Lots of guide books will give you a rough idea of what to take on holiday but frankly many people have never used a universal sink plug, large wire netting with which to cover their rucksack, a special rucksack weatherproof cover, an extendable metal cable for tying one’s rucksack to a railway station or any of the other security devices that have been recommended over the years. Tiny padlocks are quite handy for locking individual rucksack pockets shut, but don’t listen to people who tell you that you have to run a wire through the lining of your money belt to stop robbers coming and cutting it off you with a Stanley knife; you’d be very unlucky if that happened.
This packing list assumes that you will be staying fairly near to the beaten track, whether on your summer holiday travelling round the Greek islands or on a twelve month trip round Oz and the Far East. It is by no means exhaustive, but should give you a few good ideas based on the things we’ve found useful on our travels.
A daysack.
Better for your back than a shoulder bag, take a daysack as well as your big rucksack (or suitcase) for all your day-to-day adventures. A coin purse is also handy, then you don’t need get all your notes out in the crowded market or taxi. If you are walking through a crowded market or suchlike, you can always wear your daysack from front to back, just so no-one can slip their hand in without you knowing; some people find little organiser bags useful instead as they can be worn with the strap over one shoulder so you can keep your hand on it at all times.
Moneybelt
I have never once actually used a money belt in all the time I’ve been away. When on the move, I tend to split my money, travellers’ cheques and debit cards between my rucksack and my day sack; the latter contains the passport and tickets, photocopies of which are hidden in the rucksack. Should I be unfortunate enough to lose one of the bags then I always have a back up of everything and enough cash to get a room and make some calls. One hand tightly wrapped in the straps of my day sack has always done the trick; in tropical climates money belts can cause a nasty rash where the sweat gets trapped and they can make you all hot and annoyed.
If you do feel safer using one, make sure it is cotton and lies flat against the body under your top rather than the bum bag type for two reasons. Firstly they are obvious a mile off and an easy target for pickpockets, and secondly they are definitely not flattering for one’s figure! If, on the other hand, you are travelling with a husband or boyfriend you can make him wear it.
Another little tip that may come in useful is that elasticated bandage can make a great little hidden money/card safe. Wear a section doubled up round your ankle or calf and tuck your notes in it; it takes a bit of getting used to, and obviously you could only do it if you were wearing trousers but it makes a neat little extra hidey-hole for valuable bits and pieces.
Swiss Army Knife, the kind with the little tweezers.
Absolutely essential for picnics, opening wine bottles, removing stings and stones from boy scouts’ hooves etc., poking new holes in a leather belt when you lose half a stone from food poisoning, and of course sharpening a two-inch long Sisley eye-pencil stub. A little screwdriver function is also handy for trying to put back together things in hotel rooms that you think “oh, I could just mend that,” and then well meaningly exacerbate the problem. Have done this with a number of foreign toilet cisterns, helpfully trying to alleviate ball-cock disorder. (Hasty exit always best in this situation, don’t try and explain what you were doing standing on lavatory seat peering into to tank while water pours on floor in direction of the computers in an internet cafe). N.B. Make sure you pack the knife in your luggage for the hold, not the cabin, otherwise the baggage X-ray staff will take it off you, never to be seen again.
Micropore medical tape.
This stuff is marvelous; not only can you use it for holding used chamomile tea bags over your eyes when you are suffering a particularly bad hangover but should for some reason need to stand up (but still not see), but you can also use it as a small plaster on cuts, blisters and scratches. Also invaluable for taping leaflets and tickets in to your diary, mending small rips in rucksacks, sticking photos on to the wall above your bed, leaving messages on doors..
Dental floss.
Another cracker this one. Yes, you can use it for cleaning your teeth, but it also makes an ingenious emergency shoelace or cunning device for hanging a mosquito net from the ceiling or light fitting. Brilliant for sewing up holes in mosquito net or rucksacks when medical tape is no longer doing the business, and makes a good washing line for knickers when strung across the bathroom or verandah. Can also be used for making comedy trip wire.
Tiger balm.
Keep this in your day sack to treat insect bites, muscle aches (especially sore shoulders from over-heavy rucksacks), and headaches. A great decongestant.
Silk or cotton sleeping bag liner.
Most hostels provide bedding of some kind for free or hire, but lugging a sleeping bag around the world can be a pain and isn’t necessary if you’re staying in the tropics. A sleeping bag liner is just a bit nicer than sleeping on hostel sheets; some have the added luxury of a little section in to which the hostel pillow slips, meaning you don’t have to dribble in your sleep where others have dribbled before. They come in handy little drawstring bags, and make quite good pillows for long coach journeys in order to stop your head banging against the window. Silk ones are more expensive but are incredibly light and squash up into a ball the size of a large apple. (The silver foil bags inside wine boxes make quite good travel pillows once they’re empty, I have discovered, you just blow in the valve to inflate them. Sadly you have to drink a couple of litres of wine first).
Mosquito net.
A pain in the arse to carry about, but very necessary in certain regions where the mozzies are the size of pterodactyls and sound like 633 Squadron. You will regret it if you don’t when your legs are covered in bites that look like glace cherries and the itching makes you want to scream like Janet Leigh. Also necessary is a good insect repellent (GTC sells one that contains no DEET and is made simply of essentials oils; it is so effective that it is used by the Forestry Commission in Scotland, whom we are assured suffer mightily from midges).
Citronella, tea tree and lavender oil (see the Remedies section).
Diary and Pritt stick.
Writing up the varied joys of the day can be one of the highlights of the evening when backpacking. The thing is, you think you’ll remember all the places you go and the names of the people that you meet (this is starting to sound like a Simon and Garfunkel number) but memory is fleeting and you’re better off committing it all to paper if you want to share it with your friends and family when you get home. Leaflets and tickets fall out all the time so the pritt stick comes in handy for gluing them in; I always take a little pocket box of watercolours as well for those nights one can’t face another beer-fuelled riot of drunken fun, but would rather dabble hopelessly in trying to create a paint the glorious landscape of the day.
A Good Book.
Flights get delayed, coach trips can be tedious, you might end up poorly in bed for a couple of days or just have a blistering row with your travelling companion about whose turn it is to buy more loo roll and end up sulking for forty-eight hours. A Good Book is essential as actually the days are quite long and hard to fill when you’ve been away for a while. I never feel safe unless I’ve always got one in reserve, but pretty much everywhere there are backpackers there will be somewhere you can buy English books. Heavy novels such as A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth or anything by Dickens are also handy for propping open your door to let some fresh air through. See the GTC website for some great book reviews of tomes to take away….
Universal Cleanser.
This was developed especially for GTC as we couldn’t find an all-in-one product that was suitable for face, hands, body and clothes. Brilliant for backpacking or a weekend away, you can even wash your sarong or knickers in the sink with this stuff. Originally we used solid shampoo bars but they can leave your hair and hair and dry and in desperate need of moisture; this stuff will leave you silky soft and smelling like a dream. Combine with our Universal Moisture and also our Travel Balm for the ultimate in face and body treatment.
Little packet of tissues
Much better than carrying wodges of stolen loo roll around in your daysack, which tends to get grubby and unravel embarrassingly all over the place when you’re trying to look casual. That antiseptic hand sanitizer stuff is very good as well; you just rub it all over your filthy little digits without the need to find water, quite handy for long bus journeys.
Knife, fork and spoon set.
Not so much necessary if you are in Marbella for a fortnight, but quite handy for staying in hostels and camping trips. A melamine bowl or plate can be useful as well; have a look at our Outdoor Meal Kit, a brilliant idea from Sweden. A plate, bowl, knife-fork-spoon combo, little chopping board/sieve, cup with sipping lid and handy little lidded pot all neatly clip together and weigh hardly anything; the plate and bowl fit together to make a great lunchbox or somewhere to keep valuables dry, and the lidded cup even floats if you drop it overboard! A handy harness is also available so you can attach it to the outside of your rucksack and not waste valuable internal storage space.
Earplugs, travel pillow and an eyemask.
Now many people feel like a bit of a womble using all this lot on a plane or a bus, but trust us, they can make your journey a lot more comfortable and you’ve got a much better chance of actually getting some sleep on a long-haul flight if you can’t hear or see the man in the seat next to you blowing his nose repeatedly. If you plan to backpack, the chances are that sooner or later you’ll end up in a hostel dorm, and it can be incredibly annoying when all your room-mates keep coming in and out and switching the light on when you’re trying to sleep….. these just make life that little bit more comfortable.
First Aid kit
There is no need to go loopy about this if you are sticking close to the travellers’ routes; even in rural Java it is possible to buy medical supplies, and at a much cheaper price than at home. Take a couple of doses of cold and flu remedy, some plasters, painkillers, and a little sewing kit plus some sort of diarrhoea treatment for emergencies, and you’ll be able to stock up with all these plus anything else you need at a pharmacy just about anywhere. Anti-travel sickness tablets can also be handy but don’t worry about syringes and giving sets and dental needles unless you advised to by your travel clinic; many hospitals abroad are cleaner and better equipped than some in this country. Also useful is that plastic film dressing; cut to size with your penknife scissors it makes an excellent dressing for burns, blisters, cuts and bites.
A sarong or kikoy.
Another invaluable bit of kit. Use it as a skirt, towel, blanket, pashmina, beach mat, scarf or beachdress; make an innovative sunshade between trees, an unusual turban, or tie all your laundry up in it, Dick Whittington-style. Brilliant as a cosy wrap on planes when the air conditioning is on.
Bits and pieces. A few other things we have found useful include;
* a squash ball. Handy for using as a sink plug (the reason we don’t rate universal sink plugs as any use is that they tend to float away as soon as you try to do anything in the water – squash balls however can be squidged into the plughole to make a good tight fit, and can also be used for playing games on the beach).
* a plastic lunch box. Keeps all the little bits and pieces safe, dry and easy to find. Can also be used as a lunch box!
* teabags, immersion coil, enamel mug, powdered milk. Can’t go anywhere without teabags. Immersion coils are those things that you put in a cup of cold water that heat it up very slowly but satisfyingly, and make you feel like an explorer in a tent at Everest base camp. Few things are more pleasurable in this life than getting to a hostel, having a shower and making a nice cup of tea. The enamel mug is handy for brushing your teeth (yes, I know it is easier to use a toothbrush, ha ha, very funny), when using bottled water, or rinsing your new piercing in salt water.
* booklight. Great for on the plane or in a hostel dorm, but can also be used as a torch or freestanding lamp. Handy for trying to find the loo in the dark.
* ziplock plastic bags. Can be used for wet swimming costumes, leaky suncream bottles or to keep your passport and photocopies nice and dry.
* pack of cards and some dice. Everywhere there are travellers there will be card games; the instructions for some well known games are available to download from GTC.
The trick to a well-packed rucksack is to not fill it up. You need much less than you think, and you can buy anything anywhere, generally for less than you can get it here. By all means take toiletries from home with you, but you don’t need three of everything. In Asia in particular many shops sell mini bottles of Western toiletry brands and these are brilliant for cutting down the weight of your bag.
As for clothes, you don’t need that many either; I generally end up wearing the same two vests and sarongs in rotation (one to wear, one to dry), and a decent pair of those trekking sandals. Hiking boots are useful if you plan to do any proper trekking, and a fleece for the evenings; also take a pair of cargo trousers and a long sleeve top for dawn and dusk and when the mozzies are biting. Don’t go overboard spending money on clothes before you go though, it’s much more fun to buy clothes abroad anyway as they are more likely to be suited to the local climate and etiquette, and they make nice souvenirs when you get home. How else are you going to sit in the pub on your return wearing a Cambodian headscarf, kurta pyjamas and a New Zealand Swan Dry jacket, regaling the locals of how you bartered for fabric in a remote hill tribe village with an opium smoking nonagenarian?
Packing list
Paperwork
* tickets
* passport and visa
* medical details
* vaccination history
* driving license
* travellers’ cheques
* cash and credit cards
* insurance details
* photocopies of all of the above
Health and Safety
* sunglasses
* suntan cream
* hand sanitizer
* water bottle
* insect repellent
* tiger balm
* padlock
* Swiss army knife
* travel towel
First Aid Kit
* painkillers
* dehydration salts
* diarrhea treatment
* plasters
* antiseptic
* micropore tape
* tweezers and scissors
* anti-travelsickess tablets
* dental floss
* essential oils
* tissues
Basic Clothing
* swimwear
* sunhat
* sarong
* 2x vests or t-shirts
* shorts
* long sleeve shirt
* fleece
* long trousers
* sandals or flip-flops
* walking boots if necessary
Accessories
* mobile phone
* camera
* guide book
* reading book
* playing cards
* journal and pen
* torch or book light
* daysack
* moneybelt
* ziplock bags
* coin purse
* knife, fork, spoon
* plate and mug
* earplugs and eyemask
* sleeping bag liner
* mozzy net
* sewing kit
A Brief Word on Staying Safe
When you first get off the plane lots of people may try and tell you helpful stories about bad things that happened to a friend of someone they met, who had the bottom of their rucksack slit open, or who had their finger chopped off in order to have their wedding ring stolen. Well-meaning though these people may be, scare stories are just going to make you appear frightened and therefore vulnerable; the more vulnerable you appear, the more likely somebody is going to view you as a possible soft target.
The key to staying out of trouble is to look like you know where you’re going and what you’re doing, whilst assuming the confident appearance of someone who has spent their whole life sauntering safely along foreign streets. Only an idiot is going to walk down a dark alleyway counting fistfuls of cash, but do try and be discreet. Stop for a coffee and count your cash under the table; likewise it is much more sensible to look at your map and bite your nails in despair over a cool drink in a café, than to stand on a street corner looking confused. That said, in sixteen months of backpacking, I was never once burgled, robbed or attacked, so stay nice and safe and enjoy your adventure!
Copyright © AR Coombes 2007. All rights reserved
