The trip has begun. I’ve left London behind and just landed in Hong Kong, after 11.5h killer flight, waiting for my connecting flight to Ho Chi Ming city in Vietnam, that is my first stop in this round the world tour.
The agenda is simple: 7 months on the road, 30 countries to visit and 1 backpack. This post is about the latter, my beloved Quechua Forclaz 30 litre backpack, and what goes into it, to support me on the road for 7 months.
If you click through the image at the top, I’ve created neat tags/notes on flickr, that explain visually what’s what. The idea is to never check in luggage, ever. It gets lost, damaged, late etc, just pain in the bum, plus, most importantly, it limits your movements, considerably. Have you seen all the travellers with those 80 litre, 40kg backpacks staggering around Victoria, trying to find their hostel, it’s seriously tiring. All my stuff goes neatly into 30l backpack that is light enough to walk around (12kg) and small enough to take on any bus or plane, voila.
It’s simple, we don’t need that much stuff, really, and whatever works for 2 weeks, works for 6 or 12 months, you just rotate the stuff, unless you’re traveling to extreme climates.
The less stuff I have the happier traveler I am, and it’s a long way for me to keep on optimizing my travel essentials, so that may be one day, I can travel like this guy, with no luggage at all.
Posts Tagged 'no'
Say Cheese
Published March 2, 2010 Life Leave a CommentTags: change, cheese, dairy, diet, lifestyle, milk, no, soy, wheat
It’s been two days since I’m back on wheat and cut out the dairy. For those of you not familiar with intrinsic details of my food challenge, her’s 10sec intro like the one you get on American series under ‘previously on …’ I’m still on the journey of cutting out one type of food for a month to change my diet habits and test my willpower to say ‘no’. There is no science or allergic reactions driving this, I’m just identifying the groups of food/drink that I am very keen on (some may say addicted) and cut it out. January was no coffee month, February was no wheat month, and now its no dairy for the duration of March.
So what falls under dairy? For me its all milk and milk based products, e.g. any kind of cheese, butter, yogurt, cream, curd, ice cream etc. I’m also excluding all related products that have significant trace of processed milk such as milk chocolate. chocolate covered bars and so on.
You’d be pleased to know that my biggest sin in dairy category is cheese, I eat as much of that tasty stuff as average Frenchmen or Greek, the biggest cheese eaters out there, consuming more than 20kg of cheese a year or 400g per week. I have this reoccurring dream when I wake up in the middle of the night, stroll downstairs to the fridge, open the door to grab a slide of Emental, but shock and horror, there is no cheese. I have also concluded that soy milk is only good for porridge, but no good for coffee, so I’m going black.
p.s. last Sunday I spent 10 hours on the photo-shoot for one exiting project so hopefully in next weeks update I’ll be able to share some great new photos.
Hello Coffee, Goodbye Wheat
Published February 1, 2010 Life 3 CommentsTags: coffee, diet, experiment, food, Life, london, no, wheat
My month of obstination from coffee is over, and I’ve had 3 double espressos this morning already (just kidding, it’s only 2). The first sip was magic, the smell, the texture, the froth on top. Aghh, I think this vice will stay with me, but now at least I know I can do without it if I choose to, junkies should try it. Actually it was easier than I thought, no convulsions or anger parades, just that continuous tickling of the left ear, is that normal?
February is no wheat month for me, which means no cookies, no bread, no pasta, no beer, no noodles (except rice noodles), no breakfast cereal, no couscous, no porridge, no pies, the list could go on. That damn grain is everywhere.. that is why it’s so exciting. I’m not wheat intolerant, so no biggie if trace of it creeps in, but in general the aim is to cut it all out for a month and see how my diet changes and body responds. I already did my first wheat free shopping, it makes you think and come up with new dishes and ingredients instead of relying on the usual suspects.
I’m an addict
Published January 19, 2010 Life 4 CommentsTags: addict, caffeine, coffee, january, Life, no
My name is Ivars and I am an addict. OK, not that kind of addict (that’s just to get your attention, cheap, I know). I am addicted to coffee, so on Jan 1 2010 I stopped using it, along with all black teas, coke (sic!), energy drinks and anything else that contains caffeine.
The plan is simple, every month I cut out one of my addictions, for a month and monitor how I’m coping with that (and others around me). You could call it a little experiment. So the January is no coffee month, because I like to take the bull by it’s horns, as they say (do they?). I don’t smoke and drink only moderately, but I did use to have 4 double espressos a day. I know, I’ve been a bad boy.
So how do I feel 18 days in? Not bad, been subsiding on hot chocolate, green and peppermint teas and juices. This is for sure the longest ever period with no coffee intake since I was 12 and got hooked on that brown stuff. Any side effects? I started to doze off at 10pm every night, way early for usual me (12:30am). The low point? My knowledgeable colleagues at work today pointed it out that green tea in fact contains caffeine, lots of it, bugger. Will switch to cup-a-soups.
13 days to go, in my coffee free world, then in February it’s time for the next culprit to face the consequences, can’t tell you yet, but it’s a big one, getting excited already.
What about you, any addictions to fight?
