Water bottle and flying

There is a huge chance that you don’t know, that in “less civilised countries” you can get your own bottle with water on board the plane.

This ridiculous idea, (same with removing your shoes, taking laptop off case… )
is practiced in Europe and US mostly.

Using this sanity I was always getting my bottle with water on board to be independent of flight personnel.

At this blog I already described my ultimate water bottle.

Is great as has pipe inside, so you can drink safely while driving your bike or car.

In plane – disaster….

As air pressure is changing during the flight such bottle always leaks.

I’m moving back to pipe less bottle.

Shirt in tropical regions

Based on own experience I thought that breathable T-shirt is good idea for “expedition”.
It is light, so you can get five breathable T-shirts in weight of three standard cotton.
It dries very fast, so you can wash it and hang by your backpack.
It’s not smelly.
I was not aware, that in tropics I’ll be fully wet in 10 minutes.
Wearing breathable T-shirt in humidity close to 100% is like wearing wetsuit.
Just insane.
Standard T-shirt is mistake as well, as it is completely wet you can be friction burned while walking.
Thank goodness, as a part of our plan we had wedding of our friends, I took two cotton shirts (not T-shirts).
Definitely the best solution, dries fast on you and you have some kind of comfort.
Sorry for showing sweating body on a blog, but this is totally connected to above text.

Tropical regions - tent

In previous post I wrote, that I haven’t seen tent suitable for tropical areas and then I realized that I’m wrong.
In 90% of places where I was using tent average temperatures were from 0 to 15 degrees Centigrade and there was a chance for rain.
I mean rain which is cold, wet and makes you feel not comfortable.
In tropics you are already wet, and rain makes you happy (me).
I made major mistake choosing proper tent.
For ages I was trying to find tent with external frame, as it is good to have flyer up with internal part inside especially when it rains.
For tropics much better tents are those with internal set of masts as you can remove flayer….. and take a breath.
Picture – our proper winter type tent on Easter Island

Night in tropics

After we came back from Borneo, I got a little bit more experience with choosing the right gear.

What was not acceptable for my body was heat.
It’s basically too hot and too wet there.

I was sweating so much that  I had an impression of ants doing mountain kayaking competition on my back.

Sleeping just on a ground is not advised, too many weird insects around.

Once we slept in hammocks (with integrated mosquito net) but we had no tarp, as I took tent instead.
So when started to rain at # AM we moved back to tent.

Tent is just disaster in such conditions.
I have an impression that every possible tent was constructed to keep us worm and secure us from wind and water.

Every wind is blocked by tent… terrible.

If you are planning to sleep in a jungle, my recommendation is hammock with integrated mosquito net AND tarp.

Main mistake was not to take tarp as we took tent.

What to do with backpacks ?

Put backpack in transport bag (was described at some stage in this blog)
and cover with military style poncho punched to the ground.
will work. (tested with tropical storm)