Life as a Petite || Fashion, Crafts and Lifestyle Blog: Travelling Essentials

Boo!

I hope you all had a fantastic weekend! Thank you so much for welcoming me back to the blogging community with all your lovely comments on my last outfit post HERE. Anyway as promised, this post will be about my travels. I travelled around China, Indonesia and Malaysia, and to say it wasn't eventful would be lying. It was an incredible experience and I did learn a lot through mistakes but also through meeting new people. So I thought I would kick off my travelling posts with a list of travelling essentials, and also share a few snaps that I took (you can see some more on my Instagram page - HERE).

As I only travelled around some parts of Asia, some important things such as vaccinations may more applicable to other countries, however, the majority of those listed below should be taken into account if you are planning to go travelling. So, here goes.

Documentation Essentials

1. Passport & other important documentation e.g. visas, hotel confirmation, air tickets, photocopies of documents

2. Health/Travel Insurance

3. Debit Card/Credit Card/Currency Exchange Card and/or Cash - In the countries that I travelled to, you always needed cash, especially in China such as for buying subway tickets or street food. However, it is useful for security to bring a e.g. credit card just in case you run out of cash (plus you don't want to carrying around too much cash). Do, however, be aware that certain places do not accept card. Of course the well known branches such as Starbucks and more expensive places take all kinds of cards, but a lot of little shops that do accept card (including McDonald's surprisingly) do not accept Visa Cards, and usually only accept Union Pay and occasionally Master Card. So I would definitely advise double checking which card providers the countries usually accept.

4. International Drivers Licence

5. Student Card - Although a lot of the places I visited never accepted e.g. non-Chinese university student cards, a lot of my friends that have travelled could use their student card. So there's really no harm in taking it.

Gadget Essentials

1. Camera - Charger, memory cards, tripod, lenses & cables

2. Plug Adapter

3. Phone & Charger

4. Ipod/portable music player & headphones

5. Torch

6. External battery pack

Applications

1. Maps.me - A friend I met whilst travelling introduced me to this app, and oh how I wish I had known about this earlier! If you do not have 3G/4G or want to use data roaming whilst travelling but want to get somewhere/lost this app really is a gem. It is a map which you have to pre-download, and detects your location by using GPS. Of course the map isn't going to have stores/restaurants that have just opened up, but trust me, if you are lost and need to get back to your hostel, this is a life saver!! You can download it HERE.

2. Hostelworld

3. Phrasebook - or have some phrases such as 'Where is the toilet/restaurant?' 'Could I have some chicken with rice' etc. This really is more applicable to countries that speak very little, if not any, English, as some places might not have signs or menus in English.

4. Currency Exchange App

5. Subway map for the city you are in

6. Whatsapp - if you do not already have whatsapp, this app is great if you want to stay in touch with your family and friends.

7. As a side app which is more applicable to anybody travelling to the UK or who are living in the UK, CityMapper honestly is the best if you're trying to figure out how to get home or get somewhere. It takes into account tube strikes etc and gives replacement bus information.

Clothes, Shoes & Toiletries

Of course this is all weather and country dependent but definitely just try to pack things that you will definitely wear and things that can be paired in different ways. You want to save as much space as possible, and take as little as possible. I just thought I would list a few things which may be obvious, but may be something you'd forget. Also if you are travelling to somewhere where you would be visiting for example temples, make sure you bring something like a sarong or wear long trousers.

- Underwear & socks

- Swimwear & goggles

- Trousers, T-shirts, Vests, Dresses, Leggings, Shorts

- Waterproof jacket/cover for bag

- Flip-flops, flat shoes, trainers, hiking boots, sandals

Your usual toiletries should include nail clippers and tweezers, moisturiser, lip balm and also suncream.

Travel First Aid Kit

-Plasters, Blister Plasters, Bandages, Safety Pins

-Anti-diarrhoea Tablets, Nurofen/Ibuprofen/Paracetamol, Cough Medicine

- Insect repellent

- Hand Sanitiser, Wet/Baby wipes

-Aftersun