{"id":35658,"date":"2020-03-25T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T16:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=35658"},"modified":"2020-03-18T13:10:31","modified_gmt":"2020-03-18T20:10:31","slug":"whats-in-my-bag-zora-oneill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/whats-in-my-bag-zora-oneill\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s in my bag? \u2014 Zora O’Neill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign up here<\/a><\/i>\u00a0to get\u00a0What\u2019s in my bag?\u00a0a week early in your inbox.<\/i><\/p>\n

Zora O’Neill<\/strong>\u00a0is a guidebook writer and the author of the travel memoir\u00a0All Strangers Are Kin: Adventures in Arabic and the Arab World<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0which won the SATW Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Book of 2016. She is on Twitter at\u00a0@zora<\/a>\u00a0and Instagram\u00a0@zoraoneill<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the bag<\/strong>
\nAbout six years ago I got sick of the noise of my rolly bag and switched to the\u00a0Tom Bihn Western Flyer<\/strong><\/a>, a convertible backpack. It holds nearly as much as a rollaboard, but it\u2019s small enough to fit under the seat in on the plane (where I can use it as a footrest). I almost always have it in backpack mode, but if I do check it, I can tuck the straps away, so they don\u2019t get caught on anything. The fabric is super-tough, and the internal divisions are well designed; I also use packing cubes.<\/p>\n

What’s inside the bag<\/strong>
\nLaundry kit<\/strong>
\nA generic rubber drain stopper<\/a> is key for doing laundry on the road. I keep one pocket of my bag always packed with this, some chunks of solid laundry soap<\/a> and a coiled elastic laundry line<\/a>. (My coworkers gave me the laundry line as a going-away-from-job gift in 2000, and I still have it!)<\/p>\n

SteriPen<\/strong><\/a>
\nThis is my second SteriPen \u2014 better than the first, because it\u2019s rechargeable. I have used it for years and years. It zaps microbes with ultraviolet light, and it just feels like a miracle to be able to \u201cmake\u201d water anywhere I am, instead of making that late-night run to the nearest shop for a plastic bottle. The only drawback is that it can look a bit like a sex toy in airport X-rays, and has a couple of times gotten me a bit more scrutiny than deserved.<\/p>\n

Delfonics Rollbahn notebook<\/strong><\/a>
\nDelfonics Rollbahn notebooks are the best: elastic to keep it closed, pockets in the back, good-quality paper, and spiral-bound, so it opens flat. Unfortunately, the tall, skinny format doesn\u2019t seem to be available in the US, but the B6 ones are good as well. (The bag behind the notebook is from\u00a0HEMA<\/a>, the Dutch chain that\u2019s excellent for practical, sturdy items of all kinds.)<\/p>\n

Buff Lightweight Merino Wool<\/strong><\/a>
\nThe Buff merino gaiter is a relatively new addition to my routine, but I wish I\u2019d had it years ago! It\u2019s pretty lightweight wool, warm but also great for using as a face mask on the plane, to keep yourself from getting dehydrated, which also helps with jet lag.<\/p>\n

Hammam Bath Bowl<\/strong><\/a>
\nYears ago, I stayed at budget hotel in Turkey with a crappy showerhead as well as a hammam-style bath: just a tap, a bucket and a bowl. The latter option was infinitely superior: lukewarm water is fine when it\u2019s splashed where you want it, rather than trickling onto your head. So now if I\u2019m going somewhere I might encounter low-pressure showers, I always pack my own hammam bowl. This one is lightweight aluminum, about 7.5 inches wide and 2 inches deep, from a\u00a0museum<\/a>\u00a0in Lebanon, but any similar format will work \u2014 look in dollar stores for plastic, or for cheap stainless pet-food bowls. Or, heck, get an actual\u00a0one from Turkey. Bonus: good for protecting small fragile items.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s in my bag? issue #42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2303],"tags":[1553],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35658"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35660,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35658\/revisions\/35660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}