Equipment

This is all we carried. Eric's bag (right) weighed 10.2kg, Christy's (left) weighed 7.8kg.	Swiss army knife. Useful.	Motion-sensitive sonic lock. A bit heavy, and needs a key-lock switch to keep it from sounding accidentally when not armed. More of a pain than it was worth.	Carabiners. Surprisingly useful; intended to clip shoes to our bags, we used them to clip camera/GPS to the belt and to secure bags in our bunks on trains. Also kept our cheap souvenir bag closed on the flight home when the zipper failed.
GPS. I really thought this would be a great thing to have while travelling, but it turned out to be one of the least useful items. First, the World Maps from Garmin do not have enough detail, and second the unit takes too long to aquire signals and give a location. Often I would step out of an airport and turn the GPS on to try to figure out at least cardinal direction, but by the time it had found even one satellite I was the hub a wheel with spokes made of tuk-tuk drivers, batik salesmen, and children with wood carvings all asking where I was from, where I was going, and if I was married.	Palm pilots. Used to read books downloaded from Project Gutenberg.	Good for sleeping on trains as well as airplanes.	Not used as frequently as anticipated since we didn't stay in hostels.
All of our clothing was packed into zip lock bags.	Study material. I wish this had been available in electronic form.	More clothing smashed flat and vacuum sealed.	Homemade combination ear protection head phones. Awesome for plane and train rides, because they prevent deafness and let you sleep, but allow the ear to adjust to pressure changes unlike foam earplugs. Make sure to bring the proper connectors for the airline. Cathay-Pacific uses 1/4'' stereo.
Raincoats worked fine, but were best when coupled with umbrellas. Good on cold nights in the mountains.	IBM T22 laptop. It seems ridiculous to carry an expensive computer throughout south-east asia while travelling light, but there really isn't a better way to store and organize 1.3 Gb of pictures. Also enabled us to watch movies on long train rides.	Cables and plug adapters.	Toilet paper, carried for "emergencies" while in Indonesia.
Camera battery charger.	Extra glasses.	30% time-release and 100% DEET bug repellants. Never used the 100% stuff, and forgot to apply the 30% as much as I meant to.	SPF 36 sunscreen. Used on the beach and during high-exposure days, but generally we just went without and avoided being in the sun at peak times. 100% humidity is slimy enough without any additional grease. We didn't get any sunburns, so all ok.
Shampoo, conditioner, travel toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss. Proper sizes for this length trip, and well-used.	Razors, deoderant, combs, etc. all packed quite small.	Our medical kit.	Sunglasses were very nice, but in 100% humidity tended to slide on my nose. Also lenses were easily smeared in the wet climate, and hard to wipe clean. I stopped wearing them after a while, except for extreme situations.
We never used these, as our hotels supplied nice towels. I suspect that hostels would have been another story.	Lonely Planet guide books are quite good. We started with a huge stack, cut out the parts we were not going to use, and then threw them out as we went along.	I used this as a travel diary and sketch book. Did less drawing than I would have liked, since pictures were so much faster.	Batteries for the GPS and pilots.
Travel alarm clock.	Sewing kit and extra hair restraints. Didn't need them, but they were small.	We bought this after we needed it, and will bring it next trip.	Carrying small rolls of candy proved invaluable when stuck travelling during meals or when hungry at inconvenient times.
The funnel was never used, as I finally figured out how to navigate squat toilets while wearing pants.	The entire set of gear needed to travel for a month, unpacked.	Christy's pyjamas.	Bathing suits didn't see much use, but packed small.
Cotton hankerchiff. Absolutely crucial if you wear glasses and teflon coating clothing. The non-stick aspect of my teflon coated shirt was great up until I wanted to clean my glasses. It also was great for wiping sweat of the my brow. Bought in Georgetown, Malaysia.	SmartWool socks. These dried reasonably quickly, but Christy found hers too itchy and stopped wearing them.	All cotton undies.	Thorlo trail runner socks. Extremely breatheable and comfortable, but they didn't dry overnight and thus always smelled vaguely of mildew and feet.
Cotton socks weren't as comfy, but they dried fastest of the bunch.	ExOfficio Air-strip travel shirt. It dried quickly, breathed well, and we looked respectable no matter how much we'd been sweating. The back vent didn't do much good when carrying a backpack, though.	ExOfficio amphi shorts w/o liner. Quite comfortable, quick-drying, with good pockets. Belt unfortunately tacked in at one end.	Columbia nylon zip-off pants. Though heavier and slower to dry than one would anticipate, they did have enormous pockets.
ExOfficio air-strip pants. Almost as good as shorts due to the mesh gusset along the inseam. I wore these almost constantly. Pockets a bit small. Also note belt pouch for money, passports, and tickets.