We are organizing and sorting all the items with laundry nets and basic bags. We are packing a whole cloth set for one or two days so that we do not need to take out all the items from the backpack and re-pack it every day completely:

Documents

The following documents are very useful for a trip (in some cases copies are sufficient):

• Passport and local ID cards (original documents but also copies in case you do not want to show or hand-over your official passport or also in case of a theft)
• Vaccination certificates (we always take only copies of our vaccination certificates)
• Global health insurance (original letter / certificate and copy)
• Local driver license
• International driver license for travelling outside of Europe (please pay attention that the international driver license originated in Germany expires three years after origination and needs to be renewed)
• Airplane / train tickets or pre-booked hotel confirmations (electronic versions are sufficient) but it is worth to have the address and telephone number of the first hotel at hand on a piece of paper so that the bus / taxi driver can contact the hotel to confirm the address / way
• Telephone numbers to lock the credit cards in case of the fraudster

We have digital copies of all these documents in a secured area of Dropbox and Google drive.

Clothes

Clothes are a very individual topic. We try to minimize the clothes since laundry shops are all around the world available and are in general cheap. Depending on the climate zone we take clothes for maximal five days. Especially, functional trekking ware is perfect since they are drying very fast and you can also wash them overnight in the bathroom if needed.

Since I cannot live without going for a run, I am in general wearing my running shoes on our trips when not walking around with flipflops. Paul has special trekking shoes but they should be light and breathable to wear them in warmer as well as in colder areas.

There are three pieces of clothes we are always taking with us since they are so multifunctional and good for warm as well as cold weather:

• Long-sleeve Merino shirt
• Merino legging
• Fleece jacket / pullover

Daily utensils & other items

Other useful items we have always with us are the following things (links to our products see below)

• Light weight sleeping bag
• Insect Shield Inlet von Cocoon (one in line and one in silk)
• Mini Swiss set incl. needle, knife, scissor, tweezer, small screwdriver – this was a present from my former company and this is unbelievable helpful and so light (but please put it in your check-in luggage)
• Money belt to carry larger amount of cash
• In colder areas we take our sleeping back with us (especially when going camping)
• Sunglasses
• Thermos bottle (0.5 liter) and some small packages instant coffee (since we were not always happy with the local coffee)
• Non-slip bathing shoes
• Old credit cards as fakes for the wallet (in case of a robbery)
• Pillow and neck pillow in one (non-inflatable) – yes, indeed, this pillow needs some space in our hand luggage but it is worth due to the comfort and I am using it also in the hotels on our trips
• Travel clothes line

For colder areas we also take a sleeping bag with us. But since the backpack are already quite staffed with long clothes for us, the weight and the size of the sleeping bag were our important criteria. This is why we have chosen the following one since with its 1.3 kg it is quite light. The recommended temperature is about -9 degree Celsius what was sufficient for our purpose since we are using the sleeping bag in majority in not (sufficiently) heated guestrooms or the campervan.

Washbag

Our washbags are in general quite heavy but we have recognized that cosmetics are in other countries quite expensive. We have in general the following items in our washbag:

• Toothbrush
• Tooth paste
• Day and night face cremes and light makeup
• Deodorant stick
• Shampoo
• Comb
• Makeup pads / humid face tissues
• Shaver and shaving cream
• Sun blocker
• Hand disinfection tissues and gel
• Sewing kits
• Since we are wearing glasses, we always put some packs of contact lenses in our bag

We are not taking any soaps since in general soaps are available in the guesthouses.

Medicine