Packing For The Middle East
Sep 26, 2018
What To Pack?
Useful or Wasteful
Making the decision on where to travel has always been easy for me. I want to travel to as many countries as I can, therefore, I’m up for anything. We’ve been travelling a few weeks at a time, here and there for the past 12 years, but we’ve never gone for more than a month. This upcoming trip is going to be 69 days, which poses many challenges when it comes to packing, especially when you’re an over-packer like me!
To complicate the packing situation, we are travelling to countries in the Middle East, where the weather is hot, dusty and humid. Also, the cultural structure is different from what I am use to, and I want to make sure that I am respectful when being a visitor to these beautiful areas of the world.
Honestly, I started to panic about what I was going to bring along with me a few months back when we decided we were going to take this trip, but then I gave my head a shake, and started to be more aware of what I use on a daily basis. I don’t ‘really’ wear a different outfit each day for 69 days - especially in the summer time. I tend to have a couple of items that I wear every week. Coming to this realization made it easier to wrap my head around what to put in my suitcase. I decided to pack the same as if I was going away for 10 days, even though my trip is much longer. Laundry service can be expensive, so in past travels, we’ve booked Airbnb’s with in-suite laundry, or went to the local laundromat to prepare ourselves for the next leg of our journey.
Now here poses the question - how does a western woman dress in the Middle East? Our travels are starting in Cairo, Egypt and ending in Istanbul, Turkey - with a few other countries in between. Luckily our neighbours are originally from Cairo, which was great to get some insight on what to pack. Like I said before, I’m a notorious OVER-PACKER, so I’ll be interested to see if what I brought was useful, or wasteful!
Here is a list of items that I choose to bring on my trip:
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Clothing
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4 T-Shirts (1 black, 2 white, 1 floral print)
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3 Tank tops (these will be great for layering with kimono’s & sweaters)
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2 Cotton Blouses (I’m expecting to get a lot of use out of these)
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4 Pants (2 cotton plaso pants, 1 jogger pant, 1 legging)
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4 Shorts (although I don’t expect to wear these outside that much, I like to workout in shorts, and I can wear them to the beach in some areas)
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2 Dresses (1 full length maxi dress, 1 tunic)
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Undergarments (4 bras, 7 pairs of underwear, 3 pairs of socks)
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2 Bathing Suits (these are all mix and match so I can create a few different looks)
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Accessories
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Scarf (a white infinity silk scarf to wear as a hijab or cover my shoulders)
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Turkish Towel (my most practical purchase for this trip - it’s can be used as a scarf, hijab, wrap, sarong, blanket, towel, etc)
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3 Pairs of Shoes (Birkenstocks, runners, toms)
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2 Hats (1 snapback and 1 Panama hat)
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2 Purses (1 small crossbody and 1 Lululemon hipsack - which is super multifunctional)
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Sunglasses & Reading Glasses
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Jewelry (I really scaled back with this, only a couple pairs of earrings, bracelets & necklaces)
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Personal Items
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By no means did I pack enough to last me through my entire trip. I’ll expect to make a few things and purchase what I need along the way.
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Essential Oils!!! I have 30 bottles of my favourite oils! The best thing about this, is that I can DIY a lot of the toiletries I may run out of or discover I need. I also brought a couple of carrier oils - V-6 Oil from Young Living and coconut oil. This is my Emergency Kit, triage, immune support and emotional support all wrapped up into one! I also carry 2 diffusers with me, one for on the plane, and a small one for our room.
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Supplements
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Flat Iron
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2 Books
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Yoga Matt
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Electronics
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Phone
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Laptop
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GoPro
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Headphones
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I am soon going to find out if the decisions I made for packing were appropriate! You know what though? I’m not going to stress about it if they aren’t! Part of traveling is the excitement of being spontaneous and emersing yourself in the culture. Some of my favourite memories on trips have been made in the local market or shopping centres. There’s only two things I wish I could squeeze into my suitcase and bring along with me on my adventures ;)
xoxo
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