Andy's Blog - Gone Further

I’ve been threatening to do this for a while but being the habitual last minute man I’ve left it late.

My aim was for my luggage to come in light and having read some fellow bloggers’ advice on gear I opted for a 65 litre backpack. I already have a 75 litre holdall that gets pretty full when I go away normally so in the interest of being frugel with the packing I went lower knowing that I can pack less for ten weeks than I normally have for a two week break.

Here’s what I’ve gone for:

Clothes

• 3  t-shirts
• 3 polo shirts
• 1 long sleeve smart shirt (just in case)
• 2 pairs combat shorts
• 2 pairs beach shorts
• 1 pair linen trousers
• 1 pair combat trousers
• 1 heavy duty jumper
• 1 waterproof kagool
• 4 pairs boxers
• 4 pairs socks
• 1 pair flip-flips
• 1 pair trainers

Bathroom/Miscellaneous

• Toothbrush & Toothpaste
• All in one shower gel & shampoo
• Gillette Fusion & 3 spare blades
• Shaving oil
• Can of Lynx
• Hair wax
• DEET insect repellent
• Lifeadventure travel towel XL
• Travel washing line

Written down it looks like a lot but my backpack weighted in tonight at exactly 10kg, which is way under the 15kg I was aiming for.

In addition to this I will be taking a carry-on bag that will double as my day bag.  This is for things that require electricity…

• Laptop (13″ Screen)
• Seagate Freeagent Go 320gb portable hard drive
• Sony a200 Digital SLR with 18-200 lens
• Canon ixus 95 35mm digital camera
• Gorillapod SLR Zoom
• Nokia N95 (wifi enabled, GPS etc)
• 1 x EU 1x USA/AUS Power adapter & 4-way power strip.

Getting over the borders

• Passport
• Pre-arranged visas for Australia & Vietnam
• 10 x passport photographs
• 5 x copies passport
• Printed copies of booked flights/hostels
• Lonely Planet Guides:
  • Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos
  • Thailand
• All essential docs in soft copy on laptop and with parents.

Pezza has also packed, very similar but she doesn’t need to take the electronics.  Her biggest dilemma is whether to pack her GHD hair straighteners!

I’ll put this post as a link across my menu bar, above, for permanent reference – I’ll update it if I add or ditch anything important.

So, that’s it.  Our shuttle leaves Manchester at 08:15 (UK time) Thursday with our flight to Singapore at 11:55.  I’ll be posting regular updates on here, hopefully every 2-3 days depending on activity and wifi availability and I’ll try to do some decent Tweets & Twitpics regularly, starting with the reading on the scales at Manchester airport for my backpack, so make sure you’re subscribed to the blog for regular updates (top right of this page) and following me on Twitter!

Can’t wait!

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