WorldNomads.com Travel Tip - Backpacks
WORLDWIDE | Friday, 19 December 2008 | Views [556]
I have travelled with everything from climbing rucsacks on a long haul trip across India to just a tiny day pack for 4 weeks in Cambodia. My advice, like many before me is to travel light! Now of course, this might mean either of the above, so you have to consider:
- where are you going
- what is the climate like
- what are you going to do
- what can I buy along the way
- what can't I buy along the way
Then, having made your choice, you have to consider how valuable any of this stuff is to you. I usually travel with the idea that I don't
take anything I'm not prepared to lose (or have stolen) and leave those items behind.
Now consider what it will be like to lug that 25Kg at lunchtime when it is 40 degrees in the shade and lose at least another one third of it. Now you are getting closer.
Then think about security and dangling straps. Does my nice new pack look, well, rather nice and expensive? Think about people who might have barely eaten for a month, put yourself in their shoes and ask what you'd do in their situation? That isn't being harsh, it is often just reality. I've had stuff stolen before. It isn't nice, but get over it. Do you padlock your backpack and advertise you have something to steal? Or do you make your pack lokk, well, kinda grubby and let them go after another traveller? (that is a rhetorical question).
And finally, consider what you might buy on the way. Apart from various replenishables like t-shirts and thongs etc, consider all the lovely booty out there just waiting for you to take it home, so leave about a third of an empty pack of space. Trust me: you'll need it!
Simon Monk
Director of Online
simon.monk[at]worldnomads.com
Tags: travel tips, backpack, worldnomads.com, world nomads
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