Pack-king... or perhaps, queen?

 As promised, I am going to share with you some of my tips and tricks for packing for a long trip.   Far too often I see people lugging around enormous rolling bags, which I can only assume are filled with things they probably never use.  Before I show you what I've packed, I would first like to share with you a few major rules of thumb I keep in mind when packing for any long trip.

1. mobility.  When  doing any long-term or multi-destination travel, you want to be able to move with ease.  Given that, the selection of your travel luggage is just as important as what you put inside.  I recommend going with the smallest luggage you can and the most portable, ex: a backpack instead of a rollie bag.  As mentioned in my earlier post, this year I bought a smaller pack (only 52L).  It forced me to pare down my baggage only to the bare minimum.
2. versatility.  It's key to find the items that can serve many purposes.  For instance, if you choose plain tops, bringing simple accessories like a scarf or bolero allows you to dress up your outfit for a nice dinner without needing to bring "fancy" clothes with you. 
3. leave some space.  I know I always like to bring back souvenirs and gifts for friends and family.  If you stuff your pack to the gills before you even leave, that means you either need to buy another piece of luggage there, or leave behind some things to make space.  To help with that, I intentionally leave pockets and other spaces empty when I pack so that I can easily bring back items.
4. what does it mean to you?  For everything you bring, think to yourself: "What if I lost this?"  If the loss of any item would leave you heartbroken, don't take it.  Pretty much anything you bring should be easily replaceable, or at least definitely not sentimental or valuable.

Ok, with these basic principles in mind, here is what I am bringing with me, and a few more tips.
Tip #1, pack in stuff sacks.  Rather than cramming everything into your backpack, invest in smaller stuff sacks.  This way, you can easy find what you're looking for, without creating an explosion of clothes.  I have invested in water-proof bags, which is a bit more expensive, but these silicon-impregnated nylon sacks are colorful, lightweight, and completely waterproof;  they are perfect for keeping valuables dry and organized without adding much weight.  With practice, it becomes easy to look for items just by remembering the color of the sack.  Here are all the smaller sacks I have within my larger pack:

(This is a photo of just about every single thing I am bringing with me.  Not pictured here: a light blanket for the plane rides, a light jacket, sunglasses, and of course, the camera I am using to take the pictures!)

Now I will share with you exactly what I have packed. 

Let's start with the simple stuff first.  Footwear.  I always bring 3 pairs of footwear with me: flip flops, chacos, and well-worn sneakers/day hikers.  Flip flops are not only great for walking around where you are staying or slipping on for a quick jaunt, but also for showering in shared space.  Always important.  Chacos, or other stiff, supportive hiking sandals are great for hot areas where you will do a lot of walking without the soreness and stiffness of cheaper alternatives.  Lastly, old, comfortable but supportive sneakers are great to have on hand for colder days, really buggy areas, manual labor or eco-volunteering, or days when you need good support for a lot of walking.  I strongly recommend bringing old, well-worn shoes with you, since it makes it easy to ditch them there if they get trashed, or if you just need to space in your pack.

Next, I like to bring a variety of tops with me.  I always keep a few things in mind when choosing my tops:  ease of cleaning/care, comfort, material appropriateness for the destination, color variety, dress up/down capability, and intermixing/coordination/layering.  Once an item has passed through those layers of selection, I pare down to the most versatile and easiest pieces.   Pictured here are 3 sun/rash guards for diving or time in intense sun, 3 long-sleeve shirts, 3 tank tops, 2 casual Ts that can dress up, 2 workout shirts with built in bra (ladies, this is key for hot climates!), and 1 wrap/bolero for covering shoulders or dressing up a shirt or sundress.

 Tip #2  Another great thing about packing in stuff sacks is that you can roll up your clothes and place them in the sack so it is easy to choose an item by opening the end.  By color, you can easily find whatever you're looking for!

For pants, I opted to bring just one pair of very lightweight, quick-drying pants, a pair of comfortable capris, yoga capris, and two pairs of casual, light shorts.  Also in this bag is a very light, easy little strapless sundress which is perfect for hot, hot days, or covering a swimsuit.

This next stuff sack hold my other random accessories: knee braces, baseball hat, swimsuits, hankercheif, and scarf.

This purple stuff sack houses a very lightweight raincoat, large quick-dry towel, beach sarong (really just fantastic quick-drying fabric I bought at a sewing store), and a pillowcase.  The pillowcase has many potential uses, the two main ones are to put clothes inside and use it as an actual pillow if need be, but also to contain laundry until it can be washed.

This next sack has a bar of soap, 2 kinds of bugspray, and Dr. Bronner's soap, which is an environmentally friendly soap that can be used for just about anything, inluding brushing teeth, washing laundry or dishes....

This red stuff sack is my electronics, and other things that must stay dry: headlamp, travel cell phone, micra leatherman-juice, travel alarm clock, divers log, chargers and power cords, diving watch, spare batteries, underwater camera, 20 of cord for a clothes line, spanish-english dictionary, eating tool (a knife, fork and spoon all in one), rehydration salts, watercolor postcards to share memories with home.

This next photo is my carry-on and day bag.  It holds my travel guides, sudoku book, earphones, netbook, art set (watercolors, pens and ink), sketchbook, passport pouch, earphones, memory card and USB memory.

Tip #3  There are 2 specific things I want to point out that I think are really important to bring on any long trip.  First, is a portable memory device, like this USB 8GB drive.  This allows me to save files, back up photos, store data, music, anything.  This will be my first time traveling with a netbook, so perhaps this will be obsolete after this trip, but I think it's worth having the extra storage as either back up or overflow, and so that you can transfer information to another computer if need be.  I also save these trip to trip so that all of my photos from that trip are in one place as a back up for my home computer.

Lastly, I am a huge fan of the convertible memory card (though I need to give credit to my old friend JC for this idea.  He got me into them years ago!  Gracias!).  As shown below, this handy gagdet allows you to directly plug your camera's memory card into any USB port by simply folding back the card.  No cords to worry about or drivers to download.  Again, the netbook may make this obsolete, but traveling without a computer, this was essential so that I could download my images without a cord or on a computer without an SD slot.

Ok....   drum roll please.  Here is the last, and arguably most important section of my packing.  Toiletries and first aid.  To note--I only bring the travel-sized amounts of things to save space since most toiletries can be easily restocked abroad.  I love this bag since it allows me two sides--toiletries on one, and first-aid on the other.  Toiletries: shampoo, conditioner, razor, face cream, sunscreen, toothpaste, travel toothbrush (thanks, Rach!), facial scrub, nail file, nail clippers, tweezers, deodorant, powder, hairbrush, and q-tips.

 First Aid:  moleskin, 2nd skin (awesome for everything from burns, to rashes or blisters), corn pads (which are great to buffer cuts or blisters), isopropyl alcohol, hand sanitizer, band aids, cotton balls, neosporin, hydrocortizone and claritin (for the many itchy bites that inevitably occur), cold medicine and nasal decongestant in case I congested and need to go diving, antacids, ibuprofin, dramamine (since I have spent many miserable, cold-sweaty hours on sharp and windy roads, stuck in a bus), and most importantly, a battery against the dreaded "traveler's stomach."  The two main helpers are cipro and diphenoxylate.

Ok folks.  That's everything!  And believe it or not, there will still probably be a whole bunch of stuff that I am bringing that I will never use!  I hope you found this helpful!  Please feel welcome to share your own packing tips or ask any clarifying questions that you might have!

Happy Travels!