When I started telling people about our plans for this adventure I got a lot of questions about what we would pack for such a long trip so I thought it might be interesting to share what we ended up bringing.

We knew we wanted to do this backpacker-style, which means no rolling luggage. We’ve traveled with backpacking packs on our last couple of international trips and it is definitely much easier for negotiating trains, buses and other public transportation situations. While doing trip research we spent a lot of time reading travel blogs to see what other travelers had packed for long term travel. What we saw over and over again was the suggestion to keep luggage small and light enough to carry on planes. I was dubious at first but we decided that we would at least try our best not to have to check a bag on our long-haul flights.

So, without further ado, here is what we are bringing:

Backpacks:

I got the Gregory Jade 53 pack. I chose it because 50 liters is about the largest you can take as a carry-on and this pack is a good fit for my frame. I also like that it opens in the front, as well as from the top, so it is easy to access all my stuff without unpacking everything.

Dan got the Kelty Redwing 50. Similar decision making process: comfortable, good size, lots of pockets and easy to open all the way.

Clothing:

Currently I have packed:

Here is most of it laid out (minus the rain shell, hats, undergarments and the dirty clothes I wore on the plane yesterday):

And here it is all compressed down into three packing cubes (with a pair of sandals there for size reference):

When I first fit everything into my packing cubes I was very proud of myself for being such a light packer. However, clothes are not the only thing we packed. Here are the other things we’re bringing:

Electronics:
Laptop
Kindle
IPhone
Camera
Selfie stick
Portable hard drive
Associated batteries and chargers

Other stuff:
Packable day pack
Travel towel
Sleeping bag liner
Toiletries (mostly sunscreen and bug spray at this point; we plan to buy everything else there)
Medical kit (this is something else we will try to pare down- it ended up being much heavier than expected!)
Snacks for the flight (obviously not something we’ll be carrying around for the whole trip)
Master locks (for hostel lockers)

Once I got my entire bag packed and realized how full and heavy it was I started to panic a bit. I removed a pair of running pants and another shirt I was originally going to bring and I imagine I’ll continue to pare down my wardrobe as we go.

It will be interesting to see how this list changes over the course of our trip. The good news is that everything I am bringing does fit in my larger pack so I won’t be forced to carry multiple bags at once. The bad news is that the pack is very heavy with everything in it.

We were successful in not having to check bags for our first flight- yay! (We split our things into our larger packs and our day packs so we had two smaller bags each for the plane).

Here we are with all our stuff on our way to the airport:

And here are our bags with everything packed into the larger backpacks:

If any of you have been to Southeast Asia or done any long-term traveling and have advice about what we should keep and what we should ditch we would love to hear it!