Travelling with a small bag

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Started 4 months ago by Hansi
Latest reply from mili
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mili
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I meant a book because it's easier to recommend/gift to someone asking you about packing light/small. The only one I was aware of is the Smart Packing for today's traveller one - sounds like that lady has invested in some first class SEO, because her book is the first hit for p a c k i n g l i g h t b o o k and a number of other keyword combinations :P

I said 'was' because as it turns out amazon-ing that book gets you a whole bunch of others on packing light down where it has the recommendations. A good thing because if the rest of the book is anything like the taster advice on the website, oh boy, you wouldn't get far lol. My fave is the one about 'logical' packing - 'Logical: rain, so pack the raincoat and umbrella. Not logical: an impromptu formal dinner, so leave the evening clothes at home.' OMG. Don't get me started on the one about how an ounce of shampoo will last you TWO WEEKS with daily washing - yah, maybe if you have a buzzcut. But then, you can probably get by with a gentle all over soap and don't need to pack separate shampoo.

Gonna have a peek at the other ones, see if they would be good to recommend.

Posted 4 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

an ounce of shampoo to last two weeks? not in my world either.

Posted 4 months ago #
mili
Member

I know!! I mean, I know most people wouldn't be like me - I have 26" hair and it's on the thick-ish side, so umm, that 1oz? try one ounce *per shampoo* lol. There might be a bit left at the bottom, depending on consistency and how thoroughly I was able to wet my big mop, but usually not even enough to scrape out of the container :P. And I remember from when I had short hair (the shortest hit me about half way down my neck) that 1oz would take me through three washes, tops. I really, really don't know where she gets that from!

I just realized: doing the math, 1oz is about 30ml, and two weeks' worth of daily washing would be 15 shampoos, so she's saying one shampoo requires 2ml *incredulous snort*

Posted 4 months ago #
Hansi
Member

Thank you for all replys it's been some great days holiday and well needed I can say. I'm going home on tuesday and here are my impressions so far:

I could have done with one more t-shirt and one more pair of socks.
I've gotten a wifi internet since my travel started and it woks great. Ok I could have used wifi hotspots for my travel but since I don't have Internet at home it seemed the most value to get a wifi dongle since im out travelling often.
I've always been of that belief that everything you don't get packed you can buy on the fly. I've changed my belief in some way since one it's quite expensive and two when you get back you have duplicates of said item.

Oh, and pne thing next time I will bring good toiletpaper, in every place you stay they often use the cheapest kind and that's one thing I will not skimp on.

Posted 4 months ago #
bandicoot
Member

yeah, 2 ml of shampoo simply isn't enough and they can only concentrate the stuff so far.

hansi, i loathe buying stuff en route too (like you say, expensive and leads to duplicates).. i am getting used to the idea of just going without when i travel, keeping things very simple indeed.

Posted 4 months ago #
MTNgirl
Member

My husband and I spent our entire time in Rome scrounging for toilet paper wherever we went. I think the owner of the bed and breakfast we stayed in scrounged his toilet paper "ends" from work. The bits we were provided only lasted a a few potty breaks. I guess the wasteful Americans we are, use too much. Okay me...and I did scrounge toilet paper from the Vatican bathroom!

For those travelers with long hair, try shampoo bars. A small chunk lasts for a long time.

Posted 4 months ago #
mili
Member

MTNgirl, yep, that's what I do :-) Gawd bless the shampoo bar lol! You can even get conditioner in bars - there are fewer varieties and the ones I've tried don't do the conditioning as well as the shampoo bars do the shampooing, but they do fine with the detangling aspect and that is the biggest hurdle. Some people can even condition with oil, which packs a lot more uses with less liquid, but I never got the hang of it unfortunately - I get a total greased rat-tail look lol.

Another alternative if your hair just can't get along with the bars, is to pack enough to get you through the first few washes, BUT make sure it's in a refillable bottle. Then when you run out, you refill from whatever you can get locally. The cool thing is that taking pride in your hair is pretty much a universal thing, or close enough, so you can find decent shampoo more or less everywhere. And what might have been a chore back home - shopping for basic grooming gloop - can be an interesting extension to the cultural experience of travel. And if it's domestic travel, then you can just buy your usual!

Obviously, you will look for the smallest bottle, and until you pack up from wherever you bought the shampoo, you draw from what's left in the purchased bottle, not from your travel refillable. If you still don't finish it and can't be bothered to take it along to the next stop - just leave it with a note for the room care staff to find :-)

I've done that on occasions where I ended up extending trips and the like, and it works fine - no hauling duplicates, and no waste because even if the finder doesn't use it, they will most likely pass it on to a coworker.

Posted 4 months ago #

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