Essential Gear for a RTW Trip

After 4.5 months, Paul and I are nowhere near experts on travel. But we have learned what worked best for us and our trip. To give you and idea of how we traveled:

• We mostly arranged pick-ups from airports and limited carrying our bags to just a few times on our trip (and between the taxi and hotel room if we could jump in before the porter)
• We mostly stayed in 3 star hotels, with a few hostels, B&Bs and nicer end hotels in the mix
• We had the chance to drop things off with my parents about halfway through, and sent a few boxes home full of souvenirs as well
• We had a long camping trip in Africa (4 weeks) and other shorter outdoor adventures, and sent that gear home once it was no longer needed.
• Our weather ranged constantly from hot and humid to freezing and dry

Essential gear:

• A combination of empathy, international "sign" language, and patience - this will get you over most (but not) language barriers and awkward situations where you or they have no idea what is happening (ok, it's not gear, but it's important!)
• Pen and paper - drawing maps for people, writing down the names of places in the native language, jotting down restaurant names, the list goes on. I kept a small notebook/calendar with all our travel details (hotels, reservation numbers, flights, transfers, etc.) and used this to write in. One border control officer even insisted I have my campsite information written, and not just on my iPad!
• Tablet (we both use iPads) - saved in my screenshots were all my hotels, reservations, details on each stop, maps, tickets, EVERYTHING. While the backup in my notebook was nice, the real screen shots had the names of places in the native language (especially helpful in Thailand). Add in its ability to send postcards (I used Postagram), the array of apps for learning languages, navigating cities (TripAdvisor CityGuide), keeping up with my blog, listening to audio books, watching a film now and then, checking currency exchanges, Skyping my parents, and all the things in between. Small, easy to carry, and extremely useful, I can't say enough about traveling with one. If you don't decide to bring a computer too, be sure to download Puffin Browser, which loads flash programs (some airlines require this for check-in!)

• A well stocked first aid kit - we've had several instances where we needed a medication or topical balms RIGHT NOW. We didn't have the time to wander around in a foreign country trying to find the cure to our problem. Be sure your medical kit has all the usuals, for example we had lots of general pain killers, oral rehydration tablets, DayQuil, NyQuil, disinfecting wipes, bandages, and everything else our doctor recommended (don't use this as a definitive list!). The things we found most useful for our specific trip were: 

• Imodium
• antihistamines (especially if you have allergies!!!)
• legal opiates (prescribed along the way for extreme pain)
• Aloe Vera + hydrocortisone sting relief balm (used on a near daily basis when covered in mosquito bites)
• Malarone - our anti-malaria drug of choice which gave us no noticeable side effects
• decongestants (nasal spray steroids which are excellent for high altitudes as well as pills)

• Easy, slip on shoes for hot temperature, beaches, touring temples, etc. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND (and no, I'm not getting commission) these Croc Cleo Sandals. This is the second long trip they have seen me on, with no blisters, rubbing, or discomfort. They are incredible! They look good with pants or dresses and take up almost no space. I heard a few years ago they would stop making them so I bought 10 pairs, but that rumor (luckily) wasn't true! This is my third pair I'm working on :)

 

• Sturdy closed-toe walking/hiking shoes - What shoes you bring depends on your trip, but I found my Merrell Siren Sport shoes did a great all-around job.

My shoes stood up even to the toughest hikes!

• A light waterproof bag (we used Sea to Summit), along with ziplock bags in general. I put all my things into the water proof bag on all our boat trips, and sometimes in heavy rain. This gave me peace of mind when I brought my nice camera along.

• Skeletool - on this knife there is a bottle opener, pliers, wire cutters, blade, and a screwdriver. The screwdriver got me out when I was trapped in a bathroom in a campground in Africa (read more about it HERE), and the pliers have been useful in several occasions. It's small and practical and it does the jobs you need.

• Merino wool clothing - almost all of our shirts were made of merino wool (both SmartWool and Icebreaker), which meant that when we couldn't find a place to do our laundry for five days and it was so humid outside nothing would dry if we hand washed it anyways, we still smelled ok. After months or traveling, this is definitely a blessing.

We're both wearing Merino Wool cardigans for warmth!

• On the go water sterilizer - specifically, CamelBak AllClear - yes, bottled water in most parts of the world is cheap, but do you want to contribute to the piles and piles of waste? Paul and I sterilized all our water with this through S. America and parts of Asia, and we have appreciated the convenience and ease of always having water at our fingertips and not lugging around gallons at a time. It only takes 60 seconds to sterilize a bottle, and we only needed to charge it once on the entire trip! 

• Spare Toilet Paper - you might laugh thinking it's silly to carry around a roll of toilet paper. But when you need it, you certainly don't want to be without it!
• Superglue and duct tape - I have used Superglue to fix a dozen things on this trip (clothes, my iPad case, etc.) and the duct tape for patching holes and sending packages. Small and easy to carry, but immensely useful, so why not?
• Hats (brimmed for hot, sunny weather and wool for cold) and buffs - we brought both types of hats, but depending on the climate you could get away with one. We had two buffs each, and could use them as scarves, extra hats, hankies, etc. We were always happy to have these and never upset to carry them.

 

Our buffs and hats kept us warm!

• Headlamps - for setting up tents or reading at night without bothering the others, to hiking home in the dark, this was used quite regularly for us, even in the bigger destinations.
• An adapter with 2 USB ports AND a main plug. Plugs can be in short supply and this can be a life saver! I had THIS one, and Paul had THIS one.  Both were great, but with Paul's, we could charge something and use the USB ports at the same time.

• Thermometer - when you're traveling somewhere at risk of disease, you need to know if you are running a fever as this can be life of death. Thanks to my cousin Kate for reminding me of this before we left. Within weeks of arriving in Africa, we sure needed it!

Nice to have:

• PacSafe purse or bag - affording peace of mind all around with built in slash-proof mesh and locked-by-tension zippers, this bag allowed us to go out at night knowing it could not be opened, slashed, or cut off of me. It even fit my nice camera! They have lots of different bags, all with similar features. Not the cheapest of things, but worth it.

Pacsafe Purse on the far right!

• Clothing with hidden pockets and zippers - zippers allow you to be sure nothing is going to fall out, and hidden pockets allowed for safe withdrawals at ATMs at night. I especially loved my running shorts with their hidden pocket, and my ScotteVest Tropoformer jacket. Perfect for looking like you are carrying nothing!

This is my jacket that transformed into a vest - with a pocket for everything!

These weren't my shorts, but the pocket was the same!

• Several sets of clothes, especially at least one set that looks decent. I (Liz) cycled through my clothes quickly while Paul managed to wear the same clothes everyday for a week and still be OK. We liked having clothes for every situation - going out to a nice dinner, hiking a muddy path, laying out on a beach, touring temples, you name it! Don't bring the whole wardrobe, but do have a variety appropriate to the activities and climate.
• A small netbook - one of the best programs was the photo recover, which allowed previously accidentally deleted or missing photos to reappear. I also used this to backup photos onto our 1 TB backup drive (Lacie Tough) and to post pictures into my blog. Sometimes, a tablet can't quite do what you need!

 

• Pillows from home - yes, we may look silly carrying them. And yes, sometimes they were annoying to lug around. But everywhere we went we had a little piece of home, and we loved it. 

Our pillows next to Paul - they also came around the world!

• Journal - to record your thoughts as memories fade quickly!
• Lock Picks - (Paul says) if you know how to use them, a small set of lock picks (Bogota titanium minis). Or don't lose the key to your padlock, both are ok. 

• Phrase books and dictionaries for languages that are very unfamiliar. Or use an app on your tablet :)

• A tiny hair clipper (for men)  to keep his hair at a reasonable length and trim beards, without always trying to find a barber. Small and easy, we think it was worth it.
• Tiny pack umbrella - I (Liz) carried around a tiny, lightweight umbrella everywhere. Most the time I didn't need it, but sometimes I used it for sun or rain and I was so glad I had it. Much smaller and more practical than a raincoat!
• Mini padlocks - For locking our tent, our bags, lockers, you name it. Small and useful, why wouldn't you bring them?
• Zip off pants and Jeans! Both pants are used for different things and I was grateful to have both. In the cooler weather, the jeans were amazing (and helped me look less like a tourist). In the hotter places, I could protect myself from being burned or I could zip them off and have shorts. Quick drying, but good looking!

My PrAna pants do lovely handstands

• Good bags, be it suitcases or backpacks. You're going to carry them a lot, so be sure your things are easy to pack and the bags are sturdy and comfortable. I started out with a Gregory Forrester bag (bought in 2003!) and Paul had a Deuter bag. When my bag broke, I also got a Deuter and we love them.

Our gear all packed and ready to go! Including my small bag and our pillows :)

• Packing cubes - We loved these! They kept all our gear organized and made it so easy to pack, unpack, repack over and over and over again - and still find everything.

3 of these each in a different size fit nearly all my gear.

• 2 cameras (if you like photography) - We carried one nice camera (Olympus OMD-EM5 mirrorless) which takes incredible, blog/photo book/painting worthy pictures. We also carried an Olympus Tough for hiking, swimming, and other activities. Finally, I used my iphone for quick memories and my iPad to take postcard pictures. I stored my camera in the amazing LowePro Streamline Sling, which has a place for a camera, and extra lense, a special tablet pocket, and can fit way more than you'd ever imagine - plus it doesn't look like a camera bag, and you can easily swing it around to the front of your body in unsafe areas. I still absolutely love it!

My amazing camera at Vic Falls!

Me and my LowePro bag at Machu Picchu

Don't bother:

• Moblie phone - the faff of buying new credit in each country was annoying at the start. Then we bought an international sim that lasted 1 text message and one 30 second phone call. The international numbers we dialed never worked and it caused more stress than needed. Just leave it at home and use Skype! 
• Clothesline - Although we did handwash a lot of clothes, we just hang them over the bath and the clothesline got carried around but rarely used. Usually it was easier and cheaper to pay someone to do it. 
• Compression sacks - Sometimes used for dirty clothes, these weren't very useful as we already had our pack cubes. 

This isn't all we brought, but they are the things we used most often and on reflection thought we should share. We'll add more if we think of it! What did you find was the best gear on your RTW or extended trip? Did we miss something?

Bustling Bangkok

Recently Bangkok has been in many movies, none of which have portrayed it in any positive way. I have several friends who used to live in Bangkok who assured me that it wasn't as bad as it looked. With only 2 full days there, I wanted to get a bit of rest and explore some of the major sights too.

The first night we came in about 5pm, and took a taxi through often standstill traffic to get to our hotel. Our driver didn't know where the hotel was and had to call someone several times to figure it out. We did get there safely and were rewarded by a room on the 30th floor with a great view of Bangkok through the floor-to-ceiling windows. We had originally decided to eat at the hotel restaurants, but after looking at the prices (sky high) and the not so tempting dishes, we went out to find food. Most of the stalls had closed for the night and we didn't feel like wandering far on our first night. In the end, we settled for Pizza Hut as it delivered and we were too tired. The pizza came, and wouldn't you know it, mine was too spicy to eat! Paul graciously swapped his non-spicy pizza and we had an early night.

Our first full day we decided to take it easy to recover from the long travel day the day before. Also, we had piles of laundry we needed washed and had some communication and work to do online in preparation for our return to the UK. So around lunch time we found ourselves on Silom Road first passing a temple, then realizing that this is a street that has a tailor, a gem store, a massage parlour, and a restaurant one after the other just like clockwork.

A temple on Silom Road

 We got a delicious lunch at one of the restaurants there, enjoying the lower humidity compared to Cambodia. Paul ordered a 'mild' steak salad. Note that it is completely covered in chilis. This is mild?

If only he had a glass of milk, the cure-all for spicy things. Beer just doesn't cut it!

Without any need for tailored suits or gem stones, we just soaked in the atmosphere of pestering tuk-tuk drivers, street carts selling everything imaginable, and the loud, never ending traffic on the street.

Eventually we found ourselves on a quieter road, passing school after school teeming with uniform-clad squealing children. It was nice to see so many kids in school after hearing about the miserable schools in Cambodia. After a few risky road crossings we found our way back to the hotel. Paul needed to get online to do a bit of work and I had my heart set on a Thai massage. I gave him all my valuables and set off, the heavens taking that moment as a cue to open up and pour buckets onto my head. Luckily I had an umbrella which I hastily opened. I had chosen to walk down a street that was traffic jammed with cars waiting to pick up their children from school. Each driver held a card showing (I think) the name of the child and some kind of number. I snuck past these smiling children, who were drenched but skipping down the road to buy crepes, skewers of meat, gum, and meeting their parents in cars, motorbikes and walking. With the rain continuing, I dove into the first massage shop I saw. I was taken to a room with thin mats on the floor and told to put on a flowery smelling cotton top and long light trousers that tied around the waist. A tiny Thai woman then came in to use her knees, elbows, and pointy fingers to press and rub every achey muscle I had, she was sure good at finding the painful parts! With more twisting and cracking and pushing, my hour massage was over before I knew it, but I felt amazing. The rain had stopped so I made my way home to find Paul and then get dinner and see a movie.

Bangkok movie theatres are said to be some of the most luxurious in the world, and so we booked the deluxe love seat couch to see the English movie 'Love, Rosie'. It was nice to stretch out and be able to sit sideways or cross legged in our little personal seat, and that being our last movie abroad, was probably the best quality we had seen as well. In a different screen (not showing the movie we wanted) there were even better seats that reclined! But we decided the movie was more important than the seats, and these were pretty comfortable. We took the Skytrain back, which let us off right outside our hotel.

Our next full day was partly taken up by dropping our bags at the main international airport. Because our return from our kayaking trip would be a single flight to Bangkok, then a connecting flight through Beijing, China, then finally landing in Tokyo, we didn't want our bags to get lost on the way. So we stashed them in left luggage, which took longer than we would have liked. By the time we finally made it back into town on the train, we had missed seeing the Grand Palace. I hadn't realized it closed at 3:30, and it took longer than we expected to do the bag drop. Next up on my list to see was Wat Pho and its famously reclining Buddha. We took a boat up the river here as we were informed by a taxi that he couldn't do it (we found out later, this was a lie). 

'Tourist Taxi' boat up the river to Old Town

Protective building for reclining Buddha

We loved the incredible statues all around Wat Pho

Wat Pho has many beautiful things, but the most incredible is the gigantic reclining Buddha. When you walk into the protective building, you can't believe how high and long it is - 46 meters long and 15 meters high! The feet are covered in mother-of-pearl decorative patterns and it is constantly being repatched. This was the busiest part, so we admired it, then squeezed out to find a quieter place. We gazed the detailed decoration on roofs and statues and walked from Buddha to Buddha (Wat Pho boasts more than 1000!), reading parts but mostly just enjoying the peace and quiet. It wasn't too long of a visit as I was hungry!

Mother-of-pearl feet

Close up of feet

More feet patterns- so much detail!

Tons of Buddhas everywhere, all different styles

This guy was my favorite!

The 4 main chedis in honor of the first 3 kings

We tried to use trip advisor to find some food nearby, but to no avail as we wandered up one street and then another.

Finally as it began to rain we flagged down a tuk-tuk and told him to just take us somewhere to eat. We were dropped in front of a brightly lit restaurant full of locals and were not particularly impressed by the menu. But everyone said it was great, so we tried a few dishes. The service was awful abut the food alight, enough to keep us going at least. With the light gone, we decided to try to see one last thing before the day ended. The brightly lit Democracy Monument was at the end of the street and then we made our way to the famous 'backpacker' street, lined with restaurants and hostels and every type of person imaginable.

Democracy monument

Backpackers street

After walking the street we found a pub to sit in and soak up the ambiance before calling it a night. On the way back, I tried some grubs (yum yum) and replaced my lost sunglasses. A quick tuk-tuk ride (from the center of town to the train station! It was possible!), and then a train later and we were home for our last night. A 2:30 am wake up awaited us the next morning and we needed to get some sleep!

What would you try?

Tuk-tuk ride of death!

Bangkok was not quite what I had expected, but I think I needed more time there - maybe 5 days at least. Normally I'm not a city person, but I think this is a city that begs to be explored, with so much going on, and so much a tourist can't see. We did enjoy the food and the parts we got to see, but it wasn't quite enough. I'm just going to have to come back someday to see the rest!

Our view and reflection of bathroom. Not bad!