943's Amazing One-Kilo Packing Method

Even when budget travel writer 943, who once put out a book called Six Countries on One Plane Ticket, is on an around-the-world trip, she insists on keeping the weight of her bag below one kilogram.

In the blue Nike backpack she usually uses, there is one bar of multi-use soap for bathing, washing her hair, and doing the laundry; a small tin of medicated ointment for use on scrapes or insect bites; and, for an eating utensil, an extremely lightweight plastic fork that came with some instant noodles she bought in Malaysia.

To keep the weight down, she even uses a children's toothbrush. She also went to Taipei's Guanghua Market to buy a short, lightweight electric charger. "It's only a difference of 100 grams, but walking around all day on a long trip, somebody with 100 grams less weight can go for an extra 10 minutes," she says.

As for clothing, 943 brings one short-sleeved and one long-sleeved T-shirt. In hot weather they can be outerwear, and in cold weather they can be underwear. She also brings a lightweight knitted blouse, a jacket, a pair of shorts, a pair of pants, and several pairs of light and washable stockings. With these, she traveled through Asia, Europe, and the Americas in 80 days.

With so few clothes, what does she do when it's time for laundry? 943 says that she usually washes her clothes as she bathes and then places them on top of a dry towel. She rolls them up together and squeezes out the water into the towel. If it's raining and the clothes won't dry right away, she'll tie them around herself the next day and let them dry as she moves about. With the sun and the breeze, they usually dry pretty quickly.

943 doesn't usually carry heavy travel guidebooks. Rather, she makes her own customized travel handbooks with maps, routes, timetables, accommodation information, and frequently used phrases. She can also use them to take notes as she travels. If she needs to change her plans while on the road, she'll borrow a guidebook and photograph important pages from it with a digital camera.

While the average tourist does a lot of shopping, 943 doesn't collect any souvenirs. That's because in the past she bought too much on impulse and discovered it all just ended up piled in her home gathering dust. Now she simply goes to a tourist center at each destination to check out the postcards for sale and then tries to replicate the shots with her own camera. "Not only do you save money and avoid any extra weight, you also get to learn the techniques of master photographers," she says.

943 says that packing light has a lot of advantages. It's less tiring to carry, and you don't have to check your luggage on flights so it saves you time waiting at baggage claim as well. Also, if you run into any trouble it's easier to extricate yourself in one piece.

For example, once when she was riding a rickshaw in India, the driver insisted on taking her to an unknown hotel. Remembering reports of travelers being robbed at such places, she quickly jumped off the rickshaw. "If I'd had a lot of luggage, I could never have got away so easily," she says.