May 27, 2012

Tips- Backpacking India, What I packed?

As I might have mentioned in my earlier posts ... I am a petite female. Really cannot carry a 60-70L backpack. I took 40L Wildcraft instead. WildCraft is okay ,,, but I really missed my REI Flash. I was kind of confused on what to pack! I was going to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Delhi and Punjab starting late September (hot an humid wether) and then I was visiting Himachal Pradesh and North Sikkim in mid-October onwards (cold, very cold weather)!

What should I pack?!


light or warm clothes? ... Both!
Shoes or sandals? ... Both!
Jeans or Salwar? ... well, religious places included in the itinerery ... BOTH!!
Sunscreen or moisturiser? ... Both.

I had to be smarter. Everything had to be fitted in a 40L.

So, what I did is ...

light shirt + A sweater + Windsheeter = warm
legging + Salwar = warm


Technically called layered clothing!

After a bit of maths, 1 jeans, 2 T-shirts, 2 Kurtis, 1 Salwar, 1 legging, 1 sweater, 1 beanie, 1 stole, 1 windsheeter (this helped in rain too). This worked for me for 50 whole days. They all look old now :)

Sneakers for cooler states, 3 pairs of socks, sandals for sunny-hot states, and bathroom chappals.

Small sized shampoo, conditioner, moisturiser and sunscreen against big bottles. When I ran out of them I bought replacements in the major cities.

Essential medicines and a stainless-sleel water bottle.

Electronics, included ...
Point-and-shoot Canon Powershot G11, no SLR + Lenses. After I bought my G11 I love it. Its weight is very convenient to carry, fits in any bag, Has advanced settings, picture quality is good. I carried a small tripod for night and waterfalls shots.

An iPod, to tell the truth I hardly listen to music. I use it during train journeys when nosy people bother me. I just pretend to wear the earphones even when iPod doesn't have charge!

My usual cell phone which is very primitive. It just makes and receives calls, receives tons of junk SMS from BSNL. It has a few more features which I do not use.

After working in a smartphone company for long-long years I have realized, life becomes much organized when you own less electronic gadgets. I love the line ... Life was much easier when Apple and Blackberry were just fruits ...

What I should carry next time that I missed ... packing material for courier. 2-3 mts of white cloth, 2-3 mts of polythene sheet, tape, a pair of scissors, big needle and thread. After few days of backpacking the small souvenirs together start adding to the weight of backpack. Periodically I had to courier them home.

Just one pack on the back ...
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Leave a comment to share your beautiful thoughts :)

To read the next post in Backpacking India series click HERE.

If you want pictures please ask me :)
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Scrapbook- A Travel Blog by Kusum Sanu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

3 comments:

  1. All essentials are in list but mind keeps createring more n more,hope these things were sufficient for your backpacking trip.My best wishes for all the upcoming ones.I really love and enjoy reading your blog.They are informative and shows inner thoughts of a solo traveller.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you PC :) Yeah, we think about more and more things but, travel has taught me that we need very few things to live!

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