How do you predict that you might need for the entire year?
Well, you don’t. The world will provide and the only thing you need to worry about is how heavy your backpack is, since it will be with you for a bit.
I am very fortunate to be hanging out with Jenia, who is an amazing planner, so most of the heavy lifting when it comes to research was done by her.. I will be responsible for operations, once we touch down.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that I do not pack well.. Somehow I either don’t plan out outfits thoroughly enough or bring items that are too hot/cold for the weather. During our Morocco trip, I packed 10 degrees Fahrenheit too warm, where the only warm piece with me was a cashmere sweater, I brought it just in case, and I ended up wearing it for the good half of the trip. This time around, I was attempting to be more diligent.
Backpack + Packing Aides
- Eagle Creek half cube +
Eagle Creek packing folder +
Eagle Creek quarter cube - REI Vagabond Tour 40 Travel Pack
- Domke F-6 Little Bit Smaller Bag – see Technology for photos
- Northface Recon daypack, share between Jenia and I – see Technology for photos
Unlike Jenia, I chose to wear my backpack, which means you need good back support. REI Vagabond is a front loading backpack, which is only 40 liters in volume and does not look like a typical “backpacking” backpack and is very compact.
Packing cubes are pure magic when it comes to organizing your backpack – strongly strongly recommend.
Domke bags are made for professional photographers – waterproof, non-sliding straps, metal bindings, zip up pockets, etc. It’s perfect in a every way if you need a technology bag. Word of caution – make sure you see them in person, try them out, the difference between F1x, F2 and F6 is significant.
Northface daypack was bought for $25 dollars on Craigslist, original price $99 I love craigslist.. 🙂
Tops
45 t-shirts- 1 long sleeve shirt (uniqlo)
- 2 short sleeve button-up shirt
23 long sleeve button-up shirts- 1 hoodie (uniqlo)
- 1 rain shell (columbia)
The list above is Jenia’s official packing list for Sergey, I snuck in an extra t-shirt from Hammbone Catering that you can see here.
The hardest task was to make sure all the tops I bring work well with all the bottoms.. which proved to be a big challenge. See, I tend to like color and wear a lot of it, however, this trip turned me into grey/blue monotone being.. at least, I won’t stand out much.
Bottoms
1 jeans2 pairs of jeans- 1 traveling pants
- 1 khaki shorts (uniqlo)
- 1 gym shorts
- 1 pair swim trunks
- 1 pair of leggings
The reason I brought two pairs of jeans is that one is almost dead. You know the feeling.. when you realize that you favorite jeans have a hole in the crotch area.. sadness overcomes. I have about one/two weeks left in them.
Leggings are there for super cold weather in the mountains of China.
Shoes
- 1 Toms
- 1 Havaianas flip flops
- 1 Columbia Descender walking / hiking shoes
Misc
- winter hat – need to purchase
- summer hat
- ray ban sunglasses – for style 🙂
- leather belt & money belt
- 5 pairs of underwear (1 Exofficio)
- 3 pairs of socks (2 smartwool[short and long])
Toiletries
- toothbrush
- razor blade (for my beard)
- electric razor (for my beard and head)
- deodorant
- Bvlgari BLV – cologne
Technology
- macbook pro 15”
- macbook air 11”
- iphone 4 unlocked – for international simcard use
- iphone 4s unlocked – for local simcard use
- iphone 4 unlocked – for jenia (local simcard use)
- canon g12 + 12 gigs of flash memory + waterproof case
- canon 5d mark 2 + 35 gigs of flash memory
- sekonic L-358 light meter
- kindle 3g
- toshiba canvio 3.0 1tb external harddrive
The list is huge, but necessary. We went back and forth about whether or not we need two laptops for this trip, and in the end decided to bring both, given our freelance assignments, blogging, and keeping in touch with friends and family needs.
I will do a write up about iphone unlocking some time later, but it’s an easy and painless process.
Canon G12 is a smart point and shoot right between dslrs like Canon’s Rebel and Powershot, with enough controls to do what you want, yet simple enough for beginner/intermediate user.
Canon 5d mark 2 is a dslr camera with a 50mm 1.8 canon lens.
Kindle is for reading wherever, because real books are heavy and 3g allows for downloads new reads where ever you are. I’ve been planning on reading Game of Thrones books… waiting for each new season of the show is just so painful.
Additional Items:
Check out Jenia’s side of the story for packing for the round the world trip, as she gets into detail about other random items that we though are necessary like sporks, safety whistles, and flexo-line clothesline.
Fully loaded REI vagabond backpack:
