Travelling light

One of our most important decisions for our trip was to travel light - you can't take enough stuff for five months in climates that might vary from snow in the Jordan hills to tropical heat. And I keep telling people about the research done at airports where backpackers had their packs measured and weighed and were asked what they were carrying - a lot of dirty washing, books, and formal shoes they had never got to wear! We want to be carrying neither dirty washing nor clean clothes we are not wearing.

This way we have packs we are comfortable wearing, that we can keep with us on buses, trains and shared taxis, it means we can walk at least reasonable distances if we need to.

So we are going as light as possible. For Tess that means a 22 litre capacity pack, that's about two small cushions worth. Mine is 32 litre, think about one pillow size (I tried a very cheap 25 litre and that would have just about done).

How will we manage? Well its partly down to sensible clothes, Rohan mostly, one set to wear and one spare set, stuff that will roll tightly, dry overnight in the warmer places. We will both have light fleeces and a folding cagoule. We have taken Ahmed's advice who knows the desert cold and have a set of thermal underwear, an extra t-shirt, a silk sleeping sheet etc. We will only have one pair of shoes - treking sandels but will have some DVT socks for the flights which might also be useful in the cold.

We will have one book to read each and guide books for a couple of countries (others we will mail ahead). We need basic toiletries of course plus some medical kit. We will each have a mobile phone (doubles as mp3 player), a camera, small wind up torch, and I have my solar powered Power Monkey recharger. And of course a small moleskine diary or notebook for recording the experience. Actually when you squeeze that lot in its quite heavy enough.

If we need other things then we will buy them as we go, reading and guide books can get left at hotels and hostels as we finish with them. We will let you know how we get on!

Injections!

We are in the Masta travel clinic in Cambridge completing one of their forms prior to getting advice on immunisation. We had the standard jabs ones at our GP but were advised to contact the specialist clinic for more advice.

As we complete the forms it becomes clear that the length and nature of our travel (local transport, travel in the countryside, malaria infected areas etc) means that only in a few places (UAE, Singapore, Japan and Canada) does our itinerary place us in the low risk 'Tourist' or medium risk 'Reasonable' categories - for much of our travel we are in the high risk 'Rural' category and will need immunisation against Rabies, Hepatitus B, and Japanese Enchephalitus. Three injections at each of three visits - and at £40 plus per injection I leave you to work out just how much this is costing - there goes a big hole in the budget!

We are also given sheets of information about the countries we are visiting and the risks involved - a bit too much information really (30,000 deaths per year from Rabies in India for example!). We are also briefed on the three possibilities for anti malaria treatment - the first needs only one pill a week and continuation for only one week after the relevant areas, but costs a couple of arms and a leg for every pill, the second one you take daily but gives you nightmares ('and not just whilst you are taking it but afterwards' warns the nurse) and is clearly only for the most mentally robust and the third needs a pill a day, continuation for one month and will ulcerate your throat if you don't take it with lots of liguid and keep standing up afterwards! Some choice there! And our packs now need to accommodate a mosquito net.