Gear
After that last post about my pants, I thought I should post my gear list. It will be a good record if I ever lose my stuff. But first, I might as well give some background.
After I stopped working, I started gathering travel gear. I had done (and continued to do) a lot of research. However, once I decided on a product, I would usually just stick with that decision and not worry about it.
Here are some of the resources I came across and consulted (in no particular order):
- OneBag
- Rick Steves, Packing Creative Extras message board, Tricks for Packing Light message board
- Go Backpacking
- Thirteen Months
The “travel light” camp sounded attractive from the beginning. I would be attempting to build a set of gear that I would never need to check in as baggage. Having arrived without my baggage on a business trip, this seemed a good approach on a trip where I would have very little backup. This meant that I had to choose (as much as possible) gear that was “essential” (to me) but was also light-weight and not bulky, since I would be carrying it all around. Since I would be relying on this gear, none of it should be in danger of being confiscated by customs or the TSA.
Electronics had some extra considerations.
- A device shouldn’t require exotic batteries to be regularly replaced. Lasting for a year with normal use would be fine.
- A device shouldn’t require a voltage converter beyond what it came with. For example, most contemporary laptop computers have a “power brick” that automatically adapt to any voltage in common use around the world. Without such a power brick, the device might trip a circuit breaker, melt, or even catch on fire when subjected to power sources for which they weren’t designed. In that case, a relatively-heavy, bulky, general-purpose transformer would be required.
- Not all areas in the world use the same plug shape, so a device with an electrical plug would require an adapter that fit into the local electrical outlet shape. Moreover, a 3-prong grounded plug will likely require a 3-to-2 adapter (without a matching ground) just to fit that adapter.
Clothing also had additional factors.
- I wouldn’t have access to (or want to pay for) a laundry machine everywhere I went, so I wanted clothes that would line-dry in a few hours.
- I (re)discovered that when I exercise, I sweat. A lot. Walking and hiking count as exercise for me, so I wanted clothes that would “wick” moisture from my skin and transfer it to the outer layer, where the moisture would evaporate.
- Anti-microbial treatments would also be welcome because I wouldn’t be able to wash clothing every day. Stinky American tourist!
- A higher UPF rating means that less harmful UV radiation gets through to the covered skin. A UPF rating of 30, for example, means that the clothing or item (like a hat) lets only 1/30th of the sun’s UV radiation pass through to tinker with the DNA in your skin. You still get hot standing in the sun, but you’re protecting the skin underneath. (An item’s UPF rating tends to decrease as the article ages.)
- The fabric shouldn’t get me shot or kidnapped. For example, camouflage or even olive clothing might be mistaken for military issue in some regions.
Whew! That’s enough for now. More boring posts to come, then more about Kyoto!
