Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Kuching Checklist

I’m all ready and packed out for my Kuching trip. Even as I’m typing this, my excitement is escalating at a frightening rate. Of course it is not frightening if you’re me! So I looked through my bag and mentally took note of all the items I needed to bring along. Here’s a check list I keep for travelling purposes. I absolutely hate accidentally leaving something behind. While some items can be lived without, having them around makes life so much easier. I take comfort in my own things. And I find it a hassle to have to borrow or worse still, buy, if I left something behind.

The checklist takes away the burden of having to mentally remember stuff. Plus all I need to do is to tick away the list to make I have taken along everything. Here’s my Kuching Checklist:

Clothes – to last 5 days 4 nights. Brought along lots of t-shirts and shorts to cater to the hot weather. Plus I’ll be outdoors quite a bit.

Undergarments – to last 5 days 4 nights or I prefer to count it as how many times I’ll be taking a shower. There will approximately 8 showers this trip so at least 8 sets to go.

Toiletries – comb, body shower, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrush, toothpaste (all travel pack sizes of course)

Cleansing Regime – Cleanser, Toner, Moisturiser (travel pack) to make sure my skin stays healthy.

Camera – to take loads of pictures!! Included is the charger

Hand phone charger – so I can stay connected.

Sun block – much needed for all my time outdoors.

Cap – to prevent too much tan. I almost never regain my colour back whenever I’m out too long in the sun. So a cap reduces a tan a tiny bit.

Umbrella – for the sudden showers. Plus it also protects against the fury of the blazing sun.

Sunglasses – to look cool. *laughs*

Insect repellent – AA went for the Rainforest World Music Festival 2 years ago and reminded me (more like drilled it in my head) to bring this along because it would be my life saver. He poor soul had a literal blood donation drive to the feisty mosquitoes during his last visit there.

Denim Jacket – in case it gets cold. Will definitely use it on my journey to the airport (I’m leaving home at 6 am *horror*), the airport and during flights.

Towel – not provided by the backpackers I’m staying at.

Blanket – I get cold pretty fast due to the absence of flesh and fat in my severely underweight body. And I bet the ang moh’s in my dorm won’t be too happy if I switch off or turn up the temperature the air-cond in the middle of the night, so my blanket “courtesy” of Malaysian Airlines will keep me snug and warm.

Shoes and flip flops – For walking duh

Map – 3 Maps of Cat City with the main streets and important locations beautifully highlighted in yellow. I took the pains to look up comprehensive maps which had good landmarks to make travelling and walking around easy when we go sight-seeing.

List of Places to Visit and Food to Eat – again google and blogs are really helpful in deciding where to go, how to go and what to expect. I especially took in more effort in the food section coz this girl can definitely afford a piling up a few kilograms :).

Kenny’s Food Award post and Wiki Travel of Kuching are superb. I savoured every bit of those articles, absorbing all the details and then neatly compiled my own list in my notebook. I can’t possibly visit every single place so I focused on the must-not-miss items like the Sarawak laksa, Kolo Mee, Teh C Peng etc etc.

Packets of tissue – absolutely needed because my nose will display sinus-like and flu-like symptoms every time I eat irrespective of what I eat. Will need the tissues handy.

2 Hangers and clothes peg – Laugh all you want but I packed those because I know the clothes line and clothes hanger will be totally utilised as the backpackers is full house. At least I get to hang my towel to dry by the window or something.

Vitamin C – to stay in the pink of health.

That’s pretty much it. I doubt I left anything behind. While I do like travelling light, I also like to ensure I don’t miss out anything and try to cover all possibilities. I’m simply not a believer of chance and I hate thinking of “What if’s” without having a simple solution.

If the sun comes up, I have my cap and sunblock. When it rains, I’m geared with my umbrella. I brought an extra set of clothes in case of any emergency. It is all this little tiny things that can be left behind but I hate it when I’m stuck and thinking at the back of my head, “Damn, I should have brought that thing!”. So yeah, I pack up and am ready to go!

Kuching, beware for here comes Ohkulala to invade, explore and enjoy your city!!!

2 comments:

pinkpau said...

see u in kuching, kul !

Ohkulala said...

pinkpau: oh yay!! hope to bump into you there :)