A Boomer Packs for a Long Trip to SE Asia. What to Bring.

I am a woman of a certain age. (71). I am lucky enough to be able to 'get out of Dodge" for winters. Well, put it another way, when Dad died, I was left with enough money to travel, but not enough to survive in the USA with any dignity. I am so grateful. This being said, I have always been a gypsy, finding my bliss on the road.

Not that I didn't always hit the road whenever I could. I go to warm places, places with nice people, good beaches, inexpensive quality living. This year I am heading to Thailand, and Bali mostly with any and all side trips when the spirit moves me.

So, packing is  very easy because I am not going on survival trips or wilderness hikes.  But there are some simple guidelines that I follow, thereby streamlining the process and making decisions from past experiences and observations.

OK, Numero uno:
Never bring anything that will make you suffer if it gets lost or stolen. Years ago in the Highlands of Guatemala we would watch travelers arrive with their million dollar back packs all geared up as if they were climbing Everest. In the next weeks, (months) we would listen sympathetically over a beer as they told the story about everything getting stolen. I often had the ugly shit pack of all times and no thief, either Guatemalan or fellow traveler, would be tempted to take it home. Same goes for sunglasses, jewelry, computers, phones, but mostly the luggage. It is what you display to the world.

A young couple who had traveled everywhere and worked remotely were taking off from our hotel in Nicaragua last year. They had terrific equipment and gorgeous, expensive luggage, designed to protect all their great stuff including new binoculars, lots of great stuff. The difference monetarily between taking local buses and private taxis was enormous, like .25$ vs $40. I had a bad feeling and talked them into the taxi. On the next phase of their journey, they chose local and when they arrived at their destination, all had disappeared. I am all for going local, but I suspect that you limit your options when your stuff looks so valuable.

I could elaborate about what not to take, but your imagination can guide you. Another good reason not to take super special stuff is you might find yourself jettisoning stuff for all sorts of reasons, such as finding some very cool things and not having room for it all, luggage gets too heavy, you haven't used something in months and why the hell are you dragging it half way across the world, some villager needs it a lot more than you do. Let it go. It feels great.

That being said, I needed a new day pack this year. My real back pack days are over. I found myself swearing at my pack one time too many and pretty much gave it up. It was a super sad loss to me because I had a bit of identity wrapped up in it, and memories, lots of memories.

"Big Red" was my huge red nylon pack I got from Marlboro coupons. One trip it was full of my stuff and tons of books and school supplies for a literacy project in El Salvador. We had planned on going pretty directly to Salvador, but ended up meeting some people in the mountains of Guatemala so I had that pack. I finally had to hire kids to carry it for me between bus stops and one comical time in Lake Atitlan, two 9 year old boys and their wagon dragged that thing where every I needed to go. Our little parade embarrassed the hell out of my friend Tom.

I found just the day pack that works for me, lots of compartments, not heavy, good straps. I will also take a small suitcase on wheels and a travel purse with very strong shoulder straps. When I am in country, I often buy some kind of a string bag or plastic thing to carry stuff to the beach. I still take a money belt, probably a useless old habit, but some guest houses don't have a safe. In the old days you had to have one to carry travelers checks and return plane tickets as well as passports. My money belt was about 3 inches thick when I was in South America with my kids and had their passports and tickets and all.

American Express finished off travelers checks for the world. They may have invented them too. I can't remember. I remember 50 years ago meeting all sorts of college friends at the American Express office in Paris collecting money orders that our parents sent to bail us out. The way they screwed up travelers checks was by not paying their vendors for months. So I might buy a skirt in Ecuador for $10 and pay with a travelers check and they shop wouldn't get paid for 3 or 4 months. No one wanted to cash them anymore. Duh. But the ATM was going to change everything. The first time we saw an ATM in Costa Rica after months in southern Mexico, Honduras, Belize, Guatemala, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. Instant money! No more standing in line in frightening banks surrounded by armed guards making you take off your sun glasses and hats (still the case in Nicaragua), no more being assaulted by the armed guard and told while he was shoving you with his gun, that you were an idiot to withdraw money without a gun of your own because you would get robbed when you left. I take 2 different debit cards when I travel and change money for local money when I need to either through the ATM or on the street. These days you have to let your bank know where you are going ahead of the trip or they mess you up. Stupid new way to put the burden on the customer.

So, passport, two ATM cards, an cheap very light weight laptop. I was using the nifty ACER, very light and super good, but this year I am taking a google Chrome Book. Very very lightweight, very cheap. Again, if it gets lost, broken or stolen, no big deal.

The phone thing is changing fast. Up to now I have put my phone on vacation for 10 a month and picked up $10 burners if I am staying anywhere for any length of time. I have used Magic Jack to make free internet calls. By next year, I understand that there will finally be good, cheap phones and world wide plans coming from Google and other sources. This is crazy, but I admit, a lot less difficult than in the days when an international phone call cost huge bucks and took half a day with the operator at the phone company and sounded like you were on Mars. Of course, that was a bit of an adventure and much more social than bitching with AT&T about some stupid plan.

So I get my luggage lined up, call the banks and patiently (!) spell the names of far away places and then double and triple check. The last person at some horrid bank wrote Nigeria instead of Nicaragua. Check out visa requirements. Hard to believe, I know, but some countries in the world really don't welcome United Statesians with open arms for long periods of time. How can this be? Our foreign policy has done nothing but benefit the whole planet.  I buy some tickets. Cheapoair has found me some amazing deals especially when I have many stops. Many countries require that you have an exit ticket out before you can enter. If I don't know when I am leaving, I buy a very cheap ticket to anywhere just to have the ticket out so I can enter. Asia Air has tickets for $35 to some places. A good place to start.

I take a Kindle. In the old days of books, I absolutely loved arriving at huts, hotels, guest houses and picking out moldy books from the trade shelves and randomly reading whatever was there. (I can't get to sleep without a bit of a read). I still do that, but I take the Kindle also. The weight thing is one reason. It is so much lighter than books. Again, Duh. And I have some serious back up books on it. The complete works of Dickens and Tolstoy and Agatha Christie. Emergency rations. This, of course stifles creativity. Once, my glasses had been stolen (I later found them and gave the person a pair of glasses to trade for my prescription) and I only had a candle at night so I took a marker and a legal pad and wrote myself big stories that I could read without glasses by candlelight. Adventure story about some kids traveling alone.

I have big feet. So, in countries where women are little, it is not easy for me to buy shoes. I take Teva Women's Mush II Flip-Flop. This is what works for me. They last pretty well. Nothing really lasts well walking on volcanic rock, but there it is. I can slip them on and off going into temples and places where you have to take your shoes off. They don't look bad if I am dressing up and they are cheap.

I pack my day pack with electronics, lots of food, one day's clothes, a bathing suit, tooth brush paper and pen, printed tickets, copy of my passport, nicotine gum, and last minute stuff, a tiny Leatherman, micro flashlight.

I have a lightweight down parka that my friend Gretchen insisted on giving me. It has been a life saver on cold planes, wicked lay overs in New York in February and strangely cold nights in places where "it never gets this cold". Thanks Gretchen. That for the plane and a pair of socks, and food. I have a pathological fear of being hungry, developed in El Salvador during the war when I experienced starvation up close and personal. Last time I went to Thailand, I was still eating my plane food two weeks after arriving.

Then in the suitcase goes almost nothing. About 3 outfits, a few personal care items, a thing of Dr. Bronners peppermint soap, a few random things. This is because after I get to my destination, especially in Central America, the used clothing stores are heaven. I have found and bought clothes from Neiman Marcus with the tags still on in Mega Boutique in Granada. I have found so much fun stuff for under 3 dollars. I hate shopping but this is fun. I tend to donate this stuff to the maid or anyone who wants it when I leave and come home with just about nothing. In Southeast Asia, I buy new clothes on the street in the $2 for anything sales. I can see what blends in locally and again, it is so easy to shop when you are planning to pass it on in a month or two in any case. No pressure.

I include a small bottle of iodine, a round of CIPRO, some anti-fungal lotion and some EmergenC packets, in my medical kit. Also a few bandages, an anti-itch stick. All these things and more can be bought for pennies most anywhere. I take my glasses prescription. In Marin, CA last year, the local eye doctor wanted $350 to put my new prescription in my sun glasses frame. My eye doctor in Nicaragua did the same for $23 and apologized for it costing so much. Same proportion goes for haircuts, teeth cleaning, all that stuff.

I think this just about covers my travel planning. From a few not so pleasant experiences I have started to make a reservation for a room for the first week or at least the first few days in a new country. After that, I have the lay of the land and can choose more intelligently. It is about half and half in my experience, half times I move and half times I stay.

My goal is to be relatively sane about going places, yet to mix it up with new experiences, adventure and new people. Virtually everyone I meet is helpful and gets into the art of helping me find comfort and fun. The grey hair goes a very long way as a passport to gracious living. Also my stellar personality, I suspect.