Backpacking SEA: Traveling without a suitcase/backpack?

[kalfatring]

Hi,

So this is my first real post linked to the idea of owning max 100 items:

http://earlyretirementextreme.com/the-1 ... lenge.html

I consider going on a backpacking trip to SEA (south east asia) where the climate is warm all year round - even in the rainy season. I found some online blogs/homepages where travelers proudly show how they managed to travel in SEA only carrying a backpack with a size of something like 25 liters.

I want to take it to the extreme and not carry any packs at all:

1. Wear some hiking pants with zippers and a lot of pockets. The pants can be transformed into shorts by undoing the zippers.
2. Carry your passport, money and credit card(s) in one of the many leg pockets. Use a ziplock to keep them dry.
3. Carry a small toothpaste and a folding style toothbrush in one of the other pockets.
4. Wear a merino wool t shirt to avoid bad odors for a prolonged time
5. Do not bring any electronics at all - no phone, smartphone, kindle, laptop etc. Travel like in the old days. Spend time exploring and talking to people.
6. Bring no Lonely Planet book - it is bulky and heavy. Memorize the important things or ask around.
7. Stay in hostels, motels, hotels etc where linen are supplied.
8. If for some reason you need more clothing or a pack - buy it locally.

Has anyone of you tried something extreme like this? Any comments? Imagine going to the check in counter in the airport and having no check in baggage and no carry on baggage - its almost like being totally naked .

L

[jacob]

https://sites.google.com/site/1ozluggage2/ <=- this one

http://www.scottevest.com/
http://www.onebag.com/weight-watching.html

[Chris]

I would very much be interested in hearing how such a trip goes.

While I do think less stuff == less stress, you might consider making an exception for a smartphone. It makes booking/rebooking travel much easier, and in the case of low-cost airlines, cheaper as well. Plus you can use it for note taking, timekeeping, translation, exchange rate lookup, and lighting. You should also have a way to access a copy of your passport should it be lost/stolen.

And I make this recommendation as someone who avoided smartphones until 2016 (-:

[thrifty++]

I backpacked SE Asia with a 36L backpack and nothing else. I was the lightest traveller of anyone I met. It was ideal. No regrets whatsoever.

It depends how much you will get out of your experiment. Sounds very stressful and unnecessarily minimal to me. Having a small backpack to stuff things in made life so much easier. I would have hated wearing long pants stuffed with things all the time in that heat = huge discomfort. Its easier sticking the leggings inside a bag too when you take em off. Its always a good idea to have a bag for things which make the travel experience easier.

[Jean]

In sea i needed:
A towel
A soap
One extra set of shirt+socks+underpants
A short for bathing.

Wear long clothes on the plane.
A smartphone was very handy.

Bulky pockets are uncomfortable to me, but it would fit in. I had a more than half empty 30 litters backpack. A very minimalist one with no rigidity at all. It was perfect.

[Eureka]

Hi,

I consider going on a backpacking trip to SEA

Ha ha a backpacking trip without a backpack?!

Nice one!

It reminds me of my younger days (back in the early 1980s when the word backpacking trip was not yet invented) when I traveled through the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar etc for months on end with very little luggage. I dumped my backpack and most of its content very early on and continued with a small locally made bag of cotton only carrying 4-6 kg along. The content of the bag being a water bottle, a book (a novel of some kind, which you swap at the hostels), a hair brush, a tooth brush, a diary/note book, a towel, swim wear, 1-2 t-shirts, 1-2 pairs of underwear, a knife and a plate and usually some local fruits or bread etc for the road.

My main piece of clothing was a piece of cotton wrapped around my waist as a sharong. It dried so fast I did not even need a spare.

So definitely possible. However, at that time SEA was poor and undeveloped so there was no need to look 'civilized' and dress presentable. Nowadays, especially in the cities, the Asians are well dressed (even more so than we are in Denmark), so unless you want to look like a traveling hippie bum you should probably dress better than I did then.

Great idea and good luck with the planning!

[frihet]

I traveled India and Nepal for one year with only a carry on backpack. So it's defiantly possible to go light. But without a backpack? I personally wouldn't do it.

But try it The worst thing that could happen is that you don't like it and buy a backpack. When I needed more/different stuff on my journey for example trekking in Nepal. i just bought it, used it and gave it away afterwards. Stuff is cheap in Asia

[chenda]

This guy did it:

https://m.youtube.com/user/rtwblog

I did it for a weekend trip to Morocco. It worked but imo it's easier with just a small bag. If you can wash out your clothes every few days then you save loads of space. It's probably easier for men, though you might get some questions asked in customs as to why you have no luggage at all.

[JamesR]

I've heard that merino wool can wear out fast if you wash them too frequently, so it can be better to just limit washing your clothes to once or twice a week. But on the flip side, you probably won't need to wash it more frequently than that.

When you deal with visas and going through immigration, it's generally considered polite to wear pants.

You probably want a light coat for any sort of bus travel - you'd be surprised how often the AC on a bus is ridiculously cold. On airplanes you can often just ask for a blanket.

[BRUTE]

1. Wear some hiking pants with zippers and a lot of pockets. The pants can be transformed into shorts by undoing the zippers.
2. Carry your passport, money and credit card(s) in one of the many leg pockets. Use a ziplock to keep them dry.
3. Carry a small toothpaste and a folding style toothbrush in one of the other pockets.
4. Wear a merino wool t shirt to avoid bad odors for a prolonged time
5. Do not bring any electronics at all - no phone, smartphone, kindle, laptop etc. Travel like in the old days. Spend time exploring and talking to people.
6. Bring no Lonely Planet book - it is bulky and heavy. Memorize the important things or ask around.
7. Stay in hostels, motels, hotels etc where linen are supplied.
8. If for some reason you need more clothing or a pack - buy it locally.

even longer term rental places in SEA usually come with linen supplied. merino wool is much too hot for SEA, brute tried it and ended up throwing all of it away. wool is also terribly fragile when wet, and SEA is very humid. brute has never, ever ripped a synthetic or cotton shirt, but has ripped several merino shirts. south east asians love phones more than any humans brute has ever met - if he wants to communicate with them, Line is almost a necessity. Lonely Planet is indeed useless.

[kalfatring]

merino wool is much too hot for SEA, brute tried it and ended up throwing all of it away.

Even the thinnest fabric quality from Icebreaker?

[BRUTE]

yes, in brute's opinion. brute had an icebreaker t-shirt and regular shirt (not dressy enough to deserve the word dress shirt) from icebreaker, and both of them were just way too thick and hot, and became itchy. might be different for everyone, but brute so far has not been convinced of merino wool outside of cold applications that traditional wool would also excel it. it seems mostly a marketing hype to brute. they smell, they just smell differently. they're more itchy than cotton. they're simply not good in the heat, and they rip very easily when wet, which it will get in 90 degree, humid weather in SEA after wandering around all day sweating like farangs do.

[Solvent]

I personally find fine merino wool to be very nice. But I have no idea about trying to wear it in hot, humid climates. I find it great for temperate climes; I can wear it for days without noticeable smell, and it seems to fare well from warm days through to cool evenings.

On the OP - I can't fathom trading off the significant benefits a small backpack would bring (e.g, carrying a drink bottle) for the benefits of being a whole 2-3kg lighter. I've never found a small backpack to slow me down when travelling. But I'm not an ultralight traveller, I'd always have luggage back at my hotel/hostel so I'm in a different class.

Different strokes for different folks though.