Long-gone are the days when travel meant tying your belongings neatly in a hankerchief, securing it to the end of a stick and casually slinging it over your shoulder.

These days travel means gadgets, and travel gadgets can be highly technical, including essentials like MP-whatsits on mobile hoo-hahs, with GPRS thing-oes.

Do you have a favourite travel gadget? What do you never travel without?

Jenni Kauppi

OK, I have to admit it: I’m hardly a beer connoisseur. I know what I like and what goes down well on a hot tropical afternoon, but I’m certainly far from as critical as the folks on Ratebeer.com.

That said, I found Vietnamese beers to be an incredibly pleasant surprise. Apart from bia hoi (fresh draught beer), which you can get on almost any street corner for a few cents, there are several national breweries that produce a fine drop. Here’s my take, in order of preference:

1. Huda - Native to Hue, the old imperial capital, Huda is cheap, clean, thoroughly refreshing, and complex enough to sip slowly (if you have the self-control). A huge thumbs-up.

2. Bia Hue - Very similar to Huda, and brewed by the same company, this is a pale lager that sucks up your thirst magnificently. Harder to find than Huda.

3. Bia Ha Noi - North beats South in the battle of Vietnam’s ‘two capitals’. Hanoi’s brew is golden, fizzy and eminently drinkable. It lacks the richness of its Hué counterparts, but it has no bitter aftertaste and sports a pleasant, malty flavour.

4. Bia Sai Gon - Ho Chi Minh City’s answer to Bia Ha Noi, Bia Sai Gon is darker, more honeyed and less carbonated. It’s better for a cool, breezy evening than after a hot day spent dodging scooters.

5. Halida - Produced in North Vietnam under the supervision of Carlsberg, Halida is an OK drop. Cheaper than chips and almost as uncarbonated, Halida can leave a full feeling in your stomach and a slightly bitter aftertaste. It’s a fine accompaniment to spring rolls or bun, though.

6. Bia Festival - Easily the worst of the three big Hué beers, Festival is overpriced and slightly sour. Go for Huda instead.

7. Bia 333 - Pronounced ‘ba ba ba’ (don’t ask me about tones!), 333 might not be quite as poor as Festival, but the weight of expectation sends it to the bottom of the list. It’s supposedly an ‘export-quality’ beer, but it’s horribly disappointing. If you want full flavour, go for Sai Gon; if you want a great balance, go for Huda.

Again, these are just the opinions of a complete dilettante. Anyone been to Vietnam who can recommend better/other beers, or improve this list?

– Vivek Wagle

Let’s do the Time Warp again

It’s not hard to be a bit of a sophisticate these days. Most people know a shiraz from a cab sav and can wax lyrical on the pleasures of a lovely, room temperature, washed-rind cheese. But some days, it can all get a bit much and you feel the need to turn your back on gourmet gentrification in favour of simpler times. In some of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities, you can still find time-warped treasures doling out old school rissoles, instant coffee or greasy fried eggs while all around them, foams and foie gras abound. I respect the grim militancy of Sydney’s ancient Oceanic Café, adore the homespun rudeness of Melbourne’s Scheherazade. I have traced my initials in the greasy film adorning the laminex tabletops of London’s New Piccadilly and chowed down on the signature tuna salad sandwich with pickles at New York’s Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop, which proudly, prophetically sports a sign that reads ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.

Care to share any of your favourite time-warp eateries?

- Nancy Drool

Shameless voyeurism or educational experience? Opinions on slum tourism (or ‘poorism’ as it’s sometimes called) tend to swing between these two extremes, provoking passionate arguments on both sides. Organised tours through a city’s shanty towns certainly show visitors a side of their destination that official tourism bodies and guidebooks don’t, but at what cost?

Although slum tourism takes place in many of the world’s large cities, the favela tours of Rio de Janeiro are probably the best known exponents of this controversial travel trend. With the popularity of films like City of God and TV series like City of Men - not to mention the whole concept of ‘favela chic’ - it seems foreign travellers can’t get enough of slumming it with the locals.

And now you can even meet a bonafide drug dealer as part of your ‘authentic’ favela experience. OK, is it just me, or is this taking things a little too far? I can’t help feeling that it’s an insult to the thousands of favela-dwellers who are just trying to get by the best they can without succumbing to corruption or violence…

What are your thoughts on favela tours? Akin to ogling animals in a zoo, or a chance to really connect with Rio’s less privileged residents?

- Suzy Watusi

Fancamp has been set-up to cater to football fans who will gather all over Europe to witness the first ‘All England’ Champions league final between Chelsea and Man United. It promises secure, convenient accomodation with bonuses including in-house hair & make-up artists and ‘fairly-priced’ beer.

The actual digs are a little spartan: somewhere between a monk’s cell and a polling booth.

Keep in mind, the game is being played in Moscow, Fancamp is in Vienna.

The Viennese are obviously keen to avoid Manchester’s fate at the hands of Rangers fans watching the Uefa cup final last week.

This all got me thinking. If it’s alright for football fans, why not other types of travellers? One of these could cater to young Aussies in London - they all live in crowded sharehouses, why not set-up a giant sharehouse along the lines of the FanCamp model.

FanCamp: cramped hellhole or budget accomodation solution?

If you’re worried about the hobbit-sized ecological footprint you leave every time you jet off to discover the world, you may be interested to know about ‘carbon offset’ companies, like Carbonfund.org who’ll repent your sins for a nominal fee.

Hey, with all those new low-cost airlines, there may just be an opening in your travel budget.

What’s your experience of carbon offset travel?

Jenni Kauppi

Whoa, tiger. Take those skates off. Put those brakes on.
Slow down!
Whistle-stop tours don’t get you anywhere but worn out and ticked off. There’s something to be said for radically simplifying your itinerary. Base yourself in just one or two places - hang out, find a favourite place to buy fruit and have coffee, get to know the locals, live a little.
The movement is growing - more and more people are seeing the sense of getting off the carousel, listening to the senses again, savouring, taking time. Find a rental instead of a hotel, get off planes and cut down your carbon footprint, or just take a good, long quaff of the roses.
What’s your travelling speed?

Cyclone Nargis, which tore across southern Myanmar’s delta region last week and left (per a UN estimate) one million in need of aid, could hardly have found a nation less prepared to deal with such a disaster. Even before the storm, groups like Refugees International, were calling the situation a ‘humanitarian crisis.’ Of the world’s poorest 50 nations, Myanmar is last in terms of per-person aid - about US$3 compared to an average of US$58.

The political obstacle courses that followed have been heart-breaking to see. While bodies floated in rivers and flooded fields, the Myanmar generals denied visas from aid groups (a week later only 34 of 100 UN applicants had been approved, according to a New York Times article), the frustrated UN briefly discontinued support, and the first Red Cross boat carrying aid into the wrecked delta area sank. The first US planes carrying supplies - made available the day after the storm (far quicker time than during the Katrina fiasco, it must be said) - were only allowed to land in Yangon a week later, after a previously scheduled referendum vote took place on Saturday. Apparently absent from the discussions as potential mediators were Asean or China, both of whom have favourable relationships with the government.

Fortunately many makeshift ‘DIY’ groups of Yangon locals didn’t wait for outside help. A local friend in Yangon emailed me a few days after the cyclone, saying ‘I and everyone in Yangon are not yet recovered from the shock. We were very scared.’ Yet the same day, he had formed in informal group with his co-workers to get basics like rice and clean water to those who need it, quick. ‘We formed a small team and help the poor area in town as much as we can, but 90% of the infrastructure is down. Roads are still blocked with big trees and lamp-posts and wire cables and big signboards.’

He’s not alone in the efforts. He says he’s seen other spontaneously assembled groups helping, including local NGOs and religious groups. Each day they’re able to reach farther into the delta, distributing what they can: ‘clean water, glucose powder and tables, biscuits, t-shirts, local sarongs and blankets, plastic sheets.’

He explains, ‘We’ve gradually reached more remote areas as far as Latputta by boat, and Bogale, another seriously hit area.’ (This is the same village that, according to a New York Times article Tuesday, that the military wouldn’t allow Doctors Without Borders’ officials there to hand out supplies or visit the hospital.)

Many aid organisations are accepting donations, including Medicins Sans Frontier and Australian Aid International.

- Robert Reid (author Myanmar Lonely Planet guide)

At least 63 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded after a series of eight bomb blasts tore through the historic old town of the Indian city of Jaipur, capital of Rajasthan state, at around 7.15pm local time Tuesday night. The bombs went off near several heavily touristed sites, including the Hawa Mahal (Palace of the Winds) and Johri Market.

Officials have imposed a citywide curfew in response to the bombings.

Known as the ‘pink city’ for its ochre-pink forts, palaces and city walls, Jaipur is an extremely popular tourist stop about 260km from Delhi.

See what travellers are saying on the India branch of the Thorn Tree forum or head to the BBC for the latest news and to view the devastation in pictures.