Saturday
Dec192009
December 19, 2009 Here's why you take a flashlight
Eurostar train passengers where trapped in the Chunnel for hours - some in complete darkness. It seems the high-tech trains couldn’t handle the temperature differential between frigid France and the warm Channel tunnel and broke down, four in a row. And the poor passengers had to organize their own escape. This sounds like a good reason to have one small bag and a good flashlight.
OBOW Fourm post: Is a flashlight really that important while traveling?
Reader Comments (6)
Flashlight is a must, IMO. Self-sufficiency trumps weight, on that one. Little pinch type LED ones are fine. I also think this is an age issue. The older you are, the more you'll need it. I also take a little LED night light for help finding my way from the bed to the toilet in the middle of the night. I've seen people use their cell phone display as a flashlight. Mine doesn't throw enough light, but if yours does, that's a nice multi-purpose option with something most people already pack.
Here's my rad choice -- one soap for body, face, hair and teeth. Cut a reasonably sized slice off of a good natural soap bar.
I don't quite see what the soap has to do with the flashlight but both are good choices.
When I thought about this and the similar CO event where passengers got stuck on plane I was wondering what would be the most useful things to have.
Flashlight
Some cereal bars
Platypus bottle for water
Knife
The latter is obviously difficult to bring for air travel but no problem on a train. The others should be standard issue. I always carry a flashlight in my personal bag. Sometimes even Muesli bars but I don't have a Platypus yet. I will get one soon.
Being 14 hours without water is not ok. I wonder what they did? Did they simply raid the train restaurant and bar. They must have. I mean, you can't get people stuck on a train and then not give them anything to drink when the water has run out.
Also, why did four(!) trains get stuck. Wouldn't you NOT send in more trains at the latest after the second train gets stuck? Or was it two trains in each direction. In that case, where the heck is their communication?
And no emergency or complaint line for Eurostar? Is that true?
Europe does not seem to handle heat or cold very well. I was in London last year for a few inches of snow and the city shut down. And trains failing because of changes in temperature?
Taking the flashlight one step further, I like using headlamps. You can keep a light on what you're looking at while keeping your hands free. Ideal for trains stuck in tunnels and blackouts all over the world.
I agree with the usefulness and practicality of a flashlight but it would make me feel like speleologist. :) Of course, that's how these poor folks must have felt, too, just like an ill-equipped one.
The reason why Europe doesn't handle heat or cold so well is that in general it is a much milder climate and we are ok with having not always the same temperature around us, as they try to do it in the US.
England, being a sea climate, also doesn't get that much snow. If you look at Switzerland and Austria or Scandinavia, they handle snow like super champs, of course. They are used to it. Austin, TX shuts down with a single cm of snow. (But people drive like excrement here anyway).
Heat is indeed a problem. I was in Venice in 2005 during the super heat wave. Hotel without airconditiioning. I wanted to take a fan and take it with me under the cold shower just to cool down a bit.
Usually heat and cold is actually handled quite well, as is bad weather. The roads don't crack because they are well made and the power, phone and internet doesn't go off at the slightest storm (my experience here) because most lines are buried.
It must also be said that the weather is more extreme here in the US. Snowstorms like they get them in Wisconsin would shock people in Germany. We've had those once or twice in the last twenty years but not yearly. And constant 40C like you get it in Austin would kill us quite literally without AC.
I think the real scandal in the train affair is how they sent more trains in after knowing there were already trains stuck, how badly the rescue efforts were organized and how badly they are responding after the fact. It's absolutely outrageous. The responsible people should be put in a rocket to leave this planet.
A Petzl Zipka is a great light for travelling (and generally all round use). It's an LED so it lasts forever on a set of batteries (I use lithiums - they have longer shelf lives) and instead of a headband has a very tough nylon cord that spins up inside the body - you can pull it out and it becomes a headband so you can wear it up high or wear it on your wrist so it's like you're holding the flashlight without having to give up a hand to hold it. Great little light I've been using for years.
Zipka is a little heavy. I like the Petzl e+Lite which is smaller and lighter. You do have to find 2032 (or 2016, I forget which) "wafer" lithium batteries, unlike the Zipka which takes, IIRC, AAA's. Of course AAA's aren't THAT common, AA's are the uni battery of choice.