What made me even happier about traveling with a smaller bag was I was able to explore Cochin with my bag on my back as I waited for a late night flight, hop on and off of crowded government and local buses, all while keeping my bag either in the seat next to me or on my lap. I saw a number of people with full backpacks struggling to fit their bags under their seat, then holding up foot traffic off the buses as they struggled to put their packs back on. As I eyed their packs, I wondered how much of what they packed was essential. Even with a 85% full pack, I felt like I slightly over packed. There were maybe 5 items of clothes I could have done without, and if I didn't first start out in a cold climate, I could have packed even less. On the way home I had space for gifts for the family, though with that my pack became very full.
There are two things I wish the bag came with, but their lack didn't really make me enjoy the bag less. The first is external compression straps. I debated adding them before I left, but thought I'd see if I felt they were necessary after this trip. With external straps it would have been easier to squeeze things down a little more when my pack was completely full and also when it wasn't full. The second thing is a waist strap, after a while of waiting around in airports the bag started to feel a little heavy, I never weighed the bag, but my guess was I was carrying around 15 lbs. I still debate whether or not a waist strap would make a huge difference, since I plan on packing less in the future, I don't spend a lot of time with the bag on, and I'm not sure I'd really use the waist strap.
Overall, I love this bag, it's given me freedom and mobility that I never had with my wheeled luggage, though I still love my wheels for work travel. Another new thing I tried out were packing cubes. I thought they'd just be a gimmick, but I ended up loving them. They kept me so organized and made searching for items easy and quick. Though my eBags Packing Cubes are not compression cubes, I did notice when I had my clothes bundled up in the cubes my bag zipped up easier than when I had everything out of the cubes.
While purchasing my bag from Campmor's website, I couldn't help but pick up a few other items. The tweezers I got were probably the dude of my purchases, however, the two stand outs that I found myself constantly using were my flashlight and travel towel. I learned once I arrived in Kathmandu that the blackouts were all too real and regular all over Nepal. Though most hotels and restaurants all have backup generators, the walk to and from place to place often times lacked lighting. Once I arrived in India I thought I left blackouts behind me, that is until I arrived in Kerala. I bought a self powered winding flashlight on a whim and it ended up being my most used travel item. The travel towel was also such a helpful item that I'll never travel without one again. I never stayed anywhere that didn't include full sized fluffy towels, however, for those times I forgot to do laundry and needed to do some sink washing, this tiny towel was great for absorbing excess water, so much so that most items would dry overnight and be ready to be packed away the next day.
Other than these four items, I didn't pack anything out of the ordinary, just clothes, shoes,girly essentials, netbook, chargers, an adaptor, and an ereader filled with novels and travel guides. Which really makes me go back to the question, what are people packing in those huge backpacks that are so essential? Unless you're camping and/or trekking to places in the backwoods, you pretty much have access to everything you'll need in India.
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