Packing

My father hated travelling. He used to have anxiety attacks every time he had to travel. His domesticated nature, coupled with inability to use the internet to research his destination, transportation, or hotels made it a tough experience for him to go through. But he was a different person when he came back from one of his rare trips, he would spend hours telling stories about places he went to and people he met.

I am happy I didn’t take after my father in his travel anxieties. My job takes me to many places and every trip is a pleasure. The parts of travelling people hate like airports, unknown places, and different food and languages I find fascinating. I am right at home in airport lounges and thoroughly enjoy foreign food.

Many people I know have problems sleeping in new beds, this they find most difficult about travelling. Hotel beds are comfortable but not friendly, they might be the loneliest place you can be. I manage that with a strict routine of always unpacking even if I am in a hotel for one night, calculated messiness, watching BBC news several times over, and a little telephone conversation with Rania before I go to sleep if time zones allow. That, and the fact that I am a fast sleeper make hotel beds tolerable.

The one aspect of travelling I still dread every time is packing. The many trips taught me to pack light and take only essentials but I still find myself delaying the packing until the last possible minute. I have always wanted to make a checklist of things I have to take on a trip but never actually got into writing the damn thing on paper so I still use my mental list.

Here are some packing principles I find useful, although they are still short of an actual list:

• A suitcase will always have a place for one more item, trust me.
• Shirts are meant to make you look more elegant, that will not happen if they are wrinkled. Take extra care folding button down shirts.
• No one needs seven pairs of shoes for a week’s trip.
• Calculate the number of days you are travelling including the actual flying days then:
• Take as many tops as you have days with 20% extra for spelled sauces and rainy days changes.
• Take only 30% pairs of trousers as you have days (9 days = 3 pairs).
• There is no such thing as too many underwear or socks.
• Check the weather in your destination and take your clothes according to the weather there; never assume you know how it is going to be. I have frozen my ass off in Addis Ababa on a 12 hour stop because I assumed Africa is always hot.
• Take a tie, there is always a chance you will meet someone important.
• Take some snacks in your hand luggage, I starved while looking at restaurants in Amsterdam airport because I didn’t have any cash and my credit cards didn’t work because they only accepted cards with 4 digit passwords.
• Hence, always take cash, Dollars and Euros will do almost anywhere.
• Cables are your lifeline, finding a Nokia charger might be easy, but one for a Blackberry is much harder to find.
• This is from Rania’s book, always dress elegantly for your trip. Check-in people are much more likely to upgrade you to business class if you are well dressed. When it happens, it is worth it.
• If you cannot sleep on a plane never forget your iPod, book, magazine, good memories, and sense of humour.

Go travel, enjoy it, and know that whatever trip you think is hard used to take days or weeks on a horse, ship, or walking.

And here are your (more than) 500 words for today.