What I’m bringing with me to Thailand

Having minimal belongings and packing light has become kind of a game to me, a challenge to see how little I can get away with, without feeling like I’m unnecessarily sacrificing convenience or variety.

For the past 6 months, moving from California to Seattle to Washington DC to Chiang Mai, I’ve lived out of this backpack:

It’s the Osprey Farpoint 70 travel backpack, and it’s awesome because:

• like a hiking backpack, it has a full suspension frame and hip belt
• unlike a hiking backpack, it unzips like a suitcase
• the straps can be zipped away, so I can check this bag on flights and there are no loose straps to get caught on things
• it comes with a mini-backpack (really just a normal backpack) that zips onto the front of the big one

Here’s what I have (very neatly, using my nice purple packing cubes) stuffed into my backpack in my move to Thailand:

• 2 hats (one pictured, and a Monsters University baseball cap from Disneyland)
• 3 pairs of shoes (I tossed my old running shoes, I’ll buy a new pair in Thailand)
• 2 scarves (one purchased in Mexico, one made for me by mi suegra)
• 7 tank tops, 8 t-shirts, and 3 cool Mexican shirts
• 2 skirts, 3 pants, and 1 pair of jeans
• 7 dresses and 2 jumper-things (yeah, this is a little much, but I couldn’t bring myself to give away any more of my pretty dresses…)
• various underwears and socks in my super cool Travel Laundry Stuff Sack
• toiletries and a quick-dry travel towel

In the smaller backpack, my carry-on, I have:

• my teeny-tiny adorable MacBook
• external battery pack and various cables
• my Kindle
• a few more toiletries
• and obvious travel documents

And finally, I’m carrying my conveniently-travel-sized-ukulele-because-my-guitar-was-stolen.

And that’s it! Obviously a few things I’ll need to buy when I’m there – probably some teaching clothes, and some apartment things once we have an apartment – but this is plenty to live there, and I can easily carry it all myself, even on public transportation.