Wish I Had Packed That

When You are Moving Out of the Country

During our one-month trip to Thailand, we met a young Frenchman on the overnight train to Chiang Mai. He had begun his “gap year” 3 years earlier. During that year he became certified as a dive instructor and now traveled around Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, New Zealand, and Australia. I wondered what his parents thought of his extended gap year. I was also wondered how he could live with so few possessions. Everything he owned in the world was contained in a dive bag (holding his mask, tanks, wetsuit, and fins) and a day pack. The day pack held his toiletries, a notebook, his reading material, and every piece of clothing he owned.

Everything we Packed…a bit more than a day pack

More Than Some

Clearly, we brought more with us than he did. Assuming you count our golf bag as his dive bag and our backpacks against his… we brought 4 duffle bags, 3 suitcases, a large box, a kennel, and a dog more. And we thought we had done a pretty good job. First, we used one of those vacuum bag thingies…the kind you attach to a vacuum hose to suck all the air out. It worked great for our bathrobes, pillows, and heavy sweaters which were then packed in a large cardboard box.

The duffle (sea) bags were also a game-changer for us. Like all other good ideas, this was Denise’s brainstorm. She purchased them on eBay for only $15 apiece. A lot cheaper than luggage, easy to store when not in use, and at the same time sturdy and lightweight. Trust me, you can pack a lot of stuff in a sea bag.

Less Than Others

However, there are a few things we wish we would have brought from home:

• 220 to 110 power adapters - we brought one. We wish we had brought more!

• 220 to 110 Apple adapters - we did purchase the Apple universal Conversion Kit. My MacBook Air is too valuable to trust to any old 220-100 adapter. But I wish I had purchased more phone/iPad charger adapters. Our small electronic devices charge very quickly using the inexpensive USB adapters we purchased here. I worry that we are shortening the battery lives of our devices. Does anybody know? Leave a comment below.

• Crushed Red Peppers - though piri-piri spices and sauces are everywhere, so far we haven’t been able to find crushed red pepper. I’m making pasta tonight…what will we do?

• Asian oils (e.g. sesame oil) and spices - it is not that you can’t find these items here. It is just you need to go to a specialty food store which is pretty pricey. We paid 8 euros for a small bottle of sesame oil that would have cost $3.99 in the states.

Only Time Will Tell

I always wonder if we packed too much stuff. I recall what we learned from our RV adventures. Over the 4 years that we traveled for 2-3 months a year in our motorhome, we continued to take less on each trip. What we learned is that we all have our favorite shorts or T-shirts or jeans. You may own 8 pairs of jeans, but you wear 1 or 2 pairs 80% of the time. I can confirm that the Pareto principle even applies to clothes.

I also wonder about some of the devices we brought with us. Denise had checked to make sure that her electric toothbrush would work with an adapter…but not all electronic devices will. Will Alexa burn up once I get a 220-100 adapter to plug her into? Will she call me an idiot as she melts like the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz?

Only time will tell.