Packing the bags, about to bugger off for three weeks, going to be living out of our packs while were gone.
Pretty sure we’ve got everything, but I’m curious:
when traveling what’s the one (or two) things you’re always sure to pack?
- Cyanide pills.
- Moist tissues
- Disposable contact lenses
- Tampons
- The airporty stuff
- 4 notebooks. Just call me Doris Lessing.
Thanks, Doris.
Never forget your towel.
A towel’s the one thing I wouldn’t bring.
They take up way too much space, and you can always get one in a hotel anyway.
bottle opener and corkscrew
torch (that’s a “flashlight” for you Yankees)
lighter
painkillers
Swiss army knife / or any small knife
plastic bags of various sizes
couple of favourite pages from your porno mags
a Canadian flag
[quote=“Jaboney”]Packing the bags, about to bugger off for three weeks, going to be living out of our packs while were gone.
Pretty sure we’ve got everything, but I’m curious:
when traveling what’s the one (or two) things you’re always sure to pack?[/quote]
Perhaps an English Grammar book to browse on occasion.
Airporty stuff?
Towel and Douglas, check.
Swiss army knife, yep.
Baggies, yep.
Canadian flag, nope. Don’t want to be taken for a Yank. 
English granma? Whaddaya think I’m taking a vacation from?
Tickets.
Tickets.[/quote]Shit! Knew I forgot something. 
Actually, I did forget to exchange currency. :s
Tickets. Passport. Wallet full of money and plastic that gets money. Toothbrush. These go in your pockets, handbag, sporran, or whatever.
Bags are too much hassle.
Antiseptic cream and a needle. I’m not kidding.
Lonely Planet. Wimpish though it is, I can’t be more than 45 mins from a hospital.
Get thee behind me, Satan. :fume:
I see Loretta, you like
a bit of Rough
Guides.
[quote=“Josefus”]A towel’s the one thing I wouldn’t bring.
They take up way too much space, and you can always get one in a hotel anyway.[/quote]
Strag!
passport
plane tickets
wallet
keys
emergency contact info, including for cancelling credit cards if stolen; don’t put in wallet
vital meds
sunglasses
camera & access.
hat, sunblock, bug spray
a bit of foreign currency
Swiss army knife
money belt or other way to split cash in half or into three locations in case robbed
full photocopy of passport, kept in luggage (facilitates replacement)
boss’s phone no. in case return is delayed
tiny sewing kit (min. thread and one needle, pre-threaded)
tiny first aid kit (min. 3-4 bandaids, one antiseptic, e.g., iodine in tiny flat tear-open pouch)
Dragonbones wrote:
[quote]passport
plane tickets
wallet
keys
emergency contact info, including for cancelling credit cards if stolen; don’t put in wallet
vital meds
sunglasses
camera & access.
hat, sunblock, bug spray
a bit of foreign currency
Swiss army knife
money belt or other way to split cash in half or into three locations in case robbed
full photocopy of passport, kept in luggage (facilitates replacement)
boss’s phone no. in case return is delayed[/quote]
That’s a damn fine list DB but couldn’t you have slipped in something naughty? You know, something like a leather whip or a Japanese schoolgirl’s uniform. You sick puritan bastard! :raspberry:
“a bit of foreign currency” will get you anything you need at your destination, whips and all. 
[quote=“almas john”]I see Loretta, you like
a bit of Rough
Guides.
[/quote]
Who needs a guide book? You either take a package tour or you go exploring. Either way, you don’t need some puritanical mass-market wanker who was responsible for the emergence of the modern backpacker phenomenon telling you it’s not safe to drive in Taipei.
I once got off a bus in some small town in Indonesia somewhere in the middle of the night to find the bus station full of bloody ‘travellers’ trying to sleep under the neon lights as they waited for the morning bus out of town. “There are no hotels nearby,” they chorused miserably. “Look here!” And there it was in black and white, details of the exorbitant cab fare to the only hotel in town, thirty minute ride away.
Me, being stupid, figured that hotels exist to serve people who are away from home and that the best place to put one would be next to the bus station, assuming that your customers are smart enough to walk outside and look for a place to stay instead of trusting Tony “right-on” Bloody Wheeler. So anyway, I did the unthinkable and stepped outside, where I met two extremely helpful young men in a booth labelled “tourist information” who pointed me to a hotel down a convenient side alley. Funnily enough, the hotel had the same name as the one that was 30 minutes away by taxi. Odd that, don’t you think?
The weirdest thing was the reaction of all the people sleeping in the bus station when I went back and told them what I’d found. What a bunch of ungrateful turds. The one thing people can’t stand on their once-in-a-lifetime-round-the-world INDEPENDENT adventure is being reminded what a bunch of sheep they are. If somebody found me a place to sleep in comfort I would have been grateful, but these tossers needed to feel like they’d had the authentic experience - as described in the book.
I started to write a letter to Lonely Planet, which morphed into a book called Loretta and John’s Bagus Journey, which was eventually burnt to ward off sea monsters while coracling off the coast of Sumatra in search of the graveyard of the whales.