I’m a travel packing geek, so there! I hate packing but I love preparing for a trip, getting all my stuff ready, working out what little bits and pieces will be useful, putting together the most versatile set of clothes. Yes, it’s a bit sad but who cares?
So for all you other travel packing geeks out there, here’s a little review of some of my most useful (and not so useful) items in my rucksack. You can find my complete packing list here.
Deuter 45 – 55L rucksack (women’s fit)
This was the perfect size rucksack for me. All my stuff fitted into it but there wasn’t too much extra space for me to fill it up with unnecessary crap or loads of souveniers. This Deuter model was lightweight and even though the fabric wasn’t super thick, I only had one hole in the bag (on the top pocket) by the end of the trip. It did get dirty quite easily though, and I was a bit concerned about the thin fabric so I tended to put the rucksack into my Bolivian potato (or coca leaves) sack for bus journeys and flights. Spending 20p on the sack turned out to be one of the best investments of my trip!
I hardly used this in South America (where it wasn’t so warm and all the hostel provided nice clean bedding) but I used it almost everyday in Australia, South East Asia and India (where it was too hot to use sheets and blankets, or where a sheet wasn’t provided for me to use between me and the (not washed very often) blanket. The only downside was I bought a pink silk sleep liner and when I washed it alarming amounts of bright pink dye came out!
I’d ummed and ahhed about buying this for the trip. In the end it was the perfect travel day bag (for me). The size was a compromise (I also took a small cross-over pocket-sized bag) but the fact it converted into a rucksack, had lockable zips, was big enough for my netbook, and that I could use the strap to lock the whole bag to a bed or table made up for the slightly large size. It was perfect for running around sightseeing in cities, it was big enough for overnight trips, and I even used it for the three-day trek to Machu Picchu (I kept everything in dry bags inside it). The bag now needs a good wash, some of the velcro on the inside pocket is coming loose, and the zip is a little temperamental but I think this is ok considering I literally used the bag every day for 9 months.
The bag since broke on a trip to Korea (but it did get a lot of heavy use) and I’m sad to see the latest model of this bag doesn’t convert to a rucksack (this was one of the best features).
Dry bags
I always thought these were only useful for canoeing trips or something but how wrong I was! I reluctantly bought these after they were recommended on every packing list I read. I found a pack of three different sizes on sale in Katmandu before I left. I used these all the time – mainly to take my valuable stuff/clothes into the shower without getting them wet (hostel showers never seem to have hooks for you to hang your clothes on when taking a shower) but also for trekking in the jungle (I even used one handbag style), keeping my stuff dry when rafting down rivers, and sometimes as a laundry bag for dirty washing. I didn’t use the small size very often but I would certainly pack these again because they don’t weigh anything and roll up really small.
Steripen and Camelbak Groove Bottle
These were amazing but the Steripen sort of stopped working/became very temperamental when I got to India, and the Camelbak bottle didn’t have a lid over the mouth piece, which meant it got covered in Indian grime and seemed to need cleaning all of the time (this didn’t seem to be a problem in South America?) . I used both every day and didn’t have to buy any plastic bottles of water until I got to India. I never buy plastic bottles of water in London (or anywhere else with clean tap water) so I was glad I invested in these two items and saved so much plastic over my months of travelling. People asked me all the time if I got sick from drinking the tap water sterilised with the Steripen and the answer was always ‘no’. I do have quite a strong stomach though, and I didn’t get to test it out on any super dirty river water (the water needs to be clear, so you need to filter any cloudy river water first). The only downside was that the Steripen uses batteries (2 x old SLR camera type) and these were a bit tricky to find or a bit expensive outside major towns in South America. I also had to carry to used batteries with me to Australia and the UK, as I couldn’t find anywhere to recycle them in South America or South East Asia.
Black jersey skirt (below knee-length) and leggings
If you are a woman, and have ever had to get off a bus in the day or night to go at the side of the road, you will know why these are useful items. There is a reason those voluminous Cholita skirts are so useful for bus travel in Bolivia! The skirt was also useful for temple visits in South East Asia and India, where clothing had to be below the knee, and because it was made of jersey it didn’t really require ironing.
I don’t think I took anything that I didn’t really use. There were things I didn’t use very often but I was still grateful to have them when I needed them, such as my door wedge, bag cable lock, plastic air-tight lunch box, various medicines etc.
Is there anything I absolutely wouldn’t take travelling again? I would think twice about taking malaria tablets with me (depending where I was going and for how long) based on the fact that the malaria maps the doctor’s have here (in the UK) don’t seem to be very up to date. I preferred to take (local, not traveller) advice when I was approaching an area that was supposed to have malaria. I would also take only a very tiny first aid kit because medicine/first aid stuff is so much cheaper abroad than in the UK so you can just buy what you need after your small supply has run out. I don’t take any prescription medication though, so it’s easy for me to say that.
trying to travel light 