Dorte's Walk-with Closet

Most women dream of having a walk-in closet, and I was once close to getting one, but surrendered it to my daughter - maybe another time! Instead, I am now facing the challenge of having a walk-with closet for 7 months.

 

As you may remember, we had decided to travel with check-luggage, which should make deciding what to bring a little easier than just traveling with carry-on - not the case!

When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. 

Then take half the clothes and twice the money 

– Susan Heller

In Dorte's Bag
I did a trial packing to get idea of the space my clothes would take up, and to decided what to bring. We will be doing several 3-5 day hiking trips, so we have to bring hiking clothes and gear for that as well as some nicer clothes for visiting museums and nice restaurants. 

So this is the clothes I will be bringing:

• Two pair of hiking pants; both zip-off as shorts and one pair can also be turned into capris
• Rain jacket and rain pants
• 5 pairs of socks
• Toque
• Long johns; it might be cold camping or hiking in Himalayas
• Fleece
• Five pairs of underwear; hiking and city-wear
• Three bras; suitable for hiking and city-wear
• Gloves
• Two hiking tops
• Two long sleeve blouses; hiking and city-wear
• Three short sleeve blouses; hiking and city-wear
• Two sleeves tops and a white shirt
• A sarongA cardigan
• Silk pyjamas
• A dress
• A pair of nice short
• A nice par of black pants
• A Tilley hat SPF 50

I might change my mind along the way if there it turns out that I won't be wearing some of it. In travel, less is more!

It isn't the mountains ahead to climb that wear you out; it's the pebble in your shoe

- Muhammad Ali

Footwear

A female dilemma and another tough decision; these are my choices:

• A pair of light day hikers, which will also serve as trainers in cities
• A pair of flats for when dressing up
• A pair of sandals suitable for short hikes and city-wear
• A pair of flip flops for showering in hostels and public places

Clothes and shoes weigh 8 kg/18 pounds, and we have a limit of 20 kg/40 pounds, so there is room for more..........

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. 

Take off all your envies, jealousies, un-forgiveness, selfishness and fears.

– Cesare Pavese

Carry-on or Check-in Luggage?

Our good friends Sharen and Keith recently did a 6 months trip around the world with only carry-on, and it worked well for them, so during our initial talks about luggage, we could see it might work for us as well. It was certainly a tempting thought not to have to wait for luggage or lose luggage at airports. On the other hand, Andy always seems to bring at least half his closet, and it would NOT fit into a carry-on! Andy note: I am not keen on washing underwear in a sink!!

Hiking Poles

One of our passions is hiking, and the legs are not what they used to be, so we both need to use hiking poles - especially on long downhill trails. We knew for sure we would be doing a three day hike in the Swiss alps, a five day hike in the Himalayas, and day hikes in Italy and Vietnam. We also new we would not be allowed to bring our poles in the carry-on luggage, as they would be perceived as potential weapons. So, the questions was weather we should bring our poles and check in luggage or buy some poles along the way and just bring carry-on? We were leaning towards bringing our own poles, so we would have the freedom to go hiking when we feel like it or the opportunity arises.

Type of Luggage

What type of luggage should we travel with: suitcase? backpack? sports bag? luggage with or without wheels? We would be doing more overland travel by public transportation than flying, some periods we would be moving around a lot and thus live out of the luggage, and we would need a smaller backpack for day trips. We looked at luggage online, read travel blogs, and visited stores selling luggage and outdoor gear. 

So, we finally decided to go with a 55 L check-in backpack with

• Zip-away straps, so they don't get ruined by conveyor belts
• Space for hiking poles in the compartment for the straps
• A smaller day pack which zips on to the big backpack
• A sports bag shoulder strap for staying at 'non-backpacker hotels'
• A separate compartment for wet stuff or shoes
• A full zip a la sports bag, so we don't need to take everything out to find something (a lot of backpacks have top openings)
• Space for (some of) Andy's clothes and shoes

Now we 'just' need to figure out how much and what to bring!

Everyone has baggage! The key is to find somebody to help you unpack!

- Anonymous

Round The World Ticket Or Not?

Once we had agreed on the destinations we would like to travel to, we had to decide whether to buy a Round The World (RTW) ticket or not.

Airline Alliances

We read travel blogs and researched the options offered by various airline alliances, which had many (and different) criteria we had to consider, e.g.:

• Only able to travel in one direction, e.g. from east to west
• Change travel dates, carrier and time of traveling for free, but pay for rerouting
• Travel a certain total number of miles
• Make limited number of stopovers
• Include a limited number of non-air sectors

Via the alliances' travel planning tools, our trip was estimated to cost around CAD$ 8,000 per person. 

Advantages 

• The direction, destinations and timing would be set
• We wouldn't have to decide or discuss where to go next 
• We wouldn't have to spend time keeping an eye on flight prices and booking flights

Disadvantages

• It would cost us between $125 and $200 if we wanted/had to change destination
• We would not have the freedom or flexibility to stay longer or change destination
• We would not be able to use rewards points for some of the flights
• We would have to pay for the flights before we left homeIt is cheaper overall to book your own flights

Freedom and Flexibility
This journey is happening for many reasons, and one of them is importance to experience the freedom to do what we want when we want to do it, and also having the flexibility to be spontaneous, change plans on the spur of the moment and go with flow. Therefore, buying a RTW would defeat this purpose. And we do have the time to wait a day or two for a cheaper flight or catch a flight on short notice. All choices have a price, and we think we will have more fun valuing the unplanned and unexpected. 

And then we booked the flights Vancouver-Munich-Zurich and Amman-Kathmandu - on reward points!

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape

- Anonymous