Luggage Wars

I’m currently sat in Darwin airport at 4am waiting for my flight to Bali, and I thought what a great use of time it is to vent about my luggage problems. 

Here’s a picture of me on the way to Heathrow airport back in January with a bag that turned out to weigh 21.8kg. While I was annoyed with myself for packing so much, it was fine as I was allowed a 23kg luggage allowance. 

Then I flew from Fiji to New Zealand with the same luggage allowance, but this time my bag weighed less due to toiletries being used up. I think it was about 21kg. 

I knew that once I left New Zealand I needed to get the back under 20kg, which was the limit for my flight to Australia. I did a bag cull part way through New Zealand, getting rid of stuff that I just hadn’t used. I was wasting money by getting rid of stuff but I guess that’s just the way it goes. Just to mention, by getting rid of stuff, I mean putting it into one of the backpacker sharing boxes that hostels sometimes have, so someone else can use the stuff I don’t want. 

My cull was a success! I got the bag down to a mere 17.8kg, which I was very impressed with. 

My flight to Bali also has the 20kg bag limit. Given I hadn’t bought anything else in Australia, I had assumed my bag would be fine. Wrong!

It’s just come in at 22kg. HOW?!?!?

I can only assume that toiletries weigh a lot more than I realise, but there’s no way I’m binning that massive bottle of sun cream I just bought that cost me over a tenner. 

I’m sure I’ll eventually get the bag to a decent weight. I’m still a little bothered by how heavy it is, and I would like to have another cull. It’s hard now though as there’s nothing obvious to get rid of. I probably do have too many t shirts, underwear and socks, but you never know when you might shit yourself and not have a washing machine nearby. I’ll see how I get on in Asia, you never know how many cases of Bali Belly I’m going to get!

I admire people who have incredibly light bags but I guess I’m just one of those people who is a little too organised and packs for every occasion. I’ve met people who don’t even have a waterproof jacket! I guess the best way to do it would be to just pack essentials and buy what you need on the road. Maybe one day I’ll be relaxed enough to do that.