Susan Blumberg-Kason

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Traveling light: three months and three outfits

March 30, 2011 By Susan Blumberg-Kason 4 Comments

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my travels, it’s to pack light. My mom gave me this advice many years ago:

Pack the minimum amount of clothes you think you’ll need. Then take out half those clothes before you zip your suitcase (or backpack).

I took that advice to heart 20 years ago when I backpacked through Asia, the USSR, and Eastern Europe. Here’s a peek into those months.

Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991

I started out in Hong Kong, where’d I’d just spent a year studying at the Chinese University. Can you tell I’m bummed to leave? I bought this skirt in Mexico City eight years earlier. A family friend hand painted the Chinese horse on my t-shirt. I’m also wearing one of two long-sleeved tops I packed that summer (along with two sundresses and one other t-shirt).

click to enlarge

Here I’m wearing the same outfit at Angkor Wat, where I traveled just for the day because planes only flew to Siem Reap once a week back then. I walked through the temples with a kind Mexican father and son who offered to take my photo along the way.

Bangkok, 1991

The horse t-shirt and purple skirt served me well in Thailand, too. Visiting all those Buddhist temples, I felt fortunate to have something semi-decent to wear. Sometimes shorts don’t cut it. Those sandals I wore were the only shoes I brought on that three month trip and they usually did the job, except maybe when I reached a chilly Moscow later that summer.

Beijing, 1991

Getting tired of this outfit? I did, too, but not before I reached Beijing almost two months after I left Hong Kong that spring. But as much as I grew sick of this outfit, by the end of my trip, I couldn’t even look at the one below.

In Beijing with dad and friends, 1991

As soon as I arrived in Chicago at the end of that summer, I promptly donated this pastel drop-waist sundress and its companion t-shirt. I don’t know what happened to the purple skirt and horse t-shirt.

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: China, Hong Kong, My Family's Travels

Comments

  1. Patricia V. Davis says

    March 30, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    I love traveling light. It shows you’ve got your priorities straight in my opinion. (And I sure do recognize one of those photos!) ; )

    Reply
    • Susan Blumberg-Kason says

      March 30, 2011 at 8:28 pm

      Thanks so much, Patricia!! Yes, that photo again!! I needed enough space in my backpack to carry all the fabulous tchotchkes I bought!

      Reply
  2. Chris says

    March 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    Great post! We have a lot to talk about! And a lot of the same places! Travel packing – an experience in itself!

    Reply
    • Susan Blumberg-Kason says

      March 30, 2011 at 2:30 pm

      Thanks so much, Chris! I can’t wait to read your book and be taken back again to that time and those places.

      Reply

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