Minimalism

Do nothing of which is no use. - Miyamoto Musashi

When you revolve a trip around staying at hostels, you really get to know who is a novice traveller and who is a seasoned backpacker by looking at how big their backpack is. The expedition packs that can hold a whole retail store’s worth of clothing will most likely belong to someone that is fairly new to the backpacking culture. Whatever situation may arise, there is a high chance that the appropriate item that you may need will be tucked away in their backpacks. Conversely, the hardened veterans will get by with nothing more than a daypack to store just the bare essentials. A select few can get by with nothing more than the clothes that they are wearing. I personally fall in the middle of the two extremes. During my recent trip to Southeast Asia, I was able to comfortably travel for months with a 35L backpack and a small day bag. In retrospect, I believe that I probably could have functioned with even less space. A small step towards being a minimalist backpacker. Why does this phenomenon exist in the backpacking world? Why is there a slow progression of needing fewer things in future travels? An obvious observation can be that you just learn over time what pieces you can sacrifice in order to carry less weight throughout the journey. If it is not a critical piece of gear then it probably could be left at home. Backpack space, after all, is premium real estate as I have mentioned in Digital Souvenirs. On a deeper level, I believe that the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom with every subsequent journey fortifies the mind of a person. Therefore, the lack of a physical piece of gear will be made up for by the increased ingenuity of the individual. The increase in mental resiliency will slowly start to reduce the perceived need for a sense of security in having more equipment. Upon meeting any future obstacles, the solution lies within as travel will create a transference of metaphorical tools from the backpack to the backpacker.