Don't leave home without it...or do.

Best thing we've brought with us:  Quick-dry microfiber towels.  These things are amazing.  Nice and soft and they dry in minutes.

Worst thing we've brought: Bar shampoo.  When we bought it we thought it might be weird to wash our hair with what is basically a bar of soap...and it is.

5 continents, 196 days and 4 pairs of underwear

That's right people, 4 pairs of underpants for 7 months.  That works out to about 49 days per pair.  When we were planning for this trip we read in many places that a lot of backpackers get by on just 2 pairs.  As you can imagine we were both disgusted by this prospect initially, however, the incredibly helpful bearded fellow in REI assured us that the magical wicking microfiber kind would keep us drier than a popcorn fart even in the most hot and humid of climates so we decided to splurge and get a few pairs each.  Here's a look at the rest of the stuff we're bringing:

Backpacks:  We both went for medium sized backpacks from Gregory.  Courtney has the Jade 50 and Lee is sporting the z55.  They are basically the same backpack but in male and female versions.  They're also both blue.  We got matching packs on purpose so we could pretend we're on The Amazing Race.  Keep an eye out for the matching "I'm with him/her" t-shirts once we reach Thailand.

Clothes:

Courtney's threads - 1 pair of each of the following; shorts, travel pants, capris, jeans, 1 Patagonia black dress, 1 summer dress, tank tops (4 - one dressy number for nights on the town!), t-shirts (3), long sleeve shirt (2), light North Face fleece, rain jacket, bathing suit (2), underwear (5), bras (3 - one sporty), socks (4), scarfs (2 - for covering up when necessary and/or jazzing up the same outfits that will be worn day after day), flip flops, sneakers.

Lee's stuff - convertible pants (2), cargo shorts, swimmies, t-shirts (5), jeans, undies (4), socks (4), North Face microfleece, cotton long-sleeve shirt, rain jacket, baseball cap, bandana, scarfs (2), flip flops, sneakers.

Toiletries:

Hair ties and bobby pins (first item on the list, Lee doesn't leave home without them), Burt's Bees Rosemary bar shampoo (smells delightful), soap, ziplock bags, little travel shower gel and toothpaste, deodorant, toothbrush, wet wipes (for spills and "showers"), razor, nail clippers.


Travel gear and gadgets:

Microfiber Towels (2)

Eagle Creek Packing Cubes (6) (to keep our stuff organized in our bags. 

Silk Blend Sleep Sheets (2)

Sunscreen

Deet Insect repellent

2 carabiner clips

Power Converter/adaptor

Medical Kit

USB storage devices

sharpie, pen

Moleskine Notepads (2)

deck of cards

dice (6) (do they play Farkle in Laos?  We'll soon find out)

ipod/ipod charger

Laundry detergent

sunglasses

guidebooks

canon powershot SD750

jobi gorillapod

swiss army knife

earplugs and sleep mask (Courtney has insisted she will not use either of these.  We'll see how long that lasts) 

rain fly (to keep our packs dry)

universal sink stopper

clothes line

toiletry hanging kit