Packing

One would think that after 5 trips of this nature I would know how to pack and would know that packing lightly is essential. In prepping for this trip I read a friends post where she was getting ready for a one year round the world journey and intended to pack well under 20kg – just the essentials comprising of a couple shirts, two pairs of pants, two sets of shorts, one dress and skirt plus your usual socks, underwear and toiletries. On top of that she planned to take a tent, sleeping bag, mat, some books, electronics and a few other little things. Reading that post I thought to myself that I should follow her example and pack in a similar fashion. You can judge the result for yourself on the basis of the above photo (and that’s after some things were already removed). I somehow cannot manage to travel with only two or three pieces of clothing. Maybe next time round.

Other than the usual couple pairs of pants, I decided to pack a pair of jeans, for a cold evening or an evening out somewhere to a bar/club. Then came the capris and shorts along with a skirt followed by a windbreaker, a hoodie for the cold nights, two long sleeved sweatshirts, one long sleeved shirt, some t-shirts and then a number of tank tops for those excruciatingly hot days in the Middle East. For good measure I grabbed a few dress shirts to go with the nice jeans and hiking boots on the few occasions we might go out. My one item of luxury this time round is the hair straightener. We will have to see whether this will turn out worthwhile. Aside for that there’s the sleeping bag, towel, bathing suits, PJs, electronics (my camera/laptop bag on its own weighs approximately 7kg), guide books, reading material, umbrella, shoes and toiletries.

All in all the grand total is approximately as follows:

Day Pack/Camera Bag = 7kg
Main backpack = 16kg (maybe a tad bit more)