What’s in Linda’s bag
What you carry with you has a huge impact on how you travel. The more stuff, the slower you have to go. Over the past five years or so of travel, we’ve worked down from having far too much stuff to finally meet our goal of travelling with only carry-on bags, and it’s made a huge difference. Somehow, though, we still manage to have a lot of crap!
In the interest of being open and honest, we thought we’d lay out exactly what we’re carrying with us, starting with what I have – later we’ll open Craig’s bag too. This list is subject to change, as we buy more books or finally get around to throwing something away, but it’s a pretty good indication of what’s on our backs.
I have an Aarn Backfavour 35-litre pack. It has a large central compartment, with a pocket at the back for documents or a computer, a top pocket, and a large external pocket on either side. I use soft-sided packing cubes and bags to organise my things.
This list assumes all clothes are in the bag – which doesn’t usually happen. I’m usually wearing some of them!
Left pocket
- Games: Yahtzee, Settlers of Catan card game, pack of cards, chess
- Stuff-down backpack
- Deodorant
- Glasses case
- Contact lens solution and case
Right pocket
- Box of business cards
- Umbrella
- First-aid kit
Top pocket
- Small gifts
- Business cards in a case from Turkey
- A lighter that doesn’t work
- Condoms
- Bus case: earplugs
, blow-up pillow
, two eyemasks
, sleeping tablets
Back pocket
-
MacBook Air
(wooo)
-
Document wallet
– spare passport, various loyalty cards, various currencies (at the moment: NZ, US, euro, Argentina), passport photos, vaccination certificates, old boarding passes, Craig’s optical prescription, various receipts, birth certificates, marriage certificate, Police report from Peru, Craig’s boating certificate.
-
Stomach pouch
– passports, spare credit card, euros
Pink case
- Black bikini top
- Pink-and-blue bikini bottoms
- Blue Bolivian scarf
- Possum-fur hat
- Black gloves
- Black thermal underwear top
(polypropylene)
- Black thermal underwear bottoms
(merino wool) - Snaplock bag with tampons and pads
Blue case
- Kathmandu Goretex jacket
Green case
- Wallet
- Pack of contact lenses
- Tampons
- Various cables
- An adaptor
- Condoms
- An SD card
- A bookmark
- Snaplock bags
- Three harddrives
- A DVD
- Lots of earpieces for headphones
- Jewellery
Other green case
- Brown zip fleece
Books
- Silabario
- ELE Gramatica Avanzado
-
ELE Gramatica Medio
- El Principito
- La Abejita Curiosa
- La Poseída
- Catan Card Game rules
- Spanish-English Dictionary
- Five notebooks and a small diary
- A few pages of Arrowwords puzzles and Sudoku
Curves black case
- Black cotton trousers
- Kathmandu zip-off trousers
- Colourful skirt
- Black cotton t-shirt
- Blue cotton t-shirt
- Brown ITP t-shirt
- Bright pink cotton t-shirt
- Pink Craghoppers t-shirt
- Blue merino long-sleeve top
- Black Colo Colo shirt
Zip black case
- Travel towel
- Blue cotton singlet (for sleeping in)
- White sports bra
- Black bra
- Brown bra
- Seven pairs black cotton undies
- Two pairs white cotton undies
- Four pairs black sport socks
- One pair Smartwool socks
Loose in bag
- Brown jandals
- Silk sleeping bag liner
- Jack Wolfskin hat
- Black scarf
Pink toiletries case
- Shampoo
- Soap
- Moisturiser
- Tweezers
- Nail clippers
- Sunscreen
Black shoulder bag
- iPod touch
- Cell phone
- Five pens
- Comb
- Headphones in case
- Doxycycline tablets and multivitamins
- Small Bolivian wallet
- Lip balm, earplugs and Vick’s inhaler
Also carrying…
- Watch
- Peruvian snake necklace
- Earrings
- Wedding ring
