We’re off again and I’m here to tell you travel can be exciting and boring. And tiring. After the trip to Mexico, we decided to cut back on carrying half our household goods with us and “backpack” our travels. We hauled around one full sized suitcase, one rolling carry-on, and one backpack each. The problems were that 1. We didn’t use some of what we carried and 2. We had trouble finding transport that our could haul our stuff. Taxis in Mexico are really small. We did have occasions where we had to wait for a van or truck to haul our stuff to the next location. So we read downloaded books and internet articles on how to travel light. “Light” means traveling with a carryon and a backpack, or just a backpack. Remember, this time it’s for about six months of travel versus the three months in Mexico.
I started getting all my things ready at least a week before our departure. Maybe two weeks. Gotta be prepared. Whether I manage to use all this stuff will be the subject of a later post. But for now, I think I could survive the Apocalypse for at least a month. Hours before leaving, Deb and I are bargaining over available space. We manage to finally crush all our stuff into our bags, forgoing using the expanding option on our rolling carry-on so they don’t look too big. Remember, they have to fit into that frame thingee at check-in, or it becomes checked baggage. That’s the whole point . Avoid checking baggage. Just carry it onto the plane, la-dee-da, no fees, no hassles.
The bus trip to O’Hare is uneventful and we arrive at our departure airline counter to check in. We hand over our documents and there’s a problem. We have one-way tickets and the agent is convinced we need to show some proof that we plan to leave Thailand in the proper time frame. Deb has our Vietnam visas as proof we are exiting as required, but there still seems to be a problem. As the agent has an heavy accent, the terminal is loud and my hearing is lousy, I am having trouble trying to keep up with the situation. It starts to feel this might turn out badly. We have experience with this years ago when a gate agent refused to let my step-son leave the country on a technicality. A supervisor intervened, looks over the situation, and pronounces it a non-issue. We can now proceed with check-in.
The agent asks us about luggage, and we proudly show our carry-ons and backpacks. I am sure our efforts we took to research the luggage situation are going to pay off. The literature we read said there would be no problem as long as the size limits were followed. They said almost nobody weighs carry-ons. The agent asks Deb to put her carry-on on the scale. It weighs 12 kilos (about 26 pounds). The agent says it has to be checked. We ask what the weight limit is and the agent says it’s 7 kilos (15 pounds). WTF? Seriously? When my carry-on is weighed, it’s over 15 kilos! You know who is carrying the batteries and brick chargers. They must both be checked. The plan has failed. We’ll have to play luggage carousel roulette all the way to Chiang Mai. To add insult to injury, we see people carrying enormous backpacks onto the plane that are much larger than our carry-ons! Just watch The Amazing Race if you don’t believe me. We even met someone that was carrying one of these oversized backpacks and was told by the check-in agent to remove a smaller backpack from the larger one and carry them separately onto the plane! The final impossibility of carry-on world travel is that I researched our brand of carry-on and it weighs 7 pounds empty. That means you can travel the world with 7 pounds of stuff. Good luck with that…
Chapin and I once went to Orlando for a week with only his bookbag as sole luggage and a fannypack. He was 8 so could carry everything.
This may be a surprise, but I’ve written two books on traveling light and one about traveling in Italy. For international travel, there are weight limits on ALL bags including carry-on. I think I provided a chart by airline in Flying for First Timers, but urge people to look it up because they change yearly.
There are ways to circumvent those weight limits!! Try wearing your stuff into the airport. Put heavy stuff in your pockets. Wear three shirts and 6 pairs of underwear. Once the bag is weighed and before getting to the baggage scanners, load the stuff back in. Spread the weight evenly between a string bag and your bigger bag, and once past the scanners, re-integrate the string bag into the luggage. If there’s weighing at the gate too, remove the stuff you put into the bags at the scanners and wear it again. String bags are an absolute necessity for foreign travel.
There is no weight limit on YOU, just on your bag. You can even use a grocery store plastic bag as your second carry-on, for minimum weight.
I spent a lot of time researching the absolutely lightest carry-on for Italy–and it wasn’t a backpack. It was a Lands End duffle, at slightly over 1 lb. and with a capacity LARGER than a backpack. The nifty part is the extra long straps can be looped over one’s shoulders just like a backpack. It also scrunches into any space.
Absolutely need wheeled luggage? Consider wheeled grocery bags from Amazon. At $15-30 and 1 pound, they are built to haul 30+ lbs once a week for a year. When going back must check it? It will probably never roll again, but at $15 who cares.
Another thing I resolve to do after my Italy trip: buy clothes when I get there. Bring only what I’m wearing plus one other change of clothes. It’s stupid to bring clothes to many countries including Italy; it’s like eating at McDonald’s when visiting New York. And don’t bring batteries, shampoo, toothpaste, bug spray, sunscreen and other ordinary but heavy items; buy those your first day there. Think of it as spending $25 to save $35 in checked bags.
Returning with more stuff? Ship dirty clothes and less expensive stuff home in a box found behind some store. Carry home new purchases and anything you would be heartbroken to lose. If the box is around 20 lbs. it’s not that bad to ship, considering checked bag costs. If it gets over 30 lbs. the cost becomes prohibitive.
Lynn’s excellent books can be found online for very reasonable prices at: http://www.amazon.com/Lynnette-Hartwig/e/B00F5C3ITI/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1.
The Kindle editions are especially handy for us, since we are gradually whittling down our baggage. Thanks Lynn!