Once I settled into my permanent room in Koh Tao, I took a look around the room one day and noticed how I was able to live comfortably with surprisingly few things, compared with what I had in the States. I pride myself in having gotten rid of many belongings prior to moving into my condo three years ago; around that time, I also changed my attitude towards the need to buy "stuff". For example, my friends know how much I love shoes, but I don't have infinite space in my condo, so I started a rule in which if I want to buy a new pair of shoes, I must give up an existing pair first. I also no longer kept clothing indefinitely; anything that I haven't worn for two years were donated. I stopped buying books (except for travel guide books to take on trips) and borrowed from the library instead. I still used an old tube TV and only have one in the condo, and I gave up cable last year. It felt satisfying to have nicer but less things.
Now here I was with a personal space that was about 2.5m X 2.5m (~8 feet X 8 feet), with only a double bed, a fan, and a 5-tier bookshelf. I unpacked most of my clothes and placed them on two shelves, along with my toiletries, which all fit nicely in one toiletry bag (travel sizes rule!) Everything else that I used often all fit on the other two shelves: a few towels, magazines, maps, a journal, a small notebook, a camera, a water bottle, some snacks, a poncho, and several books I received as part of the diving courses. That was it! No phone, no laptop, no TV, no iPod speakers (I did have my iPod touch and would listen to it in my room using earphones), yet I never felt like something was missing. It was really quite liberating.
Since the beginning of the trip, I wanted to keep my check-in luggage to more than 20kg so that puts me at less risk of being overweight and penalized by the airline. In all my trips thus far, my luggage had been no more than 16 kg, hurray! I must give thanks to my world traveler friend Fi for teaching me the golden rule of long-term traveling: bring things that can do multiple things. Now my watch doubles as my alarm, I use a "super wash" from REI that's body cleanser and shampoo, and I use vaseline as moisturizer, lip balm, and even first aid for minor cuts. It's probably the simplest I've ever lived and definitely the simplest I've ever traveled. It's like that magazine I like: Real Simple!
