I brought only carry-on luggage to Georgia, so that I wouldn’t be delayed in airports and my bags wouldn’t go astray. I think I had just the right amount of gear, since I used everything, but didn’t feel I left anything important at home. It all fit in a 40 litre backpack and a handbag. Here’s what I brought, including what I was wearing on the day I set out. This was for a two-week trip in late May and early June, including both city sightseeing and mountain hiking. It required doing a small load of laundry twice during my trip.
- 3 pairs of pants
- 7 T-shirts
- Pyjamas
- 7 pairs of socks
- 7 pairs of underwear
- 7 bras
- 1 flannel shirt
- 1 fleece vest1
- 4 bandannas
- 1 scarf (suitable for Orthodox churches)
- 1 mesh laundry bag
- 1 camping towel (If I had to jettison one item, it would be this one, since all the hostels, hotels and guesthouses where I stayed provided a towel of some kind.)
- Windbreaker
- Sun hat
- Sunglasses
- Hiking boots
- Flip-flops
A bathroom kit, consisting of:
- Toothbrush
- Toothpaste
- Dental floss
- Deodorant
- Sunscreen
- Hand cream
- Shampoo
- Hairbrush
- Mini nail clippers2
- Mini shaver3
- Mini tweezers4
- Maxi pads5
A backpacker’s first aid kit (I used Coughlan’s Trek II), with the addition of:
- Extra moleskin
- Antihistamine tablets
- Ibuprofen
- Diarrhea tablets
- Antibiotic ointment
- The prescription for my eyeglasses6
Documents
- Passport
- Bank card
- Credit card
- Ontario health card (while it’s still useful overseas)
- The number of my travel insurance plan
- Paper copies of ticket and reservation confirmation numbers
And the following gear:
- Wallet
- Phone7
- The charging cord for the phone
- Camera
- The battery charger for the camera
- Plug extensions to convert the charger plugs to type C and F8
- House key
- Mini flashlight
- A phrasebook
- Three sandwich bags with small quantities of toilet paper
- Large carbon fibre S-biner9
- Emergency sewing kit
- Travelling clothesline
- Small packet of liquid detergent
- Spare bootlaces10
- Treats for stray dogs
- Gifts
1. If you don’t go into the mountains, or you go later in the summer, the fleece vest is unnecessary.
2. The nail clippers are the only item I didn’t take, but should have. I thought the tiny blunt-tipped scissors in the emergency sewing kit would be good enough, but they were weak and left my nails ragged.
3. I took one of those small shavers that men use to trim their moustaches.
4. To save a milligram or two, I took the tiny tweezers from my Swiss army knife (but left the rest of the knife at home).
5. General stores in even modest Georgian towns carry familiar brands of pads and tampons, but not every rural outpost has a marketi, and you don’t want to have to cancel any of the day’s activities to go hunting for one.
6. I actually just took a picture of the prescription and kept it on my phone.
7. I took an unlocked burner phone and bought a local prepaid SIM card for it. SIM cards and inexpensive phone plans for travellers can be bought at Tbilisi airport.
8. Standard voltage in Georgia is 220 V and the frequency is 50 Hz. Most phone and camera chargers nowadays already have built-in adapters that can handle it. All we North Americans need are small converters to adapt the prongs of our plugs to the right shape.
9. I picked this item up at Mountain Equipment Co-op. I didn’t know if I would use it, but it came in really handy. It’s for hanging my backpack from the doors of bathroom stalls that don’t have hooks in them. If any of my hotel rooms had proved to be really sketchy, it could also have kept my bags off the floor and the potentially bedbuggy furniture. Happily, I didn’t encounter that situation.
10. Bootlaces can be used to tie items to the outside of your pack, lash your coat onto the back of a saddle, and for dozens of other purposes.
Kartvelian Adventures 