Travel Light: the How and Why
Posted on | January 22, 2010 | 9 Comments
I learned how to travel light from lightweight backpacking, then found it was just as useful to keep it light on trips overseas or driving across the country. The last time my wife and I went to Ecuador, I had 10 pounds of luggage, all in one carry-on bag, and Ana had just 8 pounds in her carry-on bag. This wasn’t a short trip. We spent six weeks in Ecuador, at times on glacier-covered mountains, and at other times lounging on Pacific coast beaches.
Travel Simplicity
Why travel light? Travel simplicity. Everything is simpler when you travel light. With only carry-on luggage, we were on our way to a restaurant in Quito, while others were still waiting for their checked luggage. When we took busses our luggage was safely with us, not on the roof or in the hold below being cut open, like one time when I was in Mexico. While others struggled down the street with three heavy bags, we had our hands free and were walking comfortably because we use daypacks or small backpacks. We had less to lose, less to be stolen, less to wait for, less to pack and unpack in hotels, and less to worry about.
Light Travel Issues
There are a couple minor problems when you travel light. First, expect an extra question or two from the customs officials at the airport (Six weeks with only this?). Second, a small bag won’t work if you plan to bring back many souvenirs. In this case, you can still go light. Just plan to buy a second bag at some point during the trip, to carry your acquisitions. As for the seemingly obvious issue of not having enough clothes and other things all in one or two small bags, I’ll explain below why that isn’t as big a problem as you may think.
How To Travel Light
Silk shirts weigh 3 ounces, and travel well if rolled up. Nylon dress socks weigh less than an ounce, and they are cool and comfortable. Poly-cotton blend t-shirts weigh 5 ounces. Supplex or other lightweight travel slacks weigh 9 ounces, and are sufficient for a fine restaurant or a walk in the woods. All of these weigh less than half of the typical travel choices, and take less space, yet function the same. There is no sacrifice involved here. For this exercise in travel simplicity, you even get to go shopping for new clothes.
You don’t have to buy new clothes, however. You don’t have to buy a scale and count ounces to travel light. Just choose the lighter alternative whenever you can. Set aside your lightest jacket, socks and pants for your next trip. Travel simplicity is the goal, not more complicated planning.
More Ways To Travel Light
Money replaces weight, especially in the form of a debit or credit card. Why carry two pounds of your favorite shampoo when you can simply buy small bottles as you travel. It really won’t cost much more to buy things wherever you go, instead of carrying your bathroom and wardrobe with you. Also, you really don’t know exactly what you’ll need, particularly on an overseas trip. Buy what you need as you need it, and you won’t have a pile of useless things in your luggage. Don’t we all regularly unpack things at home that we never once used during the trip?
Take a lesson from long-trail hikers (backpackers who travel a trail for months). They send things, such as new shoes, to a post office on their route, ahead of time, so they’ll be waiting for them. They also send home things they no longer need, such as a winter coat. The latter may be a useful practice for other travelers. If you buy bulky gifts for family or friends, why carry them around for weeks? Put them in the mail.
A Light Travel Example
What I Took For Six weeks in Ecuador:
• 8 pairs of thin nylon socks (less than an ounce per pair)
• 2 silk shirts for restaurants and discos (3 ounces each)
• 4 poly/cotton blend t-shirts (5-6 ounces each)
• 5 pair of light underwear (2-3 ounces each)
• 1 extra pair of lightweight slacks (9 ounces)
• Single layer nylon shorts for hiking or swimming (2 ounces)
• Thin gloves (1 ounce)
• Thin hat (1 ounce – honestly)
• Thin wool sweater (11 ounces)
• Waterproof/breathable rainsuit (14 ounces for the set)
• Light plastic camera (3 ounces)
• Sunglasses (1 ounce)
• Small chess set (3 ounces)
• Bathroom kit (5 ounces)
• Maps, notebook and various small things (3 or 4 pounds)
My pack weighed ten pounds, and my wife’s weighed 8 pounds. We never felt deprived. I’m not suggesting that you start counting the ounces (that comes from my backpacking days), or that you buy all new lightweight things. Without spending money or thinking about it too much, you can just start setting aside your lightest shirts, socks, etc., so you can travel light on your next vacation.
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Tags: Travel Advice > Travel Article > Travel Guide > Travel Information > Travel Tips
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9 Responses to “Travel Light: the How and Why”
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January 22nd, 2010 @ 10:03 am
Yes, light can travel in vacuum because it is an electromagnetic wave. The electric part generates a perpendicular magnetic wave and vice-versa, so it gets its own energy to travel through space-time, unlike mechanical waves that expand and contract or rather create pressure changes in the matter around it to propagate
January 22nd, 2010 @ 10:51 am
In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper we now refer to as the ‘Special Theory Of Relativity'. In this theory, he stated that where ever you are and however fast you are travelling you must find the speed of light to have the same value as that obtained by any other observer. In other words, you cannot change the laws of physics! To adjust observed quantities for two observers separating at a high constant velocity, Einstein provided a transform for measurable quantities, namely: -
q(at rest) =q(moving away at a high speed)/sqrt(1-(v/c)^2)
Where the 'q's' stand for measurable quantities, such as time, length, mass or kinetic energy, and 'v' stands for the velocity of separation with 'c' as the speed of light. Hence, using this measurement transform equation, both observers can agree on measured quantities such as length, elapsed time, mass, and kinetic energy. However, if the velocity of separation between the two observers 'could' be that of the speed of light then the quantity v/c = 1 (in the equation) and thus measurable quantities such as mass and energy would be infinite or time would stand still. Since infinities of mass, kinetic energy are impossible, Einstein concluded that nothing except mass-less particles, such as light photons, could travel at the speed of light.
Hence, to answer your question. Only electromagnetic radiation and possibly neutrinos (?) can travel at the speed of light. However, nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. From the standpoint of a photon, it takes zero time to cross the universe! From our standpoint, a photon’s 'clock' has stopped because it is travelling at the speed of light (see above equation v=c and m=0).
Light is also an electromagnetic radiation (or EM for short) , which means that it oscillates with mutually inducing magnetic and electric fields. The propagation of light is caused by the magnetic field inducing an electric field and then vice versa. Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction describes this process in the equation: -
Curl(E) = -?B
……………..___
……………. ?t
Hence, light propagates itself and does not need a medium, like a sea wave, in which to move. Light travels, so fast because it travels at the universal speed limit, which no material body can attain!
January 22nd, 2010 @ 4:41 pm
Most of these answers are theoretically correct, it is the theory that is faulted. The reason for the speed of light to be impassable, is simply that you can not measure that which you have no accessibility to. All measurement requires at least one point of reference, without this, speed is irrelevant. So is every other aspect of measurement. Most theories forget that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. It is more related to anti-speed(in relation to anti-matter) than to measurement of distance. If as an object approaches light speed, the outside observation is of infinite length and mass, then the observation of the object to it's surroundings, must be of equal value. Therefore if you were to have a propulsion system capable of exceeding light speed, it would either vanish or you would.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 4:30 am
The speed of light is a "phenomenological parameter" of present theory. That means a free constant of the theory that can only determined by measuring it. Others include proton mass, electron charge, and such. Some future theory may change this but for now, that's just the way it is.
January 23rd, 2010 @ 11:35 am
January 23rd, 2010 @ 9:14 pm
Light is an electromagnetic wave. Photons have no mass, so the only limitation to the speed at which they can travel is the ultimate speed limit of the Universe, 300,000 km/s. Sound, on the other hand, is a compressional or longitudinal wave (depending on what terminology your textbook favors). It is a train of high and low pressure zones moving through a medium. The speed of sound is limited by how quickly the atoms and molecules in a substance can rebound to their resting position after being disturbed, and also by how far apart they are. For example, in room temperature air sound travels at about 343 m/s. In water, sound travels more than four times faster, since the water molecules are closer together. Sound travels extremely fast in diamond, whose carbon atoms are held rigidly in place by high-strength covalent bonds. Still, the speed of sound through diamond is miniscule compared to the speed of light, because a light wave doesn't have to rely on matter returning to its original position before it can propagate through it.
January 24th, 2010 @ 5:21 am
It's because…well, the whole equation isn't E=mc^2. That's just the short version to avoid explaining time dilation.
E=mc^2/(1-v^2/c^2)
Which is, if you've seen the time dilation formula, it looks very similar.
v is obviously velocity, so as you can see, as the velocity here approaches the speed of light, the bottom of the equation will approach 0, and thus the energy required to move faster approaches infinity (and for knowledge sakes, the degree of time dilation increases exponentially).
To get into it any further would make things unncessarily complex. So, blame the universe for making funky laws like this.
January 24th, 2010 @ 8:31 am
Because there is nothing to stop it. Light has wave (EMW) and particle (photon) characteristics. Everything travels easier in a vacuum except sound as sound is a vibration and requires a medium to travel through. Light does not.
January 25th, 2010 @ 4:23 am
traveling at the speed of light doesnt necesarily mean time travel. traveling at the speed of light just means you can move at the same rate that light does, but depending on where you are, it can mean "going back in time" if you will. it takes the light from the sun around 7 or 8 minutes to reach earth. so lets say you wanted to go to mercury, if you traveled at the speed of light, it would mean that you would be going about 7 or 8 minutes ahead of time, for the light to reach mercury (hopefully this makes sense).
now if you went to neptune, you would be going "back in time" but only because it takes the light to reach neptune longer than it does for earth.
now if you went to a different galaxy, you would be traveling at the speed of light (duh), but take into consideration, that what we see in the stars here on earth, can be 5 billion years older than what it truely is. so if you went to a different galaxy, at first it would seem that you are going back in time, when really you would be going forward, because the closer you get to the galaxy, the shorter amount of time it takes for its light to reach you. so the galaxy would seem to be changing fairly quickly. so yes to a point, travling at the speed of light could mean going "back" or "forward" in time.
hope this helped.
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