InsideOut Travel—Gearing Up for a Long Trip

by Tim Leffel

When Cal Hockley exits his car near the beginning of the movie Titanic, he hands a porter a huge tip and instructs his valet to supervise the transport of the family’s luggage onto the ship: a dozen or so steamer trunks, a pile of suitcases, several crates, and a safe.

When most tourists go away for a one-week vacation, they no longer travel with a pile of steamer trunks but many still take along half a closet. It’s hard to blame them. The only constraints are airline baggage limits and how much will fit into a taxi or a car. Ten pairs of shoes? No problem. Nine pounds of electronics? Throw it all in. With a few tips to porters or bellhops here and there, they don’t even have to break a sweat.

	JUST THE FACTS: GEAR TO GO
	Gearing Up for a Long Trip
	by Tim Leffel When Cal Hockley exits his car near the beginning of the movie Titanic, he hands a porter a huge tip and instructs his valet to supervise the transport of the family’s luggage onto the ship: a dozen or so steamer trunks, a pile of suitcases, several crates, and a safe. When most tourists go away for a one-week vacation, they no longer travel with a pile of steamer trunks but many still take along half a closet. It’s hard to blame them. The only constraints are airline baggage limits and how much will fit into a taxi or a car. Ten pairs of shoes? No problem. Nine pounds of electronics? Throw it all in. With a few tips to porters or bellhops here and there, they don’t even have to break a sweat.				When traveling to different places for a few weeks on end, however, it’s a different story. For a long round-the-world journey, it’s a very different story. One irony of long-term travel is that the longer you go away, the less you can really take. You need to be mobile, budget-wise, and light on your feet. In a world of cheap hotels, crowded trains, manic bus rides, and walks with your pack in the tropical heat, you can’t afford to be lugging around anything that’s not essential. You’re carrying it all on your back—literally. "As Paul Theroux once said when talking about electronics, 'They break. They get stolen. They are heavy. They are extremely distracting. I do have a little shortwave radio—often stolen.'" By necessity, packing for a long trip is all about compromise. You can’t take everything you could possibly need and you can’t be ready for every eventuality. That doesn’t stop first-timers from trying of course. I was once one myself and I brought along all kinds of crazy things I shouldn’t have: a tent I only used twice, guidebooks for places I wasn’t going to get to for months, and some clothes that made me say, “What was I thinking?” Part of the problem was one especially giddy shopping trip to a travel gadget store, where it was awfully tempting to load up the cart. more >> << home << discuss article >>
	Copyright 2003-2005 InsideOut Travel Magazine << disclaimer

JUST THE FACTS: GEAR TO GO

by Tim Leffel