Bumped up...
As you can see from my twitters, we have an outgoing dataload of 54 GB and 1,500 pages analog. Surreal and impressive, in some ways. In some, just interesting. And that's with nothing larger than a cam corder- two blackberry world phones with 8 GB sdmicros (more later), two ipod 3gs with 4GBs and one HD HD cam corder half price with 30GB for almost 10 hrs record time.
More impressive to me is 4 people doing two weeks in winter with only carry on. Two 21" rollers and two 25" rollers along with two courier bags (simple and small). All liquids, of course, diffused and in less than quart sized baggies. All it takes is planning, the willingness to wear some things twice and the knowledge that at least a couple guest houses you are visiting have laundry (that isn't even necessary as anyone who can't find a coin laundry next to a bar in any western city should not be travelling). For winter, one sneaky trick is silk undies- head to tow -for layers in cold and for pajamas.
Each of us has rolled- 7 socks, 7 undies, 2 silks (head to toes), 5 shirts (plus our wear over stuff), 3 pants (you must wear these multiple days dandies), hat, gloves (slimline), cotton sweater or sweatshirt, thicker sweater or winter coat. Extravagences include second pair of shoes (you don't need these, but we have a Christmas dinner to attend, the theater, Christmas eve service, St. Paul's choir, High Tea), a sports jacket (travelsmith) for me, skirt for the ladies, a tie (Nels and I- see above), a travel pillow each (we are not cavepeople!). The kids, being little people, crammed in one 6" by 5" stuffed animal each for rough spots.
One guide book. I felt extravagent not ripping out pages and putting them in a baggy like my mom taught me. You should do that if you are not a really good packer- only take where you will actually be, duh.
Other things in the packalongs: two power cords (1 for ipods, 1 for blackberries), two decks of cards (extravagant! we only need one! A deck of cards is the only game you need for this sort of trip- it is about 1,000 games in one), airborn (medically proven not to work, but nice little logenzes with an excellent placebo effect), directions to everything with reservations all cut right down to size (data duplicated on phones), money and plastic.
Next winter trip, I do away with the winter coats. Have done so for me this one- layers and waterproof windbreaker can do everything a bulky, single winter coat can do. Thick winter coats are a scam and I think I've broken that wide open.
Well, that's it. I'm sure I've forgotten 10 essential items I am going to scream about from the UK. If so, I will tweet them and pray I don't die of frostbite. Wait, it's warmer in London than Virginia? What? Another scam!
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