Do you pack weeks ahead for a long trip.. Or wait until the last minute?

NR | 9/30/14 | Vanity

[NormsRevenge]

In less than three weeks, we hit the airways and cruise the Asia waters and gateways not Asia, Singapore and Beijing... I haven't started packing.

I am notorious for over-packing.. I may use foam inserts next time to fill the suitcase out and leave some of the stuff home.

Anyone have any packing tips?

[Salvey]

A powerful, high lumens flashlight to check the mattresses for bedbugs.

[MediaMole]

I pack at the last minute with the thought that there are always stores somewhere. Forgetting something isn’t fatal, just buy it when you get there.

[ThomasThomas]

I do have enough socks and underwear to pack in advance very much.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

1/2 hour before I leave for the airport.

[cripplecreek]

It was an eye opening trip for my uncle. He's been there on business a couple of times but had never toured the country and says it isn't the country they get impressions of while talking business.

He says the country is beautiful and the people are great but there are a lot of other things he wish he hadn't seen. Things like rafts of dead pigs on the Yangtze and less than stellar living conditions of the peasant class. 12 people in their group were the only people in a 100 room hotel in one of the empty cities.

A pic he sent of a place where they stayed with a peasant family.



We stayed in a village with a "peasant" family last night. The govt does not allow air cond or heat right now and it has been raining for weeks. The house was very damp and cold even though it was built by the gov in 2003. The family was moved into this new house from a house without running water.

He was impressed with the english speaking elementary schools. They have no computers, minimal supplies and use an outhouse but the education appears to be excellent. He said kids as young as 6 or 7 years old speak perfect english and were among the best behaved school kids he's ever seen.

[Gamecock]

I just traveled around the world by plane, took about two weeks. Will do the same thing in December.

Used nothing but my trusty carry-on and my laptop bag.

Was able to do wash as needed and tucked extra socks and sciveys inside my laptop case.

Life is too short to spend an hour waiting for checked bags at the baggage claim.

[NormsRevenge]

I have learned now to modify and maximize space when packing.. Rolling and cramming is acceptable, worse case pack a steam iron.

We are lucky as we will have ‘free’ laundry and pressing on the ship included.

Yaknow how many pairs of socks ya can stuff in a shoe ;-?

[EC1]

Night before, basically. I know what I’ll need about a week in advance, but it goes in at the last minute, in case the weather changes. Clothes and a spare pair of shoes in the hold luggage, papers and anything valuable in the carry on, along with a spare T shirt, pair of socks and pair of underwear - in case I wind up in Christchurch and my hold baggage winds up in Anchorage. Guide books and phrase books on the kindle (or tablet if you go fancy - and a good idea of what you want to see specially.

Since you are wandering around Asia a bit - pack aspirin. You’ll need it, and can not get that stuff for love nor money in a lot of places. There are a few other bits and bats you can’t get easily - for some reason, pepper is one of them. Tissues are another.

Hope you have a great time and a lot of pictures please!

[Gamecock]

Hong Kong is wonderful.

Hope is settles down soon. At least by December.

[Vince Ferrer]

Pack a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, some emergency toilet paper, camera, and money. Everything else you need, they will be more than happy to sell to you in Asia.

[John Valentine]

Take half the clothes and twice the money you think you’ll need.

[Vermont Lt]

Pack and live out of it for a few days. You will realize what you need, and don’t need, pretty quickly.

[muir_redwoods]

Pack what you need.Then take out half.

[Gamecock]

“”Yaknow how many pairs of socks ya can stuff in a shoe ;-?””

Exactly. Not on bit of space goes to waste.

After my above mentioned around the world trip I went to the beach for a weekend. Just threw a couple items into the suitcase. That took as much space as cramming and rolling and was less than 1/3 of what I took on my flight.

[NormsRevenge]

Got it, IBUPROFIN AND Tissues. I always toss a few items like pepper and salt packets and tums in as well.

Last cruise we took over 5ooo pics, over 4 hours of video

This one, ? Thank goodness for 16 and 32 gigabytes thumb drives.

[shoe212]

www.onebag.com
It shows you how to pack light and has a good packing list.

[NormsRevenge]

China , like it or not, is the country that is truly transforming. It is a nation that is slowly being refined thru forces even it can not resist. Rough around the edges? To put it mildly.

[henkster]

Pack the night before. It’s easy.

[Zeppelin]

I travel frequently between the US and Australia. I usually pack 2 to 3 days before I depart. Packing for trips has gotten so much easier since I started using packing cells:

http://www.amazon.com/eBags-Packing-Cubes-3pc-Raspberry/dp/B0013KGEHY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1412129707&sr=8-1&keywords=ebags+packing

I found some on sale and bought ~12 (I also keep my camping gear packed away in these). It’s so convenient when you go to rearrange your suitcase or bag.

I typically have one cell for shirts, one for pants, and one for socks and underwear. This makes it very easy for me to stick to my self-imposed limits for each.

Another benefit is that you can use them to segregate your clean clothes from your dirty laundry toward the end of the trip.

[NormsRevenge]

We are supposed to visit Nov 1. Fingers crossed.

We already got bumped from home porting the start of the cruise from Thailand.. It got switched to Singapore.