How to pack for 6 months travel? 👜
We started to plan our packing long time before the start of our journey. That didn’t change the fact the day before we were still stressed out about it. And also I still had the last day in work. Everything we imagined we would need and all the things we bought for the occasion were already stored in one place. As I said, we started to prepare almost 3 months earlier. Slowly but consequently we were buying stuff we would need out there. There were packages coming to our door one after another.
List of things we bought for this very trip:
- Steel line to secure our backpacks to some solid object 🔐
- Hidden stash of money and ID’s, that one goes under your clothes 💰
- Compact towels
- Little locks for backpacks 🔒
- Raincovers for backpacks 🌧️
- Osprey backpack with daypack you can detach from it and take to plane or bus as a carry-on. We use it to keep our electronics always with us. 🎒
- Anti-mosquito sprays
- Citrosept to wash fruits with 🥝
- Small flashlight 🔦
- Kindle! 📘
- Mosquito net, we haven’t used it yet. We are still surprised with the very small amount of mosquitos. We are getting bitten very rarely, only when we get our guards down. Like when we go the restaurant and don’t spray ourselves. In the room, we only turned on electric mosquito repellent in Hoi An.
- Covers for laptops and other electronics
- Organizer for small things like cables, computer mouse, etc. 🖱️
- Medicines, vitamins, etc. 💊
- Eye cover to sleep better 😴
- Light jacket
- Toothbrush heads
- Guidebooks 📚
- Small scissors ✂️
- Small detergent 🙌
- Swiss army knife — one of the best investments. We use it all the time. Now we don’t need an equipped kitchen to prepare a bowl of fruits for breakfast! 🔪
- Electric shaver — for beard and for hair
- Electric current adapter for all possible sockets. In case we need it. In Vietnam, we didn’t.
- Large SD card. Both for camera and laptops so we won’t run out of space.
Basic stuff to take:
- Umbrella ☂️
- Sunglasses 😎
- Blow-dryer 👱♀️
- Camera 📸
- Chargers + backup chargers 🔌
- Cosmetics — how you like it, we didn’t take supply for all 6 months, but I bought bigger volume of things I like
- Underwear — again depending on you, we assumed we will wash everything on regular basis
- Full shoes — we took over the ankle Converse’s trainers. Light, quick to dry no problem even with light mountains treks. 👟
- Sandals — I took 2 pairs but I threw away old ones as I didn’t need it. 👡
- Flip-flops
- Hydrogen peroxide — for wounds and scratches
- Bandages 🤕
- Body thermometer 🌡️
- Jeans 👖
- Long linen trousers (I ordered mine in Hoi An)
- Long and short leggings are very useful but compact
- Sportswear
- Swimwear 👙
- Swimming goggles
- Light tops, dresses, skirt 👗
- Scarf, I took thin cowl 🧣
- 2–3 pairs of socks 🧦
- 1–2 warmer blouses
- 1 long sleeved top
- Electric mosquito repellent ⚡
- Anti-bacterial gel
- Whatever more you could possibly need 🤔
Documents ❗:
- Passport
- Driving license — never know when you need it
- ID
- Yellow vaccination book
- Divers license
- Insurance cards
- ID photos — many Asian countries require to have photos for a visa, which can be hard to arrange out there. Better take some with you.
- Debit/credit cards — You have to think it through. You don’t want to lose a card with limitless access to your account. We took a debit card to our dollar account. We only have there money we need in the nearest future. We also have one of our regular cards as a failsafe. We also took both our Revoult cards. It’s the most recommended money service by travelers. And it’s independent of any bank. If such card is lost or stolen we can block it from app and order new with even 3-day delivery anywhere. You can also withdraw like 200€ monthly for free from the Revoult side (the ATM’s have their own fees, in Vietnam use Agribank for cheap withdrawals). After limit, there is low percentage fee. No Polish bank has conditions like that. (It’s my opinion, I am not affiliated with Revoult, Agribank or Osprey in any way)
Already in Vietnam, we bought plastic bowls and spoons, so we can eat cereals or fruits everywhere we are. 😉
Electronics 💻📱
To work we had to also think about all the electronics stuff we need. You have to consider it on your own. We took one MacBook Air and another 12” laptop. Plus external hard drive, iPad, power bank, kindle, headphones, our iPhones, computer mouse, camera, big SD card, backup SD. We have also cloud drive running at home so we can store files and photos there for safekeeping. What would be useful, is the little extension cord. The sockets in hotel and cafes are often placed in strange places. We haven’t bought the local SIM card yet. It would be sometimes useful but in Vietnam, there is WiFi pretty much everywhere. Sometimes the connection is not stable. But for now, we have been forced to work from the cafe only once.
Backpacks 🎒
During the local flights, our backpacks weighted around 12kg each (not counting the carry-on). Our big Osprey is 70 liters so 57 liters main pack and 13-day pack. The daypack is always with us in the transport and as I mention we carry laptops there. Another backpack is 35 liters one. So out of 3 backpacks, we have one carry on and 2 hold baggage. It happened twice that our luggage was wet after traveling on a plane. It had seafood scent after 🤔. While packing we assumed that we will spend most of the time in a tropical climate. We didn’t take many warmer or longer clothes. Now we found ourselves in need of something warmer, it’s ok but we could use improvement. Tip: if you go for longer and consider changing countries and altitudes take something just in case. The worst was during our few days in Phong Nha. It rained all the time and wet clothes didn’t want to dry at all. Blow dryer to the rescue! It was mountains and tropical forest there. Expect the unexpected, but you don’t have to bring everything from home. Bigger cities like Hanoi sells everything you could possibly need plus more.
Check out my book Saigon! Saigon! 👈😃
