anoisette

In some ways South East Asia is an easy destination as far as packing light because the warm climate makes bulky and heavy warm clothing unnecessary. Clothing really depends on personal preference and personal comfort and so I’m just going to be writing about what worked for me personally based on my own personal preferences, which could be different from what would work best for you. But hopefully some of this information will be helpful for you to make decisions about what to pack.

I’d say the first order of business is to take a look at what the temperatures and rainfall will be like at your destinations. I was basically packing for heat, humidity and some rain. That and keeping in mind that modesty is an important consideration for the places I was traveling to basically dictated my wardrobe to consist of capri pants and t-shirts (and not shorts and tank tops as one might image would be suitable clothing for such a hot climate).

One thing I did not do was go out and buy clothes for my trip. From my research people seemed to suggest that any clothing left after the trip would so worn it would only be fit for the garbage so it was better to pick old clothes from your closet. And another thing that I heard over and over again was how cheap clothes are in SE Asia and how it makes way more sense to just buy any needed clothes there. I found out that wasn’t quite such good advice to follow and I’ll elaborate on why later.

Here is a rough list of what clothing to pack for an long-term trip in a hot climate when wanting to travel light:

• 1 pair of pants made from a lightweight fabric (Not jeans, they are too hot, too heavy, and take way too long to dry. Full length pants are good to have when hiking in the jungle, they offer protection from friendly neighbourhood leeches and other crawlies. Also good to wear when visiting temples where full length bottoms are required).
• 1 or 2 pairs of capri pants (I would recommend buying pants made from a lightweight quick drying fabric such as a nylon or polyester blend).
• 1 pair of shorts for the beach (Again, quick drying fabric is best)
• 1 sweater (Most useful for long bus rides where the a/c is on full blast and very much out of your control, or for visits to high altitude and cooler destinations like the Cameron Highlands)
• a bunch of t-shirts
• a bunch of undies
• pjs
• a swimsuit
• a couple of pairs of socks (or more depending on how often you plan on wearing socks).

A lot of the sources I consulted recommended light colored loose long sleeved cotton shirts to protect from the sun and heat. I packed one such shirt because I happened to already have it, but found that I barely wore it. As I said above, the list is merely a suggestion and one could add and subtract from it based on personal preferences.

Now, as far as when/where to buy clothes if you don’t already have them, I would say hold off on the t-shirts. They are cheap and plentiful anywhere you go, so it’s very easy to pick some up at your destination or en route. In face you’ll probably want to anyway at some point as souvenirs. However, pants, I would go ahead and purchase before leaving.

I didn’t pack what I considered good capri pants. In fact, one of my pairs were worn work pants from the Gap that I was going to throw out but decided at the last minute to throw in my pack until I bought new ones. Well I ended up wearing those Gap pants throughout my trip (and they were surprisingly comfortable) because I couldn’t find anything else. Yes clothing could be found much cheaper in SE Asia, but I found one generally got what they paid for. Inexpensive pants (for women anyway) were usually made of cotton (not interested because cotton takes too long to dry in a heavier bottom weight fabric) and often the quality and fit were a problem for me. If I wanted to buy what I would consider good, well made pants from a performance type fabric, I found that I would be paying a similar price (ok maybe ever so slightly less) than I would back home. Basically, if I had to do it over again I would have just gone to MEC and bought something like these 96% nylon/4% spandex capri pants and saved myself the trouble of scouring every clothing store and market for appropriate pants while traveling. The other thing to keep in mind if planning to buy clothing at your SE Asian destination is anthropometry. In North America, I’ll usually buy a size S. In Thailand, I was buying L and it fit snug.

You may be wondering at my obsession with quick drying fabrics. That has to do with laundry. When backpacking and staying in budget accommodations with limited facilities clothes dryers are a rare encounter. Whether you do your own laundry in the sink, or use a laundry service, chances are that the drying method will be hanging on a line. So trust me, you don’t want jeans that take 2 days to dry because the sun isn’t cooperating. Cotton t-shirts are ok because generally t-shirt fabric is thinner than pants fabric and thinner fabric dries faster.