Deep pockets

What to take to when visiting another country is a challenge, especially if it's your first trip there. We all have some essentials -- some for health (see former entry on medications and supplements) and some for comfort. These essentials are different for each person. Some may be universally helpful, however, as well as some things to remember when packing them. Like it or not, whether traveling alone or with friends, weird things happen.

Plastic bags (all sizes) are good for containing everything from bottled liquids to snacks to dirty clothes. Keeping these bags organized is essential for sanity (and a reasonable schedule) while traveling. This will help avoid the dreaded, "Have you seen...?" every time you pack and unpack, the anxiety of possibly having left it at the last backpackers, and the time lost searching.

Our last day was spent driving through the Drakensberg Mountains to Jo-burg where my husband and I would say goodbye to Ronda and board a plane for home (U.S.). We got a reasonably early start at the backpackers, and Brian cooked a wonderful vegetarian breakfast in the community kitchen. As we loaded up the car, however, Brian couldn't find his wallet. He had to return to work three days later (he's a city bus driver), and his ID and driver's license were in his wallet. The search was on: each backpack, the already vacated room, the office (lost and found), a computer to see about getting a replacement ID (it would take 30 days), each backpack again, the room again, the kitchen, the grounds. This all yielded only increasing frustration.

Ronda found it. It was small enough to have worked its way to the bottom of a small backpack. Brian and I had both gone through that piece of luggage, twice.

The lost wallet and resultant anxiety reminded me of other mishaps on the trip. They occurred because Brian and I had different methods of packing. When I ran across an item that I thought needed to be put with other like items, I moved it, not knowing that Brian had purposely placed it there. At one point, he reached for the new memory stick for our camera. He knew where he put it (in a bag on the back seat), and it wasn't there. This started the "Have you seen...?" routine, and I was happy to announce that I had placed it with the extra batteries for the camera. The batteries were in the trunk, and we were in Kruger National Park. The Park strictly forbids getting out of your vehicle. We were very respectful of this law (watch for an anecdote involving an angry elephant and another about baboons), so we passed the camera around and deleted pictures so that we could continue to document the trip until we left the Park.

When we got out of the Park and searched the suitcase in the trunk, we found the memory stick. It didn't fit our camera. This meant a trip to an electronics store in a mall where at least five employees tried to solve the problem (customer service there is great!). They were certain that their memory stick would fit our camera. It didn't. That meant hurrying to the camera store at the other end of the mall. That store was closing (closing time for almost all stores is 6:00 pm). That meant that we had to return the next morning and spend R400 (~$40) to buy a thumb drive and get the pictures downloaded so that we could continue taking pictures.

We packed the thumb drive and kept checking it, to make sure someone hadn't reorganized. The next time I go to South Africa (or another country where availability is limited), I will do things differently. I will start the packing and organizing earlier. For this trip, I had walked to a reliable drug store to purchase the memory stick. I had our existing one in my hand, showed it to an employee, and said, "I want a stick just like this one." He was helpful and knowledgeable, and showed me one that was on sale and had more room on it than the regularly-priced one. I love sales. I bought it. If it had not been buried in the packaging, I would have seen that it was not identical to the one in my hand. What this helpful and knowledgeable employee didn't tell me was that it might require an adapter. We have an old digital camera with only one memory stick, and adapters don't fit it.

There are a few other ways to make packing easier and less frustrating. One is to have each person assume a task while traveling: one person is in charge of clothing, another in charge of snacks, camera, and binoculars for the day's trip, etc. Another way is to communicate what's going on; "I'm putting the new memory stick here because the one in the camera is almost full" would have prevented my moving it. A third is to check out everything before it's actually needed -- in the store immediately after purchasing it is a good idea. We might have decided to buy a new camera before leaving the States, but, new camera or old, we would have avoided a lot of frustration in South Africa.

Losing a wallet isn't the only thing that can destroy even the most well-planned and generous schedule. Things go awry on trips that people can't anticipate: the stove doesn't work, the store closes earlier than we expect, or weather makes traveling impossible. The most organized and careful people can get tripped up by any of these.

Brian mentioned later that if he'd had some kind of a container for his wallet and other vital necessities every night, the mornings might have gone more smoothly. A plastic bag might work, although not as easily as the dresser drawer that he uses at home. Ikea sells stiff fabric boxes of various sizes that have a diagonal zipper in the bottom. Unfold it, zip the bottom shut, and -- voila! -- an instant cache. Remembering in which suitcase we packed it and setting it up each evening might be another task. It's a good idea, though not foolproof. The fact that there is probably no such thing as a foolproof idea when traveling (the possible exceptions might be to put gas in the car occasionally and to keep your money concealed) adds to the mystery and excitement of traveling.

See the next entry about the charm of belt loops.