(Wo)man with a Mission

The (Wo)man: Esther Huang, a rising sophomore in Wharton. I'm Chinese-born Canadian, but have lived stateside in Philly for the last ten years.

The Mission: packing for my backpacking trip through Southeast Asia, an experience that will lead up to my time studying abroad at Seoul National University in South Korea! I will backpacking for a nearly three weeks, making my way from Bangkok down to Singapore, then flying into Seoul for my coursework in July.

I am currently staring down my empty backpack and wondering where to begin.

I made the jump in deciding to go with my 45-liter pack over my 35-liter pack – something I am admittedly not enthused about, given that a smaller pack would suffice for the backpacking portion of my travels this summer. Unfortunately, I do have to take into account the fact that slummin’ in free swag tees and track shorts probably would not fly in Korea. The original plan was to ship Korea necessities from Bangkok, but I’m not willing to pay USD300 for a 15-lb package. So here, I am, stuck with the bigger pack in order to accommodate for two different lifestyles during my travels...

Still, I plan on keeping packing to a bare minimum and buying things as I need them. What has made me put off packing is anticipating having to wear (and consequently, wash) something that will eventually have to be packed. Grrr. When the time finally comes, I’ll end up having to hurriedly mash everything in (or possibly experiment with supposedly super-efficient bundle-wrapping).

I have New York JFK in my sights for my 5:25pm flight tomorrow. The gameplan: land in Thailand on the morning of Wednesday, June 15th, *improv my way through Thailand and Malaysia* (playing it by ear...I am going with a friend, and we have absolutely no itinerary), hopefully end up in Singapore by June 24th, and then fly into Incheon. I lucked out in getting an eleven-hour layover in Düsseldorf on the way to Bangkok — I am not passing up this opportunity to hit up and explore Deutschland, though I'm hoping to lay off the e.coli.

My summer travels kick off tomorrow! Stay tuned...