As we are now in the fourth week of our trip (!), a post about what I actually packed is long overdue. I've been glad to find that I've used most of what I packed, and there isn't anything yet that I am really sad about not bringing.
I am trying to go as light as I can, and have just a backpack and the sling bag.
I do regret not buying either the Minaal or Tortuga backpack, which are designed specifically by people who have traveled a lot, and made to be as efficient as possible while staying within carry-on bag requirements. The biggest benefit to these bags over my backpack is that they open all the way up laying down like a suitcase, so they are much easier to pack.
That being said, my backpack has worked pretty well! Hopefully the zippers hold up.
I read a bunch of travel blogs in the months leading up to the trip, and the best piece of advice in my opinion can be summed up as this: Don't expect yourself to suddenly be a different person just because you are traveling. I really took this to heart with my packing. For example, those expedition type pants that zip-off into shorts are great, light-weight, dry quickly, and multi-purpose. But I am most comfortable in jeans, so jeans are what I have. I also knew that I could happily compromise on where I slept--bed, floor, train, street--as long as I had a pillow, so I made the space for it and invested in a good one.
In this line my clothes are a mix of well-thought-out and somewhat random. I brought clothes I like and will want to wear, I tried to get things that could layer somewhat, I have a few long-sleeves for sun protection. I have one sporty shirt in case I get the opportunity to play cricket. Even though we are in mostly tropical equator environments I have 3 sweaters.
Every blog will tell you to bring clothes that can all work together so you can combine them in many ways. Luckily many of the things I brought do work together, but that is mainly because I apparently own a lot of clothes in the same teal/blue color, not because I tried.
Another great tip I saw was the use of compression sacks to hold clothes. They help you squish everything down very small, and you can buy a whole range of types from outdoor stores going up to almost $60. I found this pack of 3 different sizes for $4.97 at wal-mart, so that is what I am using. They aren't nearly as good at compressing things, I'm sure, but they work enough. I split up my clothes into shirts in the blue bag, pants/skirts/dress in the green bag, and underwear/swimsuit in the red bag. This helps you not have to unload every thing just to find a sweater.
So here are the clothes I have for the next 9 months:
Blue bag: 4 tank tops, 4 t-shirts, 1 long sleeve, 3 button up long sleeve, 2 sweaters, 1 cardigan
Green bag: 2 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of jean capris, 1 pair shorts, 1 long skirt, 1 dress, 1 pair leggings
Red bag: socks, underwear (mostly not pictured), sleep shirt, bathing suit, rash guard swim shirt
And here they are all cinched up!
These all (just barely) go in the backpack along with the art supplies I showed earlier, flip flops, inflatable pillow, and first aid kit. I will have to take a picture of the first aid kit sometime. I put together a whole bunch of different things into a small bag, including ibuprofen, band-aids, Dramamine, after-bite, anti-histamines, and a giant pile of chewable pepto-bismol. I have this idea from our previous trips to India that chewing one or two of these around eating helps, although I suspect it may be a complete placebo affect. Either way, they are the only thing from the medicine kit I have used so far.
Way at the bottom of the backpack is my supply of spare notebooks, and the one actually in use goes in the sling bag along with my eReader, a smaller sketchbook, a smaller notebook (its an extremely redundant system, I know, I can't help it), a selection of current favorite pens, travel watercolor set, and scarf.
I post things using my iPad instead of a computer, although I do have a travel keyboard that pops up in a little stand for typing quickly. I haven't used it too much yet.
We've been lucky so far to mostly have a home-base once we actually get to each location, so I haven't had to carry everything around all the time. So far carrying all the belongings was most frustrating in the London Underground, where we could barely fit on the tube with all the other people. Other than that it is basically 3-10 hours of annoying carting everything around followed by 3 - 10 days of being able to pick and choose what to bring out for the day and what to leave at home.
Definitely the way to travel, if you can manage it! All of this brought to you by jamming everything into a small space and the kindness of strangers.
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