It’s been quite a pleasure asking people what they find most valuable to travel with in their backpack. I find everything between simple travel essentials to more personal travel pieces that hold a sentimental value. This weeks’ piece is on a beautiful German man named Lassie (or Lasse), either way I couldn’t pronounce it properly and he said that it made his name sound like “that dog”, so I simply called him “Las”.

For Las, the most important item he travels with is his Ipod. He explains it simply by saying, “it’s a comfort thing for me, no matter where I am or what I’m doing I can always enter my own world of my music and feel right at home”. He also makes the point that there’s no better way to ride a motorcycle down the road than with your tunes of choice playing as the background music as you drive up rolling hills, past rice terraces, and along the shore of the Pacific Ocean. I really couldn’t agree more with Las on this point. Not only is your music a way for you to relax, zone out, and enjoy the company of your own thoughts, but for long bus rides, plane rides, and anything else that tends to be loud and chaotic and takes up a lot of your time, having an Ipod truly does allow you to relax, drift away a bit, and maybe even get some sleep (with the help of a Gravol or two)!

Travelling with expensive items is always a little risky since you could lose them or have them stolen. However, a smartphone with a music player is always an essential since it’s portable, multi-functional, a good way to pass travel time, and allows you to connect at any wifi zone.