Guest Post! What I Brought: A Packing List by Jeff

Another awesome guest post from my brother! He put all the tips from last week's post into a great comprehensive sample list of what to pack.  He has inspired me to do a similar list for a tropical trip upon my return! Most of these items can be worked for both sexes. For example, the wicking t-shirts, underwear, and light-weight hiking apparel are definitely available for the ladies as well. I recommend checking out Under Armour, REI, and Athleta for good options.

Pack less, experience more! (Great Wall, China)

With increasing baggage fees for air travel, more and more people are looking to pack more efficiently. I recently took a 10 week trip to East Asia (India, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, and Japan) and it taught me a lot about what to pack and how to pack it.

What I Did:

The best tip I can give for traveling light is to make sure you research the climate and seasonal weather conditions for the place you are traveling to. For my trip I had to pack for a wide range of weather and climate conditions from Malaysia’s hot tropics to Harbin’s frozen tundra. This forced me to pack clothes that could be layered easily. I couldn’t realistically drag a heavy, down parka across India, Vietnam and Malaysia just so I could use it in China and Japan.

You also have to take into account that laundry facilities are most likely scarce and you will be wearing your clothes multiple days and washing them in the sink. In this respect, synthetic clothing is your friend. They are generally lighter, dry faster and are more wrinkle resistant than their natural counterparts.

One of the things I looked for when I was doing research on packing light was packing lists people had actually used on similar trips. It gives you a basic idea of what you'll need and you can alter it to fit your needs. Here is my list with some commentary!

• 1 Ebags Combo Packing Cubes (Kept everything compressed and organized)
• 1 Ebags Pack-It-Flat Toiletry Bag (Great for backpacking. Really does pack flat!)
• 3 Fruit of the Loom Cotton T-Shirts (If I had more $$$ these would all be polyester!)
• 1 Wicking Polyester Workout T-Shirt (Great for hiking and warm temps)*
• 1 Roundtree-Yorke Cotton Chinos (Too light coloring. Stained easily!)*
• 1 Pair IZOD Travel Pants (Amazing pants! Versatile and good looking!)
• 1 Pair Basketball Shorts*
• 3 Pairs Exofficio Boxer-Briefs (Awesome! Dry fast and are extremely comfortable!)
• 3 Pairs Minus33 Merino Wool Socks (Great in high and low temps. Dry a little slower but are worth the wait!)
• 1 Pair Smartwool Sock Liners (Got these for extra low temperatures. Ripped the 2nd time I wore them... Also good to use as dress socks)
• 1 Terramar Medium Weight Long Underwear Bottoms (Comfortable and warm!)
• 1 Wicker's Medium Weight Long Underwear Top (Good moisture control)
• 1 Columbia Bugaboo Convertable Parka (Versatile and tough. Survived motorcycle crash!)
• 1 Colapsable Wide Rimmed Hat*
• 1 REI Balaclava (Essential for ultra-cold temps)*
• 1 Pair Polyester Lightweight Gloves (Wear alone on cool days or inside snowboarding gloves in super low temps)*
• 1 Pair Bodyglove Snowboarding Gloves (Bulky. Would consider thinner gloves)*
• 1 Pair New Balance 900 Boots
• 1 Campmor Nylon Travel Shirt
• 1 Rick Steves Clothesline (Essential when packing light. You end up doing laundry much more often!)
• 1 Travelon Laundry Soap Sheets** (Only use with dry hands. Made that mistake and ruined my pack)
• 1 Jansport Daypack (Straps were comfortable but bulky. Would go with a collapsible bag in the future)*
• 1 HTC EVO 3D Cellphone (Brought it to use with WiFi. Not worth it. I ended up breaking it!)
• 1 Amazon Kindle (Keyboard) with Global 3G (Invaluable! Saved my butt countless times. 3G everywhere but Vietnam. Also great for storing guide books!
• 1 Canon SD1300 IS Camera  (With Extra Battery)
• 1 Leica Dlux 3 Camera (With Extra Battery)
• 1 USB Wall/Car Charger and 2 USB Cords
• 2 4 GB SD Cards
• 1 8 GB SD Card
• 1 Notebook and Pen
• 5 Ziplock Freezer Bags (You never know when you'll need an extra bag! Great for keeping things dry)

*I've owned some of the items on this list for a long time so I linked the closest equivalent I could find online.
**Jen's note - you can also buy woolite in tiny packs, but they have to go in your 3-1-1 bag if you carry on. 

What I Would Do Differently:

When I do another trip like this one I will definitely go all synthetic fibers in my clothing. I would ditch the cotton shirts and khakis and go with wicking t-shirts and another pair of the polyester travel pants.

Why you should always bring a backup camera!

The main thing I missed on this trip was a way to back-up my photos. A netbook would have been nice but I didn't want to add the extra weight and my bag was soft-sided so I would have been nervous about breaking it! An external hard drive with an SD card reader seems like a good alternative for backing up photos but I've never talked to anybody who's actually used one. I would also suggest bringing extra SD cards because I ran out of space. This caused me to buy a couple extra cards in China which turned out to be bad and I lost a week's worth of pictures!

I brought along a ton of cash but I should have brought even more. It's a risk but since my bank (Wells Fargo) charges five dollars every time you use an international ATM, I ended up spending roughly one hundred dollars in ATM fees over course of the trip.

Final Tip:

Remember when making a packing list that you'll be wearing one complete outfit all the time. So you won't be packing everything into your bag at one time***. For some reason this is hard to remember when you are planning and test-packing.

Happy Travels!

***Jen's note - wear your bulkiest clothes on the plane, like jeans. Also, don't bring jeans if you can help it :)