Travel Murse

I always often get picked on about my murse (“male purse”), being gay, whether I’m keeping my testicles in it and so forth. But all jokes aside, which are quite warranted, there just aren’t enough belts, holsters, pockets and hands to hold and carry all the junk I typically use when I’m away from the desk for a few hours.

Skinny jeans are getting tighter and glocks are getting bigger. Gotta compromise.

So I had an interesting conversation while traveling with folks that are carrying around backpacks about the contents of the murse so here is what I have in mine when I’m traveling:

• Paper copy of all my travel documents – drivers license, passport, one or two credit cards. I don’t like lugging around original documents because they are both bulky and I don’t want to lose them so they stay in the hotel safe.
• Address and map of the hotel I’m staying at. Cause Google Maps will kill your iPhone battery faster than you can drop the phone on the ground.
• Backup iPhone… or two. See above comment about dropping it.
• Portable battery, cables.
• iPod Shuffle and headphones. Because sometimes it gets boring.
• Snack ziplock bag. For change. Because if you keep your iPhone and your change in the pocket you may as well just put your screen into a blender.
• Foreign language cheat sheet. Emergency contact information.
• Baby wipes. Cause third world.
• Tic tacs.
• Tickets, passes, etc. Nothing will get you robbed faster than fumbling around with your wallet full of cash while trying to find a ticket, bus pass, etc. I keep my $ in a belt and ID/tickets/passes in my wallet.

It deters pickpockets more than walking out of an all you can eat buffet in skinny jeans – when you have stuff in front and back pockets and go into a crowded bus/line/market you’ve got a lot of places someone can hit. With a murse, you just need to keep a good grip on one thing. Cause you no longer have to worry about your manhood. If you’re really paranoid, you can just loop it into your shirt.

To a life well traveled.