My daughter and I are going on a speedy trip , and want your expertise on what I can or can't take with me.

The trip will (hopefully) go like this.

Take the train from from our city @ 5:30 am . Reach other city at 10:30 am. Take a taxi to a university and go thru a maze of offices and personalities, hoping for a preliminary approval of admission.

Offices close about 4 pm. Take a taxi back to railway station. There is a trip @ 4:30pm . but to be on the safe side, a reservation is made on the 8:30 pm trip back home. We arrive about 1:30 am . Start the car going home (about 30 minutes drive).

I will be going light. My bag will be a messenger bag in the range of 1000 cubic inches. It blends in better than a backpack. Plus with moving around offices, and possibly meeting some officials, I don't want to be carrying a huge duffel bag.

Mainly it would be my daughter meeting them , while I wait outside, but there is nothing for sure. Also, not sure if one day will be enough. Someone maybe "in a meeting" and we are forced to come back next day. So, we check in a hotel and visit them again next day. It is a slim chane but can happen.

So, if it were you , what would you take in the bag and on your person??

I will carry only one bag, and no checked luggage. That means no SAKS or multitools. Maybe I will take a small EMT shears.

In my bag, I am thinking to put :
- A few granola bars, and a small bottle of water
- Medical pouch
- Few bandaids and alcohol wipes
- Wet wipes
- Mints, gum and perfume .. and hygiene stuff
- A pair of socks
- Flashlight or two
- Mobile phone charger
- A spare mobile phone
- A5 paper pad and a few pens
- Copies of contact numbers

The wallet will be lightened, removing non-necessary cards
Keyrings will stay home. I will take a "travel keyring" with one car key (for the car I will leave in the railway station) and a small flashlight. That's it.

I may add a neck lanyard with one flashlight and carabiner.
The lanyard itself may provide cordage if needed.

Any ideas to improve my load while keeping it light ?

Travel size toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss and deodarant are included in hygene stuff?

Medical pouch AND bandaids and wipes, or WITH ONLY bandaids and wipes? Meds?

Extra batteries?

Change of underwear and undershirt? Maybe a rain poncho and an extra no-wrinkle shirt?

A bandana? (They have 1,001 uses.)

Large bottle of water instead of small and microPUR tablets?

Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen and bug spray?

House key, photon and whistle on keyring?

Cash?

Hate to be a downer but I watched a story on the news last week about a truck that crashed into a passenger train. What would you want to have with and on you?

Thanks

Yes, hygeine stuff include tooth brush , deodorant ..etc.

Medical pouch is only for my medicines. I take that pouch from bag to bag and always with me. I can rename it to ( my personal pharmacy) LOL.

FAK is limited to alcohol wipes and bandaids for minor cuts. Not much use (I think ) for larger gauze pads ..etc. in a very urban setup.

In my corner of the world, I wouldn't worry about rain in the summer. Too much sun though ! But we are well covered with long loose clothes.

Extra batteries ? For the same weight, maybe I will add a few more disposable (keyring size) flashlights. Because I have no use for batteries other than flashlights. Mobile phones are rechargeable. I may have forgotten something though.

House key, not necessary
Family is at home and at least mom and DD2 will be awake, maybe others as well.

hmmmm

I wonder if a city map will be of any use in this case ? A map is flat and doesn't weigh much, but the bag isn't that big either.

You've got a good assortment. I carry very similar when flying commercial and dealing with missed connections, etc. I would definitely include some sort of cutting tool, preferably a multitool. If that might be seen as socially threatening in your environment, I would go with a SAK Classic. How about maps of your destination?

When a backpack doesn't work, I will load up everything in a briefcase. Mine has as much capacity as a fairly large backpack, and I can throw in an extra shirt and jacket. It makes me look scholarly, which is quite an achievement.

Just some ideas that my be so obvious as not worth mentioning:

1. Extra cash, small bills in several places.
2. Your cell phone and hers, both fully charged.
3. A couple of cheap disposable dollar store ponchos even if there is no chance of rain.
Not quite on topic but also:
4. A small notebook--keep track of the names of the people DD interviews with (if possible, get a business card). Immediately after returning home, have her write and snail mail a short note thanking them for their time and expressing her desire for admission.

Socks, underwear and shirt for each of you...gps to find things. Book.
Sunblock, tiny compass.

I get your thinking but accidents happen. When I travel I like to have at least some gauze, pressure banadage (maxi pad) and a triangular, but I'm the over(?)prep type. They don't weight much, take up little room and if that train accident last week was my train, I bet it would have come in handy. Mass casualties means wait time.



Great idea! Extra batteries and bulbs all in one convenient package.

Great idea! Maybe one of those tourist maps with major streets, landmarks and importan public builindings (hospital, police, etc.) tlaid out.

What are you kidding!?!? As you approach the speed of light, your mass will approach infinity. This means you will require a likewise infinite amount of energy just to move. On the other hand, time will also slow down for you, relative to everyone else moving at a slower speed. So you'll have plenty of time to figure out how to do any of this.

If you go faster than the speed of light, then you'll go back in time and rethink the wisdom of this light speed trip.

Da Bing