Most Useful Travel Item

I have to say that the ONE most useful thing I brought with me to Penang was the iPhone with its 'Maps' application. It has been excellent for getting me from A to B and for finding places on the move when out and about. Sure, a map can do the same BUT, you need to know where you are on the map and, if the place you are looking for is not on it, what then? As 'Maps' is essentially Google maps you can find and locate bars, restaurants and such like and it proves invaluable when travelling by bus as you can use the normal 'search' screen to just track where you are and, for instance, get off nearest to Penang Times Square, when travelling in on the 103 Rapide service. I also caught out one taxi driver who went the long way round in KL. So I halved the fare and suggested he called the police if he wanted to chat things through. For some reason he didn't.

Of course any smartphone with a Google maps interface will do the job. What is useful with the iPhone is that it interacts with the inbuilt GPS to tell you exactly where you are.