What to bring is a rather big question and relates a lot to where you are going. I’m not going to point out the obvious to you, you found my blog so you have some smarts about you for what to bring and not bring, but what’s not obvious?
One thing is that if you are going somewhere like SE Asia, India or a “developing” state, then you really don’t need to bring much at all. I pretty much brought a backpack last time and few other things the reason behind not bringing much is A) you will bring home all kinds of extra souvenirs and trinkets B) you can buy most everything you need there! Major cities all have the basic necessities of what you really need INCLUDING MEDICATION. In Bangkok I got a prescription of dioxycycline (the drug for preventing malaria) for only a 1$ a week, verse the like 10$ per week as one would pay in the US. You can also pick up plenty of cheap clothes that you can trash over you trip as well as pretty much everything else. Just remember that pretty much anywhere you go you can get what you need. The only thing is if you want a particular brand of some type or want something a bit more expensive or technical (like a laptop or camera) best to get it at home.
A few other tips are to check the CDC for what vaccines you need, the State dept. for what visas you CANNOT get on arrival and any particular medication that isn’t widely needed. This will get updated a bit more later, but those are the most important for now
Travel well!
The Bum Traveler
