My Packing List for Thailand

I’ve spent the last few weeks selling, donating, and giving away pretty much everything I own. As freeing as this was at first, it has started to get really hard! There are just so many things I feel I need to have with me – especially when it comes to clothes. I’m not very stylish – in fact, I tend to wear the exact same thing almost every day. But it’s nice to have the option to maybe wear something a little different. It’s a little comforting.

I originally had planned on bringing an 80L backpacking backpack with me to Thailand and filling it about 3/4 full. In preparation I had started laying out everything I own on our living room floor. When one of my housemates saw it he was shocked at how little stuff I now had to my name. Turns out, it was still way too much stuff.

I started looking around on the internet for packing advice and stumbled upon a site detailing what to pack for pretty much every locale. It’s a pretty large article and very thorough – definitely worth reading if you’re planning on any kind of extended stay. Halfway through it convinced me to get a smaller backpack. I (fairly impulsively, in hindsight) headed over to REI and picked up an REI Lookout 40 – it’s significantly smaller (half the size!) and I was pretty concerned it would be too small – but online reviews said it wasn’t. Turns out they were kind of right. I still had to figure out how to do without about 20% of what I thought I needed. Here’s what made the cut.

My Packing List for Thailand

Clothes

• 5 t-shirts
• 6 pairs of underwear
• 2 pairs of jeans
• 1 pair of swimming trunks
• 1 pair of workout shorts
• 1 pair of khaki shorts

Electronics

• Macbook Pro
• iPad
• iPod
• iPhone 4s (with GSM and CDMA)
• Canon Powershot
• Kindle
• Mighty Mouse
• Outlet converters

Documents

• Passport
• International Drivers Permit
• Copies of Passport and Driver’s License
• Checkbooks for 3 checking accounts

Toiletries

• The usual (toothpaste, deodorant, etc.)
• 6 months of contacts
• Nail trimmers and tiny scissors

Travel/Security

• Compass
• Cocoon CoolMax Travelsheet
• Laundry Bag
• Packtowl Ultralite Towel
• FirstAid Kit
• Extra luggage locks
• Pacsafe Luggage Travelsafe 12L (found this on Alex in Wanderland’s Gear page and it’s pretty great!)

Other

• Business cards
• Playing cards
• Notebook
• Thai language book
• Swimming goggles

All-in-all it’s a total of 44 items that I own (not including transient things like toothpaste, razor blades, and floss and I’m considering power cables as part of the item). I plan on buying a few things once I get to Bangkok, brining myself up to a much more reasonable level – probably similar to Colin Wright’s 72 things when he started out.

I leave for Bangkok in a little over 48 hours. Think I’m missing anything?

UPDATE

I’m now in the terminal and unfortunately without my backpack! EVA Air decided to be strict about the 7kg carry-on limit and so I had to check my bag – I hope I see it again. On the bright side, I bought an awesome new messenger bag, a Timbuk2 Command Laptop Messenger, and didn’t get ripped off when I had to buy it at SFO! So far, I’m pretty happy with it holding my laptop, iPad, and the Steve Jobs biography.

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