On Aug 20, 7:08 am, "William Black"
wrote:
wrote in message

oups.com...

http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/packlight.html

This guy carries a HUGE bottle of shampoo, vitamin pills and aspirin, but
doesn't carry Imodium or a mobile phone...

He carries a towel that weighs half a pound...

But he doesn't carry a change of trousers...

He carries an electric shaver and a dictionary, but no phrase book...

Very odd.

He also recommends you buying batteries when you need them, which does
rather seem to indicate that he doesn't get off the beaten track much...


His "principals" alone was a bit strange. It wasn't clear if he
was
attempting to "save money" or just be "light". He's lugging a
bike around, but he comments about "renting" one. You can "rent"
a car too, and then luggage weight won't be much of an issue at all.

I've got more of a 3 part equation for figuring out what to bring.
Items get considered on three factors.

1) Likelyhood I'll need it
2) Cost of buying it there
3) How much it weighs.

Something can be cheap to acquire, but I know I'll need
it almost immediatly upon arrival, if not sooner, so I'll
frequenlty just take it with me. There can be things that
are just too heavy/bulky so I'll just plan on acquiring them
upon arrival, or soon there after. There are things I'll need/want
and they are expensive, at least to acquire there, so I'll
take the ones I already own.

Clothes I own and it can be time consuming to purchase
them there so I tend to take them with me. Some clothes
are unlikely to be needed so if I do end up needing them,
I'll buy them there. This is especially true of something
bulky like a jacket or sweater.

Chargers, converters, cameras, computers, etc. I own
and it can be time consuming and expensive to
shop for them upon arrival, so I tend to bring them.
Film, simple batteries, some toiletries get limited to
what I'll need at a minimum and the rest gets bought
along the way. First aid stuff gets brought for the
occasional need, but if I'm going through bandages
I'll stop somewhere and get more.

I usually pick a bag and then fill it up. If I find myself
packing alot of "extra" stuff, I may reconsider my
bag choice. But an awful lot of the "extra" stuff is
small and light and unless it's stone cold cheap
where I'm going, what the heck.