In September 2018, I embarked on my long term travel to South East Asia. I quit my cushy corporate job and decided to pursue what I love the most, to travel! I booked a one way ticket to Singapore and I don’t know exactly when I will be back. In this post, I will show you what to pack for long term travel in South East Asia!
Clothing
- 1 long sleeve button shirt
- 1 short sleeve button shirt
- 8 t-shirts
- 1 thin hoodie sweater
- 1 pants
- 1 pair of jeans (South East Asia is too hot for jeans)
- 2 shorts
- 1 pair of gym shorts
- 1 pair of swimming shorts
- 1 North Face rain jacket
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 3 pairs of MEC T1 Classic Boxer Briefs
- 4 pairs from Uniqlo
- 1 hat
- 3 pairs of athletic socks
- 1 pair of dress socks
- 1 pair of Nike sneakers
- 1 pair of sandals
Toiletries
- 1 microfibre travel towel
- 2 bottles of sunscreen (sunscreen is expensive in South East Asia)
- Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Comb
- Coconut oil
- Travel size shampoo and soap
- Medicine
- Pepto Bismol
- Imodium
- Allergy medicine
- Advil
- Baby wipes
- Deodorant
- Emergency toilet paper
- Shaver and charger
- Nail clipper
Electronics
- Dell XPS 13″ and charger
- Laptop Sleeve
- Canon G5x and charger
- Sandisk Ultra 32GB SD Card
- YAMA Travel Adapter with 2 USB ports. So you can charge up to 3 devices!
- Apple iPhone 7 (128 GB) and charger
- 2 headphones
- 1 Mi Band 3 fitness tracker
- 1 LaCie Rugged Mini 1TB External Hard Drive. It is drop, shock, dust, and rain resistant, perfect for backpackers.
Other
- Passport
- Wallet
- A MEC fold-able day bag
- 2 large and 1 medium MEC Travel Light Packing Cubes
- Toiletry bag
- Small combination padlock
- School locker lock
- 1 pen (very convenient for those immigration forms)
- Ear plugs
- 2 Sleeping masks
- 1 umbrella
- 1 pair of sunglasses
- laundry bag
- 2 paper clips (for opening SIM card slot)
My Bag
I strongly recommend a travel backpack for your travels in South East Asia. It is so much more convenient than lugging around luggage around in beaches, dirt roads and other rough terrains.
After much research, I chose the black Osprey Porter 46 as my main travel bag. The main reason I chose this was because it was one of the biggest bags that you can bring as carry on as I did not want to pay for additional baggage fees. There are also compression straps to help your bag look smaller to help you get by those carry on checks at the airport.
Other reasons why this bag is awesome:
- There is a massive U-zip opening which makes it easy to pack and unload like a suitcase
- Lockable zippers keep your gear/clothes safe
- There is a protected laptop/tablet sleeve in the rear which makes it safer place to put your valuables. So convenient when you need to get out your laptop at airport security
- And if you are checking in your bag, you can store the harness and hipbelt into the backpanel for safe keeping
After taking this to Mexico and two months in South East Asia, I am pretty satisfied with the bag.
In the end, I weighed my bag and it was around 10 kg, which is more than the weight limit for most carry ons for budget airlines in Asia. Fortunately, I have yet to be caught as the compression straps helps my bag look like a lot smaller and lighter than what it actually is. Hopefully by showing you what I packed, you will know what to pack for long term travel in South East Asia!
Update:
It has been around two months travelling, and I
- Brought too many socks, most of the time I wear sandals and have never worn all my socks
- Added another shirt from Uniqlo
- Bought a coin purse to put my left over money from different countries
- Should have brought a backup pair of glasses, as I already lost my first pair. I had to learn how to use contacts for the first time and have had to buy a pair of glasses on the road
- Got one sunscreen bottle stolen by a monkey. So its good I brought two!
- bought a power bank (20,000 mAh capacity) – much needed!