Packing like a Trekker

A couple months ago before I started traveling extensively thanks to my new job, I had a habit of packing a set of apparels for every day that I would be away from home.

"Let's see, I'll be in Bali for 4 days which means I need 4 tops and 4 sets of undies!"

So you can imagine how my bag or rather bags, looked like when I was in Tasmania for 11 days.

Traveling light were two words that didn't exist in my vocabulary. And so were travel sized toiletries. Packing meant grabbing my bottle of shampoo, shower gel and big tube of toothpaste and chucking it into my massive trolley bag. And I never thought that we could actually do laundry whilst traveling - "How would the clothes dry lar??!"

It was fine when there was no trekking involved and transportation was available from airport to hotel, hotels to hotels and back again. And it was certainly fine in the days of checking in prior to Air Asia's recent and very calculative policy of charging RM5 per checked in luggage.

But traveling like a bag lady doesn't work when you trek and camp from one forest area to another. Or when you rather put your precious RM5 to good use, like say your spa fund, instead of donating to Air Asia's already overflowing coffers.

And every time I travel, I realize that I did not utilize everything that I've packed and lugged along with me. What a waste of luggage space which could have been allocated to souvenirs and gifts!

So I wised up. I learned from experienced backpackers like MF, Annie, my current colleagues and tips on the Net. And learned to hate trolley bags and big bottles of shampoo with a passion.

I have exchanged my oh-so-darn-heavy trolley bag for a medium-sized duffel bag for 'luxury' trips that do not include rough jungle trekking and extensive boating trips. A small day backpack containing easy to reach essential belongings completes the ensemble and both can be carry-on luggages even in Air Asia flights. Bye bye to wasted time waiting on the carousel for my checked-in luggages to appear in a much-abused state than when I last saw them.

For my next two-week travel away from home which involves attending a music festival and loads of jungle trekking and boating, I packed in sections and will leave the individual parcels behind after each event is done to lighten my 50L backpack load, and collect them later after all my jungle trekking is done and I'm ready to come home. So that's one 50 liter backpack (which I still think needs trimming down!) and one small day backpack for a two-week trip encompassing three separate journeys.

From bag lady to the trekker way of packing in two short months. I've come a long way, baby.