Stuff

"How much does your life weigh? Imagine for a second that you're carrying a backpack. I want you to pack it with all the stuff that you have in your life... you start with the little things. The shelves, the drawers, the knick-knacks, then you start adding larger stuff. Clothes, tabletop appliances, lamps, your TV... the backpack should be getting pretty heavy now. You go bigger. Your couch, your car, your home... I want you to stuff it all into that backpack."  Ryan Bingham, Up In The Air

And stuff it all into a backpack (and a duffel, and a suitcase) I did.  Boy was it crammed and heavy.  Yet it barely caused a dent among my considerable possessions!  I never felt quite so shallow and materialistic as I do now.  Though George Clooney's character Ryan Bingham was primarily talking about relationships weighing you down, the material goods are enough to slow you down and kill the proverbial shark ("Make no mistake, moving is living.").

Time will tell how well my 35kg of stuff will serve me.  Off to Bangkok we go - the start of my Himalayan adventures.