, NSW - Sat, 30 Dec 2023, 9pm
As Hawk and I settle down in our hotel room this evening with our computers open and our phones and my camera recharging— our standard evening practice— I realize that all this week I've neglected to talk about the simple technology that makes it easy to use all these electronics: power adapters.
Yes, power adapters are a critical bit of kit that any serious world traveler needs. Go without and you're at the mercy of whatever adapters are available in your hotel. For example, the Hilton we stayed at in Sydney's central business district this week had an outlet that could accommodate two-prong US and EU plugs... but just one outlet, and it was 240v (not all devices designed for 110v can handle the voltage change), and it had no grounding pin. Oh, and it was in the bathroom. I've played the can-my-computer-cable-reach-from-the-bathroom game before. It's not fun.
It's not hard to plan ahead to get a power converter. I mean, you just have to plan ahead. You don't even have to shop a specialty store anymore; Amazon has dozens of options. All the options boil down to two basic kinds: universal adapters, and country-specific adapters.
Universal adapters, like the one shown in the photo above, are the pick of a lot of globe-trotters. They're handy for people who go a lot of places and never know where they'll be sent next month. By pulling those black levers on the side you can pop out 5 or 6 different types configurations of prongs. These bad boys work in probably hundreds of countries.
There are drawbacks, though. For one, they're big. That's a problem not just for packing them but also for plugging them in. The space around the outlet isn't always huge. Another drawback is they only provide one electrical outlet. What do you do in 2023 when you've got a laptop or maybe two, a tablet, a smartphone, a camera, and a shaver? And what do you do when you're a family traveling together? Bringing a power strip to plug in to the adapter is a lot of extra bulk to pack.
Instead, for this trip, we bought these simple adapters. They just convert a US plug to Australia/New Zealand/Fiji, that's all. But that's all we need for this trip. They were cheap, so we bought three. And they're compact, so tossing 3 in our bags took less space than that one universal adapter. And we have three. That means Hawk can be stretched out on the bed with one plugged in at her night stand for her devices; I'm sitting in the armchair with one over here; and there's still a spare for recharging things on the desk.
