I had the pleasure of taking an outstanding 20-day tour of Papua New Guinea with ElderTreks (Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 800/741-7956, www.eldertreks.com), Sept. 3-23, 2008. The land price was $8,995.
Most companies “do” PNG in 10 to 14 days and tour perhaps a festival and the main cities. ElderTreks’ 20-day program was the only group tour I found which spent three days on Kiriwina in the Trobriand Islands and two nights in a village setting on the Sepik River.
I recently read about a spray for $4 that takes wrinkles out of clothes. But you don’t need to spend money to take out wrinkles. All you need is a small spray bottle and tap water.
There was a write-up of Rick Steves’ handy little black (now in other colors) backpack (July ’08, pg. 84). This little item saved my backside on my April 11-May 11, 2008, trip.
Now that we have the TSA randomly going through our baggage, I pack clothes in gallon-size zip-lock bags.
My husband, David, and I thought we were pretty savvy travelers. On an August ’07 trip (Aug. ’08, pg. 52), we packed a few things in each other’s bags, double-checked the destination tags the airlines put on our checked bags, locked the bags with our TSA locks and had our 3-1-1 baggies present and accounted for, but we still ended up in hot water when our bags did the Charles de Gaulle shuffle and failed to arrive in St. Petersburg, Russia. Our entire concept of carry-on bags changed in mere minutes.
When I read Rick Steves’ article on packing light (June ’08, pg. 82), I recalled a trip from about 10 years ago.
Rick Steves in the June ’08 issue notes that he travels with a convertible suitcase/backpack, adding that he avoids soft-sided suitcases with wheels.
When my wife and I did our planning for our visit to Edinburgh for the 2007 International Festival as well as the Fringe Festival, I elected to fly British Airways (B.A.) for two reasons: the cabin service has always been excellent and they provide connecting flights to Edinburgh from Heathrow.
We were booked to take United Airlines flight No. 899 from Los Angeles to Narita, Japan, on Oct. 16, 2006. We checked our luggage, then checked in for boarding. Just before boarding, it was announced that the flight was overbooked and that anyone who would take Singapore Airlines flight SQ11 a few hours later would receive an incentive credit of $400. We volunteered for the offer and felt lucky to be among the few people to benefit from such an offer.
For at least 15 years, I’ve toted a black nylon LeSportsac carry-on, which weighs an ounce on a good day and is certainly within airline luggage limitations. With British Air, it’s all I get. With airlines that allow another personal item, for me it is a small LeSportsac backpack.
It’s doable for a week or a month. Basically, I pack the same stuff. Flying British Air, I wear more (several layers, and making full use of jacket pockets), with the backpack rolled up in the carry-on.