How to Pack Fashionably and Light

The incredible Sony VAIO VGN-TXN27N laptop. This beauty is less than 2″ thick and weighs ii.eight lbs. If I add together a few ounces of weight with the extended battery (on the right) and trick it out, I tin get 15 hours of battery life. [Update: I now utilise a MacBook Air]

The proper noun of the game in globe travel is being "fashionably light."

Exercise in thirty-plus countries has taught me that packing minimalism can exist an art.

I returned from Costa rica last Midweek, and have since landed in Maui, where I'll stay for i week. What did I pack and why? Check out the video…

I do what I'll characterization the Flake method of travel: Buy Information technology At that place.

If you lot pack for every contingency — better bring the hiking books in example we get hiking, meliorate bring an umbrella in case it rains, better bring dress shoes and slacks in case nosotros go to a squeamish restaurant, etc. — carrying a mule-worthy load is inevitable. I've learned to instead allocate $50-200 per trip to a "settling fund," which I use to purchase needed items in one case they're 100% needed. This includes cumbersome and hassle items like umbrellas and bottles of sunscreen that love to explode. Also, never purchase if yous can borrow. If you're going on a bird watching trip in Republic of costa rica, you don't need to bring binoculars — someone else will have them.

Here's the Maui listing, listed from top-to-bottom, left-to-right:

-1 featherweight Marmot Ion jacket (3 oz.!)

-ane breathable Coolibar long-sleeve shirt. This saved me in Panama.

-1 pair of polyester pants. Polyester is light, wrinkle-resistant, and dries quickly. Disco dancers and flashpackers dig it.

-i Kensington laptop lock, also used to secure all bags to stationary objects.

-1 unmarried Under Armour sock, used to shop sunglasses

-2 nylon tanktops

-one large MSR quick-dry microfiber towel, absorbs upwards to 7 times its weight in water

-i Ziploc pocketbook containing toothbrush, travel toothpaste, and dispensable razor

-1 Fly Clear biometric travel carte, which cuts downwards my drome wait time about 95%

-2 pairs of Exofficio lightweight underwear. Their tagline is "17 countries. 6 weeks. And one pair of underwear." I think I'll opt for two, considering they weigh nigh as much as a handful of Kleenex. I other nice side-result of their weight: they're much more comfortable than normal cotton underwear.

-ii pairs of shorts/swimsuits

-2 books: Alone Planet Hawaii and The Entrepreneurial Imperative (the latter comes highly recommended. Check it out)

-i sleeping mask and earplugs

-1 pair of Reef sandals. Best to become a pair with removable straps that go around the heel.

-1 Canon PowerShot SD300 digital camera with extra 2GB SD memory card. God, I love this camera more words can describe. It is the best designed piece of electronics I take ever endemic. I now use it not just for all of my photos and videos, only also as a replacement for my scanner. I'm considering testing the newer and cheaper SD1000.

-one java harvesting lid to prevent my stake pare from burning off.

-1 Kiva keychain expandable duffel bag

-1 Chapstick, 1 Mag-Calorie-free Solitaire flashlight, and i coil of athletic record. The last is a lifesaver. It'due south as useful as duct tape for repairing objects only gentle enough to utilise on injuries, which I am fond of inflicting on myself.

-1 Lewis and Clark flex lock (for luggage, lockers, zippers, or any I need to lock down/shut/together). Standard mini-padlocks are often too cumbersome to thread through holes on lockers, etc.

-one Radio Shack kitchen timer, which I've been using to wake up for nearly v years. The problem with using a prison cell phone alarm to wake up is unproblematic: the phone needs to be on, and even if you apply vibrate, people can call and wake yous upwards before you want to wake up. The 2d benefit to using a kitchen timer if that you lot know exactly how much slumber you lot are — or aren't — getting, and you can experiment with things like caffeine power naps of different durations… but that's another mail service 😉

What are your favorite must-pack items, multi-purpose tools, and lightweight winners?

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How to Negotiate Convertibles and Luxury Treehouses… and Videos from Costa rica:

The hush-hush to getting what you desire is offset asking for what you want, and so negotiating if you don't become information technology. The showtime role is the near neglected.

Virtually people never acquire to ask for something properly, so they e'er get push-back and cease up negotiating. I cover dealmaking and negotiating exhaustively in The 4-Hour Workweek, likewise as in the bonus affiliate,"How to Get $700,000 in Advertising for $ten,000." Let'south look at how to win the fight earlier it starts.

I wanted this trip to Maui, my beginning to Hawai'i, to be an experience of personal firsts.

Here are a few: driving a convertible sports car on the Hana Highway, flying in a helicopter, sleeping in a full-size treehouse, and scuba diving the back wall of Molokini crater. I fulfilled all of them in the first 72 hours.

How I got a Mustang turbo convertible for $278 (gas included) instead of $542 (gas non included):

I bought my plane ticket to Maui about 24 hours before I left, then I landed in luau land with no reservations of any kind. There was only i rental company, so I had to get my convertible from them. Here are the pointers that got me from $542 to $278:

1. The beginning representative at the desk wouldn't play ball with discounts, so I told her that I need to take a phone phone call outside, took a 5-minute walk, and came back to examination another rep. Choosing the person on the other side of the tabular array — only like choosing a slot machine vs. playing slots well — is more of import than negotiating technique.

two. People who get what they want, only like expert negotiators or PR folk, are good conversationalists. Here's what I said:

"Hey, man. How goes it? I'thousand and so excited to be here. [Subsequently giving him my license and info] If yous accept any discounts I can use — AAA, student, magic elf, or anything at all — I'd really, actually appreciate it. I'm on a upkeep, so whatever you tin do would be crawly."

Find that I'grand asking for what I want without asking at all. The result: $278 with gas included instead of $542 without gas.

How I got a sold-out luxury treehouse for free:

This 1 is fifty-fifty amend. It'south the loftier tourist flavor in Maui. It'southward and then popular to drive from Kahalui to Hana for coastline and waterfalls that my local helicopter pilot said: "Thinking of staying over in Hana? Forget almost information technology. Yous'll never go a room."

Well, I had thought nearly it, and I wanted nothing more than to stay in i of the famous total-size treehouses in the rain forest. Doing this in the high season is something like showing up for the last game of the World Serial and asking for box seats at the door. So I chosen the treehouse gods and here's how it went down:

Me: "Hi. I'1000 really, really hoping that you have vacancies for tonight. Please say yes."

Goddess of the Treehouses: "Nope. Totally booked."

Me: "Oh, no. My dream is crushed. Are you sure? Practise you accept anything at all? Even a dilapidated and unsafe one? [I suspension while she first takes me seriously, and so laughs] Hmmm… Is there anything at all I can practise?"

Goddess: [long pause] "Well… how virtually a work merchandise?"

Me: "Sounds like fun. What do y'all mean?"

Goddess: "Moving some dirt."

Me: "For sure! I love it. How long would information technology accept?" [Note: I actually do beloved hard manual labor. Information technology demands full attention, and the repetitive motion is like repeating a mantra. Call me crazy.]

Goddess: "About an hour."

We talk for another 20 minutes, and she decides that she would feel guilty if she forced me to shovel while on vacation. I was secretly disappointed, only no matter: she and I met up at the treehouse, and afterwards a trip to a small apse beach together and much conversation, my stay ended up being gratuitous. Not only that, but I was adopted by a wild dog — the cutest puppy you lot've ever seen — who then played companion for the entire fourth dimension. Dig it.

Be a joker when you can, exist pitiful when needed, and learn to get a express mirth equally you lot field test the most valuable skill in the earth: request for what you want. If all else fails in Hawai'i, just tell them "Kama aina," which means you're a local. It should get y'all an automatic 15-20% off in well-nigh places. Don't tell them I told you 😉

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Hither are some clips from my contempo trip to Costa Rica:

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