Carry on bags: You carry it, so you will be careful, so why do you need a hard side bag with wheels that starts off heavy, and is expensive to boot? I started using a nylon gym bag of the right carry on size (approximately) for my carry on. Light, cheap, and flexible so it will fit into various odd sized spaces.
Funny. I still use a roll-aboard, but more and more frequently I use a duffel bag because it's really light and easy.
Charger & Flashlight: Somewhere in our threads a while back someone recommended a cheap 4 AA battery USB charger which also has an led flashlight. AA batteries are available everywhere and cheap.
I prefer the block batteries to the AA ones, but any self-contained charger is a good charger.
yes yes on the packable Nylon rain shell! Wear or carry a sweater and you are ready for (almost) anything.
The baseline clothing & stuff package in the roll-on/duffel, this is always packed:
3x Underwear
3x Black Socks
1x White Socks
1x Work-quality sweater
1x T-Shirt
1x Sweatshirt
1x Sweat Pants
1x Pants (Black Jeans are "work wear" for me...)
2x Work Shirts (Usually Oxfords)
1x Swim Trunks/Shorts
1x Canvas Sneakers
1x Nylon Rain Shell (with hood!)
1x Downey "Wrinkle Release" spray (kind of works).
2x Plastic Grocery Bags (for sneakers and wet stuff)
Occasionally I add in:
1x Light blanket
1x Inflatable Pillow
"pretty much everything runs "global voltages"" It is the "pretty much" that will bite you. I needed a spare USB wall charger for my phone and went shopping before I left (carried 1 and 1 spare). Low and behold some of the secondary market chargers here were "110" only. Be sure (check) and also, make sure it will handle 1 amp; some on sale were much lower. They will work, but take longer to charge.
I check everything and discard the ones that don't run 100-240v 50/60hz Stick with Apple chargers for best results on all equipment.
Mobile phone: I purposely got a GSM phone so I could swap sim cards. Only T-Mobile and ATT offer GSM phones and service in the US. Overseas, Sim card, 1 month service and 1 gig data was less then 10 bucks. The phone needs to be unlocked: check your carrier's unlock policy well before you go.
Unlocked phones are easily found on Amazon.com, don't count on your carrier to do it if you're on a contract with a subsidized phone.
Cash Overseas: I've had US bills rejected because they were too old, marked up and/or worn. Take new and clean bills (100's and 20's).
Yes, I should have mentioned that - crisp, new notes are always better. Interestingly, if you know the exchange rate, it's amazing how many things that cost $150 in local currency cost only $100 in US currency.
I would add taking a supply of the packs of individually wrapped hand sanitizing towels. Aside from all the obvious uses, they don't have to go in the Quart bag like liquid hand sanitizer does and can be stashed all over in different pockets.
Oh, that's a great idea!
Has anyone thought about bringing a couple of those ear loop medical masks, just in case? I don't think I would recommend trying to wear one while going through security or passport control though. . .
Well, if you are in Asia, it's fairly common.
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