I stared at the humongous pile of stuff on my bed and then at the new rucksack slumped up against the wall, then back at the pile. I’m sure out of the side of my eye, I saw the rucksack tremble. I went and got myself a coffee to prepare for the task ahead and gave the rucksack an invigorating team talk. The last time I backpacked was 17 years ago to Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, so I’m not new to this, but deciding what was coming with me on this grand adventure had to be considered, especially since we didn’t know when, or even if, we’d be coming back.
I have included an exact list at the end. It isn’t difficult of course, you take the stuff you want, but these are a few helpful notes for the budget backpacking virgins out there regarding the stuff you’ll likely need. I should mention that while I took much time to pack and re-pack, my better half, who’d not backpacked before, accomplished the task at the speed it takes Usain Bolt to get the lid off his fruit juice.
BAG OR SUITCASE?
Cases are cumbersome and take up hands when you could be holding a cheeky travel sandwich. With a rucksack on the back, and a backpack on the front, you’re still hands-free to wave your tickets at people and not have to bend down to drag a wheelie case over broken pavements and random dog poo. Rucksacks are also more comfy to rest your head on while waiting for trains and less likely to bounce off the other side when some dude launches it on the roof rack of a minibus. Incidentally, if there are two of you travelling, your bags can be combined as one 25kg baggage allowance on some airlines like Air Asia.
SO IT’S A BAG THEN
I have a 50-litre rucksack and it weighs 12kg fully loaded. It sports padded adjustable straps, handy outside pockets for the items I don’t want buried, and a rain cover. I’ve seen that packing cubes are the thing now, I separate my stuff in bags which can later be used as a shopping or beach bag. Leave yourself some space to fit in purchases and souvenirs.
If you’ve never worn a rucksack before, I suggest filling it and having a practise, specifically to gauge your new girth while wearing it to save injuring small children and the elderly every time you turn around. A small cross-body bag that fits in the front backpack is your faithful companion for money and cards, phone, charger, power bank, passport, glasses and shades, which will be glued to you during your travels.
CLOTHES
Unlike my native Europe, where summer and winter seasons are reasonably defined, Southeast Asia is surprisingly varied. It’s dry season in Cambodia when it’s bucketing down in Bali, and northern Vietnam is cold. Layers are essential since where you’re going is hot and sticky, but you’ll also be spending time on a plane or bus whose air-con is set to ‘Svalbard’s fridge’, and encountering monsoon raindrops that soak to the bone in seconds.
Temples, holy sites, and Asian cultures require respectful dress, and you should cover your knees and shoulders in some areas. In general, bikinis aren’t appropriate for waterfalls or walking around the street, and Muslim countries prefer tourists to dress modestly, particularly during holy festivals like Ramadan. You will see people dressed inappropriately as some don’t realise, and sadly some don’t care, but to not offend the locals, it’s best to keep your magnificent flesh under wraps when required.
A pair of trusty trainers you’ve already broken in, some comfy trekking-type sandals and flip-flops are the core footwear requirements. Aside from the flip-flops, it’s best to get these before you go rather than having to shop for them here. The multi-purpose items are a hoodie, which rolled up, makes a decent pillow, and sarongs. The latter can be a towel, picnic blanket, scarf, curtain, shoulder cover for holy site visits, skirt, and impromptu bed linen when you discover dubious sheet cleanliness in your sleeping quarters.
GETTING LAUNDERED
You can find laundry services in most places, and where you stay will most likely do it. They range from an actual laundrette, to the landlady scrubbing your grubbies in a large tin bowl and leaving them to dry in the sunshine. If you give them Grandma’s hand-made lace blouse, it may come back the size of a drinks coaster, and white t-shirts tend to lose their dazzle, so if you’re taking special gear, be prepared to hand wash it yourself. I do my smalls and lightweight tops and stick them on the drying rack when there is one. Cotton clothes are always best, as anyone who’s spent a sweaty night stuck to polyester sheets can testify. Cotton is light and breathable and dries fast, and linen is cool unless you’re fussy about creases.
MEDICAL KIT
The medical kit tends to increase with age. Ours contains ibuprofen tablets and gel, paracetamol, antiseptic cream, vitamins, diarrhoea pills, charcoal tablets, antihistamine, rehydration powders, plasters, dressing and tape, safety pins, eye bath, some cotton pads, a teeny bottle of Betadine, cold and flu tablets with decongestant, earplugs, and nail scissors.
You can of course, buy many of these things here. While sun lotion isn’t cheap, you can usually find Factor 30 in traveller size bottles in supermarkets, and unless you’re particular about your ‘deet rating’, Asian mosquito repellents like ‘Soffell’ or ‘Off’ are good enough. Tiger balm-type products are cheap here, and back in the day, I remember the Cambodian locals using it for everything from a pimple to a severed limb. It is effective in easing headaches, nasal congestion, muscle aches and pains, toenail fungus, and itching bites; however, I would suggest taking any severed limbs to the nearest medical facility before applying.
TOILETRIES
I use small refillable bottles. Solid soaps are good when you’re on the move as they weigh less, don’t leak into your gear and avoid the liquid allowance on flights. Make-up tends to melt in the heat, so I just use eye pencil and waterproof mascara to avoid scaring people when I’m out in public. The most useless article you can take to Southeast Asia are hair straighteners, unless of course you’re thinking of using them as a travel iron or to make tiny toasted sandwiches. Take hair accessories to pin-it-up/pull-it-back instead, or like me, just accept that your head may look like a caveman’s armpit on occasion.
THE STUFF
L.E.D torch – from bathroom visits on the overnight train, to traversing broken pavements in the dark. I have one with an attachable head-strap in case I decide to take up coal mining.
Universal sink plug – for hand-laundry and gent’s shaving, and yes, we have stayed in places without a sink plug.
Plug adaptors – for 2-pin/3-pin sockets, a three-way socket extension, and a double USB charger are my weapons of choice.
Lengthy luggage belt – impromptu washing line.
Pegs – for laundry, holding stubborn curtains together, and keeping food bags closed.
Padlocks and a chain – for the bags while travelling, and to make the wardrobe a ‘D-I-Y safe’ when you don’t trust reception with your valuables.
S-shaped hooks – for when there’s nowhere to hang your stuff and keep toiletry bags from dangling in water.
A pack of playing cards.
Yahtzee scorecards and dice.
ELECTRONICS
I have an ancient Kindle loaded with books, a battered iPad with music and games for the plane, a tiny Bluetooth speaker, headphones, a small laptop, a portable hard drive (mostly to load photos as my phone storage is quite useless), a USB stick with films on, an old phone with more music, and a power bank (as now my phone storage is full the battery life is also quite useless).
THE BOTTOM LINE
So now, eight months on from the humongous pile of stuff on my bed, we’re still living out of our bags and currently in Indonesia. Looking back on what I’ve listed here, I can say that we’ve used everything, although we only played Yahtzee once in a power cut and I lost, so that’s gone back in the bag until it behaves.
My newbie backpacking friends, so long as you have your money, passport, diarrhoea treatment, a cap, phone, comfy shoes, and travel insurance, you’re good to go. The rest you’ll learn from and will become part of your adventure and travel tales from Southeast Asia. It’s a wonderful place, you’re going to have a mind-broadening experience, and as I look over at my once trembling rucksack, it’s now asking me quite boldly “where are we going next then?”.
What I packed for budget travelling in Southeast Asia for six months.
Microfibre towel, 4 pairs of shorts, 3 t-shirts, 1 pair of jeans, 4 tops, undies, mix and match bikinis, modest two-piece swimsuit, 2 vest tops, 2 cropped trousers, 1 skirt, 2 sarongs, 2 scarves, socks, caps, 2 dresses, trainers, flip-flops, rain jacket, 1 lightweight long sleeved shirt, 1 sparkly top for special occasions, hoodie, and dungarees for travelling in even though they make me look like a children’s party entertainer.