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Indefinite Backpack Travel

jeremymaluf.com

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Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#101

Post by nicbou »

This is incredibly close to what I pack for long distance motorcycle, bicycle and hiking trips. This kit rocks, and all my notes are mostly personal preference.

I have an iPad Mini for reading and sketching, although I like paper more and more. I also sometimes sacrifice lightness for fashion, because I feel self-conscious travelling solo dressed like a bin bag.

I also have a lot of cheaper gear that so far never needed to be replaced. Most of it is from Decathlon. I only buy The Good Stuff once the test version falls apart. It's rarely necessary.

I could never bring myself to replace my electric shaver.

The biggest weight saver is USB-C. Retractable USB C cables are also great. Everything becomes a power bank for everything else.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#102

Post by dkarl »

Onawa wrote: post #68
owenversteeg wrote: post #55

I've done this before (not indefinitely, but for many trips around the world.) I agree with the author on a lot: 1) it's not a good way to live long term, 2) traveling with as little as possible completely transforms the traveling experience, 3) zero-bag travel is great, 4) a good quality small bag with well designed compartments is critical, 5) M-series Macs are the only way to go, 6) two thumb drives is very conven…

Why no synthetic underwear? I feel like I would be miserable with only cotton boxer-briefs... I sweat entirely too much even in moderate weather to be comfortable in cotton. I am partial to Pair of Thieves extra long boxer-briefs, they don't ride up at all since I have big thighs. When travelling I can wash them in a sink, and they dry way more quickly than cotton.

The replacement for synthetic underwear is wool, not cotton. For weeklong wilderness backpacking trips, I used to vacillate between a fresh pair of synthetic boxer briefs every every day, which took a lot of space, and one for every other day, which was gross. Now I wear a single pair of wool boxer briefs all week, and it feels and smells better at the end of the week than synthetic underwear does after two days. Same for sleeping: I used to bring a couple of pairs of synthetic boxers, and now I'm down to one pair of wool underwear. Two pairs for the entire week, one for days and one for nights.

Granted, wilderness backpacking has completely different standards for smells and grossness, but the comparison carries over to the higher standards of the "front country." In hot, sweaty weather, synthetic underwear gets noticeably grosser and smellier than wool over the course of a day.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#104

Post by dalke »

octo888 wrote: post #45
bparsons wrote: post #35

I am always confounded when I get off a flight at a vacation destination and see people dragging these 80L roller bags around. What are you putting in there? Pack the absolute minimum. If you really need something, you can almost always buy it wherever you are going. Even trekking in the deep Himalayas, there was always a spot to buy an extra t-shirt or socks every day or so.

Back when you could bring the more fun stuff back from Europe (meat, cheese etc) my big suitcase would be well over half empty on the way out. Quite a bit heavier on the way back ;)

On the return from my first trip to South Africa I carried 12 bottles of wine in my luggage.

That was back when flights included two free checked items.

On my second trip to Europe one of my suitcases was full of T-shirt swag to give out at a conference. Lugging both up the stairs, across the train tracks, and back down was a hassle.

Both of these were over 20 years ago.

And then there's the story at https://notalwaysright.com/a-steam-powered-cruise/392530/ of a couple trying to bring a full-size espresso machine on their cruise, so they can have their special coffee.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#105

Post by sailingparrot »

doctorhandshake wrote: post #94
arccy wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you travel a lot... maybe the co2 saved from not lugging around a cheap thing offsets the production waste.

In the limited amount of experience I’ve had with researching these things, embodied carbon can be a much higher number than you might think, even with something as simple as a cotton t-shirt. Odds are that shirt had already sailed around the world once or twice by the time you buy it, and it might make its way to another continent once you’re done with it as well.

> Odds are that shirt had already sailed around the world once or twice by the time you buy it,

That's like... 40 grams of CO2 for those 2 trips for a t-shirt. Aka, a 2 min uber ride.

Shipping containers are incredibly efficient.

Modern large container ships consume about 200-300 tonnes of fuel per day, and could carry 742 millions t-shirts [1]. It takes 16 days to do something like Shanghai - LA, so that ends up being like 20 grams per shirt per trip.

[1]: https://www.howandwhy.com/15-mins/huge-ship-shirts

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#106

Post by Arainach »

ElevenLathe wrote: post #99
Arainach wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end? If you keep your standards modest, the math isn't as bad as it intuitively seems. A $100 hotel per night is the equivalent of a $3000 mortgage/rent. And if you're living out of one bag you don't necessarily need that and probably have cheaper options like hostels (or te…

In other words, it's not a problem if you're one of the wealthiest people ever to exist in human history.

At no point was this positioned as a "for everyone" approach. It requires resources and compromises. None of the gear in this article is particularly cheap.

That said, the cost is not significantly different from other forms of living. The average rent in SF/NYC/Seattle/London/etc. is sky high as well.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#108

Post by jryio »

I thru hiked the PCT. The one thing I learned as an engineer / technical person:

bring one of everything. No redundancy. The gains from being ultra light, single-item-multi-purpose, are immeasurable

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#109

Post by tristor »

Onawa wrote: post #68
owenversteeg wrote: post #55

I've done this before (not indefinitely, but for many trips around the world.) I agree with the author on a lot: 1) it's not a good way to live long term, 2) traveling with as little as possible completely transforms the traveling experience, 3) zero-bag travel is great, 4) a good quality small bag with well designed compartments is critical, 5) M-series Macs are the only way to go, 6) two thumb drives is very conven…

Why no synthetic underwear? I feel like I would be miserable with only cotton boxer-briefs... I sweat entirely too much even in moderate weather to be comfortable in cotton. I am partial to Pair of Thieves extra long boxer-briefs, they don't ride up at all since I have big thighs. When travelling I can wash them in a sink, and they dry way more quickly than cotton.

I also feel the same way. I travel with the absolute minimum of synthetic fabric clothing, I have found that by far the best material is wool, especially merino wool, and if that's not an option something that is natural fiber derived modal like bamboo or wood cellulose modal is good. Polyester and other synthetic fabrics repel moisture better, but don't wash by hand or withstand hard wearing as well as natural fibers, and also don't work as well across climates and ecologies.

A layered clothing approach helps a lot. I wear an undershirt (Icebreaker Merino T) every single day, which helps me to regulate my body temperature between hot and cold climates, without requiring a major increase in the amount of clothing I have to bring. The only outerwear I had to bring on my trips was a single wool peacoat and a packable windbreaker/rainjacket. By using layers, I was able to use the same set of clothing between 45C and -25C, across 4 continents with no real trouble.

Re: Indefinite Backpack Travel

#110

Post by Arainach »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #91
Arainach wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Where does the money come from that allows one to sleep in hotels, ride in rental cars, travel in airports, and eat in restaurants for years on end? If you keep your standards modest, the math isn't as bad as it intuitively seems. A $100 hotel per night is the equivalent of a $3000 mortgage/rent. And if you're living out of one bag you don't necessarily need that and probably have cheaper options like hostels (or te…

My mortgage is under a thousand :O If I had a few million in assets I'd be retired

....and?

Different people make different choices on how to spend their money. Some spend their money on cigarettes, or sports season tickets, or modifications to cars, or collections of things. Some give most of their spare money to their church or a charity. Some send money off to relatives. Some travel.

Hotels wherever you are probably aren't $100 a night.

If you have a mortgage below $1000 you have something that almost no one in a western nation will ever see again. Congratulations, but your anecdote is irrelevant to basically everyone.

The current 30 year fixed mortgage rate is about 6.3%. It should probably be higher. A $1000 payment would mean a loan for about $160000 - significantly less if property taxes and insurance are included in that mortgage payment. There are very few places in the world with a significant number of available jobs where most people can buy a house for that.

Let's look through the midwest and throw a dart at Akron, OH. You're within commuting distance of Cleveland, you've got a university and an airport, there are probably jobs.

Property taxes are 1.8%. Home insurance is hard to estimate but let's pretend $1500/yr. Average home sale price is around $137K. That puts you closer to $1200/mo, and most places are far worse.

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