Our upcoming trip to SE Asia and India will be our first time backpacking, and (if all goes well!) our longest trip yet.  When it comes to packing for trips, Sophie is definitely a good person to have on your team.  She puts a lot of thought into what she is going to bring and how it all gets packed away.  She starts packing for any trip well in advance, whereas I am more of a last-minute packer.  For this trip though, since it will be a long one I am following her lead and making sure we are as organized as possible…at least at the start.

We researched for a while before we decided on our backpacks, an Osprey Kyte 46 for Sophie, and an Osprey Kestrel 48 for me.  The Kyte 46 has a capacity of 44 Liters and can be loaded with up to 18 kg (40 lbs) of stuff.  The Kestrel 48 is similar having a capacity of 46 Liters and a load rating of up to 18 kg (40 lbs) as well.  So between the 2 of us using these backpacks we could carry as much as 56 kg (80 lbs)!  That sounds like a lot, but we somehow ended up with 4 large suitcases and 2 small cases that weighed a combined 113 kg (250 lbs) when we moved all our stuff from Fowl Cay to Vancouver.

I like how travel forces you to live more simply, bringing with you only the things you need.  Travel enough, and I think you start to realize that you don’t need much.

Sophie and I have flown around a lot due to the jobs we have had and our love of travel.  Therefore, we are very aware of airline baggage weight limits and restrictions!  All major airlines we have flown with have a limit of 23 kg (50 lbs) for the first item of checked luggage, before you start paying overweight fees.  Sophie and I have had our fair share of airport experiences having to take things out or transfer between bags because we were over the weight limit in our checked luggage.  Oh the frustration!  My goal is to travel with only carry-on luggage from this day forth.  This will prove difficult for Sophie due to the fact that she has about 1,000 liquid beauty products, of which some are bigger than 100 mL.  That 100 mL limit really hurts…

We also found out recently that it is not a good idea to travel with a blender in your carry-on luggage!  Who knew?!  We accidentally put the part with the blade in our carry-on luggage and the agent at security told us we had to either check it in or leave it behind.  We already had paid a bunch for excess luggage so figured it would be way cheaper to just buy a new blender jug, so we sadly left it behind.  Apparently the blade at the bottom of a blender jug poses a threat!  I guess the security is taught to use their imaginations, because all I could come up with is somehow disassembling it and using the blade as a ninja throwing star.

We have pored over various travel blogs over the last few months and have taken backpacking advice from them.  A few of our favourites are nomadicmatt.com, alexinwanderland.com, goatsontheroad.com, and thebrokebackpacker.com.  We are trying to travel as light as possible by leaving things behind we can get cheaply wherever we are, such as summer clothes , toiletries, etc.

We are actually in the process of packing our backpacks as I write this so will let you know what our final weight total is upon departure.  We are shooting for being as light as possible so I am hoping for 20-30 lbs each to start.  Please leave any comments or advice below!