Fully Loaded

We’re less than two weeks from my departure, so I’ve been running some final tests. One of the most important of these tests I completed this past weekend when I fully loaded up my backpack to see how well it could hold what I intend to bring with me. Below is a photo of what my backpack looks like with everything in it.

Coming in at 17 pounds and just barely meeting the size requirements for carry-on luggage of every airline that I’ll be using in Asia, this backpack is what I’ll be living out of for six weeks. It’s been with me since my first trip to Europe back in 2012, and it’s comparatively small size (compared to what I see most other backpackers using) forces me to made hard decisions about what I bring with me and be as efficient as possible, but its lack of storage space means I never have to check it at the airport and can always keep it directly on me, which is an unbeatable feature when traveling overseas.