He who would travel happily must travel light.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

We leave for India in the morning. The last couple of weeks have been a bit crazed, between finalizing our travel plans, wrapping up work projects, arranging for cat sitters and doing laundry and packing and all the little details (did we buy enough cat food? did you pick up the prescriptions?) that you have on lists until the last moment.

Packing was a challenge. We pride ourselves on packing light, but 18 days is daunting, that’s for sure. Not just the amount of clothes, but the type and style. It’s pretty warm in India right now, but not so much in Nepal; there’s also the matter of dressing more conservatively than here in the States. While not strictly required, we do prefer to show respect for the culture of where we’re travelling, and “fit in” (though that may not strictly be possible) as much as we can.

In the end I think we did OK: our two bag carry-on plan was only supplemented by a small extra bag.

We’ll see if our packing was sufficient in a few days. I suspect I may need an extra layer when we get to Kathmandu…