Travel checklist

I travel in Southeast Asia a lot. This has certain affordances and certain challenges. As a gym junkie, I find the comparative lack of interest in making it easy to work out in Indonesia challenging, for example.

There are certain things I bring to work around these various problems, listed here because I forget sometimes:

• gaffer tape, small roll, for taping badly-designed hotel curtains together etc.

• bag-sealing clips

• zip ties, small pack, for fixing things

• ginger Travacalm tablets, for motion sickness on heinous bus rides

• ear plugs

  • high fidelity, for gigs
  • low-fidelity for shutting out the tuneless cacophony of the dawn call to prayer in tiny villages with 4 mosques locked in a game of piety one-upmanship

• Bug-Grrr Off, the only natural insect repellent that works. I prefer it to DEET which probably isn’t toxic, but does smell bad.

• lightweight reusable polyester shopping bag, for groceries

• Philips OneBlade battery shaver/trimmer which can trim all the hairs passably

• LifeStraw Go Water Filter Bottle for when people are stingy about adequately supplying potable water

• Vicks First Defence Microgel Nasal Spray, which may reduce risks of respiratory contagion in transit

• Collapsible Water Tank, for weight lifting

• portable baggage scale for weighing my luggage but also for turning anything into a workout weight

• If I am feeling extravagant I might bring gym rings, although that means I am no longer travelling light

• roll-up compression bags e.g. or the KORJO ones for field-expedient dry bags and efficient packing

• SomnoCushion® Anti-Snoring Backpack for travelling with friends who snore

• a 65W GaN3 with multiple USB of arbitrary brand

• local extension cord, because the outlet is never anywhere useful