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Published: January 27th 2006
The Appurtenances of Travel
Money and a passport is all you really needJanuary 2006 (Lost in the World)
Sean: We're on the road again! But before we settle back into telling you about our adventures we thought we would answer some of the various questions we've received in the last few months, and especially those we were asked a lot during Christmas.
First, we had quite a few requests from friends and family to know more about what we're packing around on our backs. The previous couple of months were an ideal situation in that we were able to refine the contents of our backpacks and, while in the States for Christmas, decide exactly what we thought we'd need for the next year. So here's what made the cut:
In the "Sean's Backpack Contents" picture from left to right, starting with the top row:
Travel towel (From REI. Small but works amazingly well and dries very quickly),
Backpack bag (Shannon's mom made these for us. We use them when we're flying so that our backpack straps don't get caught in the machinery and it helps keep our backpacks clean. This one is worth its weight in gold),
Button Up, Long Sleeve Shirt (A bit dressier than just wearing a t-shirt
{when necessary}, it's a good light layer on a cooler day and it's made from quick dry fabric),
Travel Pillow (It's light and not too squishy but compresses down enough to pack small),
Shoes (Hiking low tops from Merrell. Comfortable and water resistant, but they can be a bit warm if we're walking a lot on a hot day). Next row:
Two Pairs of Pants and One Pair of Shorts (All three are quick drying and the shorts double as swim trunks),
Jacket (It's just a shell but it works well to keep out the wind and rain),
Fleece Top,
Three T-shirts (Nothing fancy - typical cotton),
Tooque and Gloves (Under the t-shirts in the picture. They're all lightweight microfleece, and since I keep shaving my head, the cap gets worn quite a bit). Next row:
Two Pairs of Wool Socks and Five Pairs of Cotton Socks,
Bed Shorts and Bed Shirt (A pair of boxers and a t-shirt),
Sleep Sack (A sleeping bag without any insulation for those times when you question the cleanliness of the sheets. To be honest, Shannon uses hers more often than I use mine),
Teva Sandals. Bottom row:
Six Pairs of Underwear (Only five
are shown. You've got to wear something while you're taking the picture),
Belt,
Transformer (Steps down voltage from 220/240 to 110/120 and it weighs a ton),
Mini Mag Light,
Digital Camera (Not nearly as good as Shannon's, but it's a nice spare),
Battery Charger (We require a lot of AA sized power),
Carabiner Clip with Two Rolls of Twine (The twine is Army 550 cord. Nothing better in the world for its size and I love finding uses for it),
Padlock,
Gerber Multi-Tool (I love to find uses for this as well),
Pocket Knife (Very handy).
In the "Sean's Toilet Kit" picture from left to right, starting with the top row:
Contact Lens Solution,
Contact Lens Case,
Nail Clippers,
Tweezers,
Sun Screen (I use this after every shower to protect my head),
Soap,
Mosquito Repellant. Next row:
Listerine (Citrus flavor...yum),
Floss,
Toothpaste,
Toothbrush,
Deodorant,
Extra Contact Lenses. Bottom Row:
Razors,
Handle,
Shave Brush,
Shave Cream,
Nail Brush (I'm a bit compulsive about cleaning my hands),
Glasses.
In the "Sean's Carry-on" picture from left to right, starting with the top row:
Laptop Power Cords,
Laptop (With day-glo orange storage pocket). Next row:
Sunglasses,
Pencils and Pens,
Headphones,
Checkbooks. Bottom
row:
Swim Goggles,
Sun Hat (Both these last two items I keep in my backpack, but I forgot to put them in the other picture).
Also at any given moment, I've got a couple paperbacks and/or magazines to veg out to at night and on the road. I've gotten myself down to less than 30 pounds for the backpack with another 10 in the carry-on. It feels very manageable and I'm quite pleased with the choices and sacrifices I've made. Also by staying in hostels/hotels (as opposed to camping) {Note from
Shannon: We're not really long-term camping people. A few days, great. More than that...not so much} we don't need the required gear for sleeping under the stars. Some people really like to save a few dollars by pitching tents (actually you can save fairly substantial amounts if you do it enough), but it just means you've got more to carry. Cool for them, it's just not our cuppa. Also the route we've chosen has us steering clear of any frigid cold weather (except those few days we spent in Rochester) which entails not having to carry bulky clothing. In a pinch though, if it does get too cold
for the gear we've got, we're fairly confident of being able to purchase whatever we'd need abroad. While it won't be North Face quality, it'll be cheap and disposable.
Shannon: My backpack contains most of the same things that Sean's does. At the top of the photo are my
shoes, also low-top "hiking" shoes from Merrell. They are very comfortable (more like a running shoe than a hiking shoe) and the color seems to hide the dust/dirt very well. Unlike Sean, I haven't had any problems with them being too hot in warm weather. Next to those are my
Teva sandals, truly the standard for all sandals. Aside from using them in hot climates, they also double as my shower shoes. Between these and my Merrells, I haven't felt like I needed any other shoes.
I have 4 fairly light-weight
shirts with me. I went to Central/South America with 2 light-weight shirts and 1 slightly heavier shirt for cooler weather. I liked the heavier shirt, but it wasn't as useful to have in hot weather and I ended up mostly wearing the two lighter ones. Two didn't seem like enough, though, so I added a few.
Shannon's Clothes
Sean makes fun of me because I rubber band all my clothes into neat little rolls...as though he's not anal retentive, either... For cold/cooler weather I have a
jacket and fleece. Both are very light. The fleece is called "micro-fleece" and is very thin but warm. Between the two I've managed to stay very comfortable. Sean and I will be in most countries during their spring/fall times, and the others (such as Egypt) are fairly temperate during the winter, so we didn't feel like we had to pack for arctic conditions.
Next row: I also have a quick-dry
towel - I would say that it's a real must-have item for these kinds of trips. A lot of hostels don't provide a towel so it's really necessary to bring your own and you need something that will dry fairly quickly (or else you end up with a wet (and smelly!) towel in your backpack. I use mine constantly.
I have two pair of
pants and one pair of
capris with me. I started out in Central/South America with 3 pair of long pants, but found out that I mostly just wore two of them. And what I didn't have were enough hot weather clothes; hence I left one pair of pants at home and added the capris. I also had a
The Intrepid Shannon
When we left Seattle my backpack weighed in at 28 lbs. - not bad, all things considered. That weight is comfortable enough to walk with for a while, though I wouldn't say I could catch a departing train with this on my back. swimsuit with me before, but while we were home for Christmas I changed the swimsuit out for one pair of
shorts and a
tankini top. I saw quite a few people doing this and it made sense - a swimsuit is only useful at the beach, while the shorts and tankini top can be worn anywhere. Now that we're in Egypt, I'm doubly glad that I did this, as the guidebooks warn that shorts and a tank top are much more suitable swimwear for such a conservative nation.
I also have one
bedshirt and a pair of
bedshorts. At the outset I decided that I wanted separate bed clothes - some hard core travelers swear that you don't need this. But for me, I like to sleep in something clean every night and not something that I might have worn out on a different day.
I also have a silk
sleep sack (basically the equivalent of a giant pillowcase that you sleep in - it has a little flap for ease of getting in & out and a small pillow pocket). I am very picky about what I sleep on and this allows me not to have to
sleep on any sheets that don't meet my finicky standards. Plus, being silk, it feels great to sleep in. I use this and my
travel pillow (bottom right) all the time. Sean and I both have one of these travel pillows - they are filled with some sort of "space foam" (their words, not mine) that is fairly rigid when cold, but warms up with your body temperature. We found that there are all sorts of options when looking at travel pillows - inflatable, bean-bag type, foam. Sean and I tried out several and liked these ones the best (the others weren't very supportive). They compress down in our backpacks and are very light, so it's worth its weight in gold, as far as I'm concerned. A lot of travelers don't carry them, but I like having my own (again, I'm finicky in this area) and they are so handy when trying to sleep on planes, trains, etc. (And a special thanks to my mom, as we've told her before, for making pillow cases for them!)
In the bottom left of the picture I have a
laundry bag that I use to keep my dirty clothes separate. Additionally, I
am carrying
socks and
underwear which I keep rolled up in small "pack cubes" (red and black in picture). Mine are plain cotton socks and cotton underwear - nothing quick-dry or fancy. They do sell quick-dry socks and underwear, but Sean and I just aren't the "wash-it-in-the-sink-every-night" kind of people. We do laundry about once a week on average, so I just need enough clean pair until we do laundry next.
Another very handy thing is my silk
scarf. In many countries, such as Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, women can't go inside a mosque without a head covering. This scarf weighs next to nothing and serves this purpose very well. I also have a pair of
gloves (not in picture) and a micro-fleece
hat for when it's cold. Neither takes up much space and both add a lot of comfort when it's cold outside. For hot climates, I also have a
sun hat - it rolls up well and keeps the sun off my head. I use it more than I ever thought I would - very necessary.
As you can see from the pictures, Sean and I have different methods of packing. I roll all my clothes
and secure them with rubber bands. My gloves, hats and scarf go into a special internal pocket on the inside of my bag. This helps me to keep my pack organized. Sean keeps his shirts in a larger "pack cube" and keeps his socks and underwear in separate internal pockets of his bag. We each have our systems...
Other than those listed above, I am also carrying my
toiletry kit, a bag containing a small
photo album and the
user's manual for my camera, a
"miscellaneous items" pack-cube, a
bag full of baggies (baggies are unbelievably useful!) and a
first aid kit.
In my toiletry kit (items laid out below it), I have small plastic bottles that I use to carry shampoo and conditioner; a small mirror; contact case; eye glass case; brush; hair pick; Abreva (for cold sores); another contact case that I filled with two different face creams (I don't use much of either, so one side of a contact case holds enough - I labeled them so I could tell the difference); a small face loofah; tweezers; extra sunscreen; chapstick; ear plugs and a small baggie with spare contacts. Sean carries most of the other
toiletry items that we share. In the blue pouch labeled "safe needle kit" I keep first-aid supplies (laid out below it): a small book about first aid that has details on the weird things you can pick up traveling; antiseptic swabs; various bandages and materials for small cuts; one roll of gauze; a few syringes and needles; Neosporin and more ear plugs. In addition to that, in my toiletry bag I also have a bag full of medications: malarial pills and antibiotics (we got a prescription for these at the travel clinic we went to in Portland before we left); Tums; motion sickness pills; anti-diarrhea pills; Sudafed; and allergy medications. We don't carry a lifetime supply of any of these - just enough to get us by if we get sick. We've found that we can find the equivalent at pharmacies abroad, but it's nice to have some at hand if you need it (especially the anti-diarrhea pills!).
The lower half of the photo shows what I am carrying in my "miscellaneous items" pack-cube (red and black bag in photo): a white disk of rubber for a sink stopper - very handy when you want to wash something in
A Typical Hostel
This is where we happen to be staying right now in Egypt, but it is fairly typical of the places we've stayed. Notice the towel animals on the bed, though. We usually don't get that kind of service... the sink (Sean sometimes uses it to shave) or when you want to take a bath and there is no stopper. Below that is a baggie with my old passport (handy when a hotel or someone else wants to hold your "official" identification - I don't like giving up my real passport) along with my vaccination record; a flashlight (a must!); a deck of playing cards and a small cribbage board (for when the mood strikes); and a pedometer (we added this at Christmas - sometimes we spend all day walking and it's handy {if not a bit geeky, admittedly} to know how far you've walked in a day). Next to the pack-it cube is a small wallet with and extra credit card and ID (which I keep stashed away in my backpack); a small roll of repair material in case we get a rip in our backpacks; a baggie with extra rubber bands; an eye glass repair kit (the small screwdriver has been very handy); a small "S" hook (good for hanging things when there isn't a hook); a ruler; a small baggie containing a few paper clips, a tiny pair of scissors and some small binder clips (very handy for securing curtains together in a hotel room, aside from their normal use); a highlighter; a roll of scotch tape (which I use to tape things into my notebook); and a small bag with sewing supplies (needles, thread, etc.). Beside those you see my bag full of baggies and below those are my small photo album (full of photos of friends and family - nice to have) and my users manual for my camera (which is one of the best things that I brought - too often I've just fiddled with the camera to learn how it operates and then continued using it the same way from then on. Having the users manual with me lets me look up things when I have those moments where I find myself in odd situations with a picture that I feel is less than perfect - I can go back to the room and figure out if there is a different setting or way I could have taken the picture. I've learned so much about my camera this way!). I also have a small clothes-line (not in picture) that we use to hang up our towels to dry. At the very bottom of the picture is the backpack bag that my mom made for us.
Like Sean, I also have a carry-on bag, which we also use as our daypack when we are out visiting the sites. When we're on the road, I usually have my notebook (which has all sorts of stuff in it); the travel guide for the country we are currently in; whatever book I am currently reading; a small notebook that we use to write down info when we're at an Internet café (also use for scratch paper); a small pouch with a calculator, pens and pencils; spare toilet paper (a must!); tissues; wet wipes (so handy!); a spare 512 SD card for the camera; small post-it notes; sunglasses and a jump drive. Not shown in the picture are my passport and wallet. All of my pants have cargo pockets (ditto for Sean) so we haven't bothered with a money belt or money pouch. I keep my passport and wallet (with cash in a different pocket) on me at all times in the cargo pocket on my thigh.
Sean: Others have asked how we manage our bills, taxes and miscellaneous everyday money issues. We work mainly in cash, using ATM's as they're very ubiquitous. And since they always dispense money in the local currency, we rarely have to change money for a fee. We also each carry a small stash of good 'ole U.S. greenbacks for emergencies. We use credit cards, too (but less often because they tack on fees for foreign transactions), mostly for online purchases like plane tickets. We pay our credit cards and manage our bank accounts online and Shannon's mom has been kind enough to open our mail and alert us to anything that pops up. She was also very, very nice and offered to complete our 1040's this filing season as well as allowing us to store our stuff in her basement. We owe Michele quite a lot. We've already promised her free access to our first born, so hopefully that was a fair trade.
Shannon: We've also gotten a lot of questions about where we sleep. Sean and I sleep in hostels, which are also known as pensions, posadas and a host of other names. I would describe them as a no-frills basic hotel. Every hostel is different, so there's no way to describe them all accurately, but generally for $8-25 (the price varies by country and city) we get a room with either one double bed or two twin beds. Sometimes we have a private bathroom, sometimes it is located down the hall and we share it with other guests. Sometimes the price includes breakfast, sometimes not. Some places are very simple - beds, maybe a table and lamp and that's it. Sometimes they have a dresser, nightstands, desk and - in rare cases - a television in the room. Sheets and a comforter are generally provided - towels sometimes are. Some hostels have a choice of dorm rooms or "private" rooms - Sean and I always stay in private rooms (I like to think that we saved long enough not to have to sleep in dorm rooms anymore. Not that dorm rooms are bad, it's just that as two married people traveling together, we have the money and luxury of not needing to always go with the cheapest option available.) Most are pretty nice, though a few have been "OK if we're only staying for a night" kind of places. A few have been exceptional. I'm pretty finicky, as I said, so I won't stay in a place that is outside my standards. Bathrooms vary by country. In Guatemala, every place but one had the electric hot-water heating element contraption (
Sean: I'll never forget that!), so we had mostly hot showers with crappy water pressure. In Panama we didn't stay anywhere with hot water (including the one night we stayed in a "real" hotel - and we paid $60 for the room!). In Argentina, all the places we stayed had a toilet
and bidet, but oddly they didn't have a separate shower area - there was just a shower head mounted on one wall. In the process of taking your shower you got the rest of the bathroom wet, then squeegeed the whole thing to the drain when you were finished. That was interesting. So there's no real standard.
Do we book them ahead of time? Sometimes. Before we got to Argentina, we didn't book any hostels ahead of time - we just showed up and asked if they had any rooms. They would show us the room and if we liked it, we stayed there. If not, we checked the next place on our list. But December in Argentina was getting into the busy tourism season, so when we landed there we found that a lot of them were full. For this reason, we started booking ahead. There's pluses and minuses - if you book ahead, you know you have a room available when you get there. But you're basically booking it sight-unseen, so you run the chance that you won't like it (though to be honest, we rarely have that problem). How do we find them? Well, the guidebook we use gives us a list of possibilities. The problem with the guidebook listings are that EVERYONE we see traveling has the same guidebook, so we're basically all interested in the same hostels. The ones that sound really good are sometimes already full, and sometimes the ones that have a favorable listing have jacked up their prices because they've become so popular (or worse, now they're just resting on their reputation and the quality has declined). To avoid this I search on the Internet first. In this computer age, more and more hostels are setting up websites. And there are sites devoted entirely to hostels around the world, so I check those out too. The nice thing about the Internet is that they usually include photos, which gives you some idea of what the place will look like. They're not always great photos but at least it helps weed out the duds (
Sean: These websites also have spaces for comments where you can read about the experiences other people have had, which is very helpful). And by using the computer, I can book the hostels online usually, which saves me a phone call (and is especially helpful when I don't speak the language!).
We've also gotten a lot of questions about how we are making our flight arrangements. We had two main options on this one: there are companies out there that specialize in so-called round-the-world airfares. We could have used one of them to book all of our flights at once or we could buy them individually ourselves. Again, there are pluses and minuses - theoretically, if you buy them all at once through a travel agent who specializes in this sort of trip, they will be able to work to get you the best price. But this takes away from your flexibility - you have to plan it all out before you ever leave. And then you're either stuck with those dates or you have to pay to change the tickets later. Sean and I decided to buy them as we went because the flexibility was important to us. Interestingly enough, we did check while we were home at Christmas whether we would save any money if we went with a company that specialized in RTW airfares. We sent them our rough itinerary and they quoted us a price; however, we're pretty certain that we can do better on our own. We'll let you know in the end.
Well, we're sitting in our hostel in Egypt right now finishing this up. Our first "real" blog entry for Egypt - covering our week in Cairo - is being finalized as we speak (our editing staff is working diligently, putting the last touches onto the layout) so stay tuned for that. Until then, we just want to say that we had a wonderful time being home at Christmas - much love goes out to all of our family members and friends that we got to spend time with (and special thanks to those that put us up for the nights we were home). Here's hoping that 2006 is an adventure for all of us!
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Tim
non-member comment
My Retirement Plans
I was very interested in your hotel picture. I've decided that when I get too old and stupid to do anything else (next year possibly), I will learn to make towel animals for hotel beds--practical, yet artistic! Thanx for the packing advice. I notice you didn't pack evening clothes. What do you wear to embassy receptions? Tim