Everyone can use regular inspiration. Today, I’m starting a new category of entries to share my favorite “wanderful words” about travel, culture, and adventure– quotes from books, poems, and movies that linger in my mind and inspire me to keep moving and exploring.
I recently began reading Kite Strings of the Southern Cross, a travel memoir by Laurie Gough and have already found it to be full of great passages. For Wanderful Words No. 1, I’d like to share an excerpt from the introduction about the love of travel writing:
“Writing, like traveling, deepens my life, and writing about my travels gives them new meaning. Sometimes, it even allows me to live those journeys over and over again, minus the mosquitoes and sunstroke.”
A money belt can be important to wear when you’re visiting a place where tourists are often the victims of theft. While it may not help you in extreme situations, it is handy to have for the more common pickpocketing and grab-and-runs that travelers encounter. It can give you peace of mind that your passport, credit cards, and cash stash are safe if your bag gets stolen.
The first time I tried out a money belt was for a high school choir tour (I know, I know) to Italy. I wore it for a day or two before relegating it to the bottom of my suitcase. While I was in Italy, I witnessed a ballsy purse snatching at an open air restaurant and heard tales of fellow tour members being distracted by one gypsy while another stole a bag from them. But I still never wore my money belt. It was bulky, sweaty in the humid Italian summer, and totally indiscreet with its big flap and loud velcro closure. Which is another thing– when you wear a money belt, you don’t want to announce to everyone around you that there are important things to be found under your clothing.
While preparing to go to Southeast Asia last year I knew I couldn’t pull off my usual “keep my mouth shut and pretend to be a local” thing. I heard that tourists in Southeast Asia were prone to pickpocketing and guesthouse staff rummaging through their luggage (true, mostly in Cambodia). I decided I needed to get a money belt I would actually use.
I found a money belt designed specifically for women, the Body Pocket
by Design Go. This is about as close to a perfect money belt for women as you can get. It’s made out of thin lightweight lingerie material and it breathes which makes it great for humid climates and being active. You can easily fit a passport, cash, and card in it without it looking bulky on the outside of your clothing. The strap that goes around your waist is basically a bra strap which is adjustable and stays put. It has a zipper on the top which makes it easy to access things when you need to (not so much if you’re wearing a dress though). There were times when I pulled it out and people asked me why I was pulling my underwear above my pants– it’s pretty inconspicuous! I wore it just about every day and even slept with it on during overnight train journeys with sketchy doors and locks. Carrying important things right above your crotch is never fun, but this is the best and comfortable option for women!
Last year I became a backpacker. Not a trek-for-days-through-the-woods backpacker, but a travel-cheaply-with-a-backpack backpacker. I can’t remember what drove me to try this style of travel, maybe it was the idea of being able to carry everything you really need on your back. I was heading to Southeast Asia, the ultimate backpacker’s paradise, and it just seemed like the most logical way to travel.
Fitting what you need in backpack is easy enough for a lot of people (a.k.a. men). But with my passion for fashion and history of chronic over packing, it proved to be a challenge. I bought a large women’s backpack at REI and made the mistake of filling it to the brink before my trip had started. I had all sorts of clothing options shoved in there, many of which I rarely ended up wearing. A fellow traveler, noticing my girlie style and overstuffed backpack, commented that I didn’t seem like a backpacker type to her. I took this as challenge, and made up my mind that I could be backpacker, even if my bag was too big and wasn’t sporting the typical earth-toned clothing and zip-off convertible pants that seem to be part of many a backpacker’s wardrobe.
I started off positively, but somewhere along a long hot and humid walk through no man’s land between Cambodia and Vietnam, I began to curse my backpack. I kept thinking how much easier it would have been to have a nice large suitcase on wheels. But soon enough, on my first Vietnamese overnight train ride, I began to see the merits of having a backpack. Those with large suitcases could not fit their luggage in the under bed storage bin. They were forced to leave them in middle of the tiny rooms where they took up space and could be easily tripped on during late night bathroom runs. When we reached Laos, there were no elevators in the guesthouses and I watched the suitcase-clad people struggle to get up the stairs.
Near the end of my trip, another fellow traveler complimented me on how agile I was with my backpack considering how big it was. After making it that far with my backpack that had only become more full, I had grown stronger both physically and mentally. The backpack I once cursed, I now affectionately call Bessie. She taught me lessons about what’s really necessary and allowed me to prove to myself that I am tough and have the ability to endure.
If I was going to do a Southeast Asia trip again, I would have a much better idea of how to pack. But with my upcoming trip to Bolivia and Peru, I have the extra challenge of multiple climates. I could experience 90 degree humid weather in the Amazon and below freezing night time temperatures in Salar de Uyuni a few days later. I have taken Bessie out of storage and I already fear that I am about to over pack. There are a few things I need to remember as I start to fill up my backpack:
My Packing Mantras
- I will bring clothing that can be easily layered and mixed and matched and will stick to a color scheme that allows for this.
- I will realize that I don’t need to have an outfit in every color of the rainbow. (It’s sad but true that I need to repeat this to myself.)
- I will remember that clothing and accessories that will be inexpensive and fitting for the local climate and style can be bought when I arrive. I will leave room in my bag for purchasing cheap local goods.
- I will not overpack!
Wish me luck, my friends.
