When I was younger I always played those "Fantasy Roleplaying Games". You know, like D&D and so on. Packing my backpack with a measly 65 liters really makes me think how ridiculous our characters would have looked. They would probbaly have toppled over! And imagine fighting while you are carrying te equivalent of a medium-sized trailer-park on your back? But of course, this being a world of magic and mistery, we had a solution for this problem, once the amount of luggage we were carrying along became so ridculous that even we noticed it. That solution was the "portable black hole".

A portable black hole was basically a bottomless bag that didn't weight anything at all. So you could safely take all that useless shit with you, without ever having to worry about weight. Unfortunately I don't have a portable black hole! And that means I have to reduce my luggage even further. How can so little stuff take up so much space? I just packed my backpack for the second and it was the first time it packed it seriously. You know, including the guidebook and all that little stuff where I’d normally say: “Ah, no need to pack this. It’ll fit in - nooooo problem.”

Here is my packing-list:

2 T-shirts
2 Long-sleeved shirts
3 Boxer shorts
2 Pairs of socks
Silk sleeping-bag
Silk pyjama
Bag of toiletries
clothesline
Small first-aid-kit
Chlorine (to purify water)
Roll of toilet paper
Moskito-net
Pair of traveller jeans
Pair of zip-off-pants
Fleece that can be zipped into my
Raincoat
Pair of hiking boots designed for warm countries
Pair of Teva-sandals
Guidebook for SE-Asia
Novel
“Dictionary” showing icons of things you might have a hard time explaining with you hands and feet
Notebook (the paper kind)
2 Eagle Creek Packcube (to keep my stuff together)
Eagle Creek Compression Bag (to squeeze the air out of clothes)
Flashlight the size of a ballpen
Digital camera (Canon Ixus III)
MP3-player
Wall-socket-adapter
Soft CD case for five CDs
Leatherman
Duct-tape
Knife
Moskito-repellent
Moneybelt
Daypack
Small Padlocks for the backpack
Wirelock to secure the backpack somewhere
“Waist-type” moneybelt
“Real” moneybelt for the pants

And that's it!

I mean, this list might appear long. But most of these things are really tiny. And still: My brand new 65-liters-backpack was full to the rim. The worst thing were the hiking-shoes and the moskito-net! O.k. I have to admit I packed the bag with a worst-case-scenario. I.e.: I was imagining a day where I would wear all my light stuff and where all my heavy and big stuff would go into the backpack. But I mean, you have to do it like that if you want to make sure you have some safety-margin. In the end everything fit in but just. And the backpack looked huge!

So I think I’ll have to leave the moskito-net here. And I’ll simply have to tie the hiking-boots to the outside when I’m not wearing them. Oh – how I hate that! I think boots tied to the backpack are hideous. But of course the moskito-net leaving the moskito-net worries me more. But I asked around and people who have been in the area seem to be divided 80:20 in favour of leaving the net at home. Apparently most guesthouses where you really need them have them.

Could someone PLEASE explain to me how people manage to travel for three or four months with only a 25-liters backpack????

Beats me!

Btw: If you want to leave a comment and tell me what I should leave behind, click on “Comments” below.

Oh - and something else: I got myself a partner-id with Amazon.de and Amazon.com. So if any of you want to buy something at one of those two shops, please use the links provided above! This way I will get some money :-)...