Any traveller who has walked straight past baggage claim knows packing light is an art-form. This guide has some ideas for the minimalist.

How to pack under 3.5kg for 7 months of travelling around the world

The pack described in this article (pictured above left) worked really well recently for a 7 month adventure around the world.

1. All the Gear - Looks like a lot when it's all spread out. Doesn't feel like a lot when you are wearing your undies inside out while your backups are drying on the sink.

This pack (pictured above left) is an 18 litre Deuter model with a 3 Litre Hydration Bladder (pictured on left). The hydration bladder looks and sounds really dorky as if you just stepped out of a star trek convention. When you find yourself in a strange country where the tap-water makes you leak from both ends and the locals are charging ball-game prices, you will thank Zeus hydration packs exist - they're also much more convenient then fiddling with water bottles when you're on the move.

Pack & Apparell
	Weight	USD
Deuter Cross Bike Backpack 18 L (More)	620g	$50
Water Bladder 2 L (More)	50g	$29
Keen Newport Bison Leather Sandals (More)	907g	$95
Gondwana Zip Off Leg Pants (More)	~250g	$35

2. Footwear: Keen Newports - Keen Newport leather sandals are possibly the most comfortable cool-looking travelling footwear available.

Check out the product spec on our online store.

Wear a pair of black socks underneath and you can generally get into any bar or club (they are close-toed). The protection on the front stops you from stubbing your toes on the fridge (take that thongs!) and the open-ribbed sides and anti-odor fabric ventilates your stinky walking feet. No need for a separate pair of runners, thongs and dress shoes - Newports do everything.

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Electronics
	Weight	USD
HP iPAQ Pocket PC (More)	170g	$271
Kensington 120w Multi-tipped Power Adapter (More)	250g	$115
Transcend 32gb Compact Flash Card (More)	11.4g	$128
SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus 2GB Card (More)	10g	$30
Kensington Travel Plug Adapter (K33117) (More)	227g	$20

3. Music, Movies, Email... - An iPhone is probably a good way to compactly combine your communications on the go. I prefer my old HP iPaq because it has way more memory with the Compact Flash and SD Card slots and it will play any movie format (AVI, MOV, MPEG etc.). I can also pop my Camera's SD in and backup photos/videos while still having plenty of room for watching Survivor episodes! It can also be used for Skype and email/web when you are in range of wifi.

Pictured is a 32gb Transcend Compact Flash card. CF cards are so light, you could easily bring a bunch of them and be able to listen to every song that was ever made! (well, at least all the good ones)

The Power Adapter shown is a Kensington Multi-tipped Power Adapter which I use for the PDA, an X61 Thinkpad, a Motorola Cell Phone and an old Dell Laptop. It has plugs for standard outlets, car cigarette lighters and aeroplane seat power sockets. Unfortunately, most planes don't have power for your seat unless you fly business =[

The SD Card shown to the right is special because it snaps open and functions as a USB drive! This is super awesome when you take a photo with hot foreigners and then transfer the photo straight onto their laptop without an adaptor!

4. Toiletries & First Aid - Kathmandu in Australia has some pretty cool toiletries bags because they have loads of compartments. This one is good but it's probably a little big for a guys needs. The detachable mirror is handy for shaving. Unfortunately the stoopid new liquids restrictions on airline travel means you can't carry a properly sized bottle of sunscreen.

In Asia, getting sick from food on a trip is almost expected. When your arse-end starts screaming, make sure you have some Imodium handy - it "treats acute attacks of diarrhoea".

If you do any trekking or are prone to mosquitos (who isn't?), it's also possible you might catch Malaria (a friend of mine has caught it twice!), so you might want to carry some Malarone also. It's way more expensive then the alternative ($70 for Malarone compared to much cheaper Doxycycline) but the treatment is powerful enough to be taken as a treatment rather then a preventative medication (and the alternative is a daily program for one month - balls!). Combine this with long sleeves/pants at dusk and night and use a DEET-based mosquito repellant and you should have no problems - except for the fact that DEET is toxic and prolonged usage should be avoided.

Motion sickness tablets are also very handy if you are catching a dodgy little skip across the ocean on a rocking sea. Another good idea is a small tube of anti-bacterial cream for cuts and scratches and a few good-quality bandaids.

Also worth checking out is a Silent Knight Snoring Ring so that if you ever end up in a dorm and someone whinges about your breathing, you can point out that you are doing everything in your power to transform yourself for their benefit!

5. Accessories - Ah, the obligatory travel novel that you will end up swapping for some trashy piece of rubbish. For a thin, light and great read, it's hard to go past Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk - his Haunted book has a story 'Guts' that made 73 people faint when he was reading an excerpt!

6. Travel Clothing - I don't get it. Everyone ends up buying clothes overseas (knock-off name brands, cheap jeans,souvenir T-Shirts) so why does everyone pack so much stuff they don't need? Why take a jumper if you are going somewhere warm?

The trick to travel clothing is layers - if it cools down, put on all your clothes at once and buy some thermals!

Another handy idea is to carry a genuine-looking belt that has a money-pouch zipper on the inside. The leather belt pictured was hand-made in Indonesia and is pretty bloody unique which makes it hard to spot.

Packing Cells are also genuinely awesome. They seem simple and superflous but in actuality, they save you a lot of stuffing around trying to find things between all your smelly clothes.

OK, that's it. Every little thing adds up when you are packing, so ask yourself again and again "Do I REALLY need this?"

Happy travels!