The Inova X5 flashlight is the one we carry everywhere. Here’s why. A flashlight is one of those travel items that you never seem to think of until you need one. And we here at WoWasis always need one when we’re exploring old jungle temples and ancient Buddhist caves at dusk. Our flashlight requirements are […]
Read the rest of this entry »Archive for the 'Shopping & Fashion' Category
WoWasis travel clothing review: The incredible Tilley T3 hat
Here at WoWasis, we are famous for wrecking clothes that are deemed unwreckable. We’ve been traveling with Alex Tilley’s durable, fashionable, and versatile T3 Tilley Hat for years. At $80 USD, it’s expensive for a cotton duck hat, but amortized over the two decades we’ve worn it, packed it, scrunched and crunched it, the damn thing […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis field test: the tiny but durable Utra-Sil day pack miniaturizes to 2×3 inches
So here’s the dilemma as we see it here at WoWasis: you’re traveling overseas, have one piece of big luggage, another smaller padded one for your netbook/tablet computer, which also holds a book or two. You know you’ll want to take a daypack overseas too, because you’ll be running around, and don’t want to take […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis field test: the durable, inexpensive Nokia 1280 phone for Asia
The Nokia 1280 is a durable, inexpensive, and well-designed phone that we recommend, especially for use in Asia
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis travel clothing, accessories, and gadget reviews: why we field test
Here at the WoWasis Travel eStore, we like to rigorously test the items we promote. We wear them, use them, and beat the living hell out of them. We’ve had shirts shredded by African bush thorns, cameras sullied by Javanese volcanic dust, phones wrecked by falls. We even had a shirt destroyed by sulfuric acid fumes […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis travel clothing review: Eagle Creek Money Belt
Here at WoWasis, we wuz robbed. But the Eagle Creek All-Terrain money belt saved all our money, because the robber never knew it was a money belt. That’s why we recommend it, and here’s the story. Savvy travelers that we are, we still got a date-rape drug snuck into our beer at an outdoor ad […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis travel clothing review: EcoSox hiking socks
Here at WoWasis, we’ve burned through many a pair of hiking socks. We’re not easy, either. We’re active in burning deserts, teeming jungles, and rubble-strewn urban streets and roadsides. Our socks have to be tough, have to wick away moisture, and provide a good deal of cushioning to avoid blistering. And they have to be […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis book review: Brian Mertens’ Bangkok Thai Ideas in Design
We here at WoWasis have been fans of Bangkok Fashion for a decade now. One of the city’s strengths is in having a culture that embraces the arts, and she is particularly strong in fashion and design, the latter of which includes progressive home furnishings. Brian Mertens’ spiffy coffee table book, Bangkok: Thai Ideas in […]
Read the rest of this entry »WoWasis on censored & pirated books in Vietnam: Why you’ll probably want to buy elsewhere
Want to buy books while traveling in Vietnam? While you’ll have no problem finding books on Vietnamese art and culture in its many bookstores, you’ll find almost nothing on its wars, politics, or society, and precious little Vietnam-related fiction. The two main reasons for this are governmental restrictions on imported literature, and the prevalence of […]
Read the rest of this entry »In memory of Caryl Olivieri, Bangkok furniture designer and artisan
We at WoWasis originally found furniture designer Caryl Olivieri on the top floor of his Artitude shop at Bangkok’s Gaysorn shopping complex. We were impressed by the designer’s bold, colorful furniture uses of traditional rattan, but with a new twist: it was woven into fine strips, and molded in contours that snake around cushions, armrests, […]
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