The time I have spent out and about has proved to be a note worthy, eye opening, experience. By bringing my backpack fully loaded, staying in some hostels, dealing with the details of my gear, has forced me to do a reassessment.
The Backpack itself is great. The detachable day pack will be an essential aspect to staying organized. You can look up the prior post in April regarding my backpack. The day pack zips onto the main pack, ideal for the hostels and a small day trip, perfect to load up with the clean clothes and head to the shower in the morning. The other ideal part of my gear is the toiletries kit from ricksteves.com. This kit makes the bathroom duties way more convenient. This is the smallest kit I could find.
So you might be wondering, why reassess? From the basic things I do have packed, I have to much. I was able to reduce and take out a several things that I just wont need initially. What I am keeping behind I can always have it mailed to me if need be. My backpack has been reduced to the bare minimum. I know myself to well, I would just get rid of anything that I don’t need.
I have planed on bringing my last Native American Flute made from Birch in the key of C. I sold all the other ones I had, I had a whole collection. Now I am kind of looking at, should I bring it with? Do I want to deal with it? Will I play it often to make it worth taking it? Everyone does love music worldwide. I am going to think about it and maybe put it on E-bay.
Today I just got home and I weighed the small bag of things I decided to remove. Four pounds. I must have a hole in my head; thinking I am going to take anything extra. This small trip have proved to be very successful. I will only bring three pairs of the 2 in 1 pants, which unzip into shorts-keep in mind I will be wearing a pair. Three doe-skin shirts, along with a collar cotton, travel shirt, and one sleeping shirt. That sounds like to much-it will still work. I have six pairs of socks, although I am looking at bringing four. So how can you tell if you already worn a pair of socks if they are packed in your pack? The one pair I have not worn are turned inside out, the ones that have been worn are turned inside in. I don’t wear any underpants, so I don’t have worry about that. I have to keep the rain gear and of course my down jacket.
Carrying books can get heavy. I have decided that I will only have one travel book about the country I am in, also, one other book, if I am reading one at the time. Carrying a paper journal is not looking to promising at this point in time. I am also packing flip flops for showers and a sun hat that compacts down.
The two key elements of my gear for a hostel is my fine and dandy head lamp with night vision, and my sleeping eye mask.
It is still kind of weird looking at what I will need to rid of before I go, which is everything.