After 5 months I think I’ve got this backpacking thing figured out a bit…Just a bit. There’s far too much misinformation out there about things you should and shouldn’t bring along. So maybe someone who reads this (maybe one of all 6 of you) will one day go backpacking and can avoid a costly but useless trip to a trekking store. First the useless things:
Useless:
1. A rain jacket. You just don’t need one. A decent one from Canada costs at least $100, they’re heavy, and you’ll hate dragging it around. Even if you go somewhere in the rainy season, unless you’re planning on doing multi-day hikes, just buy a plastic poncho for $1. That’s what the locals wear, and these things work very well and are lightweight and/or disposable. Worried about finding a plastic poncho? Don’t be. As soon as it rains locals will stand outside bars selling them.
2. Trekking shoes. I thought shoes would be useful in Asia. I don’t even have socks anymore…that’s how useful shoes are. I’ve even done two hour hikes straight up the side of a waterfall in bare feet (saw skinks but no snakes), gone spelunking in flip-flops, etc. Not once have I had the foresight to bring the trekking shoes along with me, and have always managed to leave them at the hotel. Besides, the locals do all these things in flip-flops as none of them could afford fancy shoes anyway.
3. Jeans – it’s just too god damn humid. A friend of our tried to dress up in jeans and a nice shirt one night in Bangkok, and he looked like a swamp creature within 15 minutes.
4. A lonely planet book. Well…now these are not completely useless, but as most people will buy them at home, the first sentence should read: “Congratulations! You’ve already managed to get completely ripped-off without leaving home!” Every country is teeming with lonely planet books that people have discarded on their way to the next country. At home these books are $30. In Asia you can get them for $3.
5. Hotels listed in Lonely Planet. Imagine a world where every tourist buys the same book and that book lists 10 hotels in a town with 250. Now you tell me which ones are going to be full and overpriced? Drop your bags in a bar. One person drinks and watches the bags while the other roams the streets and checks half a dozen or more hotels. Then make your decision.
6. Any kind of medication. You can get anything here, it’s 1/10th of the price, and you don’t need a prescription unless you are in Bangkok (where oddly you do for some of the more entertaining things…)
7. Immodium - It just DOES NOT work. You just have to put up with the ‘effects’ of a new set of bacteria for a while. In all honesty, a good dose of straight liquor is more helpful and seems to settle your stomach.
8. A sleeping bag. Completely useless. All hotels have nice beds and linens. If not, then you are paying around $3 a night…So then you are 19 and don’t care what I’m writing (oddly enough the 19-year old typical traveling twats also seem to appear in abundance in the most expensive of expensive resorts). We gave our sleeping bags to a guy in Laos who needed them more than we did (he slept in the hotel lobby). The stupid bags cost us almost double what our Laotian friend made in a month.
Useful:
1. A knife – too many uses to list…Just make sure it’s not a “flick” knife as you can get in trouble even having it in your checked luggage in some countries (e.g. Singapore…). A machete is OK. I brought one through…honestly. Just make sure it doesn’t “flick”…
2. Valium. There are just too many things happening, too many things you don’t understand, and too many people that just want your money. If you are at all impatient, then a little valium goes a long way. It’s easy to get, helps you sleep, and stops you from completely losing your shit on the dude that keeps insisting you get on his motorbike at 2am.
3. Zip lock bags. I have 6 large ziplock bags that contain everything I have with me. Nothing gets wet, you can separate dirty clothes, keep smells in/out. Perfect, cheap, easy.
4. A “day” backpack. Just a small pack you can wear on your chest when you have your large pack on. Having this pack allows you to bring valuables with you if you don’t want them in the hotel, keep a book handy, and carry other useless crap you’ll pick up along the way.
5. A $10 US bill. Just always have one stashed somewhere and you’ll never be stuck. With $10 USD you can almost always get anything you need to get you back in business again (a hotel room, a taxi ride for half an hour, a bus for 10 hours, etc).
6. Credit cards. Both VISA and MasterCard. Bank cards often don’t work, and if you lose your credit card the company will get a new one to you if you can remain in one hotel for 5 business days – even on an island in Thailand (this actually happened to Char).
7. Locks/steel wire. We have a small steel wire with a loop on each end. Useful for locking cabinets/doors if necessary. We also brought a portable safe – the Pacsafe. And a lock for the computer.
8. Some kind of spray with a lethal amount of DEET. Many sprays will say 30%, or 50%, or even 95%, but few of them in Asia actually have any… Jungle spray from England actually has 50% DEET (the highest legal amount in the UK), will kill anything but a roach on contact, and leaves you bite free all night. You can also spray it around door frames at night to discourage anything crawling through (ants avoid it like it is liquid death, but roaches couldn’t give two shits).
9. Spray deodorant. Much more useful than roll-on as you can also use it to:
a. Kill ants. If you leave anything edible (even a dead fly) in your room, a trail of ants may appear (even in the swankier hotels). Deodorant spray will wipe them out in one go. This also works for hornets or other scary things that you find in your bathroom from time to time. Spray deodorant from European countries doesn’t kill roaches. Oddly enough, spray deodorant from Asia does…
b. ‘Freshen’ clothes and underwear. Laundry is not always your top priority and although you can get all your clothes washed for about $2, you have to remain in one spot for usually 24 hours for this to happen. Often you’ll remember you need to do laundry the night before you leave on the 7am bus…
c. Smell nice! For freshy!
10. A net book. Ok, so this list is not in any particular order. A net book is probably more useful than spray deodorant. Just be mindful that bringing one means you risk losing it to any number of things including theft, water, and forgetfulness. Still, having your own pc for communication and banking is much better than using a public computer.
11. A dry bag. You can get these bags at places that sell kayaks or outdoor equipment. I only paid a few dollars for mine. I took it tubing, have been swimming with it, and it has protected my camera and money every time. I keep it in my bag with the laptop inside it during rainy times.
12. An umbrella! Holy shit does it ever rain during rainy season. Don’t buy one from home…buy one on your travels as it will be one tenth of the price
13. A large, well seasoned liver. It turns out that going to temples gets really boring fast, and many of them look more like a Disney land ride than a temple (some I think are just built for tourists). So you’ll definitely end up drinking on a daily basis unless you have some kind of useful hobby like scuba diving (which mostly prohibits getting wasted all the time as any divers will know…although oddly most dive schools double as bars)
14. Hand sanitizer. You’ll just look at some of the bathrooms and say “no way.”
15. Wet wipes. See above.
16. An international driving license. Renting a motorbike or moped is cheap…often only $5. Two of you can get a whole day’s worth of attractions done in a few hours if you have your own wheels.
