The Beginning pt. 3
If you've been to any of the backpacker capitals of the world you might have seen travellers lugging around backpacks half their size and probably, especially if it's a woman, half their weight.
Hell, maybe you've been one of those guys, just off the bus from the airport after 10+ hours of trying to catch sleep on the plane, that iced coffee barely keeping you sane while taxi drivers and hotel/guesthouse/travel agency touts go for you like swine to fodder while you try to make sense of your surroundings.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
On my first ever trip to Southeast Asia my backpack weighed well over 20 kilos, and I soon found I'd packed a lot of unnecessary stuff and ended up carrying all that excess gear around for three months. The second time I did little better, but this time opted to mail the junk home.
So nowadays I try to travel as light as possible. Depending on your destination, you can get by with surprisingly little. Sure, if you're planning to summit Everest, boarding the plane with carry-on only might not get you far, but a three month escape to the beaches of Southeast Asia requires little more than flip flops, shorts, a t-shirt or two and a change of underwear.
Hell, maybe you've been one of those guys, just off the bus from the airport after 10+ hours of trying to catch sleep on the plane, that iced coffee barely keeping you sane while taxi drivers and hotel/guesthouse/travel agency touts go for you like swine to fodder while you try to make sense of your surroundings.
Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
On my first ever trip to Southeast Asia my backpack weighed well over 20 kilos, and I soon found I'd packed a lot of unnecessary stuff and ended up carrying all that excess gear around for three months. The second time I did little better, but this time opted to mail the junk home.
So nowadays I try to travel as light as possible. Depending on your destination, you can get by with surprisingly little. Sure, if you're planning to summit Everest, boarding the plane with carry-on only might not get you far, but a three month escape to the beaches of Southeast Asia requires little more than flip flops, shorts, a t-shirt or two and a change of underwear.
Although I'm packing for a year I'm trying to keep to bare essentials. Should the need arise for additional gear, I'm sure I can buy what I need on the road.
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| Singapore, summer 2011. The equatorial heat was too much for my girlfriend, so I had to help her out a little. |
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