What Do You Wear to Travel in for 9 Months?

I had a minor obsession with gear for this trip. Two things in life I love: kitchen gadgets and camping equipment. I got to feed this obsession with carefully planning out what to take on this trip. Since we are carrying everything we need for 9 months on our back, we had to be discriminating and pick high quality gear at a decent price. I started shopping months ago. But not Tom.

For clothing, Tom went the more pedestrian route (read: cheaper) and for the most part brought clothes he already had.

Tom's Shirts:

Two T-shirts (one gray and one green), a wicking T-shirt, a Patagonia long sleeve shirt, and two collared hiking shirts (one short and one long sleeve)

Tom's Pants: One pair of athletic shorts, one pair of every day shorts, one pair of North Face convertible hiking pants, and one pair of Royal Robbins mens long lightweight pants (these were one of his few new items).

Looking good Tom:

The Jeans dilemma: Tom and I both couldn't decide whether or not we should bring jeans. Jeans are heavy and do not wash well in sinks. Most of the places we are going are hot. However, at the last minute we felt we really couldn't go 9 months without wearing jeans and I wanted to bring some I already had. I am already glad we did since we've had to travel for 24 hours due to flight delays leaving the US and the jeans I've had on are comfy. We'll keep you posted on whether or not we regret this.

Rounding out Tom's wardrobe are swim trunks and a surf shirt (he has fair skin after all), the Patagonia Down Sweater jacket, a North Face fleece-type jacket, and a Sierra Designs rain shell similar to this one. And 3 pairs of ExOfficio underwear.

I went a little more crazy than Tom when it came to clothes department. It was an excuse to buy a new wardrobe! Since we were on a budget last year saving for the trip and my clothes allowance was severely impacted, I used shopping for the trip as a way to meet my shopping "needs". I started out in August since that was when the after-summer sales started taking place. And luckily I did since it was hard to find summer clothes the last month or so in the stores.

After countless trips to REI (we've certainly kept that place in business this past year), I narrowed down my list. I wanted somewhat feminine functional clothes that were in the same color scheme for mixing and matching. For the most part I wanted black bottoms to look a bit more dressier .

Here's what I settled on:

Amber's shirts:

a turquoise NorthFace Vaporwick T-shirt
a purple ExOfficio Soytopia tee
a purple long-sleeve ExOffico Dryflylite collared shirt
a blue and white patterned short-sleeved ExOffico collared Next-to-Nothing Hanja shirt (a somewhat dressier item - but not really)
3 tank tops (a black Patagonia for layering/sleeping, a NorthFace dry wicking and a NorthFace turquoise patterned tank)
a Patagonia long sleeve Capilene 2 shirt in light blue I already had

Amber's pants:

a pair of black Altheta Dipper black long pant
a pair of black Athleta Bettona Bermuda black shorts
a pair of quick-dry shorts from Royal Robbins that I already had in black
a pair of loungy short pants from Old Navy to sleep in
an army green Northface hiking skort
a pair of ExOffico Take Over capri pants
the aforementioned jeans

Rounding out my wardrobe is a turquoise scarf, a NorthFace CelestineVaporick turquoise dress, a turquoise Patagonia Sweater down jacket, a black Sierra Designs Cyclone rain parka, REI rain pants I already had, 4 hats (baseball, bucket, warm one and a light broad-brimmed hiking), and a turquoise NorthFace Masonic fleece I already had. Plus sports bras from Victoria's Secret and ExOfficio underwear (4 pairs).

You better get used to this outfit...

As you can tell, I brought a lot more than Tom did! Although I feel like I brought a lot, when deciding what to wear so far I feel as if I don't have a ton of options. It has been a bit cooler than anticipated (why I thought it wouldn't rain in the rain forrest I don't know!). And of course rainy. Which means that washing clothes in the sink hasn't been going well as nothing is drying very fast. Hopefully things dry before Tom's underwear situation gets too dire.

I found gear lists like this really helpful when trying to decide what to pack. We'll keep you posted on how these items hold up. And if Tom really can survive on 3 pairs of underwear!

- Amber

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

WOW! I dont think I could do it... especially since everything I eat ends up on me... I guess by the end of the trip my wardrobe would be polka dotted with all the food Ive spilled or things Ive sat on... LOL!!
Well, ya look damn cute... xo xoxo Bryanna

Posted by: Bryanna | 01/13/2010 at 03:13 PM