Digital Nomad’s Packing List for a Carry-On Only Trip

How to pack for a weekend trip like a BOSS.

Last short trip I took, to Seattle, I flew with Frontier Airlines, one of our many top-tier domestic carriers here in the U.S. As it turns out, Frontier Airlines now charges for carry-on AND checked bags. The only thing which is free is your 8x14x18 “personal item,” a.k.a. whatever you can fit under your seat. This has probably been the case for a while, but I do most of my flying internationally, so it was a bit of a rude surprise.

Being young and cheap, you know what I opted to do. So, here’s a 5-day packing list for Seattle which will fit under your seat, for free.

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Nepal 76: Tranquility on the Trail

Guest Houses in Nepal

It was a beautiful day when we departed Ghorepani. Most of the clouds from the sunrise had cleared, and we were treated to awesome blue skies and miles-long views as we resumed our trekking.

A long day lay ahead of us, as we hoped to stretch from Ghorepani all the way through to the village of Suile—perched on the hills above the main route to Annapurna Base Camp. From our 4:45 a.m. start to when we finally reached Suile at 3:30, we trekked for 11 hours.

Despite the length, the day was not exhausting. My legs were beginning to grow used to the constant changes in elevation: the up-downs, and the long stretches of flat. My back felt stronger from carrying my heavy pack, and my lungs were beginning to grasp the intricacies of Anker’s command: “slowly, slowly.”

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ExPat Life

[This is a guest post from Shawn Wall, my errant climbing partner. Shawn left Colorado to do some travel after graduating university at the end of 2015, and he never came home. He now lives in Budapest, Hungary, with his girlfriend. I spent a month visiting them in October 2016. I asked him to write a little bit on his experiences living as an expat in a foreign country.

You can find his personal travel blog, The WanderinGinger, at http://wanderingingertravels.blogspot.com/]

***

February 22, 2017.

Today marks three years since when I first ran away from home to a magical place called New Zealand. I wanted to escape the troubles of day to day life and just be free from everything. So I left. I was running away from death, pain, sadness, confusion and everything that I knew and called home. At least, that is what I thought I was doing. Parts of that may be true, I was running away, but whenever you run away you run towards something else. I was running straight towards a whole new path of life.

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Nepal 74: The Ordinary Citizen

Annapurna Trekking Regions

As it happened, the daylight never really came.

The morning was cloudy and subtle—no glorious beams of first light, no alpenglow or similar. Just a gradual lightening of the sky. Revelation is for the movies. That’s rarely how real life works.

Still, even on a cloudy day the Himalaya are a sight to be seen. Dhalaguiri was largely shrouded in clouds, but the Annapurna Massif revealed itself several times—although never long enough for me to snap a great picture. Hundreds of people swarmed the hill, taking selfies and shooting videos. It almost felt obscene.

Still, I took my photos.

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