What I Packed - Review

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So as I promised, I am doing a recap of my packing list so I can learn from my travels and maybe others can learn too. A lot of these things are just personal preferences, and may be limited to this particular trip, but I think any trip I take in the future to warm tropical climates would probably result in a similar list.

Main items


• Rubber flip flops
• Pink runners
• Beige slip on sandals
• Toms slip on shoes
• Purple 40L Patagonia carry-on sized backpack – loved it!
• 4 larger mesh packing cubes
• 3 small mesh packing bags
• Green over the shoulder purse
• Red daypack
• Dry bag



From this category I wouldn’t bring the slip on fancy sandals I had packed. I didn’t use them at all, and while they didn’t take up a lot of space, it was still an extra thing to carry around. The Tom’s I did use, but could easily have not brought them and been fine.

The combination of the day pack and the over the shoulder purse was annoying. I did use both at various times but wish I had a better solution as I ended up carrying the purse inside the backpack a lot and that was not efficient (will have to think about a better solution for this). The dry bag was something that I only used on my sailing trip and on the dive boats (and glad I did) so it wouldn’t likely be on future lists unless I was doing those activities.

Clothing


• 6 Tank tops (white cotton, striped, grey, white spaghetti strap, pink and mint)
• 3 T-shirts (black, white, mint)
• 1 rash guard - neon yellow Nike t-shirt
• 1 pink skirt
• 1 grey wrap sweater
• 2 dresses - black dress and flowered dress
• 1 Pink long sleeve thermal shirt
• 1 zip-up purple Burton hoodie
• 1 long sleeve white cotton shirt
• 2 pair pants - black leggings and lightweight skinny jeans
• 3 pair of shorts - black hiking shorts, khaki shorts and jean shorts
• 1 black bathing suit top and striped bottoms
• 2 pairs sports socks
• 7 underwear - 2 merino wool ones, 3 icebreaker ones and 2 thongs
• 2 bras - 1 white underwire, and 1 black comfort bra
• Small packable rain jacket
• 1 buff/headband



The clothing category was pretty spot on actually. I didn’t end up bringing the grey wrap sweater and didn’t miss it at all. I only wore the pink skirt once (and that was only because I felt guilty that I hadn’t worn it!) so wouldn’t bring two dresses and a skirt next time – just the two dresses. I wouldn’t bring the long sleeved white cotton shirt. I know lots of people wear them to feel cooler but it only made me feel sweatier when I wore it in the sun - and I had enough other clothes to cover my shoulder with when visiting temples. I also did throw out my khaki shorts after the first week – they were way too big for me and kept falling off so I just said goodbye to them and didn’t miss them!

At the last minute I threw in a pair of spandex workout style capris, a pair of black spandex shorts, an extra bikini and another underwire bra. All ended up being good choices as I definitely needed the extra bra (things were always sweaty so it was nice to have an extra!). I didn’t really use my buff/headband so probably wouldn’t pack it again (maybe bring a bandana instead).

Toiletries


• 1 Small bottle of hand sanitizer
• 1 tube of sunscreen
• Travel sized shampoo and conditioner bottles
• 1 small tube of toothpaste
• 1 small bottle of face wash/body wash
• 1 travel bottle of sunburn gel
• 1 tube of chapstick with sunscreen
• 1 Pack towel
• Tampons
• Toothbrush and travel cover
• Floss picks
• Q-tips
• Deodorant
• Baby wipes
• Nail clippers and file
• Small hairbrush
• Hair elastics
• Razor
• Tweezers
• Mascara, blush, eyebrow pencil and some eyeshadow
• Extra ziplock freezer bags



In this category I’m not sure that I would change much, I only used makeup a few times so that would be an easy elimination – but it also didn’t take up much room so it could go either way. Everything else was fine and I used it all. The travel sized bottles were great, I did have to buy more on the way which was also easy to do because there were lots of small travel sized bottles of shampoo in the shops.

Medicine/Drugs


• 1 package of gravol
• Tylenol
• 1 package of anti diarrhea medicine
• 1 bottle of prescription ciprofloxacin (for emergencies)
• Tums
• Nuun tablets - for electrolytes
• Bandaids and polysporin



I didn’t use much from here, a few times I needed Tylenol for headaches and used a few electrolyte tablets, but for the most part was healthy and fine. Although I would still bring everything just in case!

Electronics and Other Stuff


• Power converter/adapter
• Sunglasses
• Diving certification card
• Headphones and ipod, and charger cord
• Guide book
• DSLR camera - charger cord, zoom lens and neoprene sleeve
• Underwater camera - memory card (4GB) and extra AAA batteries
• iPhone and charger
• Passport
• Money/bank cards
• Travel insurance card
• White portable charger pack
• Headlamp
• Combination padlock
• Kindle and charger
• Journal and pens



This category was also pretty spot on. The converter I had brought wasn't needed in Vietnam or the Philippines (just Indonesia), and it worked fine in Java but not in Bali so I ended up buying a new one over there. Not a big deal, but it was kind of annoying since I only needed it for about 10 days in total. As for the guidebook, I did end up just ripping out the country sections of the Lonely Planet that I was going to (it was a used 2011 book for all of Southeast Asia so I knew it wasn’t going to be super functional much longer) but didn’t use it a heck of a lot since I had my phone and there was wifi everywhere.

I also wouldn’t have brought the extra lens for my camera. Admittedly I did want to buy a new lens that would have the range of both lenses together but just didn’t have the cash to spare before I left to do that (maybe for my next trip!). I just found I didn't have time or want to switch back and forth between lenses when I was in the sandy, humid, rain, dusty, damp places I traveled to.

My headlamp broke (shouldn't have put it in and outside pocket of my backpack!), but I found that with my cell phone (which has a flashlight function) and my charger pack (which also has an LED light on it) that I didn’t use it much anyways. The padlock I only used at one hostel as most of the hostels had lockers that locked with keys – but I’d still bring it on future trips as this can certainly vary by country and it was small enough that it wouldn't make a big difference.

Festival Stuff


• Costume horns and clips
• Goggles
• Glow bracelets
• Face paint
• Metallic temporary tattoos



Obviously this category was pretty specific to this trip, but I didn’t end up getting a chance to ship my horns or the goggles home with the clothing I had made like I thought I would. Which meant those things traipsed through the entire rest of the trip with me which was super annoying – and I guess I could have tossed them along the way but I really liked them and didn’t want to waste them. Lesson learned – choose better costume items!

Other Thoughts

There wasn’t much that I had to buy along the way – I seemed to have been prepared for everything with this list of stuff to be honest and I am glad that I did all the research ahead of time.

I really liked having the mesh packing cubes for keeping my stuff organized – it made repacking my bag frequently much easier to do. At the same time though, I do think that it didn’t optimize my bag space once things started getting full as much as just regular packing would have (seemed like there was unused space if that makes any sense). I will still continue to use them on future trips though!

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