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Nescessities-Travelling Alone

I have come to realize that in the course of my academic study that I might have to travel alone to different cities around the asia pacific region. These will be quick 2-3 day affairs on a shoestring budget. I will be going to these cities for research and interviews as the main focus and not for tourism.

I have been listening to the podcast enough to know that Rym travels quite frequently, was hoping to get any advice from him or those of you here in the know, on what to get in the case of luggage and other necessities that suit these types of quick travelling. I am from Singapore, and the furthest I might be travelling to would be Taipei, and so do not foresee issues like jet lag as it will only take around 5 hrs at most to get there.

Comments

  • A lot of Hiking gear is good if you want to compress down your stuff to fit in a smaller space. You might be able to get away with a backpack only for 2-3 day trip depending on your needs. Socks, underwear, a pair of pants that you are probably wearing are probably good for the whole trip depending on weather.

  • I'm going back to APAC next Tuesday for three weeks. Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne this time.

    Pack light. If you can, pack carryon only. For the travel itself, and any exploration you do, get sports/technical fabrics. Tech pants, sports shirts: that sort of thing.

    Examples:
    http://www.amazon.com/Outdoor-Research-Mens-Voodoo-Black/dp/B008K3R5MA/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1441900269&sr=8-5&keywords=technical+pants

    http://www.rei.com/product/844121/rei-tech-t-shirt-mens

    If you don't need a suit/tie, bring ONLY clothes like that. If you have interviews that you have to look nice for, bring exactly one set of nice clothes.

    Bring one pair of comfortable shoes like Nike free or Merril trailrunners. If you bring that suit, bring one second pair of dress shoes. No other shoes.

    If you don't need technology, don't bring it. Laptop, camera, cell phone, charges: bring the bare minimum.

    For luggage, try to get it all in a travel backpack like this one:
    http://www.timbuk2.com/aviator-travel-backpack/522.html

    For socks: only smartwool. Only smartwool.

    Re-use the first pair of sport clothes every day for exercise: don't bring multiple sets.

  • I have a hiking backpack that has plenty of zippers and pockets and sub-pockets that allow for optimum organization of gear, and it is small enough to be allowed as a carry-on bag. For a short trip such as that, I can easily get away without checking anything using that backpack plus my laptop bag. And I'm sure the problem of tightly packing dress clothes in a way that they don't get wrinkled has already been solved.

    When packing, I like to reference various packing lists for camping trips, because they tend to be quite exhaustive, then omit any of the outdoors related items and substitute any work or technology related items. Really, as long as you pack clothes, a toiletry kit (including personal items such as medication, etc), and any work/tech stuff, you can easily get by in any civilized area where you can grab anything you might have missed.
  • Thanks all for the great information ^^
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