I'm packing for a business trip - a three nighter. How can it be that my bag is weighing in at 35 pounds? I pride myself on my 17 pound duffle for three weeks in Africa. Must be the shoes eh?

Original von VeeR
I'm packing for a business trip - a three nighter. How can it be that my bag is weighing in at 35 pounds? I pride myself on my 17 pound duffle for three weeks in Africa. Must be the shoes eh?

The shoes will add to it, as well as business suits instead of casual clothes, purses, and perhaps the bag even weighs more than your duffel. Bet you are also taking more skin and hair products as well as fragrance than you did on safari!

You should give a course on packing for 3 weeks with the luggage weighing only 17 pounds! My God, you are some special woman to be able to do that. Do you fold or roll your clothes before packing? I've always packed in Ziploc bags to keep out dirt, but for some reason a pile seems heavier to me in the bag than it does without the bag. Doesn't make sense to me.

Jan - You're first assumption is right. The bag - though small weighs a lot more than my duffle. Its all the changes - the meeting clothes versus dinner clothes versus what I can wear to have that midnight smoke out by the pool. (Spokane is a totally nonsmoking city - last time I was out by the dumpster - sound familiar?)

The seventeen pounds isn't so hard during the African summer. New challenge - we're going back to Botswana at the end of June next year. I'll need more layering stuff. I use the ziplocks or Glad supersized bags to keep it all organized. They're good at the end of the trip for packing and protecting goodies I bring back too. I did wear out the battery on my scale, packing, repacking and editing last time.

Oh yeah - yes we are going back - just once more (famous last words) - taking our 12 year old nephew this time. I've asked his mother to write an owner's manual. But he's a good kid and has already found a site on line with audio to learn some Setswana.

Vee:

What brand of duffel do you usually use? Mine is a Delsey, but it weighs about 8 pounds itself with nothing in it. Have you found a light weight but yet lockable bag? Would appreciate learning about it. I looked at LL Bean duffels, but they only have a single zipper pull that you can't lock. Not good for Africa. Having been robbed once there, I want to make sure everything is lockable to thwart temptation.

How fortunate you are to be taking your nephew with you. You'll see things from even a different perspective through his eyes. It should be an exciting trip.