TRAVEL PACKING LIST ESSENTIALS:

Travel Packing list : Before the trip!

Finally, after reading 1 million blogs about packing, is my turn to put all my belongings for 1 year of travels in my bag!

I attempted packing and un-packing  6/7 times before reaching a decent result! They say practice makes you perfect but  I’m still not convinced about that!

Ok so here it is, the List of everything I put in my 55lt Backpack (plus a 20 lt small day backpack)

BIG BACKPACK:Berghaus 55+10 Women’s Backpack

My fantastic Backpack!

I love this Backpack as it has a side opening and a removable day backpack. Plus a mash bag zipped to contain all sort of things. Really useful and comfortable. But most of all, cheap (only 55£) and not too big for my poor back. Highly recommended!

CLOTHES

• 2 Tank tops
• 1 pareo (also useful  as scarf/beach dress/head and shoulder cover for temples)
• 1 long sleeve t-shirt
• 2 long sleeve shirts ( adjustable as short sleeve)
• 1 mini dress (the one with so many uses that i lived with it 7/24 all summer long)
• 1 leggings
• 1 mini shorts with front zips to keep  my money/cards stuff on me at all times
• 1 long pants
• 1 knee length pants
• 1 jeans (yes i’m really happy that i’m bringing my favourite pair of jeans from when i was 19! really old but they survived basically EVERYTHING)
• light waterproof hooded jacket (this one actually goes on the day backpack)
• 4 pair of underwear
• 2 bras
• 5 pair of socks of which one technical specifically designed for trekking

• 1 super thin big towel
• 1 pillow cover
• 1 silk sleeping bag liner
• 3 bikinis

SHOES:

• 1 Pair of flip flops
• 1 pair of trainers (not sure they are really good, but after searching for them in 20 shops i just grabbed the first pair i found in the last shop, 5 min before their closing time!)

TOILETRIES/BEAUTY

• tiny beauty case with hair clippers
• mini hair straightener (not necessary OK, but i dont want to look like i’m a homeless person all the time! lol)
• contacts and prescription glasses
• beauty case with soap/shampoo/moist0urizer/toothbrush/toothpaste/
• 4 sunscreen various strength (from 30 spf to 100 spf. Definitely need them! and they are quite expensive to buy there)
• a small sack full of tampons (they say it’s difficult to get them there so i stocked them up)

USEFUL ITEMS:

• Sewing kit
• head torch
• plastic cup
• fork, knife, scoop all in one
• universal adaptor
• 2 bottles of DEET (one for extreme situations and the other for normal days. Not having the malaria pills i want to prevent!)
• small snorkelling mask (I LOVE IT!! really happy about this!)
• mosquito net (not sure i’m going to use it, but as per DEET: not taking malaria pills so better bring it for now and ditch it later if not needed)
• 1 padlock with wire (for extra security while on trains and night buses)
• 1 big waterproof kayak bag (for my electronics to be 100% OK if i need to get on a kayak or small boat and all those situation when  they need to be protected from humidity)
• sunglasses with protective cover
• small wallet (empty for now-this is why it’s in the big bag!)
• multi purpose plastic bags in small, medium and large size

MISCELLANEOUS:

• Journal
• playing cards (Paolino is going to kill me for this!)
• copies of original documents and tickets/reservations
• document with all the useful numbers: Hospitals, emergency numbers,iyalian embassy contacts in every state we are planning to visit
• MEDICINES BAG: (everything you could think of, IS THERE! :))

SMALL DAY PACK

ELECTRONICS:

• 1 DSLR camera with 55mm lens and filters
• 1  18-200mm zoom and filters
• 3 memory cards with case (2 X 4GB and 1 8GB) – 1 containing all the scanned pictures of important documents
• 2 pen drive (4GB each)
• 1 tripod
• 1 point and shoot camera
• 1 mobile
• 1 ipod and ear phones
• 1 external hard disk for back up
• 1 waterproof case for wires, plugs and the hard disk

DOCUMENTS:

• 1 waterproof document bag with Passport, debit-credit cards, driving licence, scuba diving licence, international driving licence, vaccination list, small wallet for coins, 30 passport size pictures for the Visas
• 1 copy of document with useful info
• 1 copy of plane tickets and hostel reservation

USEFUL ITEMS:

• small case with everything i need for toilet/emergencies: toilet paper/hand sanitizer/plasters/anti inflammatory pills/anti diarrhea pills/antibiotic ointment/antiseptic cream/blister patches/tampons/small soap/small sunscreen/make up (just the essentials: foundation, blush, and an eye pencil..which is mostly what i wear since i was 14)
• Buff scarf to be used as snood/eye cover/bandanna etc
• mini mini emergency towel
• waterproof backpack rain cover
• multi purpose tissues
• small notepad and pen
• 1 lightweight jacket with hood for A/C buses and trains

And this is pretty much it!

AM I PACKING LIGHT? maybe NOT!

I’m realy struggling to follow the number one rule to PACK LIGHT here! I know I know, I don’t need much on the road, and  I’ll probably ditch 40% of the stuff I listed.

But for now, the big question mark on my head is still too BIG, to reduce the items I’m bringing with me on this adventure.

The Camera, and related tech stuff is the heaviest of it all. I thought about it for a VERY VERY long time, and in the end, considering my passion for photography, it would be totally silly to leave it at home!

This is once in a lifetime opportunity to dedicate as much time as I want taking photographs and trying to improve a bit. So yeah. I’m going to bring those extra 4 kg! (I’m sweating just at the idea of it!)

I’m not taking to many clothes, I will buy something local as soon as I arrive. In this case I can really keep it light and do my laundry/hand wash day by day (today I washed all my clothes by hand just to get used to it…is not so bad after all!

I cant’ wait to update this post in 2/3 months to see what actually passed the test on the road!

UPDATE: READ WHAT SURVIVED AFTER 1 YEAR