..you're only lost if you know where you're going..
Posts tagged packing
Packing for Backpacking
0746 days
by Jase
in Preparation
We’ve been trying different things for a while now.. Different clothes combinations, how to pack, etc and as of today we are basically packed (just need our toothbrushes and a few electronic devices that are charging).
Long story short, here is what I’m taking:
- Waterproof suede boots
- Black slim skate shoes
- Black jeans
- Black slacks
- 1 T-shirt
- 2 Polo shirts
- 1 Long sleeve t-shirt
- 1 Long sleeve button up shirt
- 1 Thin black jumper
- 1 Singlet
- Snow pants
- Snow jacket (includes fleece liner jacket inside that can be worn on it’s own)
- Snow gloves
- 1 Quick dry towel
- Jocks and socks (about 5-6 of each)
- Boardies
- Thongs
- Toiletries (Razors, shaving oil, alcohol wipes, toothbrush, toothpaste, travel medicine, etc)
Jess has a similar list, but specific to females – check out “What’s a girl to pack?”
Aside from the clothing/living sort of gear we also have noise cancelling headphones, ear plugs (for the flight and staying in hostels), money belts, locks, my Windows Mobile phone (complete with maps of Europe/GPS), Jess’ digital camera, and a netbook.
Here’s some photos…
What’s a girl to pack?
0746 days
by Jess
in Preparation
It’s the day before we leave! Naturally I have been thinking about packing for over the last week now, discussing it with many of my friends – particularly those who have travelled before. The biggest challenge I found when packing was the age old problem of function or fashion. The main contributors to my worries were shoes and jackets. Obviously I want to be warm and comfortable, but also look reasonable too. There are certain times when I don’t think I’ll mind looking really “touristy” but I just don’t want to stand out too much, and if we go somewhere that is a be nicer then I don’t want to look totally out of place. It’s interesting reading other travel blogs and what to pack guides. Many females suggest things like Sketchers “Mary janes” but I really hate those hybrid style shoes.. you are still clearly wearing walking shoes!
So after much thought here is my packing list:
- Ski pants
- Ski jacket
- Ski gloves
- Ski goggles
- Black puffy jacket
- Pair of skinny leg jeans
- Pair of black water proof pants
- 4 pairs of thermal pants
- Breathable black t-shirt
- 2 t-shirts (one is a bit more dressy and nice looking)
- Black tight polo shirt
- 2 long sleeve black tops
- Grey long cardigan type thing
- 2 razor back singlets
- black shirt dress
- denim skirt (basically just for Langkawi)
- bikini
- 6 pairs of socks
- 5 pairs of knickers and 4 g-strings
- 2 bras
- 1 purple scarf
- Black rubber thongs
- Black ballet flats (really cheap pair so pretty much just for looking a bit nice)
- Waterproof “hiking” boots
- Asics Onitsuka Tigers
With toiletries it comes to approximately 10 kilos (although I will be wearing the jeans, tigers and singlet on the day of our first flight). Who knows if it’s a “good” pack or not. I have come to the conclusion that if I really need something I will just go and buy it – it’s not as though we are trekking through mountain country completely isolated from civilisation!
7 more sleeps!
0753 days
by Jase
in Preparation
Well, the wedding is over. Jess looked amazing and everything went to plan. It was an awesome day – we both really enjoyed ourselves.
So now it’s full steam ahead with getting organised for the trip! Having a wedding and then leaving for a year is a pretty tough thing to do. It seemed like a great idea a while ago, but after catching up with everyone and really seeing how much you mean to your friends and family it’s a bit of a downer. Not to say I’m not excited about the trip, I really am – it’s going to be amazing. We will just miss everyone!
I’m still at work until the 20th of January, and we fly out on the 22nd. Jess is cleaning the house and organising our stuff, just trying to keep it all tidy and out of the way. We don’t really want everything spread out through mum’s house for the next year! We will begin packing this weekend, so I’m re-researching “what to pack guides” (this one is great!) trying to get an idea of what we need.
Once we are packed, I’ll post up a photo and some info on what we are taking and how we are going about it all. For now, I must return to work!
Travel accessories
0802 days
by Jase
in Preparation
I think we are pretty much sorted for gear to bring now. We didn’t go overboard, since we both want a light pack, but we got a few essentials that will hopefully make life easier along the way.
Travel Packing Modules
After the recommendations of a lot of people, I recently bought us some earplugs for use on the plane and possibly for sleeping while we are in the hostels. They don’t block out all of the noise, so we’ll still wake up if there’s an emergency, but they are meant to get rid of just enough to give us a better nights’ sleep. Maybe a waste of money, but it’s not much money and it might make life a lot easier for us too.
After packing my backpack for a test run a while back, I quickly realised the hassle of getting something out of the pack. I can see how frustrating it would be trying to open your bag up and quickly go through it at customs – socks and underwear and everything else falling out of the bag and getting disorganised. Then you’d be forcing the zip closed because it’s all come out of it’s nicely compacted shape. I had one packing module at home already, and was able to fit all of my socks in it. Even with just one, I already could see just how handy they would be. We now have a set each which are a Christmas present from Jess’ parents. We ordered them from gogogear.com.
We bought some combination cable locks which should be pretty handy too. The idea is that they can lock more than just one zip. No doubt they wouldn’t be THAT strong, but they should be enough of a deterrent to keep our gear safe when we’re not around.
We bought some Menda Ultimate quick dry towels from gogogear.com too. I looked at some of the local travel stores for quick dry towels there but they were ridiculously priced. We ended up with a “mega” size towel and a “sports” size. Basically a full body towel and a hand towel. We’ll share the two between us to keep the weight down once again. After giving them a wash I gave one a trial run. They are pretty amazing really. The towel barely felt like it had been used by the time I was done it was so absorbent, so I think we can both manage between the two towels, even if Jess does need the sports one just for her hair!
Finally, we bought some silk sleep sacks from rei-outlet.com. The silk ones are usually quite expensive – around the AUD$75 mark, but I managed to score some for AUD$35 each. It’s a bit of a pain from ordering from overseas sometimes but from time to time it can really be worth it. We bought some other clothes from REI and it ended up really worthwhile, even if the shipping was $100 or so!
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