First Pack for Bonaire

Posted on June 24, 2011 by debbie

We have a busy weekend coming up, so last night we got out the packing list and went through the “diving”, “clothing” and “other stuff” lists and pulled out the items we had not gotten yet. We highlighted in yellow the items on the list as we found them. Then we packed our bags to see how everything was fitting.

I find packing my bag difficult due to my fins.  They go in the bottom of the bag crossed, one on top of the other, with the heels at the one end and the toes at the other.  I stuff clothes and small stuff in all the nooks and crannies and then tuck soft stuff around the edges, making sure I protect the fragile stuff (camera and housing and dive mask).  Then the wetsuit goes on top for padding.

This is what my bag looks like so far. The wetsuit got covered up by my hat, dive log, snorkel and sarong.  I keep the sarong close to the top as I use it as warmth on the plane. In the back of the picture is a day pack and cloth bag. We are trying to decide which to take.

 

Here are my airplane clothes and purse items.  Today I will tidy this pile up, add a few things (pens, kleenex) to the purse and iron my pants.

 

Mur is much better at packing than I am.  His suitcase always looks neater than mine.  Why is that?

 

The pile in the back is Murray’s airplane clothes and courier bag contents. His suitcase looks pretty full, with just a few last items to go in.

 

 

 

We weighed the bags and Mur’s is 18 lbs and mine is 20 lbs.  We still have our toiletries and some miscellaneous stuff to go.  We will be pushing the Air Canada weight limit of 22 lbs. If we are told that a bag is too heavy, we will just take something out and slip it into our purse.  A dive light, with the batteries in it, weighs about 2 pounds.

Last night we also did some other stuff too – sewing a rip in my hat, purchasing ebooks to read, cancelling the newspaper. We decided to take 2 kinds of laundry detergent – the new leaf kind from Sea to Summit and a small amount of powder Tide.  We are piling the liquids in the bathroom to pack in the 1 litre ziplocs.  That pile is getting large – we may have to cul. I’ll take a look at that in the next couple of days. I like to leave lots of time to pack and check that everything fits.  Better decisions are made when I am not rushed.

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Before Leaving List

Posted on June 22, 2011 by debbie

We have made it to the last list!  The Before Leaving list page is now under the Packing List menu item.

I think the list is pretty self explanatory.  I am going to tell just a few stories.

It is always a good idea to phone your credit card issuers and let them know where you will be and the dates, especially if you are traveling to a far off country.  Since we do not use my credit cards on trips except in emergencies, I have never done this.  Murray does contact them if we will be using his credit card. Last year I decided to phone Mastercard and let them know I would be in China.  The woman’s comment was “If a charge gets declined, just phone us and we will approve it”.  And I thought to myself “I don’t carry a cell phone on holidays and what Chinese vendor is going to let me use their phone?”  I thought the comment was rather useless.

We are leaving the copies of important documents with Murray’s parents and my son.  Two people in case we can’t get a hold of one of them.

Most house insurance policies state that if a house is empty, it needs to be checked every 72 hours (3 days).  It is best to arrange to have someone come in and do a walk around to make sure there is nothing wrong.

Last winter, our nephew was told by his mother (who was in Hawaii) to turn down the thermostat when he went to the mountains skiing.  He turned it down alright.  Unfortunately, he turned it down too low to keep the water in the pipes in a liquid state.  There were several frozen and broken pipes in the house when he got home.  What a mess.  The moral of the story is to turn down the thermostat but still keep the house warm enough to keep the water from freezing!

We are now working away at clearing some of the items off this list.  Most of the list needs to be done just before we walk out the door to catch our flight.

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Panic

Posted on June 19, 2011 by debbie

Last night we had a burgers on the barbeque get together with the folks that will be going diving with us in two weeks. We were all connected in one way or another but we had not all met everyone else. It was a good evening and we should all enjoy our time together.

J and A own a ski shop and they have been very busy up until the close of the shop for the summer, that happened 2 weeks ago. So, last night J says, “Can you email me the info on the car rental place? We haven’t got around to that yet.” They are leaving on Friday, a week before the rest of us so they can get in a some kite boarding. It’s time to get things together I guess.

This morning I am going through my emails trying to find confirmation from the truck rental place to pass along to J. It wasn’t in my Bonaire folder. Debbie’s email was the next likely place. Her folder had all sorts of emails to and from the rental establishment but no confirmation.

One of the emails told us two trucks had been reserved, go on line, fill out the registration form and things would be good to go. We could not remember specifically doing that so we thought we would go to the web site and see if we could recall filling out that particular form.

PANIC!!!! The domain name and web site had expired. We figured maybe the company had expired along with the web site. Indicating, of course, that we did not have the vehicles reserved as we thought we had.

OK, breathe deep. We’ll just phone and find out what’s up. Debbie dials the number and the answer on the other end is ‘hello’. Not your standard business address. Angst not alleviated. After a couple of pertinent questions Debbie finds that the proprietor has the number forwarded to his mobile. So, Voyager Events Car Rentals still exists. John could not check the records because he was perched on the side of the pool celebrating father’s day. He seemed to recall my name, the name under which we reserved the trucks. He assured us that there would be someone at the airport to meet us and that we would have vehicles to use for the duration of our stay.

As for the missing website, it all came down to some Caribbean stuff. ‘Oh yeah we are getting a new web site so we let that one lapse’, said John. The lady that is doing it is now Canada, it will get done; sometime. (like it’s not happening now but soon, or maybe later or maybe it will or maybe it won’t). We are so anal in North America.

Panic is part of travel. A trip that flowed evenly from start to finish would not only be boring but frankly is an unrealistic goal. Glitches will arise and the solving of the problems that do arise is all about learning, leaving one’s comfort zone, and keeping you sharp.

 

 

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Murray’s Bonaire Clothing

Posted on June 19, 2011 by debbie

Murray’s Airplane Clothes

  • Golf Shirt
  • Shorts with belt
  • Underwear
  • Sport sandals
  • Warm layer of some sort

These are my ‘respectable’ clothes. I’ll use them as my evening clothes.  When they need cleaning I will wash them at night and let them dry while we are diving. If need be I’ll buy new ones. On a trip to Singapore the night had arrived to go in search of the famous ‘Chili Crab’. The red sauce stains very badly. I had to purchase a pair of pants to complete the trip.

Murray’s Evening Clothes

  • Golf shirt or T shirt

I will alternate between this shirt and the one I wear on the plane and wash when need be.

Murray’s Day Time Clothes

  • Old pair of shorts to wear to shore dive sites
  • Old pair of sandals to wear to shore dive sites
  • Old T shirt for snorkeling and to wear to shore dive sites
  • T shirt for land trips

I will wear the old shorts, old sandals and old T shirt to wear to the shore dive sites. If they get pinched I won’t be heart broken. The T shirt (with a pair of evening shorts) is for any daytime land excursions like a trip to the market, a visit to the salt place or maybe to see the flamingos.

Murray’s Other Clothes

  • Sun hat (a Tilley Hat)
  • Swimsuit
  • Underwear 1 extra pr.
  • 1pr. cycling socks

Most of the day I will be wearing a swimsuit so I do not expect to need too many pairs of underwear. Again, they can dry during the day and if they are a little damp they will dry from body heat very quickly. I do not think I will need socks at all but if I have to wear socks in sandals I prefer the shorter variety.

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2 weeks to Bonaire

Posted on June 17, 2011 by debbie

We are two weeks out! Today I sat on the living room floor and checked my camera, batteries, waterproof housing and strobe flash to make sure they all work.  I took out the seal on the housing, cleaned it, re greased it and then put it back in. I have been recharging batteries for the last couple of days. I put the camera into the housing, connected the flash and made sure the flash flashed.  Everything looks good and is now in the pile of stuff to pack.

I also checked out our dive computers.  Had to remember which button to push to turn them on! They work and the batteries are good. They are now in the pile too.

Murray glued the heel of one of his dive booties while I read the dive book on navigation as a refresher.

I made business cards today with our blog URL on them.  We have given the website name to a few people and thought it would be a good idea to have cards.  We bought Avery Glossy Photo Quality Business Cards. I used a program right off the Avery website to design the cards and print them.  They look pretty good!

We are starting to talk about things we have to do before we leave – cancel newspaper, backup computer and stuff like that.   I will do another post on the “Things to do before you leave” list, which is the last list for this trip.

We are having a “Bonairian” get together tomorrow night with the group of friends going to Bonaire.  Everyone is pretty stoked, as A would say. No doubt we will talk about diving and packing and the heat and the ocean and the sand and how much we all are looking forward to the trip.

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Toiletries List

Posted on June 16, 2011 by debbie

One of the last lists is the Toiletries list, which is now on a page under the Packing List menu item.  It is a pretty obvious list, but, again, the list is there so we are not trying to remember all the items every time we pack.

Many of these items have to go in the 1 litre ziploc bags.  Murray talked about solid form alternatives to a lot of these items.  For Bonaire, we will probably take both solid form and liquid form so we can test some products.  The following liquids must go in the 1 litre bags:

  • Hair Stuff
  • Moisturizer and Cosmetics
  • Noxema
  • Shampoo and Conditioner
  • Shaving Oil
  • Toothpaste (we never take a full tube – partial tubes always)

When transporting toiletries as carry on, it is important to use containers only as big as you really need them.  The containers have to be less than 100 ml, which is actually a pretty good size.    We did a test years ago as to how many days we could go on a tiny bottle of shampoo and it was quite a few – but you have to know that Murray is bald and keeps his hair that he does have extra short and I have short hair.  The amount of shampoo used for washing hair can also be reduced – I know I get sloppy in how much I pour into my hand, so if I am careful, I can actually use a very small amount.

Practice packing the 1 litre bag (prior to the night before your flight!) to make sure everything will fit.  It is doesn’t, something has to be left behind or downsized.

Containers

shampoo stuffOn the left are the two new bars of shampoo.  The beige one also can be used for shaving. The white one is shampoo and conditioner

On the right, the red topped bottle is liquid shampoo and the white bottle is conditioner.  Both these bottles are about 40 ml, which will be enough for Bonaire.

This small container idea applies to all the cosmetics and toiletries you take.  The brand of cosmetics I use gives out free samples and I save these specifically for travel.

face stuffThe yellow tube is moisturizer and is 15 ml, enough for Bonaire.

The clear bottle is 30 ml and is facial cleanser. Quite tiny, but we are only going for 10 days.

 

 

 

other stuffHere are a couple of other bottles.  The white one has sunscreen in it and is from Mountain Equipment Co-op, a “Humangear Go Toob”.  It is 88 ml.

The clear bottle is 100 ml and was purchased in China. I bought it to replace a broken liquid laundry soap bottle.

 

 

Other Stuff

We take nail clippers for trimming toe and finger nails.  As long as the nail file part is taken off, they are accepted in carry on luggage.

Razors and blades are now accepted in carry on luggage, so we each take our own.  Before they were accepted, we would buy disposable ones once we got to our destination.

tooth powderHere is the tooth powder that Murray talked about as a replacement for toothpaste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

sunscreenHere is the stick (solid) sunscreen.

 

 

 

 

 

soapAnd finally, here is the shampoo and laundry soap that Murray talked about that comes in thin leaves in small packs.

 

 

 

The best thing to do is to personalize your own toiletries packing list as ours is very specific to us.

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Traveller’s Cheques

Posted on June 14, 2011 by murray

I don’t think I have found one web site that promotes the use of traveller’s cheques. The debit card or the credit card that can access ATMs are the most popular method of getting money when travelling. My big problem with both of these vehicles are service charges and fees. Even if you have an account that allows for free withdrawals on your banks end, you can be dinged big numbers to use ATMs elsewhere. With credit cards there is a double whammy, first you get charged interest the moment you take out cash, which can be solved by paying up a positive balance on your card before you leave, but every time you get cash that is in foreign funds the credit card company charges you a 2.5% foreign exchange fee over and above the regular exchange rate. If you use $10,000 on a trip that adds up to $250, enough to spend an extra day away or maybe splurge on that 5 star hotel you have been eying up. Both are better ideas than giving the money to the credit card company.

Traveller’s cheques are not as much hassle as most of the other folks on the web make them out to be. Debbie and I have used a system for many years and last year carrying insured cheques paid off. We had two $100 cheques stolen from the safety deposit box at the front desk of a fancy resort. I phoned American Express and cancelled the cheques, when we got home there was a $200 cheque from American Express waiting for us.

There is another advantage of carrying traveller’s cheques. You do not have to put all of you metaphoric eggs in one basket. If you carry a card and that card is lost or stolen, you do not have access to cash or credit. Not a good situation 2000 kms. from home. If you carry a bundle of cheques and you stash them in different places like your money belt, your suitcase, your purse or pack, and your passport pouch, and if your travelling companion does the same, no matter which bundle gets misplaced you have several more to dip into.

Here’s how we use traveller’s cheques. First we find a place that will sell us the cheques for no fee. If you have the right kind of bank account, one that is san fees, you can often obtain cheques from them. If you are a member of the local automobile association they may sell cheques to members without a fee. We belong to Alberta Motor Association and we can buy American Express cheques fee free. This all means that you pay the piper $100 you get a $100 cheque. I’m sure there are other venues that offer the same service but up to now I have not had to find them.

We always buy cheques in Canadian dollars. The net and most travel books say to carry U.S. dollars because you will find it hard to exchange other currencies in country X. This is completely bunk. I have cashed Canadian dollar traveller’s cheques all over the world in the most obscure places and never had a problem. The reason we use our local currency is again saving a few bucks. If you exchange your money to U.S. dollars you pay an exchange fee. Then when you change those U.S. dollars to the local currency you pay another exchange fee. The banks are double dipping and you are the one paying.

So, we purchase a pile of Canadian dollar traveller’s cheques. We usually try to buy American Express cheques. The reason is that they can be cashed without fee if you know where to cash them. Many years ago there was an AmEx office in just about any city you might find yourself. A few years ago AmEx started closing their satellite offices and entering into partnerships with banks. Now if you know with which bank AmEx has partnered with you can walk-in and cash your cheques fee free. Every once in while Debbie and I will have to suck it up and pay a fee to cash a few cheques, but quite frankly not very often.

The actual cashing of the cheques does take some time out of every second or third  day but we use that task as a way to see a very small part of how the people in the countries you visit contend with everyday life. The banking system they have is not necessarily the same computerized system of your homeland. On a trip to Vietnam, I was off exchanging a few cheques for some cash and Debbie waited in the chairs provided across from the tellers. She was totally amazed at the number of people that came in with gym bags full of cash and handed bundle after bundle of bills to the cashier. It was a 1/2 hr. of free entertainment and it occupied our conversation for a few blocks as we surmised what was going on. Best we could make was these folks where all small business owners depositing a days receipts, a result of what is still basically a cash society.

Convenience isn’t everything. I’m quite sure you can put your money to better use than giving it away to a banking system that is just getting richer by the day. Give traveller’s cheques a try and maybe extend you travel an extra day.

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Clothing List

Posted on June 12, 2011 by debbie

I arm wrestled Murray to pull out clothing for the Bonaire trip…I WON!  The Clothing List page is now up under the Packing List Menu item.  For Bonaire, we have crossed off the following items from the list:

  • Boxer Shorts (not sure why this is still on our list – we don’t wear them!)
  • Gloves
  • Jacket
  • Long Underwear
  • Pants
  • Rainwear
  • Running Gear
  • Toque
  • Skirt (am taking a sun dress though)
  • Walking Shoes
  • Wool Layer

We are anticipating hot, hot weather.  If it rains, it won’t be cold, and we’ll deal with it – maybe run into the ocean!

Generally, we break up our clothing into groups.  Daytime clothes, evening clothes and airplane clothes.  Daytime clothes get sweaty, dirty, salty and sandy.  They should be cool, comfortable and protect you from the sun. Evening clothes, on the other hand, stay cleaner. They are worn to a restaurant, a bar, for a stroll – the temperature is cooler and they are not worn for hours on end.  Airplane clothes will double as either daytime or evening clothes, depending on the trip.  For this trip, my airplane clothes will also be evening clothes.

Debbie’s Airplane (and Evening) Clothes

  • Brown linen capri length pants (for warmth on the plane)
  • Orange T shirt
  • Brown light wool blend sweater
  • Scarf for around neck to hide necksafe
  • Underwear/Bra
  • Sport sandals
  • Socks (carried in purse in case my feet get cold)

Debbie’s Evening Clothes

  • Sun dress
  • T Shirt that matches brown capris
  • Jewelery

So, now you are saying “WHAT!  That’s all she’s taking for evening?” I will have 3 outfits to wear over 8 evenings.  I figure that is pretty good! Truth be told, if Murray and I were going by ourselves, I would be leaving the extra T shirt at home, but we are traveling with friends, so a bit of vanity is rearing its ugly head.  Murray and I went to Cozumel for about a week and I took a sundress to wear at night, which I wore every night out for dinner.

I only take jewelery that I won’t be upset to loose.  Leave the gold and diamonds and silver in the safety deposit box! I take earrings and necklaces to wear at night.  My watch is a green plastic sports watch made by Roots.

Debbie’s Daytime Clothes

  • Orange long sleeved lightweight linen tunic style shirt
  • Blue technical material shorts
  • Sarong
  • Long sleeved shirt to wear snorkeling

Debbie’s Other Clothes

  • Sun hat
  • Flip flops
  • Small purse
  • Swim suits (2)
  • Underwear (2)
  • Lightweight T shirt for PJs

The linen shirt and shorts are for those day excursions that require us to be dressed – biking, shopping, etc. They both wash and dry nicely. The sarong will be worn to and from diving, to eat breakfast and maybe lunch in.  I tie it various ways so it can be a different look everyday! The snorkel shirt is not just for snorkeling – it can be used to throw over my swimsuit if needed.

A sun hat is a must on a tropical holiday.  I firmly believe that a sun hat has to have a wide brim.  A ball cap just doesn’t do it.  A wide brim covers face and ears and neck and some shoulder.  I have gone through many wide brimmed hats.  Right now, I have a “Classic Sun Hat” from Lee Valley Tools .  It squishes for easy packing, is washable and looks not to bad.  Tilley Hats have a number of wide brimmed hats also – I have an older version of their Women’s Raffia Hat.

I am taking a cheap pair of flip flops to Bonaire to wear to travel in the truck to and from shore dives.  We have read to leave the truck unlocked, so if these do get stolen, it won’t break my heart. You will see that I am only taking a pair of sport sandals and a pair of flip flops. My sport sandals are from Ecco and are slightly dressy, so I am fine with wearing them with a sun dress.  The conditions of the roads and streets are always an unknown so I like to wear flats.

I am going to take a small purse to carry in the evenings.  My purse, to carry the netbook on the airplane, will be too big for evening.  This is an extravagance!

I take two swimsuits on dive trips. Over the years, I have learned that sometimes my core does not warm up sufficiently between dives, so it is useful to have a dry swimsuit to change into.  Or, if diving in the morning, eating lunch and then going to a far beach in the afternoon, I will change swimsuits so I start out dry.  I sometimes get stomach aches from a wet swimsuit….weird, I know.

There will be only two pairs of undies in my suitcase.  We will be taking laundry detergent and it is not hardship to wash out undies every couple of days.  I am only taking one bra – basically for evening.  I think I will live in my swimsuit during the day – who needs a bra! I am taking an old very lightweight T shirt to sleep in if I need it.

My pile on the living room floor now looks like this.

debbie's clothingAs I said before, I will look at this pile when I walk through the living room and say to myself “Do I really need to take that?”. By the time we go, I will be sure I should be packing what is on the floor.  Who knows, maybe I will leave that extra shirt behind!

Murray’s clothes will follow in the next post.

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Change; The Only Constant

Posted on June 11, 2011 by murray

After a few days of mundane chores it is time to get back to dreaming and prepping for our upcoming trips. The dreaming is all part of it and dreaming can extend what is actually 35 days on the road to 6 months of entertainment.

The other day I was reading someone else’s blog and in amongst all the text there was this little bit of info that tweaked my interest. It said; the author arrived at the airport in Kolkata and was told that he was not able to take ANY liquids past security in his carry on luggage. This of course would pose somewhat of a problem for Debbie and me, as all we take is carry on. The statement required further investigation. Both on the legitimacy of the claim and if it proved true, what can we find as substitutes for the ‘liquid’ items we usually carry.

Debbie got on the internet (such a wealth of info) and checked out the Indian airlines that we will be traveling on. Jet Lite made no mention of the restriction whatsoever, but Jet Air was quite specific in the fact the all liquids had to be in checked luggage. The blog was right. Now how do we get rid of all our liquid so we can continue to carry on our bags.

First of all we made a list of what we usually take in our 1 litre ziplocs.

  • Shampoo
  • Shaving Oil
  • Tooth Paste
  • Laundry Detergent
  • Polysporin
  • Face Moisturizer
  • Sun Tan Lotion
  • Mosquito Repellent
  • Visene (eye drops)
  • Heat Rash Cream
  • Vaseline (for Debbie’s toes)

As we were not aware of any solid products that we could substitute for all the liquids we have carried up to now, we will have to spend some time on the computer and some time talking to people in the know. Then we will purchase some of the products and try them out at home and on our upcoming short trip to Bonaire.

Shampoo

There exists shampoo in bar form. Who would have guessed? After looking into it, bar shampoo is quite common. The first one I found is produced by a company in the eastern U.S., J.R. Liggett. The product looks good but I cannot find anyone in Canada that sells it. The bars are $6.99 on line, not a bad price, but the shipping from both J.R. Liggett, and Amazon.com is $25.00. $31.99 for a 3.5 oz. bar of shampoo, I don’t think so.

We phoned around town and found several places that sell shampoo in bars. Lush, a cosmetic boutique offers a good assortment but slightly on the expensive side. I contacted a couple of health ‘food’ stores, stores that sell natural products. In Edmonton, they are Good Earth General Store and Planet Organic. Both had several brands of natural bar shampoo. Debbie and I chose a $2 bar from a company called Soap Works.  There are advantages to using this type of product as they generally do not contain ‘detergent’, an ingredient in most shampoos that is not good to your hair or the environment.

Shaving Oil

I have used an electric razor my whole life. However, I do not consider it an option when I am traveling. When switching to a safety razor I did not want to carry a canister of shaving foam, pressurized canisters were not allowed in carry on luggage even before crazy people started blowing up planes. After some looking I found ‘shaving oil’,  the one I use is a Somersets product.  The stuff is great and a very small amount is required for a very long trip. Unfortunately, it will not qualify for our trip through the Kolkata airport. Again the net provided us with our solution. The propaganda states that the shampoo bar doubles as shaving cream, and then there is another product that comes from Sea to Summit,  it comes in 50 leaflet packets, it is called Pocket Shaving Soap. Haven’t tried it yet but we purchased a small packet from a local camping store, Camper’s Village for $4.00 and I will be experimenting with it over the next while.

Tooth Paste

Until our last trip, when we had to make a stop over in the U.S., we did not put our toothpaste in our magic 1 litre bag. About a year and a half ago we had to connect a flight through Houston and we were informed that tooth paste must be included in the bag of liquids. So now we are on the search for a non ‘liquid’ tooth cleaner. On to the web again and bingo, tooth powder. The stuff we are trying is by Eco Dent. Available on the internet from the U.S. but the same problem as the shampoo, $7.00 for the powder and $25.00 for the shipping. We found it locally at a health food store, The Good Earth General Store, for $7.95, still expensive for tooth cleaner but if it works, it is exactly what we need.

Laundry Detergent

Liquid Tide has been our standard for the past 10 years or so. It’s liquid so it is now passe. We could opt to return to powdered Tide but since we are exploring all sorts of alternatives why not laundry soap. Sea to Summit has laundry soap leaves. 50 to a pack amazingly small and light, Camper’s Village again, $4.00. We are going to take them to Bonaire and try them out.

Polysporin

This one is a tough one. Have not been able to find a substitute for it. The best we can come up with is alcohol wipes. They should work as an antibacterial cleanser but it will mean cleaning the wound several times instead of just applying Polysporin once a day when the bandage is changed. I asked a couple of pharmacists and neither had any suggestions for substitutes. Both suggested that keeping a wound clean with soap and water was as good as using alcohol wipes. Polysporin just promotes faster healing.

Face Moisturizer

Not being a ‘sensitive new age guy’ I choose not to use face moisturizer. Debbie on the other hand, being female, does partake, so we were on the look out for a solid version. Lush has such a product made from mushrooms, but it is quite expensive, $14.00 for a small 3″X2″X 1/2″ bar . Planet Organic has a version as well so before we jump in and buy the expensive stuff Debbie is going to visit there and check it out.

Suntan Lotion

Sun protection comes in a stick like lip balm. For $12.00 Planet Organic sells Aubrey Natural Sun SPF 30. Rub it on and smear it around. I’m quite sure this will work.

Mosquito Repellent

I don’t like DEET. I figure anything that melts plastic on contact is probably not good for humans. I’m not sure I would like malaria either. In all fairness, I have not tried it but once on, you have it forever, so I’m not sure experimentation is a good idea. Camper’s Village sells DEET towelettes 30 for $9.00. Thankfully, there are several alternatives to DEET, we just don’t know if they work.  Totem Distributors sell Citronella Patches for $4.00, Vitamin B1 patches for $9.00, and wrist bands that emit mint for $7.00. We are going to try the citronella patches first, but now we have to wait for an influx of mosquitoes to give them a whirl. At worst we will purchase the DEET towelettes and see what we can melt.

Visene (eye drops)

Don’t require Visene often, but sometimes in big cities the pollution gets to our eyes or if I pass through a place that causes my allergies to act up it is good to have. This is a tough one to find in a solid form but I think water will work in a pinch.

Heat Rash Cream

Nappy rash cream if you are British, hydro cortisone if you a technical type. It is good for “minor skin irritations”; from heat rash, sunburn, poison ivy, reactions to detergent. The pharmacists did not have a ‘solid’ type replacement for this either. I expect that if we are in need it we will stop at the local pharmacy and purchase something that we can dispose of at airport security if necessary.

Vaseline

When we are walking a lot in a hot climate, our hands and feet swell. Don’t know the medical reason but I do know they swell. Other than a bit of discomfort it doesn’t bother me much, but Debbie gets blisters on her toes. We have tried several ways to try to alleviate the problem, from mole skin when the blister starts to develop, to socks made of fabrics that should wick moisture. Going with the adage ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ Debbie started putting Vaseline between her toes (an old runners trick) each morning before we left to explore where ever we were, and it works like a damn. The trouble now is that Vaseline is considered a ‘liquid’ and we are trying to eliminate ‘liquids’. A trip to the Running Room and lo and behold they sell a product called Body Glide used by runners to help with raw nipples when running long distance in hot weather but the container specifically says, “good for toes.” It will be experimented with over the next couple of months.

No matter how good our system is, or how set we are in your ways, we have to constantly reevaluate. The world around us changes daily, there are new rules and innovations all the time. Had it not been for one crazy person trying to blow up an airplane, the rules about liquids on board would never have been instituted and we would never have had to change how we carried tooth paste. Had it not been for one sentence in a blog I happened upon, Debbie and I would not have even thought about all the ways to comply with some obscure regulation. As it is we have probably stumbled across some fantastic, new to us, products that will make our way of travel easier and better.

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Antsy to Pack

Posted on June 7, 2011 by debbie

Over the last couple of days, I have gotten antsy to start packing.  So, this morning, I made the big step.

I cleared off a space in the living room, in front of the fire place – had to move the furniture around a bit. Yea, the living room.  What we like to do is lay out the stuff we are planning to take, especially the clothing, and every time we walk by, we look at it and ask ourselves “Do we really need to take that?”.  By the time we actually leave, everything in the bag is meant to be there. Thus the living room.

Next I dug out my black suitcase and my purse.  I also threw in the daypack, but we will decide whether that goes.  Mur doesn’t have a suitcase yet – we ordered an MEI Voyager and are hoping it arrives before we go.  If not, we have his old suitcase.

Then I got our wetsuits out of the closet and laid them out. Then our fins and I grabbed two old smallish towels. Here is what it looks like so far.

packing startThat feels good.  But I’m still antsy to pack more.

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