Our 3kg packing list for our South East Asia Challenge
How light can you pack? We managed 3kg for 3 weeks of travel and here is out list.
In 2012, the team at the Scrubba wash bag were challenged to prove that the Scrubba wash bag can allow you to pack and travel lighter and cleaner. After booking a 3 week trip to South East Asia, we managed to pack under 3kg of luggage each, including the clothes on our back and our bag. To see a video summary of our trip, click here.
The contents of our very light day bags (available to purchase as part of the Scrubba traveler's kit) are shown the image below. While we sought to pack as light as possible (1 pair of shoes and flip flops, 2 T-shirts, shorts, socks and jocks), we didn't forego on some travel comforts/modern necessities (we still managed to pack an iPhone/iPod, eBook reader and camera without tipping the scales).
The trip had it all. From the crazy streets of Saigon/Ho Chi Minh, to the confronting sights of Phenom Penh, to the temples of Siem Reap (intermingled with a drink spiking and tut tut accident resulting in multiple visits to emergency departments), to the relaxing 4000 Islands of Laos, to the epic waterfalls around Pakse, and the beauty and beaches of Hoi An. In 3 weeks, we traveled through 3 countries by bus, boat, rail and motorbike, loving the freedom that only traveling with a simple and light day bag can offer.
We also met with locals in Cambodia and Laos to see how they washed clothes as we initially thought the Scrubba wash bag would be a great item to donate to communities in developing nations. While the locals loved the Scrubba wash bag and found it much easier and more effective than their method of soaking clothing and brushing the dirt out with a course brush, we realised that donating Scrubba wash bags may be the most useful way for us, as a company, to help. While the Scrubba wash bag is durable and can be easily repaired using patches or glues that you can buy in most hardware, cycling or camping stores, such items are not readily available in developing nations and therefore the Scrubba wash bag would be less likely to be repaired and end up in landfill. Instead, we have chosen to donate money to charities in developing nations (click here for more details).
Traveling to South East Asia, we had some reservations whether our clothes would dry in time as we would be on the move most of the time. In the end, this wasn't a problem at all. Most of the rooms we stayed in had fans or airconditioners. By par drying our clothes in our travel towel and hanging them on coat hangers or our travel clothesline directly in front of the fan or airconditioner, our clothes were dry within a few hours.
Traveling with less than 3kg of luggage gave us great freedom. We never had to lug around excess luggage, hire a locker or pay for storage. Plus we could take transport not suited for larger bags.
We also managed to wash our change of clothes while on the go: on a street corner in Saigon; on a night bus; on a boat; and even on the return flight back to Australia. Videos of these are here.
In retrospect, we really could have got by without the tripod and the camera (the iPhone camera would have been fine and saved further weight) and with only 1 pair of shorts and 1-2 T-shirts as we found that by packing quickdry gear, our clothes would be dry by morning after a nightly wash. Nevertheless, the Scrubba wash bag enabled us to travel this free and I doubt I will ever pack more than a few changes of clothing or pay for check-in luggage again.
To see a full blog of our trip, head to our page at travelblog.org.
Happy travels