Packing for Cambodia

Cambodia is going to be like no vacation I’ve ever been on. Never have I flown so far with so little: One small carry-on. But I will have a laptop–highly unusual. No dance shoe bag on this vacation; very little sight-seeing and night life accoutrements. Nothing to keep warm – we'll be in 100-degree heat.

Surprisingly, I didn't need any shots – not even a malaria shot. I'm packing only the essentials–only those things I can take onboard, and some of which I'll be wearing:

Sweatband, sink & outlet plugs, etc.

• A sink plug (Can be a rarity in a Cambodian hotel).
• Evacuation insurance (in case I need hospitalization). This is provided by my time-share company even though I’m not on a time share trip, and it covers my traveling companion as well.
• UV-proof safari pants and shirts – 1 pair worn, 1 pair packed, and a safari cap.
• 2-oz jar of sun block
• Sweat bands
• 1/2-oz bottle hand sanitizer
• Diarrhea meds 
• Pepto-Bismol caplets.
• Two pair of Ex Officio undies (“17 countries, 6 weeks, one pair of undershorts”) and one Ex Officio T-shirt.  These ultra-light duds supposedly repel insects for up to 70 washings, control odor-causing bacteria, and dry in a couple hours – just what you want, when you find out you needed the diarrhea meds.
• Compression socks for the 20-hour flight.
• A fly fisherman’s vest that keeps all the little things you’re trying to keep track of right in a whole bunch of pockets. A fanny pack to complement the fashion statement.
• A “sweatkerchief” full of little beads that swell up when you soak it in water and then slowly evaporate, cooling you down.
• My U-shaped airline pillow to prop up my head in those really roomy seats we all know about.
• A Rick Steves clothesline–it's woven elastic and you hang your clothes by pinching them between the weaves.
• A $1 Rick Steves converter that connects your U.S. electrical plug to a Cambodian electrical outlet.
• A Rick Steves sweat-proof money belt that keeps your passport and greenbacks dry in that damnable heat. It hangs inside your pants from loops that your trouser belt goes through.
• A Rick Steves hemp backpack (Can I smoke it when I get homesick for Seattle?).
• A Rick Steves over-shoulder travel pouch which is absolutely the right size for my tablet/camera.
• A shaving brush (no aerosol can).
• First aid kit, Q-tips, extra bandages and tweezers.
• Zip-lock plastic bags.
• Spare eyeglasses.
• One mindless book (Tom Clansey’s “The Teeth of the Tiger.”)
• Twist ties, envelopes, business cards (Suggested by Lonely Planet), hearing aid kit.
• Three cameras: a Flip video camera (slightly larger than a cigarette pack that downloads files directly into my laptop); Canon Power Shot 35mm compact camera with image stabilization and zoom lens; droid tablet. In addition, a voice recorder, battery chargers, cables, etc.
• My Dell Laptop and three extra batteries so it won’t die on a hot day in the field. If the computer goes for a swim in the Tonle Sap river, it will be replaced due to the $50 insurance policy. (Text files will be safely floating in the cloud, uploaded daily to my Google drive and floating right next to a photo of my birth certificate and passport, retrieveable at any Internet connection. Cost of the off-lease computer: $220 via Tigerdirect.com
• Oberto Beef Jerkey and four Butterfinger bars for those between-meal times when I get cranky on the plane. The Butterfingers must be consumed before Cambodia, because they will melt in the heat.

There are a few other items I’m taking along, but this covers the bulk of them. There's space to spare in the carry-on.

Love,

Robert

Author’s note: This blog is produced independently of Sustainable Communities International. Observations, opinions, errors and omissions are solely the responsibility of the writer.