anoisette

When I was preparing for my 3 month backpacking trip through South East Asia last summer I had a hard time finding information on what exactly I should pack. I searched online and read heaps of travel advice books at the library and in bookstores, and while I did find some information a lot of it was very vague.

Now that I’ve been there done that, I figure maybe I should share some of what I’ve learned. So I’m going to write a series of posts on what to pack for a trip to South East Asia.

Choosing a backpack

Considering this is what you’re going to be carrying around and living out of for the duration of your trip, I’d say it’s worth picking a good one. I wanted to travel as light as possible, and initially I was looking for a pack in the 50-55L range. However in the end I ended up getting a 64L MEC Walkabout Travel Pack because it was significantly less expensive than a different slightly smaller pack I was looking at and had all the other features I wanted which were:

• Easy access. The opening zips around 3 sides of the bag so it can be fully opened and contents can be quickly and easily found. A friend of mine who had gone backpacking told me this was the most important thing to look for. Many packs are top loading and it can get really annoying to have to empty everything out just to get something that happens to be at the bottom.
• Comfortable to carry. Well padded, adjustable straps and an internal frame. Look for a pack where the straps aren’t just added on as an afterthought. When you are carrying a full heavy pack around in the afternoon Thai heat because you accidentally got off the bus too soon, you will appreciate a well designed carrying system.
• Lockable. One main compartment with those special zippers with the loops that you can lock does the trick. If you are traveling overnight on a train or have to leave your pack in a busy train station for a few hours while you go kill some time waiting for your train, one feels a bit better knowing their bag is locked.
• A flap to cover the strap system. This is a nice extra to have for when your pack needs to be checked-in for flying, or thrown in the suitcase pit on a large boat. Keeps your straps from getting caught or tangled up in the big jumble of other bags.

Some extra features of the bag that I appreciated:

• Detachable daypack. Some people say these are worthless as they can be easily detached and stolen while you’re carrying the bag, but I never had any problems. If you’re really worried, just don’t put anything valuable in the day pack when its attached to the main pack. The day pack was really useful for day trips and I still use it regularly.
• Well thought out internal dividers in the main compartment. Made it easy to organize my stuff and that much easier to find what i needed to.

As for actually packing, I have to say one thing that made my life much easier was to put everything in large ziplock freezer bags. I did it mainly because I was moving out of my apartment and had a box of those large ziplock freezer bags that would have just been thrown out anyway. But it turned out they were super handy. I kept my shampoo and soap in one bag, so even if the shampoo leaked (which it always seems to do on planes) it wouldn’t get all over my clothes. I had books in another bag. Socks in another one. Undies in another. Swim suits in another. First aid kit in another. And one for toiletries. The ziplock bags kept thing organized and really easy to find. When I was looking for something I’d just have to look for the right ziplock bag and pull it out. And the bags slide past each other easily, which made everything a piece of cake to access. I threw in a bunch of extra empty ziplock bags just because I had them, and ended up using them throughout my trip when other bags would get holes in them and so on. Since they take up pretty much no space it was not a big deal.