My rucksack. My world. Self-contained, self-sufficient, carrying me through reasons and seasons, traversing time space mind self. Every item brought to the doorstep of a new life. The very things which sustained me. My luggage, my baggage, my worries, my delights, my basis for survival adaptation movement.
The inventory of months, the sum total of days, tools of trades bracing tradition. To cling to in desperate times, haul heaving over mountains cursing with sweat. To treasure and bless with strength and elemental resistance. My being equals. My strapping alter ego. Home away from home away from home. They are mine. I am theirs. In exchange like breath with the quivering spaces surrounding me. Existence subsistence omission submission dependence transcendence.
These are the things.
| Clothing Item |
Description |
| Shehe pants |
khaki, God pants. Quick dry, convertible to shorts. Zippered pockets, matches anything I wear. I did practically every day for a year, and they sustained no more wear and tear than a few faint permanent stains. |
| Reebok football shorts |
navy blue, worn sparingly whenever Shehe pants were in the wash. Doubled as swimming trunks and light underpants in muggy rainy season Thailand and Laos. |
| long johns |
white, indespensible in Tibetan country and during trekking. Who cares how I look, as long as I’m not freezing my ass and chicken-spindle legs off! |
| underpants, 5 pr |
white. |
| Hi-Tec hiking boots |
dark gray, Dupont Kevlar exterior. Very light, but disappointing traction in wet conditions. Carried me over Thorong La despite its flaws. Never did try shooting myself in the foot. |
| Teva sandals |
black with purple trim, particularly useful in Thailand and Laos. Too much walking in them caused abrasion-induced blisters. And pedistank. |
| socks, 2 pr |
white, lost other 6 pairs somewhere along the way. |
| Polo by Ralph Lauren fleece |
black, my first layer of defense against bitter high altitude winds and teeth titillating temperatures. Its effectiveness seemed to decrease through the course of travel, especially when I was wearing it every day. Stylish and always a very good friend. |
| Black Yak long-sleeved shirt |
light blue, great for layering or slightly chilly days in Nepal. Despite being ventilated, too hot to wear in Thailand and Laos. Quick dry with convenient zippered pockets. A great color combination with the lime green T-shirt. |
| Pure Clothing Co. cotton Nepali shirt |
off-white, acquired in Kathmandu. Unused all through Nepal and India until Thailand, where it was just cool enough to wear for protecting my arms against the ravages of pestilential mosquitoes. |
| Divided by H&M long-sleeved shirt |
brown, hides dirt well. My most stylish top and pretty warm too, although like the fleece its effectiveness decreased with overuse. Now has some tiny holes. |
| button-down long sleeves |
white, appropriated from Haw-Wen in Pushkar. Originally tailored for her, but fits me better! |
| Carrieri Pigeoni (凯威尔) button-down T-shirt |
blue and white plaid. Respectable but not very breathable. |
| Swat T-Shirt |
maroon, CREW. Proves I’m a Swattie. |
| T-shirt |
lime green, standard oversized cotton T-shirt great for layering. |
| Izod Packable Jacket |
dusty green, didn’t prove useful until Laos, when biking to and from the Phudindaeng Organic Farm in the rain. Packs smartly into a diminutive cloth pillow. |
| undershirt |
white, makes me look 10 years younger. The best thing to wear when it’s hot out and mosquitoes aren’t a problem. |
| PackTowl |
purple, this ragged piece of felt has been with me since the bike trip with Jo in 2000. Doesn’t absorb much water anymore and mostly just smells. |
| Book Item |
Description |
| Lonely Planet India, 9th Edition |
Purchased used in Kathmandu for half the price of a new 10th Edition LP India. Became much more used under our guardianship. |
| Lonely Planet Thailand, 10th Edition |
Photocopied. Borrowed from Tom before we parted on Koh Phangan. Must return it to him somehow. Has a really crappy, pathetically incomplete language section. |
| Lonely Planet Laos, 5th Edition |
Photocopied. Purchased in Bangkok for quarter the price of a new 6th Edition LP Laos. The language section is much more useful than the LP Thailand’s. On loan to Ay Jy. |
| Let’s Speak Lao |
by Douang Vannaboupha. Purchased in Luang Prabang for 10,000 kip. Priced at 20,000 kip at L’estranger bookstore. When I scoffed at the unreasonable price, a worker there gave me an are you crazy you foreigner complaining about such a tiny expense just try finding it for less look. <frenchy>Ha ha ha!</frenchy> On loan to Ay Jy. |
| Oxford Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary, New Edition 1999 |
This dictionary rocks, and the text is just large enough to read comfortably. Useful all throughout China. When I decided to send my electronic dictionary back, I elected to keep this paper one. |
| Ulysses |
by James Joyce. Purchased in Manali. I still haven’t finished or even made much progress grokking this moody tome, but happily carried it through Thailand, Laos, and beyond. |
| From Sex to Superconsciousness |
by Osho. |
| Wild Swans |
by June Chang. A heavy reminder of China’s brutal recent history I read while convalescing in Udaipur. Kept as a gift for Echo. |
| Practical Kamasutra: Erotic & Love Sculptures |
by Dr. Ashwinie Kumar Bansal. Fascinating and at times humorous commentary on the whimsical temple sculptures in Khajuraho. |
| Red Book (Especially For You) |
Bought in Xiangtan. Journal entries and observations transcribed here. Ran out of pages in Nepal. |
| Blue Book (Organize.A.Day) |
Bought in Kathmandu to continue the note taking legacy of the Red Book. Finer quality paper bound within makes me more conscientious about every entry. Started an address book from back to front. Currently unfinished. |
| Green Book (Shree Eagle) |
The thin one. Finished easily fleshing out details for my Firefox dictionary project and drafting Annapurna Chronicles. |
| Green Book (Sagarmatha Eagle) |
The thick one. Contains the bulk of important journal entries throughout India, as well as extensive notes for some of the books read, including Wild Swans and Capote’s In Cold Blood. Ran out of pages while on Koh Tao. |
| Donald Duck Book |
Starts with djembe lessons from Lala in Varanasi, and continues with impromptu lessons and sessions with Sita, Gotu, Subhash. Room for more learning. |
| White Executive Pad (a Today Product of Surya) |
Tried out some of the idiotic, patronizing puzzles from Shakuntala Devi’s brain-teaser series in India. Giving that up, remaining are notes from Jong’s Fear of Flying. |
| Linux For You Pro Feb, April, May 2005 |
Linux reading, sorely missed throughout my trip prior to discovering LFY. I found out about LinuxAsia2005 in the January issue, purchased on a whim in Kolkata. |
| 童話一，二 |
中華文化出版社. Picked up complimentary copies at the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi, that staggering testament to the inefficiency of bureaucratic systems. The two illustrated booklets are chock full of children’s stories which I thought might be fun to transcribe for the web. They could also be interesting NLP resources. |
| Med Item |
Description |
| Himalaya Health Care Liv.52 DS |
Ayurvedic tablets that support the liver. Part of my daily pill-popping regimen while recovering from Hepatitis. Double Strength. |
| Doxycycline capsules |
Antimalarial that unfortunately can adversely affect the liver. Taken starting just before entering Laos until about two weeks after leaving. |
| Tibetan medicine |
Tiny pills gifted to me from Luorong Pengcuo. He said they are one of the most powerful Tibetan medicine available, good for just about any kind of illness from stomach trouble to colds and flu. |
| Povidone Iodine |
Bought for use on the mammoth cuts inflicted on my ass by the dastardly razor shells at Koh Tao. Didn’t have much luck drizzling it in the right places though. |
| Clotrimazole Anti-fungal Skin Creme |
For athlete’s foot. |
| Vaseline lip care |
Thought it might be useful for chapped lips during trekking. Didn’t end up using it much. |
| knee braces, 2 |
Purchased in Manang. Lessened strain and pain from knees while trekking. |
| ankle brace |
Supported ankles during trekking. I lost another one of them somewhere. |
| URGO band aids |
Plastered over above-mentioned ass wounds, in addition to sandal-induced blisters. |
| New Skin Antiseptic Liquid Bandage |
No replacement for band aids, and thus not very useful. |
| Tech Item |
Description |
| electronics bag |
So many past uses. Currently is able to hold most of the tools listed below with a little clever packing and massaging. |
| PrincetonTec Aurora headlamp |
A real gem. Indispensible during power outages, mosquito purges, grotto exploration, nighttime biking, and midnight trips to the w.c. |
| Duracell AAA batteries, 4 |
Purchased in Kathmandu as replacements for the existing headlamp batteries. But the mentioned batteries never ran out, so these remain unused. |
| Canon Powershot S410 digital camera, charger, spare battery |
A pleasure to take on the journey. Compact, unobtrusive, and yet very capable of taking amazing pictures. We used a 512MB CF card, the ideal balance between size and cd burnability. Quite beat up looking and dusty these days but still fully functional. |
| Nokia 3100 cell phone, travel charger |
Used a China Mobile (中国移动通信) SIM card while in China, which worked flawlessly. I subscribed to a SMS magazine service for ¥3/month which allowed us to periodically receive Chinese language news, most notably about the 2004 US presidential election, even while in the remote reaches of Xinjiang and Tibet where current news was impossible to obtain from other sources. Tried the AirTel Magic service in India and was totally disappointed by both price and performance; I simply could not recharge my account! The official AirTel office at Connaught Place, New Delhi was <saroj>useless</saroj> in helping me resolve this problem. I was very happy to resume China Mobile service immediately upon crossing into Yunnan from Laos. The phone otherwise served as an expensive alarm clock. |
| Casio Illuminator alarm clock |
Runs on just one AA battery. Bright light, easily adjusted. Simple and entirely useful. Like the PackTowl, this hails way back to my biking trip with Jo in 2000. |
| Sony USB cable |
Purchased in Kathmandu. We used it as a data exchange cable for both the Rio and the Canon. Mostly for the former though, uploading music in our favorite Thamel cybercafe! I think we installed the Rio Music Manager on just about all of those PC’s! |
| plug adapters, 2 |
From parallel flat head double pronged to angled flat head double pronged and rounded double pronged. Essential. |
| Toiletry Item |
Description |
| soap dish |
Mind bogglingly difficult to find a good one, one without holes that will leak into one’s backpack, one that closes securely and won’t send the soap tumbling down the toilet drain. But we found one. Aww yeah. |
| Oral-B medium toothbrush |
Frayed. Received gratis along with some Himalaya toothpaste. Used only because I left my beloved orange hard bristle toothbrush at Leela’s house in Manali. Damned if I can find another hard bristle brush anywhere. |
| Himalaya Herbals Ayurvedic Dental Cream |
All natural, tastes great, and doesn’t fill me with suspicion like fluoride-based toothpastes. Nice natural looking brown, unlike the radioactive red cinnamon-flavored gels. |
| stainless steel cup |
For brushing teeth and drinking hot water and chai. A little dirty these days. |
| packet tissue paper |
The newest acquisition. Allows me to return to face the toilet scheme of China. Where you wipe with paper. Instead of. Ouchy. |
| Himalaya PureHands Herbal Hand Sanitizer |
Purchased in India, when I could have used it more in Nepal probably. |
| glasses |
Absolutely necessary in the polluted cesspools of India and elsewhere in travel when handling contacts becomes a distressingly unhygienic proposition. |
| Bausch & Lomb contact lenses |
Worked fine until my eyes started getting very dry in India. Cheapest to buy in Thailand. |
| Amo Complete Multi-Purpose Solution |
Wed to contact usage. |
| Gillette razor blade & blade replacements |
Gently, gently scrape away that chin fuzz. One blade lasts me 6 months! Shaving cream not necessary either! |
| nail clipper |
Of course. |
| comb |
Pretty much unused since I stopped caring about my appearance. And when I was hairless. |
| Etc Item |
Description |
| sleeping bag |
Filled with angelic down that enveloped me in warmth on the coldest nights at altitude. Laboriously carried with little usage through India and Laos because I feel indebted and attached to it still. |
| djembe & bag |
Acquired in Varanasi. Transformed me into a traveling minstrel. It is so empowering to have a musical instrument on hand when traveling, as both a pathway for venting creative energies and magical tool to construct spaces in which to meet cool people. I found a tailor to patch the disintegrating bag in Bangkok. |
| Victorinox Swiss Army Knife |
For cutting boxes, opening cans, removing window shutters, peeling fruit, personal security, and everything else. Scissors would have been useful though. See scissors. |
| plastic bag, 3 layers |
The cheapest bottles of filtered water in Thailand and Laos can be bought by the half dozen, packaged in incredibly tough plastic bags. I acquired three of these bags and fitted them in one another. The resulting bag is nearly indestructible, holding the Joyce, LP Thailand, LP Laos, water bottles, and other items without a hint of weakness. Which made my backpack that much lighter - excellent! |
| talcum powder |
Kept my boots smelling decent during trekking. Impressive price/performance ratio! Even shared with Ducky while working up a pedistank in Tibet. |
| earplugs |
Foam. For India. |
| mulberry tea, 2 bags |
Bought from the Phoudindaeng Organic Farm near Vang Vieng, Laos. |
| Sketolene shield |
Insect repellant leveraged against the nasties in Laos, mostly on my sandal-exposed feet. |
| ancient statue |
Has mysterious properties. A gift from Surendra in Bodhgaya, India. |
| Nalgene LEXAN Round Loop-Top bottle |
Sage green, 32 oz. Bought in Hong Kong. Really good when it doesn’t stink. Pristine and pretty when we started. Perfect for purifying water with Potable Aqua when trekking. Unfortunately because of the narrow neck design it’s difficult to wash out. |
| CD Case |
Bought in Xining for ¥5. Stuffed full with photo, music, and LFY software cds. Rock-solid therefore. |
| electrical tape roll |
Used to hack together a new charger for the Rio while in Kathmandu. |
| small rocks, 5 |
From a Laotian river bed. Originally planned to deliver to Ay Jy as a souvenir. This became unnecessary when it was decided she would visit Laos herself. |
| pens |
Not for giving to every pesky child who begs for one. |
| plastic packet containing photos |
Always convenient conversation pieces and reminders of friends and family. Kept my passport-sized portraits safe and dry, as well as evidence of the Maoist tithe. |
| Solex Top Security lock & keys |
Purchased in Kathmandu. A tough little lock, very useful in India. |
| rubber bands |
Binding everything from hair to business cards. |
| pencil lead replacements |
For when I still had my mechanical pencils. I lost all three of them. |
| sewing kit |
Expanded upon the original kit I lifted from our fabulous hotel in Lanzhou. Used to patch my army gloves while trekking, and sewing prayer flags to my backpack before my bike excursion. |
| Durex condoms |
For Thailand. Just in case. |
| Focus contact lenses |
Bought in Delhi for Haw-Wen, because high prescription contacts are damn expensive and hard to find in Nepal. One set shipped to her there. |
| scissors |
Cheapest of the cheap, dangerously pointy. For those hard to reach nose hairs. |
| Motfly backback with piggyback pack |
2 zippers broken, drawstring broken, red-paint spattered, rip developing in side. I wish I had purchased a more robust backpack. On the other hand, it always offered an alternative way to strap, tie, and clip everything together when one part broke. I have a feeling that this won’t be true forever. It deserves to be retired after the rigours of this year! The smaller piggyback pack was immensely useful when island hopping in Thailand. I carried everything in it, thus avoiding the infamous luggage search and seizure scenario on those overnight bus rides. It was also very handy as a daypack. |
| Hanary shoulder bag |
Tough Chinese brand replacement for the bag bought at Himalaya (喜马拉雅) with more capacity than meets the eye. ¥80. |
| money pouch |
Slung over my shoulder. Held my all important traveler’s cheques, cash, Bank of China ATM card, and passport. Security breached not once. |
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on Saturday, June 25th, 2005 at 11:02 and is filed under Logistical, Observation, Rumination.
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