We are trying to travel lighter this trip than our last few, not that we tend to travel heavy on most trips.
Typically we are carry-on types but can push past that into checked baggage, and of course we sometimes don't want or need to carry our bags anyway. Our backpacks have been around the 45 litre size and if not overfilled we can sometimes get away with that, but this trip we are going to try to be in the 30s.
That means careful and compact packing. And proper gadget selection...
I like gadgets, and no travel these days is complete without a selection of tools. Obvious ones are cameras. I decided that my Nikon DSLR with lenses was too much, and bam! There goes at least a kilo and a couple of liters. However I will be taking a camera of course and it should prove to be a good alternative, my new Lumix ZS60. Linda will pack my Canon G11 which is a great one too, and both will take about the same space as the Nikon body only.
We also will have my phone. It is no slouch in the picture taking department either, beng the latest Samsung Galaxy S7...no, not the Note. We probably won't set any planes on fire.
The phone I hope to be a major tool in many ways. For example I am typing this right now with the phone, albeit with an external keyboard. The keyboard is a wireless one, connected by Bluetooth, and is about the same size as a small tablet, or my Kindle, at around 8'' wide by 4 high. If I can successfully post the next couple of updates before leaving with this combo, I think that will be the computer for this trip.
As mentioned, there will be E-readers, my Kindle and Linda's Kobo. We can't do without those. Mp3 players? Likely, though I can use my phone but battery life is best saved on that. I have an old iPod 30gig and Linda thinks she has one somewhere. If not we will find her something.
All of this of course means chargers and cables. I might grab a battery powerbank thingy to charge between wall plugs. Thankfully USB is finally becoming pretty universal so most things can run from the same cables and chargers.
Headlamps are de rigeur. Reading on buses or planes, or when you just can't sleep, or walking in the dark or exploring caves and stuff.
What else? More on that later...
