{"id":41196,"date":"2023-05-11T02:36:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-11T09:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=41196"},"modified":"2023-05-09T14:38:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-09T21:38:44","slug":"atm-scam-laundry-on-the-road-camera-sling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/atm-scam-laundry-on-the-road-camera-sling\/","title":{"rendered":"ATM Scam\/Laundry on the Road\/Camera Sling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of\u00a0A Better Life for Half the Price<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0The World\u2019s Cheapest Destinations<\/em>. See\u00a0past editions here,<\/a>\u00a0where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal (but Shady) ATM Scam<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Have you been a victim of the “accept conversion” scam becoming more common at ATM machines around the world? With language taken straight out of a shady online marketer’s handbook, the prompt gives you two choices. Either accept the conversion rate they are offering or pick the negative-sounding “deny conversion” or “refuse conversion.” You DO want the negative option though because that gives you the bank rate instead of one that typically puts 10% to 18% of your money in the bank’s pocket by way of a sucker fee that is, unfortunately, perfectly legal since you willfully chose it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Not Difficult to Keep Your Clothes Clean\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I often feel like travelers are operating under outdated or just plain wrong assumptions when they pack for a trip of multiple weeks, a month, or a year. One of those assumptions is that there’s not going to be a place to get laundry washed for a reasonable price. Light packers know there are always<\/em> places to get clothes washed\u2014besides the sink that is\u2014and it’s seldom cost-prohibitive. In many countries it’s often one to three dollars a kilo to drop off laundry and on Airbnb there’s a filtering choice for houses\/apartments that have a washing machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t Stop With an Airbnb Search<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Another assumption, this time among nomads, is that apartment rentals through Airbnb are going to be a better deal than what you can get through a hotel agency site. I just found, once again, that it pays to shop around. The best full apartment with a sea view that I could find on Airbnb for a town in Albania in June was $57 per night and the past guests didn’t exactly seem to love it. Instead I booked a larger apartment on Booking.com<\/a> for $38 per night all-in with a large furnished balcony overlooking a beach. It has a second bedroom with a desk to work at and a washing machine (see above), with rave reviews from past guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hands-free Camera Sling<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I packed pretty well for this current months-long trip in Europe, but when I go on a hike I’m kicking myself for forgetting my camera sling strap. I carry a super-zoom camera<\/a> to be able to frame better, get people shots without getting in someone\u2019s face, and shoot wildlife photos. If you have one of those or a real DSLR, a sling strap is much more comfortable than a camera bag when hiking and you’ve always got it at the ready instead of having to pull it out of a bag every time. Mine was a gift so I can’t remember the brand, but this one with Prime shipping<\/a> is around $17 on Amazon and the competitors seem to top out at about $25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nomadico issue #51<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2385],"tags":[2386],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41196"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41196"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41197,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41196\/revisions\/41197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}