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Everyone brings something truly useless on their first long trip. For me it was a water filter. Great idea in theory, avoid plastic bottles, save the planet etc, etc. Then reality set in and the water filter stayed at the bottom of my bag for months until I finally sent it home with a friend.
There are a million guides and lists of stuff you ought to bring with you in your travels, but there aren’t as many covering what not to bring, which is why I loved the anti-list over at TravelBlogs.com. 18 Things You Don’t Need on Your Packing List is a great guide to what you should to leave at home.
The two standout items in the list that don’t get mentioned enough are books and the money belt.
I’m a huge fan of Erik Gauger’s (of Notes from the Road) suggestion that you just take the pages you need from guidebooks (clipping them into a Moleskine or similar) and leave the rest of the (heavy) book at home. Of course I’d be lost without someing to read, so the weight and space I save on guidebooks just means I throw an extra novel in the bag, but hey, we all have our weaknesses.
I was also happy to see that Gary Arndt shares my dislike of the money belt — just get a pair of pants with a zippered front pocket and stop pulling sweaty bills out of your crotch every time you want to buy a bit of street food. Every criminal in the world can work out who’s wearing a money belt and who isn’t, and if I were them, I’d suspect that the folks with the money belt have more cash on them and make a better target.
And yes, my water filter disaster is also on the list courtesy of Craig Martin from the Indie Travel Podcast who says very few of us need it: “People who are hiking or mountaineering. People who might need a jungle survival kit. But, let’s face it, you are probably not that traveller: keep your money in your wallet for now and spend it somewhere useful.”
Ouch.
[Photo credit]
May 19th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
My saying is…”when in doubt, leave it out.” If you need something, you can almost always just buy it.
I dislike the money belt as well. I remember the first time I used it when I went to the UK in 1997. It was so cumbersome. Plus, people SEE you take the money belt out…it defeats the purpose of keeping your money & passport safe.
May 19th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
That one was meant to sting
I like the moneybelt, but you have to be smart about it. I use a moneybelt with (a) Passport, (b) Paper tickets if I have them, (c) Cash. It’s thin enough to blend with my beer belly. I also NEVER access it in public. Money comes out once or twice a week and goes in my wallet, I get my tickets and passports out the morning we fly. The moneybelt isn’t the problem: dumb usage is the problem.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I’m with Craig on the money belt matter. I never access mine in public, as it is instead a backup. So far, so good.
In lieu of a water filter, I traveled through Asia with a UV water purifier, which was small, useful, and saved me from further filling landfills with bottled water, as well as saving me about $150 in bottled water costs over 6 weeks. (http://theprofessionalhobo.com/2008/06/clean-water-in-asia-and-not-from-a-bottle/)
As for the bulky water filter itself, I agree: unless you are planning to be in the deep back-country somewhere that you will need to filter out non-clear water, most of the time you can get away with buying or purifying it.
May 20th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
@craig- I still think in theory the water filter is a good idea, there has to be something better than the endless consumption of plastic water bottles…
I often just go for the tap water, but when you look out the window and see your guesthouse’s water pump dipping into the mekong, it just doesn’t seem like a good idea.
And yes, I have a money belt, actually a neck thingy, but it lives in my bag, not on me.
May 21st, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Check out Onebag.com, the art and science of traveling light!!
June 2nd, 2009 at 1:39 pm
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