Starting Over
Years ago, I traveled about once a month. I kept all of my travel supplies packed in suitcases. It would only take me an hour or so to pack and be ready to head for the airport. This trip won’t be that easy.
After my first wife died, I sold, gave away, or trashed everything I didn’t need, sold the house, and put most of my travel supplies in storage.
After my divorce from my second wife, I sold, gave away, or trashed everything I didn’t need, bought an RV, and put everything else in storage.
After COVID-19 hit, I hunkered down and avoided all travel.
My travel supplies were now scattered everywhere! In suitcases, in backpacks, in cardboard boxes, in plastic boxes, in drawers, and in closets. Some were in my cellar, some were upstairs, some in my garage, some in my RV.
My travel medicines expired long ago. Technology has changed considerably. The pandemic introduced many new problems and issues.
Now was a good time to review everything. Gather all of my supplies in one place and discard anything I no longer needed.
Clothes
Years ago, I bought special travel outfits made from wrinkle-resistant, fast-drying materials with zippered pockets to deter pickpockets. Fortunately, all of these still fit.
Unfortunately, I have to pack for an incredible range of temperatures. In March, it can be below freezing in New England or during my layovers in Germany. In UAE and southern India, it can be over 100° F. I have to pack everything from warm jackets to ultralight shorts.
Suitcases
Although I could fit everything in one suitcase plus my carry-on, I’m not going to try on this trip. All of my flights are Business Class and all of them allow two free checked bags. It’s easier to just pack everything that I might need than to try to guess.
My plan is to leave one of my checked suitcases at my hotel in Dubai while I travel to India. Then, I will leave the other checked bag at my hotel in Chennai. That will leave me with a single backpack for easy travel in India. After traveling light in southern India for two weeks, I will return to the same hotel in Chennai and reclaim one bag. Then I will return to the same hotel in Dubai and reclaim the other bag. I’ve done similar things many times in the past. It enables me to leave the bulky cold-weather gear and pack light during the middle of my trip. All it costs me is to leave a nice tip with the bellhops.
Entertainment
Travel always includes downtime. This one will have a lot of downtimes!
This trip will involve six flights for a total of 36 hours of flight time plus time waiting at airports and train stations.
An excellent way to pass the time is reading: books, magazines, newspapers. For me, that’s not an option. I have had motion sickness my entire life. I can’t read for more than a few minutes on an airplane without getting sick.
For decades, airlines have provided audio at your seat on long flights. Unfortunately, the choices were very limited and the systems were unreliable. I certainly don’t want to listen to opera for hours on end. Even if I liked the music, it usually only lasted an hour and then repeated.
I used to travel with a Walkman and a case of audio cassettes. That was later replaced by a CD player and a box of CDs. And that was replaced by an MP3 player loaded with music and audiobooks. Now, all of that fits on my smartphone.
Similarly, on long flights, airlines provided video entertainment in the form of a small overhead TV screen with the audio coming over your headphones at your seat. This arrangement varied from frustrating to useless. The screens were tiny and far away. Your view was often blocked by other passengers or crew. And, there was only one channel which was typically ads for the airline or the places that they traveled. And, there was no pause button allowing you to enjoy your dinner without missing critical scenes in the movie. These systems have improved over the years but still don’t always work.
As soon as it was a possibility, I carried a small, battery-powered DVD player and a box of DVDs in my carry-on. Later, I carried a laptop and that same box of DVDs. More recently, I carried a much smaller “netbook” onto which I preloaded several movies. For this trip, I plan to bring use my 8″ tablet. I will preload a few movies before leaving home.
I went from gadgets taking up much of my carry-on space to digital media taking up zero space!
Cell Phones
AT&T has a curious International calling plan.
Without enabling their plan, calls to the United States are $2 per minute, which gets expensive quickly.
With the plan enabled, I have unlimited calls, text, and data but it costs $10 per day. If my phone is turned on for one minute but I don’t make only phone calls, I still get charged $10 per day. The only way to avoid this daily charge is to leave the phone off (or in airplane mode) unless I need to use the phone extensively.
My plan is to leave my smartphone in my hotel turned off.
These days carrying a cell phone is extremely important. I am bringing an old smartphone. Once I reach India, I will buy a cheap SIM card and activate my phone with an Indian phone number. That way, I’ll have a smartphone but not have to worry about losing my good phone or incurring expensive daily fees to AT&T.
Camera
I sometimes bring extensive camera gear on my trips, such as a video camera, an SLR camera, flash attachments, a tripod, etc. These made wonderful memories on trips like my safari in Africa. Sometimes my camera gear took up an entire suitcase or backpack. For this trip, I’m only bringing one small camera. It has phenomenal zoom and panoramic capabilities providing great travel photos.
One of the mottos that I’ve learned the hard way is that the best camera is the one you have with you. My DSLR takes great photos but is too bulky to carry at all times. My Lumix camera fits comfortably on a waist pouch and is always in easy reach.
My backup is that both my cell phone and my tablet have the ability to take reasonable photos.
Other Electronics
I have traveled with many other electronic gadgets that I no longer need. For example, when I first started traveling, many years ago, I traveled with multiple maps and guidebooks. Later, I traveled with a handheld GPS. Now even my old, obsolete smartphone has a built-in GPS and downloadable maps. It even has a compass. These take up zero physical space in my carry-on or checked bags.
I used to carry small translation devices. One converted between Japanese and English. Another one was able to translate between all of the common European languages. Now, translation apps on my phone handle any language I need, including obscure languages like Tamil and Kannada which are spoken in Southern India where I will be but are rarely spoken anywhere else. These apps can work offline provided I download their data packs before leaving home. These apps can listen to my voice, translate it, then speak it in their language. And, vice versa! Vastly different from my earlier trips.
Throughout the United States, electric outlets are all standardized. The rest of the world has standards but they are different standards! Voltage is usually either 120 or 230 but some countries could be higher or lower. The frequency can be 50 hertz or 60 hertz. There are several different shapes for plugs. In the past, I’ve had to carry voltage transformers and a variety of adaptors. Sometimes, I carried 240-volt appliances. Each electronic device had its own charger. Together all of these were heavy and took up a lot of space in my luggage.
On this trip, everything electrical is rechargeable using a USB cable. I have a USB charger with four ports capable of charging all of my devices every night. It accepts any incoming power from 110 volts to 260 volts at either 50 Hz or 60 Hz. Some small adaptors allow me to plug this into any socket anywhere on this trip.
Operating my cell phone and my tablet is critical. Not all trains will have working power plugs. For backup, I’m bringing a small portable USB charger. It can recharge any of my devices multiple times.
These electronic devices are small, lightweight, and powerful. Each has a backup device. Yet you can hold all of them in the palm of your hand! That was never possible before.
Other Items
I carry a simple clothesline. (It’s basically a cord with tiny clothespins.) Over the years, I’ve developed a simple system for clean clothes without carrying too many items. I fill my bathroom sink with hot water and add a wafer of laundry detergent. Next, I roll the wet clothes in one of the towels supplied by the hotel. Then, I stand on the rolled-up towel. It’s a pretty effective way to wring the clothes. Finally, I hang them on the clothesline. By morning, they’re dry!
Another item I also carry is one protein bar per day. They’re small and lightweight. It’s a safe way to keep up my protein intake where I’m not at all familiar with the local foods.
I always prepare a packing list for each trip. For this trip, my packing list is three pages long! But, it’s deceptive. Many of the items, like my passport or my pill case, are small but critical. An old guy can be very forgetful! Hence lots of lists.