Packing List?

I keep getting the question, "What are you boneheads going to pack for a ten month trip?" to which the short answer is "As little as possible."

I have some experience packing for trips like this, but it’s been a steep learning curve. Here’s what I mean …

Back in 2003, by recommendation from a certain Scandinavian ape, I went on a solo escapade to Peru for two months. Apart from a couple of fishing and climbing trips around Canada, this was my first "real" international adventure. Not having thought much through, I made the mistake of packing every little thing I could possibly need for any situation. I had a giant duffel bag filled with trekking poles, a tent, sleeping bag, stove and cookset, hiking pack. In short, I brought a massive pile of crap that I then had to lug all over the country. Some of it proved useful at times, but more often it was just taking away from the trip.

In 2004, I set off on yet another trip, this time with my brother, Randall. Extending the duration of travel to a little over four months and visiting seven countries. This time, a bit more seasoned, we brought with a significantly smaller load of crap, fitting it into a little smaller than 3000 cubic inch (50 liter) packs. We quickly learned we still could have thought a few things through.

This was still the dawn of the iPod and digital camera. Two items that are now a must for any trip, but were then very expensive toys for Randhovnee and I, who at the time were a couple of film-camera-owning, discman-listening yahoos from Minnesota who had just worked three jobs for three months to save for the trip. I think we each packed a ton of film. I also had all these little things in my pack that were not necessary but very useful, to Randall mainly.

Randall would say:

"Jimmy, do you have a sharpie?"

"Yes", I said as I tossed him a magic marker.

"Jimmy, do you have a zip tie … a AA battery?”

“How about a cough drop?"

Each time I would reply "Yes" as I tossed these items to him week after week wondering what the hell was in his pack.

Fast-forward to 2010 and you'll find Jen and I slowly figuring out what the hell to pack for this particular experiment.

First of all, I keep reminding myself that everything we take with us will be lost or stolen by the time we come home. We will be robbed. So all of the fun tech gadgets that people can't seem to live without in everyday life these days may not be the best to take along. So, no Macbook or SLR camera, but instead a cheap netbook and a compact digital point and shoot.

Enough of the jibber jabber for now. Here is a current packing list I've been compiling starting with clothes: (note from Jen: He mentions this list as if it’s something that he just came up with. He fails to mention that at every free moment, including on napkins while we’re waiting for our food at restaurants, he writes and re-writes this list. Jim doesn’t know the first thing about football, but ask him about gear and expect an earful.)

Footwear

2 pairs of socks

shoes

sandals

flip flops

Clothes

Underwear, 4 pair

Long underwear bottoms

Long underwear top

Pants

Shorts

Swimsuit

Sarong

Belt

T-shirts, 2

Button-up short sleeve shirt

Rain jacket

Driclime windshirt

Light fleece hoody

Visor

Stalking cap

Bandana

Wool fingerless gloves

Dop Kit

ear plugs, q-tips, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor with blades, shaving cream, pack towel, lip balm

Electronics

ipod with wall charger, headlamp with batteries, camera with SD cards

Office

2 pens, pencil, passport, visas, padi card, dive log, drivers license, check card, credit cards, cash, journal, calendar, flight confirmation, book to read

backpack, man purse/, wallet

glasses, case

sunglasses, case, wiping cloth

Keep in mind that this list is unfinished business.

Any suggestions?

What time is it? Visa Time

We're down to 60 days until the trip and just began receiving our passports back today with our first visa and hell was it expensive.

This could very well become one of the most costly parts of this little adventure of ours. There are the visa application fees which have to be paid by money order, the passport photos which I have a hookup for but would otherwise be around $8.00 a pair and express mail envelopes. I started with Vietnam which is one of the more expensive visas at $70.00 each and around $40.00 for express mail envelopes I'm beginning to think that taking a weeks vacation in Washington D.C. to visit the various consulates and embassies in person rather than spending wads of money on secure postage would have been a better idea. I could easily make a worth while vacation out of this.

The vietnamese embassy slapped an entire page covering visa sticker in and did their work quickly seeing as I only sent the application last Thursday and exactly one week later my passport is back in my hand and Jen's in hers. Next will be the Cambodian embassy then the Lao and so on and so forth.

Just these little details of visas and entry/exit requirements of a few places need to get worked out, and working for the next eight weeks and we'll hit the road...

or the air I guess you would say.

More Later

Forestville, flight confirmations and fallen co workers and family members.

You'll have to excuse the grammar on this post folks, because it will be a quick one.

This was the first whole weekend where nothing was planned out already and Neither of us were scheduled to work for quite some time. I threw a cooler and various camping supplies in the car and spent Saturday and Sunday on the other side of Rochester from Minneapolis with my ladyfriend. We checked out the little settlement of Lanesboro, MN and camped at Forestville State Park on the Root River.

Lanesboro is pretty standard small town Minnesota but it has the Root River going through it so there were a bunch of tourists and the occasional Amish woman selling honey and quilts. We ate at a little bicycle themed cafe called Peddlepushers Cafe that had a decent reuben. That almost made up for the ass backward service. We had thought about sleeping at the municiple campground but i remembered good old Forestville Mystery Cave State Park was just a few miles and a few wrong turns down the road. The park had plenty of campsites left since the fall leaves had mostly fallen a week of three ago so we picked one close to the river and grabbed a bundle of firewood. Jen and I went for a little hike to check out the digs and saw a couple of large deer type creatures bouncing around in the woods. We had a nice little fire that warmed some apple cider I spiked with Johnny Walker Red. Ahhhhhhhhh! (Pat Carr style).

Our site was nice, not many people around and close to water and the trail. We set up a little tent and my hammock. I don't think I'll ever go on another camping trip without the little ENO hammock, which makes the ultimate gear list by the way. I'll get into the ultimate gear list in a later post.

Nothing too exciting happened on our little hike that night apart from running into this couple that gave me a future project idea. They had homebuilt from plan sets, this little teardrop camper trailer with a queen mattress and built in chuck wagon style kitchen in the rear. I should have taken a picture although you can get the idea if you do a web search for teardrop trailers.

Sunday we tooled around historic Forestville which in the summer has reenactment actors that stay in character in this left in time little ghost town that was found preserved in the country having been abandoned when the railroad didn't come through and after crops began to fail. Interesting stuff. We also went on a tour of Mystery Cave, this cavern that houses bats and guides named Dunker. Very cool cave. Two bats viewed.

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Oh, I almost forgot. small update on plans for the big trip with Jen. Flying to Los Angeles on January 4th then LAX to Bangkok January 5th. Thailand until March 2nd with a side trip into peninsular Malaysia and Singapore. March 2nd flight from Bangkok to Phnom Penh Cambodia. No further information on the trip at this time.

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I'd like to say Rest In Peace to two people. Brian Habedank my co-worker. Too bad we never got to go scuba diving together, I hope you take it easy.

And to my uncle Tom who died this past week. He always liked to hear about my travels and I his.

The Trip

In March of 2009 my old lady and I decided that we would work to pay off our debt, save a bunch of cash and then quit our jobs, store our crap and spend 2011 abroad.

Recently debt free and steadily saving cash we had discussed heading to belize and touring through every country in Central and South America followed by a westward flight to New Zealand or somewhere.

Well, the entire year away idea was shortened to ten months when my kid brother decided he was getting married in late October 2011 and requested that I perform the ceremony. Since then the entire timeframe of the trip is now contingent on whether or not he is deployed to Afghanistan with his Marine Corps unit to continue protecting us from "The Terrorists" in the global war on terror. I guess I'll have to keep an eye on the color of the Department of Homeland Security's rainbow threat level indicator to determine when to buy a return ticket.

I was poking around on the web for a while the other night and found a very good deal. For $556.00 each I purchased 2 one way fares to Bangkok via Los Angeles for January 5, 2011 in a change of plans that completely rearranges the proposed itinerary of beginning in Central America. Very excited and somewhat ready for another great Southeast Asia and beyond.