In between chess games and fending off verbal attacks from Europeans about the upcoming US-Iraq war, Daryl and I discuss minimalist travel, a subject dear to us both. We bounce ideas off each other for what to bring on backpacking and particularly on long-distance hiking trips. For the latter, we agree that you need to be extremely careful about what to bring, shedding off as much weight as possible. However, for general travel I now have a new philosophy -- it doesn't matter what you bring so long as your bag is small. A small bag gives you a lot of freedom in moving around and that is invaluable.

For this month long SE Asian swing my bag is very small indeed, smaller than what most students would bring with them to school each day. Here's what I have inside: a pair of underwear, shirt, shorts, toothbrush but no toothpaste, dental floss, sunscreen, cotton sleeping sack, earplugs, eye mask, a spare pair of glasses, and three books. Sounds very light, and it is outside of the books, which are all huge: "The Fountainhead", "Moby Dick", and "War and Peace".

These books take up more than half of my bag's space and make up about 80% of the weight. Crazy enough, but even more insane because I've read all three of these books before! I didn't plan to take them either, but just happened upon them and couldn't resist the chance to read them again. To me, it was as if Fate provided these books for me to think about in relation to each other and this current trip.

Previously, I've never been so profligate with space and weight. If I brought a book at all it would only be one and a small one that I could quickly discard. However, in my new philosophy I can allow myself to bring anything I want provided it fits in the small bag. If Fate provided the books and I have room for them, then they're in.

We all have different ideas about what is important to bring on a journey. Daryl lugs around a guitar, yet I can't convince him that dental floss is an essential item. He enjoys playing it and says it has opened up many people to him, even during difficult border crossings. I met an English guy in Phimai who traveled with a large chess set. I greatly enjoyed my simultaneous rereadings of these three books during this leg of my travels and now could not imagine the experience without having brought these books with me.

If it makes you happy, bring it, no matter how silly it is. Just keep that bag small! I feel the exact same way about my time. If I want to do something, I'll do it, no matter how silly or crazy, just so long as I can manage to contain the experence inside the context of a simple lifestyle.