What to pack

What do you actually need to bring with you for long-term travel? My sister is doing her own big trip soon, so instead of sending her a private email, I might as well just post it here. If anyone is curious about what we're lugging around, or just how ascetically we're living, or how to plan your own trip, here's the list.

We started our trip light, with bags weighing 10 or 11 kgs. It sucks to carry something around for months and rarely or never use it, so we've dumped all of the unnecessary stuff in HK during our stop-offs. What we're left with is..

Clothing

With minimal clothing and plenty of heat induced sweat, we find it necessary to hand-wash what we've worn that day almost every night.

My entire wardrobe

• Three T-shirts, one polo shirt, and one long sleeve shirt - The polo shirt is nice to have, so I don't have to look like a bum every day.
  
• One pair of jeans - Rarely used, but necessary. Was so glad I had these one night in Laos when it was absolutely freezing. I put on all of the clothes in my bag and did jumping jacks.
• One good pair of shorts with zipper pockets, one pair of board shorts, belt - Actually had to buy the boards shorts to replace my bathing suit. The board shorts can double as a bathing suit, but also as shorts when I need to wash my other pair. But mainly, I've been wearing the same pair of shorts for the entire year. They're starting to fray..
• Pajama pants - Necessary.
  
• 5 pairs of socks, 6 pairs of underwear - No matter how lazy I get with washing, I've always got clean boxers! They take up very little room, so why not.
• Rain jacket - Rarely used, but necessary.
• Old sneakers, 2 pairs flip flops - Got rid of our Keenes. Common knowledge says you need hiking boots on a trip like this. Reality says that you don't, and you don't want to carry extra shoes around - they're bulky and heavy. Unfortunately my comfortable walking flip flops absorb water, so I need another pair for gross bathrooms.

Woman stuff

Janet also has..

• A sarong - This is key for modestly covering shoulders in Muslim countries, for sitting on at the beach, or 1000 other things..
• More clothes - Janet's clothes are much smaller than mine, so she can bring more without having more weight/bulk. She also doesn't like wearing the same thing every day or having to do laundry every single night. She also has a bunch of dresses

Other necessities

• Toiletries - Something to really pack light. You can buy them anywhere in the world, and probably for cheaper than you can buy them at home. We totally overpacked on sunscreen and bug spray, bringing several large bottles of each. Heavy, bulky, and after lugging them around for 9 months we still haven't run out. Don't buy water purification tablets or any other nonsense like that, you won't use them.
  
• Travel towel - Most of our hotels/guesthouses provide a towel, but some don't. We have extremely light, quick drying, and soft travel towels, and we've never regretted bringing them.
• Headlamps - Versatile flashlights that we don't use much but we've also never regretted bringing. Have used this in key situations, such as my overnight Sumatran volcano hike where the guide's flashlights ran out of batteries! Also theoretically good for reading in the dark, e.g. an overnight bus ride, though we never use them for that..
• Wallet(s) - I have two wallets, one wider (but flat) that holds my passport and some cards and most of my cash. Usually keep it in zipper pocket or hidden in day pack. Other smaller wallet has some cards, ID, and less money. This one is used more frequently.
• Pack covers - Basically laundry bags, but we put them over our packs when flying to prevent the straps from getting caught in the conveyor belt.
  
• I-Pod
• Guidebook hard copy
• Camera
• Tiny lock - Occasionally useful.
  

Worth having

Not for protection

As much as we hate lugging around unnecessary things, we gladly carry the following:

• Travel Laptop - The main reason we have it is to store photos before we can upload to Flickr, but an external hard drive would also work. It's small, and most budget guesthouses in Asia have wifi. We watch movies at night, blog, catch up on email, Skype, etc. This is totally unnecessary, though, because there are cheap internet cafes everywhere. It might actually improve the experience to not have one, because it forces you out of the room.
  
• Kindle (e-book reader) - This would be so much more key if we didn't have the laptop. We spend so much more time rotting our brains with movies and internet browsing than reading.
• A big ass knife - We bought this for about $2 in Bangkok and use it all of the time, mainly for fruit. Could probably have gotten away with something a bit smaller..
  
• Cell phone - For only a few dollars, you can get a sim card and start making local calls in any country (in Asia), which is very useful. Also have a phone number to receive incoming calls from home, or by Skype, in case someone needs to reach you. The calculator, alarm clock, and watch are a plus.
• Adapters - For electronics. You can get these anywhere, so wait until you're abroad. Don't get a voltage converter (expensive, heavy, unnecessary), and don't bring electronics unless they work on 100-220v, so they'll work everywhere. Don't get a universal adapter - they are bulky and expensive, and ours broke on the first day

What not to bring

We've made two stops at Janet's house in HK, and left stuff there each time. We also just mailed a box of stuff, mostly new clothes and cutting board that we bought, but also used it as a chance to lighten up on other things. Here's what we started with and later downsized:

• Too many clothes - We are down to bare minimum, which is less for me than Janet.
• Universal travel adapter - Kind of a scam. It's big and bulky, costs over $10 in the US, and broke immediately. Single adapters are small and cost $1 (in Asia).
• Pack-safe - Sort of a lockable wire-cage for our packs It seemed like a good idea, and was recommended to us, but they ended up being too much of a hassle to use, and then just dead weight in our bags. We're just less paranoid now. We just take our wallets with us out of the room and hide our electronics under the bed.
  
• Cocoon - We bought light-weight "warm weather sleeping bags". The beds aren't nearly as gross as we imagined, and the hotels and guesthouses already have sheets. Total waste of money.
• Keenes - Dead weight. We bought hiking sandals as a compromise between hiking boots and warm weather. Turns out the most comfortable walking shoes are old sneakers, and we just wear flip flops 90% of the time anyways.
• Bug spray and sun screen - We brought way too much.
• Locks - We brought several of these. We only actually need one small lock, rarely.
• Water purification tablets - Unless you're Bear Grylls, you probably don't need them. Actually, I'm pretty sure Bear Grylls could get by without them. Don't know what we were thinking when we purchased these.
• Money belt - Sounds good, but it's uncomfortable and hard to access money. Just use zipper pockets.