Packing - Tips & Tricks

This post has all the packing Tips and Tricks. You would find these useful irrespective of the duration and the kind of trip you are going on.
How to pack? What are the essential emergency tools? How to travel light for a trip which goes from snowy mountains to barren deserts etc. Rit has some experience in packing for a road trip. He has done many in the US. With his experience, learnings from our past trips and a bit of research, here we compile the perfect list to pack for long term travels. We will post a a 'Road Trip Essentials' section separately, which will be in addition to these packing tips. This list is perfect for any short to long term travel. It covers all weathers and is relevant for both genders. To make it super simple, I have also added online links from where I have procured the mentioned stuff.

Clothes
Can you wear an outfit 10 times each in 6 months? 10 times is not bad, right? The math says 10*18= 180 days. All you need is 18 outfits. They key is to make sure, they are comfortable. Let your outfits be a combination of jeans, pants, shorts dresses and skirts. Make sure the dresses you carry are long and comfortable, something that you can wear during a visit to the museum, a walk around the city, and even during the night at the bar.
The next set of clothes should be the lounge and workout wear. 2 pairs of comfort wear and 2 pairs of workout wear should be good. Let one pair be a warm nightwear, if you are always cold like me.

Weather Related Gear
Once the basic clothes are sorted, it's time to stock up the weather related gear. By this I mean the stuff from snow jackets to the swimsuits.
I have a tip for snow laden locations, you can only wear as many woollens, the trick is to make sure that the outermost layer is waterproof and windproof. With that in place, a thermal and a fleece, you are good to go.

For snow laden locations: (Links are clickable)
A waterproof snow jacket or puffer jacket
A waterproof lower
Fleece set
Thermal set (from Marks and Spencer)
2 light jackets like sweatshirt and denim jacket
2 medium warmers like a leather jacket and a chunky sweater

For rainy locations:
Thin waterproof jacket
You can borrow the waterproof pants from snowy locations or slip into shorts instead.

Undergarments & more
One can repeat their outfits but not undergarments! I hope, everyone agrees with that. Carry 10 pairs of undergarments, so you wash once in a week. Not all places are conducive for on-the-go washing. Some Homestays in Leh prohibit washing of clothes as water is scarce.  Even if you have the facility, the weather god may choose to play a spoilsport, making it impossible to dry in hilly areas and during monsoon season.
Not all places will have towels, specially if you are staying at home-stays. Carry a thin cotton body towel and one hand towel. We especially recommend travel towels from Decathlon, they dry quickly and get bundled into one-fourth the space
One swim shorts set for the beaches.

Shoes
Six pairs of shoes is all your need for a trip across different regions and climates:

1. A pair Waterproof trekking shoes for highland treks and snow walks. You can rent shoe gaiters and shoe clamp-ons from locals for a snow trek. We recommend Decathlon trekking shoes- Forca or Quechua
2. A pair of Workout or running shoes. Being healthy is really important, more so, if you are travelling long term. A separate pair of workout shoes will save your other shoes from wear and tear
3. A pair of Sneakers. This is a no brainer
4. A pair of Waterproof open shoes for beach walks, waterfall swim or while moving around a gushing river. We suggest crocs.
5. A pair of Flip-flops for the super important bathrooms visits
6. A pair of formal/ dress shoes for him for all the bar and casino visits. Ladies can carry a pair of comfortable heels

Accessories

1. Woollen Beanie
2. Sun Cap or Hat
3. Scarves- one cotton, one woollen
4. Sunglasses- 2, one fancy and one robust
5. Belt
6. Watch
7. Hand gloves
8. Shawl
9. Socks - 4 pair (1 woollen, 3 cotton)

Cosmetics & Toiletries Kit

1. Toothbrush
2. Toothpaste
3. Shampoo
4. Conditioner
5. Body-wash
6. Comb- Thick and Thin
7. Face Cream + Sunscreen 40+ SPF
8. Body Cream
9. Vaseline/ Glycerine/ Body Oil (for super dry locations)
10. Perfume
11. Earbuds
12. Chapstick
13. Hand cream
14. Ready to use, travel face masks. Travelling gives you the best opportunity to pamper yourself.
15. Stretch Bands, Scrunchies, Hair Clutch
16. And, Makeup - My makeup includes a concealer, a blush, a highlighter, eyebrow pencil, 2 eyeliners (liquid and gel), kohl, mascara and 4 lipsticks
17. Finally, I wear spectacles so, eye glasses, eye lenses and lens solution

Medicine & Emergency Kit
A medicine kit with not just the regular medicines we use but,  

1. Band-aid
2. Muscle relaxant spray
3. Crepe bandage
4. Mountain sickness medicines
5. Anti-acidic (even some party smarts :))
6. Anti-allergic
7. Antibiotics
8. Metrogyl
9. Cough, cold & fever meds (few antihistamines and analgesics)
10. Mosquito repellent - very important. We use the fabric roll-on one. It’s super easy and a non messy way to keep the tiny devils away
11. Last but not the least, female hygiene essentials.

Our last minute additions to the emergency box include:

1. Nail cutter
2. Nail filer
3. Small scissors
4. Sewing kit
5. Safety pins
6. Trash bags
7. Tissue roll or wet wipes
8. And a pocket torch

Electronic Kit
While going on a long term road trip make sure you have sim cards of all the important networks of that region. If one won't then the other will catch network. We are carrying 3 sim cards, one each of Airtel, Jio and BSNL.
Trust me, it helped us a lot. Jio has great network and internet in most regions of Himachal Pradesh, whereas Airtel was awesome in Ladakh. On the other hand, in most remote locations of North India, only a postpaid BSNL works.

1. Charger Plug & Convertor plug with USB ports
2. Charging Cable- I-phone, Android
3. Power bank
4. I-watch and I-watch charger
5. A pen drive/ HDD  to upload and download images and songs.  
6. Airpods & headphones
7. Portable speaker
8. Waterproof Phone Case (In our last trip to Japan, we bought an amazing waterproof case for our phone. The phone gets locked inside the transparent case and remains absolutely safe from water damage. They are a lot of such cases available on amazon, I can't say about them but the one we bought from Japan is killer. True story, we captured sea life during an underwater swim in Maldives with our phone inside the waterproof case)
9. Our Laptops
10. Canon DSLR with 2 lenses (18mm-55mm and 55mm-250mm)
11. Tripod
12. GoPro

Don’t forget to pop in:

1. Enough cash as lot of places don’t have ATM's
2. Credit cards
3. Identity cards
4. Booking vouchers, ticket printouts
5. And, off course your PASSPORT

Hope this list helps you, as for us, this is all we need for a 6 month trip. Lookout for the Road Trip essentials list. It’s shall be live soon. Until then do leave us a comment and let us know, if there is anything else you would like us to talk about.