SEC-S14W3 | What I bring for travel? | Mozambique & Thailand

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“When preparing to travel, lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then take half the clothes and twice the money.” – Susan Heller

These are the wisest words I have read for a very long time on Aunty Google!

I like traveling. Or should I say hubby and I like traveling?
Over the years, our travel has changed a lot. Most of our travel was dedicated to business travel, but lately, it has been mainly for pleasure.

The countries we travel to most of the time are Mozambique and Thailand. Packing for traveling is so far different from these two countries as what A is from Z.

Let me start with A. Mozambique.

Packing for Mozambique (Moz)

When we travel to Mozambique, neither a rucksack nor a suitcase is going to do the trick. No, you even pack boxes, cooler boxes, and all the packing space you can find in the car and the boat. It is not even strange to find cookie tins stashed away at your feet.

This should read, “What not to pack.”

Food and snacks

Mozambique is a beautiful country on the southeast coast of Africa and a fisherman’s paradise. Guinjata Bay is also our usual destination, as we are part of the Guinjata Fishing Boat Club, which hosts a yearly national fishing contest in Guinjata.

Although Mozambique has bigger cities, shopping in the rural areas is a nightmare. Most shopping is done by visiting street vendors or small supermarkets. Not only do they carry limited stock, but they are also very expensive. Make no mistake; they know very well that you are a visitor to their country.

Going to Mozambique, you pack everything! From meat to spice to drinks.

The only thing we will buy locally is wood for our braai’s (South African barbeques) and freshly baked bread and fish. There is nothing nicer than thick spread butter on warm Pao (Portuguese buns) that gets delivered to your door in the early hours of the morning.

What I would normally do is work out a menu for us for the period that we are there, and then pack accordingly.
First on my agenda is to have a look at the program for the week and then plan accordingly.

Secondly, I will make a summary of how many meals and of what.

Lastly, I will compile my shopping and what to pack for the week as far as our food is concerned.

Now, if you think we are done shopping and packing, I have a surprise for you.

The drive to Guinjata is a lloonnggg drive of 18 to 20 hours. My family is terrible. As soon as the steering wheel turns, they are looking for something to eat. We have a wonderful word for it in South Africa, “padkos.” Translated, it will be “food for the road.”

I will cook chicken drumsticks, and meatballs, and boil some eggs. With this, I will make mini tramezzinis and pitas. A must for the road is biltong! This is air-cured meat, almost like what the Americans will call “jerky.”
On the sweet side, we like to chew on wine gums, all the purple ones for me and the rest of the colors for the family.

Packing for us

Once I have compiled the list of food-related items on my “to do” list, the family is next. What must I pack for us?

There are 10 MUST pack items:

1. Costumes for the heat
2. Suntan lotion to stop sunburn
3. Mosquito repellent for those irritating mosquitoes
4. A first-aid kit with everything
5. Set of solar lights for those days without electricity
6. Lots of packets of cheap sweets for the local children, who will run for kilometers next to the car shouting "sweety.”
7. A set of spare keys for the car and boat, just in case
8. Passports, or else you will be returning home without seeing Moz
9. Fishing and diving gear, or I will be in the dog box
10. Plenty of cash as without cash Moz is a no-no

All that is left is to do the shopping and packing. I am sure that by now you know why I said that suitcases and rucksacks are not going to do the trick for us.

At last, we are done with A, and can we now move on to Z, Thailand, which is my favorite by far.

Packing for Thailand

Packing for Thailand is the complete opposite of packing for Moz. Although Thailand is much further away, traveling is also far less stressful.

There is no “to do” list, no planning, no shopping, and a rucksack is even too big.

We bought special, lightweight, and weather-proof rucksacks for us, which makes traveling to Thailand extra easy.

You can buy anything, anywhere and at almost any time in Thailand. If you take suitcases, you are not being clever.

We travel with only our rucksacks, and when we get to Thailand, our first stop is buying a set of suitcases. These we fill with our shopping as our stay and shopping continue, from make-up to electronic goods.

Oh yes, and if you cannot buy it, you can order it. It takes only 3 days for a tailored suit to be delivered to wherever you are staying.

These are 10 WILL find items in our rucksacks:

1. Toothbrush and toothpaste, as we are going to need them on your long flight
2. Our mobile phones, chargers, and wireless earphones
3. 1 set of clothes
4. 2 sets of underwear
5. Passports
6. Credit cards with ample credit
7. Name tags for the suitcases that we will be buying
8. Our chronic medication
9. Our travel pillows
10. As for the remaining space, we will fill it with packets of Rooibos tea (South Africa’s favorite herbal tea, which is loved all over the globe) for gifts

We won’t pack any snacks or food, as it is provided by the airport lounges, airlines, and shopping for snacks in Thailand is truly amazing. You can buy fresh fruit, sticky rice with mango, fried salmon skins, Khanom Phing (coconut cookies), and my favorite, watermelon shakes.

All that is left is to enjoy Thailand to its fullest!

As you can see, two different types of packing for the two different countries we visit most of the time.

Happy packing for this holiday if you have not yet packed!

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