It's always good to do a practice run a week or two ahead of time and let it sit for a while, so that when the day comes to actually head to the airport, it's not done in a rush, I know where everything is, and I have time to ponder now on what I've put in the bag...how many of what, not enough of this, too much of that, edit, edit, edit! But it's looking good so far! I have everything I think I'll need fitting into a school sized back pak. Plus, it's light..really light. Carry on sized. Compared to the first time we went and we barely packed to make it under the required 50 lb. max, I've come a long way.
I found myself getting very sentimental at moments wrapping up things in balls, stuffing things in bags and fitting things into little pockets...saying hello to some old friends I haven't seen since my last trip. My set of Bamboo eating utensils (complete with chopsticks) that have been used to consume many a ripe mango, avacado, canned sardine in so many places. I also got out the old passport fanny pak that has had so much sweaty hot quality time already next to my tummy....ah yes, nothing like the feeling of passports pressed against skin in a hot sweaty boat on a river.
This time, instead of packing photos of people, I've decided to incorporate useful objects from people that I love. I packed my toiletries in a leather pouch I bought in Chile at a market with R man's family. I packed all my clothes in a New York Times giveaway canvas bag to remind me of my now "hometown", I wrapped all my socks (two pairs) and bikini in a handkerchief I secretly stole from my father years ago. It made me realize and remember how emotional and important every minute object becomes when I am far away from home. How every time I wear the same shirt over and over again....if that shirt was given to me by someone I love, it's as if I'm surrounded, protected, connected by the love of that person while I'm wearing it. That sometimes can mean so much more than wearing the ultra-high-tec-gortex-wind resistent-micro-down-sunproof shirt from REI...sometimes! (I packed that one too, don't worry, but just one)
As I layered a rain coat and my one pair of shoes on top of the ziploc baggy of emergency medications and a beach sarong, I started thinking about time capsules and how they are layered with objects and things that could be normal and boring at one time in life and then some day in the future, these same objects become priceless treasures. Tucked away in the dark for mysterious periods of time and when it's opened, the joy that they could bring just by existing...the feeling of elation they can bring...like this guy...
Each of these items will be opened and used some time in the coming weeks and when I find them and use them, they will make me so happy. So now the question is, what object will I pak now that in a month could create this type of euphoria? Also, of course, there's all the random crap I won't actually need or use but I'm packing anyways because I don't know that yet, or vice versa, the list of things I'll be dreaming about having when I'm there, but forgot to pack! Ah yes indeed, it's a fun crap shoot. Luckily, I already know one basic fact. We need a lot less stuff than we think. The other one I can't leave out....they sell t-shirts in Cambodia! Actually...that's where my high tec-wind resistent-spf 80 REI t-shirt was made!
Btw, if you want to hear the interview with this lovely interesting Norwegian man named Aleksander Gamme, he was the first up on this episode of Radio Lab, "Bliss":
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