How We Did Packing for Nearly Three Months of Travel

It's hard to know what to pack for nearly three months abroad. We mulled over what to pack for awhile and packed and repacked again and again. In the end, we came up with this and wondered if we'd have any regrets. 

I'm proud to say that we used everything that we brought with us, except the two following items: 

• Padlock: We brought the padlock was in case we ended up staying in a hostel with a locker for our belongings, but we didn't end up staying in a hostel
• LifeStraw water filters: We had access to safe water everywhere we stayed. They've proven handy for drinking out of Lake Michigan instead of hauling a heavy water bottle to the beach. 

There were some specialty travel items that we brought with us, and we were curious if they'd prove their worth. They did. 

• Wool clothes: Wool clothes are supposed to be moisture wicking and stink proof, allowing you to wear them for several days in a row. Some travel friends had recommended them to us, so we decided to try them out. We got a dress for me and a t-shirt for Brandon on sale from Icebreaker. Brandon wore his shirt for a week straight rock climbing in Thailand. This was an extreme test to put the shirt through, so it did stink by the end. Thankfully, washing it helped. I wore my dress off and on throughout the trip and only washed it once. Both items worked out well enough that we may invest in some more wool items in order to pack less clothing on future trips. 
• Undress: Brandon alerted me to the Undress after seeing their kickstarter online. Essentially it's a dress that allows you to change from one set of clothes into another in public without being naked. The best way to understand it is to watch the video here. I found it especially helpful to change in and out of my swimsuit when camping in Hawaii. Instead of paying $80 for the dress, I showed my talented sister the simple design and video, and she was able to make a knock off version of the dress! It's been invaluable. 
• Keens: Brandon is a religious Converse Chuck wearer, but the physical therapist in me could not allow him to wear those all over Australia and Thailand. He grudgingly tried on some more supportive alternatives and agreed to buy a pair of Keen sandals to bring on the trip along with his pair of Chucks. He ended up almost exclusively wearing the Keens, and there were no complaints of back or leg pain over several miles of walking. Needless to say, this made me quite gleeful. But, I'll leave it at that. And, now that we're home, we're both happily back in our Chucks. 

There are only a few additional things we wish we'd brought with us: 

• An extra sweatshirt: Melbourne in September-October was cooler than we expected. We made do, but I almost bought another layer at a thrift store. 
• More quickdraws: We have 13 draws for climbing, but some of the taller routes we climbed required 15-17 draws. It would've been nice to have more draws so we didn't have to downclimb to retrieve and reuse the draws so much
• Lightweight pants: The temples in Chiang Mai required women's knees and shoulders to be covered. I had climbing pants (too form fitting) and jeans (too hot), but lightweight, airy pants would've been better. I bought a cheap pair in a market for $3, and they've already fallen apart.  
• Rash guards: The sun in Hawaii and Australia is really strong. Even with liberal use of sunscreen it's safer to have a rash guard/swim shirt if you're going to be at the beach for a substantial amount of time. We ended up buying some online and shipped to our friends' place in Hawaii for our return. They worked so well, we'll probably wear them most beach days now. 

Overall, I don't think we did too bad packing! Hopefully we can continue to experiment and refine our list for future travels.