What’s in my pack?

Here it is. The long-awaited post about what I have in my backpack (yes…only one backpack). I have carefully picked the items that would stay or go in my mini-pack, and am constantly looking for smaller, better, more functioning items to replace my current ones.

Here is a photo of everything I have in my pack right now:

Alright. Now to answer all the “what the heck is that???” questions. Items are listed from top-left to bottom-right  in horizontal rows:

DISCLAIMER: All links to items are referral links. I get 4% of your purchase if you click my link and buy the item. If you feel like helping me out, this is a good way to do it. We both win.

1. Everex Stepnote 13.1″ laptop with Ubuntu 8.04 installed. I use it for many things: Programming (my source of income), non-verbal communication, DVD-watching, movie-listening, reservation-booking, etc.
2. Sansa Express 1gb MP3 player. I listen to music/podcasts/old radio shows every night as I fall asleep without disturbing my fellow dorm-mates in whatever hostel I am in at night. This awesome mini-mp3 player also features a built in microphone and allows you to make audio recordings as long as the built-in/external memory will allow. This is awesome for on-the-road sound-documenting as well as recording mp3′s to send to family back home. My absolute FAVORITE feature about this device is that it has a built in FM radio tuner. If you’re like me and you love to sample the radio in different countries/places, this is a feature that could sell you on the device.
3.  Nokia e61 quad-band cellphone. The coolest phone I’ve ever had (and I’ve had lots). Symbian OS operates worlds better than any other mobile operating system. The phone has wifi built in in-case your country’s prepaid provider has a crappy data network. A word of advice: Install Opera Mini on this phone (or any web-enabled phone for that matter) and your mobile-browsing will be brought to a new level.
4. Salomon XA Pro 3D XCR Trail-Running Shoes. Fancy name for a fancy shoe. The lacing system on these shoes alone make them worth the steep price tag. They have XCR  on the bottoms which means you can stand in 3″ of water (according to Tynan from Lifenomadic) and be confident that your feet will stay utterly dry. They are comfortable and high-quality.
5. Cloudveil Cool Convertable Pants. These pants are made of nylon (finely woven so they’re not loud and disco-dancer -like) and they dry quickly as a result. They work as a swimsuit when the legs are zipped off (I used them in the ocean once a day for a whole week on Maui last month) and when you get out, it takes about 10 minutes for the pants to be dry enough to go inside with again. I have yet to try these pants in colder environments. I may purchase a pair of light-weight long-underwear when I’m in Europe.
6. Deuter Futura 28 liter backpack. I could not ask for a better backpack. This is a perfect bag whether you’re taking a day-trip around Maui, Hawaii or traveling for 8 months in Europe. Fill it with everything you own, or just what you need. That’s what I do. This pack has a little laptop storage area (the designers intended it for a water bladder) that fits my laptop perfectly. There is a convertable middle area with a divider you can zip closed (this is what I do as I keep electronics in the top compartment and clothing in the bottom). This bag rocks.
7. Wired Magazine. I was…forced into a subscription to this magazine when my air-miles program send me a message saying “Use your almost-nothing-amount of points or lose them!” and the only option I was REMOTELY interested in was a subscription to Wired. It is a decent magazine if you’re a geek.
8. “The First Time Around the World” paperback book. This has been a fairly decent book. It is down-to-earth and has a number of tips for wander-lusters and travelers with a very good section on hitchhiking (on yachts that is). I keep one travel-related book in my pack to read at all times.
9. Toiletries. I keep my VERY basic toiletry kit in a plastic ziploc bag. They are easy to find (it seems every household/hostel has a pack lying around) and they compress to nothing, while keeping your backpack mouthwash-explosion-proof. I keep a mini-sized travel toothbrush (half the size of regular toothbrushes), a small stick of deoderant, a small tube of toothpaste (these are easy to find EVERWHERE IN THE WORLD) and a few q-tips. I also (on occasion) get a small bottle of mouthwash to carry around, though I find airport folks aren’t fans of even the small amounts. I only wash my hair about once a week (some say this is gross, I find it gives me nice texture) and, as a result, don’t need to carry around shampoo. I can either buy small packets on-the-road or borrow from whoever I’m staying with.
10. Eagle Creek Mini-Money Belt. This belt is a true-blue belt, with a little ziploc compartment to stuff hundreds into. It has a plastic belt buckle as well (which means no more looping into belt-loops in the airport security line). A good buy for the semi-security-concious traveler.
11. Tide Laundry Detergent sink-packets. These are mini-packets of “Tide”, you can find them in most grocery stores. If I had my way, I’d bring “Dr. Bronner’s” all-purpose soap/laundry detergent/etc. but the TSA isn’t a fan of liquids and these tend to just slip under the radar. They are fairly flat as well. I would recommend, however, if you’re staying anywhere for longer than 5 days, to just buy a mini-packet of detergent in a store. You can find miniature boxes (bigger than the ones in the picture) anywhere from London to the outer-regions of the Philippines and I find the more soap/hotter water/longer its washed for the cleaner your clothes get.
12. Flexoline Rubber Travel Clothesline. This is an awesome clothesline. Its made with surgical-tubing so it is durable as heck. It will loop onto anything (I mean anything. There are many ingenious ways to get this to work for you in any scenario) and it has little braids to slip socks and corners of clothing items into.
13. 2 Icebreaker Merino Wool T-Shirts. These shirts rock. I was turned on to them by the equally entheausiastic Tyanan from Life Nomadic. These shirts are a godsend. Their most attractive feature (for me) is that they hold virtually NO odor. I have worn one of these shirts for 5 days straight and had minimal to no odor afterwards. They dry very quickly, and feel comfortable in any temperature. They are made with Merino wool from New Zealand.
14. Medium MSR Packtowl. I love these towels and wouldn’t go anywhere without one. Even if there are no oceans where you’re heading to, they work great for drying wet clothes (if you wrap your wet laundry up in one of these for a few minutes, it will cut the drying time by 50%) and as a pillow on long flights (I prop the towl on top of my backpack, and my head on top of my towl for support). I keep one in the mesh side-pocket of my backpack to allow for on-the-road drying.
15. Chinook 16oz. Compressable Mummy Sleeping Bag.  I sleep in this bag every night. Whether I’m sleeping on a hardwood floor, or a king-sized bed, this sleeping bag has become home and is part of my sleep routine. When on the road, it compresses using its included compression sack to the size of a small football, and when expanded it can fit my 6′ body warmly and snuggly. I wouldn’t recommend this lightweight bag for camping in Norway, but for inside-sleeping and tropical climate camping, its absolutely perfect.
16. 2 Pairs of Smartwool Adrenaline Micro-Socks. These socks don’t dry as quickly as some nylon models, but they are 10 times more comfortable and durable. They keep my feet blister-free and can be worn 3-4 times before they’ll start to smell.
17. 2 Pairs of Exofficio Men’s Briefs. “17 countries, 6 weeks, 1 pair of underwear”. That’s what the ex-officio underwear’s packaging says. These underwear rock…I can’t recommend them enough. I have worn one of my two pairs for the last year every single day and they show almost no wear at ALL. These underwear are easy to clean, dry in minutes, and feel very comfortable. They are very light-weight and have a distinctly different feel than cotton underwear.
18. Black Ribbed Alfani Tank Top. The brand has very little to do with it. Having a tank-top can be a welcomed luxury when getting out of the water at a beach, or doing laundry in a hostel/laundromat on the road. Having no sleeves means there is no material to soak up your sweat. This allows percipitation to do its job, and for you to wear one of these many days in a row without needing to wash it.
19. Passport and Emergency Check Book. The passport is an obvious necessity. I keep this in the inner-most pocket of my backpack (except when in the airport, then its in my left-side leg-pocket). I use my checkbook when staying with friends and family, it is helpful to be able to pay for any costs they advanced (when my credit card doesn’t go through or they pay my way there) without going to an ATM. Having checks on-hand allows for you to settle disputes about larger amounts of money “right then and there”.
20. APC Universal Power Adapter. This adapter came highly recommended by many travelers. I must admit, it is pretty cool. Remeniscent of “Transformer” action figures, this little bugger can apparently adapt any plug in the world, to any plug in the world. I haven’t been able to test it very thoroughly yet (only in South East Asia) but it has worked flawlessly so far.
21. Linksys USB Wifi adapter. This usb device operates as backup for my laptop’s built-in card. Sometimes the external device picks up the elusive wifi network coming from the building-over. Not a necessity, but nice to have if your income depends on your connection to the net.
22. Belkin Keychain Wifi Finder. This is a lifesafer if you’ve got a laptop with a semi-slow boot sequence. Sometimes it leads me astray, telling me there’s an open wifi network around when, in fact, it is a proxied connection (where you must pay a certain amount per hour, etc) but it can rock if you’re searching an airport for a hotspot.
23. Nokia Power Charger and USB Cable. The charger is an obvious necessity, and, coupled with the power adapter, can power my phone anywhere in the world. The phone, being charged by this charger, only takes about an hour to reach “full battery” and lasts for about 3 days to a charge. The USB cable is what I use to connect to the internet while in the middle of nowhere. When properly configured, my laptop can connect to any data-provider-cell-network for the price of a cell-phone wap connection. This tends to be sketchy in some countries and takes some research as far as the settings go.
24. Black Leather Sharper Image Mini-Wallet. This wallet won’t hold more than a few bills of the local currency, but it does work well for my cards and keeps a low-profile. I keep my Hawaii state ID (some hostels won’t take passports), my Paypal Debit Card (this thing rocks) and my other various cards in it. I tend to keep my money in my pants-pockets.
25. Kiva Compressable Shopping Bag. Sometimes I use this as a laundry bag if I have enough laundry that I need to carry it in a small bag. Sometimes I use this when at the local market to shop with. It is an all-purpose bag that folds up into the size of a TSA approved mouthwash bottle.

That’s it! That’s the WHOLE kit. I was naked when I took this picture because THAT’S ALL I HAVE.

1. What’s NEW in my pack
2. A new way to dry clothes on the road
3. Almost there…

Tagged as: Hawaii