My Travel Advice and Hints Part 1- What to take & how best to pack

In this post I am answering some of the questions I have been asked about some of the practical things involved in my long trip from Australia to Asia to the Middle East to Europe to the UK to the US to Canada to French Polynesia to New Zealand to home. 

The questions I have been asked include: 

What do you need to bring with you for such a long trip? How did you manage with all your luggage? How did I avoid pickpockets? Which ship did I like best, and why? How does river cruising compare with ocean cruising? How did I make sure I didn't miss any trains? And so forth. 

I have answered the first three of these questions below, the third within the other two questions and continued in the next post. I will answer the remaining questions in my next post. 

I do hope you find my travel hints and advice helpful. 

What do you need to bring with you for such a long trip? 

Personal ‘stuff’

This does not come in any travel lists sent by tour companies and so forth, but . . .  you really need to bring to your journey: 

• An open mind - a willingness to respect and learn from others and to look for the positive, rather than focusing on anything you don't like in their country, such as their public toilet facilities, or lack thereof. 
• Friendliness - a willingness to start up conversations, to chat about ordinary things. Soon it may lead to amazing friendships and stories.
• A sense of humour. Believe me, you will need it!

And you need to always be on the ball and very punctual! You will really annoy your fellow travellers if you are late for anything, and on top of that you are very likely to miss your train or ship or bus!

Absolutely essential items 

• Passport that expires more than 6 months after the end of your trip* 
• Photo ID, such as your driver’s licence. (We needed this to get back on the ship in many ports.) 
• Any visas that are required.*
• Your itinerary.*
• All your vouchers, tickets and travel documents stored in special wallets in numbered order of when they will be required. (My travel agent Naomi was brilliant at setting this up for me!) 
• A copy of your insurance policy and a list of emergency contact numbers.* 
• Names and contact details of anyone you may wish to contact on your trip.*
• Cameras, smart phone and/or tablet device and, if required, laptop.    
• Medications in their original packets to meet your needs for the entire trip plus at least 4 weeks beyond the trip, including prescription and non-prescription items to cover possible problems that might occur, given your medical history. (The original packets are needed to demonstrate your legitimate use of the medications your are carrying to any Customs officials.) 
• A table or chart of all your medications, including the emergency ones, stating when they must be taken, the dose, and the reason for taking them, signed and stamped by your doctor.* (This will prove invaluable in some Customs Halls, as well as at any medical facilities should you need medical attention.) 
• A table or chart of all your allergies and food intolerances, as well a table or chart of all the surgery you have had, signed and stamped by your doctor.* (Both are very necessary in medical facilities, should you need their services.) 
• Credit cards and some US dollars and/or Euros and/or British pounds, depending on where you are going. Ships use US dollars but have their own credit card system.  
• A security belt hidden under your clothes containing spare keys to your luggage locks, if you use keyed locks, your passport, credit cards, driver’s licence, and cash. (In some places no safes are available. In any case, when travelling in trains and buses this is the only way to securely store these items.) 
• Chargers for your smart phone, tablet device, laptop, cameras as well as your electric toothbrush and/or shaver if needed.
• Adaptors for every kind of electrical connection you are likely to make. In ships you usually need adaptors for US electrical connections.
• Spectacles and sunglasses. Bring a spare of each just in case, and keep in another piece of luggage.

Key:

 * Take a photocopy and store the copy in a plastic envelope in a different piece of luggage. This is essential for a back-up in case the original is lost. Also leave an additional  copy with a trusted family member or friend at home. 

Note:

1. Do not rely on being able to buy everyday stuff such as toiletries as you go. If you are touring all the time you rarely have the time or opportunity. They are often not sold in the shops on ships. Moreover, finding the appropriate shop in an unknown city can prove very hard, particularly as their retail systems are different. What you can readily buy in a supermarket in Australia is not necessarily available in a similar kind of shop overseas. 
2. Nowhere in the US can you buy a simple medication like Panadol over the counter. You can only buy Aspirin.  

How did you manage with all your luggage?

I carried around with me a handbag, one large suitcase and a medium-sized backpack. I also took a soft overnight bag and a soft light backpack for shore excursions, both of which could be folded up into a small parcel and put in the suitcase when not needed. Altogether my luggage would have added up to around 40 kg - my weight-lifting exercise for the day! (Well, that is not quite true, as I rarely had to lift my suitcase.) 

The handbag

I used a black handbag that was made from a light leather and had two main zippered compartments, one with an extra zippered compartment inside it and the other with pockets inside it, as well as another compartment on the outside for my iPhone that could be secured shut. In one compartment I kept the travel voucher and/or ticket for that day only. I only kept the minimum amount of money there. 

The backpack

Since I am only short, I used a medium-sized backpack from MacPac that the shop assistant adjusted to fit exactly on my back. I locked each zippered compartment to prevent pickpockets from getting at it. In it I carried my laptop, all my travel documents, my chargers and adaptors, because I knew it would be much harder for anyone to steal that than my suitcase. 

Because it was fitted to my back, even though I fractured and crushed one of my vertebra and damaged discs in a fall a few years ago, I never got a backache. To put it on, I would sit it on the  bed, sit down in front of it then strap it on, then lever myself up, so I was not pulling any muscles in the process.

Note: 

For greater security, choose a bag that has straps that cannot be really cut or undone. 

The suitcase

Although it was expensive, I used a large red water-proof Samsonite suitcase made of a light metal  and labelled ‘Made in Europe’. This had no pockets but it had a zippered membrane inside that divided it in two. It had 4 wheels. The suitcase and luggage strap were easily identifiable.  

The advantages were:

• It was light.
• It could fit in just about everything I needed, including my many medications.
• I could easily push it around without bearing any weight. (Some rough surfaces such as cobblestones were more difficult though.) 
• I only had one item of luggage to worry about.

The disadvantages were: 

• Getting it up and down the steep steps into trains, due to its weight, and up and down escalators due to its size. But someone always kindly helped me - usually a fellow passenger. 
• It often was difficult to store on trains. On some trains you were meant to store all luggage in overhead lockers that were far too small. But I found ways of storing it.

On reflection, however, I believe I would have been better off having two medium-sized suitcases the same brand, style and colour as the bigger one, even though that would have cost more and I would have had to keep watch over two cases and manage two cases over rough surfaces. 

Really helpful hints: 

• Choose clothes that can be mixed and matched and built up in layers. Fine merino tops are fantastic, as they are light and warm, don’t make you perspire, wash easily, dry easily (after rolling them up in a towel), and don't need ironing. Don’t take anything made of heavy cottons, as they take too long to dry and really need to be pressed to look decent.

• I took two pairs of really good walking shoes with me. (I took two so that if one pair got wet, I still had a dry pair.) These were under the label ‘Brooks - Addiction Walker' and were purchased at ‘The Athlete’s Foot’. One pair was black and the other bone-coloured, so they could match my clothes. These shoes enabled me to pound over the hard cobblestones that are so prevalent in Europe and the UK and to walk across slippery surfaces without losing my balance and without any discomfort. Even when I walked for hours my feet did not ache. I did not bring any fashion shoes or sandals or thongs. To my mind your safety and comfort are far more important than being fashionable. You don't look fashionable sprawled flat on your face across a pavement or with an agonised look on your face because your feet are ‘killing’ you! Moreover, open shoes, thongs and sandals will expose you to the risk of injury and serious infection.

• Take enough clothes so if you cannot do any washing for 4 to 5 days you still will cope. 

• Roll each of your clothes into tight cylinders for packing. They rarely show any creases and more will fit.

• Apart from toiletries that need a waterproof container, store everything in the suitcase in soft zippered travel packs (with netting on one side) such as those sold in Kathmandu. You can get different sizes to suit what they will contain. These are your portable ‘drawers’. I would just take out the ‘drawers’ I needed and place them in the drawers and on shelves when I was on ships. Packing later at the end of the journey then was a ‘breeze'.

• I took spare travel packs to store any gifts and other items that I bought along the way, then when in a country where the postage service would be reliable, I would post them to the recipients or to my family to store on my behalf.

• Every now and then I posted back travel documents, maps and brochures that were no longer needed, to keep the total weight down. It was costly but made travelling more manageable. 

• You cannot depend on finding any laundry. I took two coat-hangers that had a soft spongy surface. I hand-washed my clothes every day I could, rolled them in towels (unless they were drip-dry), then hung the tee-shirts and blouses etc. on the hangers in the bathrooms to dry. Some ships provided a short clothesline in the shower. Otherwise I used the towel rails to hang stockings etc. I found I could not use the travel ‘clothesline’ I brought with me. When possible, I made doing my laundry my daily ritual after my shower. 

• After being told at a silk factory you should only wash silk in hair shampoo, I thought about that and decided that what was good for one natural fibre would be suitable for another. In the end I used the body wash and hair shampoo provided in ships and hotels to wash all my clothes. It worked a treat and my hands did not dry out.  And it meant I did not have to carry detergents around. 

• I always locked the suitcase, of course, and also put a brightly coloured luggage strap around the suitcase. That helps identify it quickly and all reduced the chance of someone tampering with your suitcase when you are on a train. 

• Never put anything in a back pocket. Where possible, choose clothes that only have zippered or buttoned pockets at the front. Back pockets are a pickpocket’s dream! 

• Lock any backpack and/or carry it in front of you. 

• If hiking, wear a secure bag around your waist at the front instead of taking a handbag, so your hands are free. (This should be made from a fabric that cannot be easily cut.)