Top recommendations

Number one thing to recommend, and I know everyone says it, but shoes that won’t chew up your feet. I’ve been walking on the sidewalk outside a fancy embassy building in Europe and could not take one more step – took my shoes off and went barefoot for a blissful few blocks (much to my family’s horror) on a prior trip. So, cute shoes be damned, I went with a pair of Hey Dude Wendy with a swapped out insole for this cushiony one.

I carried a full box of Band-Aids, new tube of Neosporin, variety pack of Dr Frederick’s Better Blister Bandages, and Fab Feet Blister Preventer Anti-Friction Balm – and did not open a single one. CRAZY! Well that, or I am a very slow learner.

For the days of more rigorous hiking or the animal market I had an old pair of On Clouds 6 and for the lake and pools I had a pair of lightweight Totes flip flops.

Number two thing to recommend would be a good external battery for your phone. Call me a snot, but I don’t get people who tolerate their phone going dead. I went with the Gen 4 ultralight Nitecore. Thought about bringing a second (older, heavier) battery just in case. Glad I didn’t. The Nitecore never failed me.

What I packed

Organization

Suitcase. Mine is hardshell, 15 x 23 x 10 inches.
Nylon duffle. Mine is 15 x 30 x 9 inches. I had it inside a compression bag in the suitcase until the final stop before flying home. We had two internal flights which allowed us to check only one 15 kg bag. To go home I could check two 50 pound bags. Not that I did!
- Speaking of such things, the conversion section of my phone’s calculator got heavy use on this trip (lol)
Extra compression bag with mini-vacuum
Set of compression packing cubes
Lots of heavy duty ziplock bags
Lots of zipper pouches
My daypack: Deuter Speed Lite 21. Zero complaints.
My sling bag: Pacsafe V. Man, those zippers are fun to play with. Has a special RFID-block pocket for your passport, zip pocket for your wallet, outer pocket is perfect for a phone… Recommend +++
- Note: I have an old belly bag to wear under clothing for valuables that I thought about bringing. In the end I found my new sling bag worked perfectly to avoid pick-pockets.

Important

Passport (duh)
Driver’s license
Credit card
ATM card
Images of other cards on phone (health insurance, dental, COVID vaccine record, eyeglasses prescription)
Printed booklet with preliminary itinerary, hotel info, maps
Paper copies of passport, plane ticket details, travel insurance details, drivers license, credit card, signed letter from my doctor (in Russian) explaining my prescriptions are for personal use only, Walgreens inserts on the ingredients of my prescriptions
Wallet with as close to uncirculated USD as possible
Check your cell carrier for rules about data roaming. For me there was a cap, so even if used every day I would be charged a max of $336 which was fine by me
Phone numbers of everyone in the group on my phone before leaving
Increase cloud storage before leaving (will drop back to normal after the trip)
Apps to upload before you go: WhatsApp, Telegram, Xe currency converter, YandexGo (Russian version of Uber)
- Preset Xe with the currencies you are interested in. Does not work without Internet. Your pre-installed converter on your phone does not include Kyrgyzstan.
I did not find the Google Translate app to work well in the moment
Polarsteps is fun to turn on and let it document your travels – just upload a couple photos each day as you go
I brought paper, a couple pens, small roll of tape. Never used it. Took all notes on my phone.

Electronics

Epicka Air 40W universal travel adapter. Needed the European and the Russian. Used all the ports! In this case I did bring a backup older lightweight European-only adapter which was useful when I wanted to use a plug on the other side of the room.
Three USB-C to USB-C cables, one USB to USB-C cable, this Rolling Square inCharge 6 keychain cable, this Anker fast charge brick, a standard USB brick, and a standard USB-C brick.
A lollypop fan and neck fan ordered off Amazon, and belt clip-on fan ordered off TikTok. The lollypop and neck fan were used heavily – and appreciated!!! The TikTok clip-on fan was useless. Trashed it.
Airtag sewn into purse and airtag glued to suitcase. Kinda gave peace of mind to know the suitcase arrived at the airport before I could see it on the belt, but didn’t do much else. Of course if there had been an emergency, I’m sure it would be have been good to have. The one thing they did was chirp when I lost Bluetooth connection. So that was mildly annoying.
Oh, duh, my phone. But that’s obvious. Amazon suggested a phone leash. I never used it.
Thumb drive for photo backup. I got the Samsung 256 GB USB 3.1 flash drive. It plugs into the USB-C port and is simple to use. Chat GPT wanted me to have a second one just in case. At the last minute I caved and bought a second one. Completely unnecessary.
Ear buds. I downloaded the Radio Garden app and thought I could listen during our drives, but without Internet that didn’t work. Barely used the ear buds at all. International flights give out their own earphones.

Toiletries

Makeup – with the amount of sweating I did, I did not bother to put on makeup. I had brought just a little, but other than going out a couple nights, stuck to chapstick.
Hairbrush and tiebacks – again the heat! I wore my hair up pretty much all the time.
Case of 4 3-oz bottles: shampoo, conditioner, body wash, body lotion. In my regular life I only use body lotion a couple times during the winter. I never touched it on this trip. Most hotels had shampoo and body wash (no conditioner). Wasn’t mad I had brought my own.
Sunscreen, aloe after-burn – never used either
Picaridin insect repellent, topical benadryl itch stopping gel, hydrocortisone – never used. There was one occasion when a tiny green bug I’ve never seen before bit me. Other than that I saw precisely zero bugs.
Systane eye drops, nasal saline, multiple chapsticks for dry climate. I did use one chapstick, the rest went untouched.
16-pack of DripDrop electrolyte drink mix. YES. Ahead of time I thought they are slimy and I wouldn’t use them. False. I rationed so I would not run out and used them every day. Recommend brining enough to have one every day, and if you’re nice bring enough to share. I feel guilty I did not share when others needed some.
Throat drops and hard candy for the dry climate. Enjoyed having a couple, but did not need the dozens I brought.
Dossier said we need 5 COVID kits. First tried county health department to get for free, but they did not have any. Paid for a 4-pack, but then thought maybe there was a specific reason the Dossier said 5, so bought more. Turned out the tour leader had plenty if it should have turned out I needed one. Never used. Waste of space.
Disposable face masks
Hand sanitizer. I bought a couple noshinku hydrating (bougie) ones. It was a nice splurge. Would do it again, though TBH one would have been enough.
24 individually packed antibacterial Wet Ones. Used 2 or 3. Did not need 24.
Band-aids, neosporin, alcohol wipes – never used. Definitely could have brought less.
Individual packs berry-flavored dissolving Tylenol. This was awesome. Recommend.
All other OTC meds were blister packs. The advice is if you pour some pills out of the container to bring, foreign customs won’t recognize them and can’t tell what they are, so unless you plan to bring original containers get all meds in blister packs.
- Imodium. Didn’t use. People who had the need found that vodka with salt was a better remedy.
- Colace. Didn’t use.
- Benadryl. Didn’t use.
- Tylenol cold medicine. Didn’t use.
“Less drowsy” dramamine. Took once as a precaution.
3 rolls of tums – 8 tabs each. Took once.
My regular prescription meds
Travel clinic-prescribed azithromycin for ‘just in case’. Didn’t take. Could have gotten antibiotics over the counter if needed.
- Honestly there are easy-to-access pharmacies everywhere that have what you need. I did not need to supply my own pharmacy. If I had it to do again I’d bring something like 2 of the pills listed above just to get me through until I could get to a pharmacy. No need to take 40 of each.
Toothbrush
Toothpaste
Deodorant
Perfume
Dry shower in a bottle – never used. Taking a normal shower is not a problem. Even at the airport on a long layover I was able to pay the spa to take a shower.
Anti-friction blam, blister bandages – never used (see shoe rec above)
Ear plugs, eye mask – never used. I feel like if you don’t use these things normally you are unlikely to use on a trip.
Apple stink balm (for under the nose) – used on train.
Kleenex for toilets. I had NO IDEA how much to bring. I should have just brought one purse pack and planned to buy more if needed. I brought 4 100-packs, 5 10-packs, and 60 water wipes. Threw almost all of it away. Certainly the water wipes were way too heavy to justify.
Disposable women’s pee funnels. I’m a wimp when it comes to squat toilets. Have made a mess of myself in the past and wasn’t willing to either risk making a mess of me or having to clean a reusable funnel, so I got a 40-pack online. That was a ridiculous number. 5 would have been enough.
Emery board
Nail scissors
Tweezers
Q-tips
Tiny sewing kit
Safety pins

Other

Microfiber towel to pack small – tough call on whether it was worth it. There was an occasion when we were swimming in a lake after checking out of a hotel, so I would have had to drip dry if I hadn’t brought a towel. But the one that packed small and light was not absorbent. I threw it away after using.
“Foot hammock” for long flights for a short person – did turn out to nice to have when trying to get in a reasonable sleeping position
I saw seat cushions advertised and debated brining one. I thought maybe for the plane, long drives, stadium seats. First TikTok advertised these gel ones (WAY too heavy), then I saw camping ones. But I don’t have a chronic back problem or whatnot, and would feel like an imbecile blowing something up while people wait for me to sit down. In the end I’m glad I did not bother.
Water bottle – sure you continually access commercial plastic bottles of water, but having my own water bottle made it easy to be drinking electrolyte flavored stuff around the clock. Invaluable for this climate. Obviously choose something lightweight. I chose this one with no straw to clean.
- Thought about bringing the LifeStraw (which would pack small) but absolutely no one even offers tap water, so it would be been useless — maybe other than brushing your teeth in your hotel room? But even that is silly. Keep in mind all hotel rooms offer complimentary bottled water. Also, don’t worry about having a drink with ice. The locals only make ice with commercial bottled mineral water.
Hat – I had an old straw hat I picked up at the beach that I could crumple when I wasn’t wearing it. Honestly I find it hard to look around – okay, mostly look up – when wearing a hat with a brim, so it annoyed me. But the sun was hella-intense so a hat was necessary. Not sure what the right answer would be.
Glasses
Sunglasses
Microfiber cloth to clean glasses
I went without a glasses case (used the zip pouch of the day pack) but given how often I fling mine on and off my poor abused glasses would have benefited from having a protective case.
Mini flashlight – saw this recommended on multiple lists, so broke down shortly before leaving and brought one along. There was one occasion when I used it to climb a tower, but honestly I don’t get the recommendation in this day and age when we all have flashlights on our phones. The advice said – what if there is an emergency? Like what? An earthquake? As someone who does not let their phone die I think this advice is silly. And if there was an earthquake with no electricity for days I’d have more to worry about than whether I thought to pack a tiny flashlight.
Dossier mentioned bringing snacks for a long drive, so I brought myself some sandwich crackers. Completely unnecessary. We stopped at convenience stores most days, not to mention many people made themselves little bags of treats from the breakfast buffet offerings.

Gifts

For the tour leader: local artist card with image of local stuff and trendy pink mini Trader Joe’s tote bag
For local guides (in addition to cash tip): trendy Hidden Valley Ranch packets
For children: bubble gum — according to TikTok, locally they mostly get mint Orbit, so bubblegum-flavored Bubble Yum or Hubba Bubba is special

Clothing

I’ve already mentioned I brought 3 pairs of shoes: Hey Dude slip-ons with fresh gel insole, old pair of OnCloud sneakers, and Totes lightweight flip flops. Did not need more.
My Google research indicated zero chance of rain for my trip. That is simply not correct. I brought the Arc’teryx Squamish windbreaker which is the smallest packable jacket you can find. Could I have benefited from some more rain protection? Sure, but it wasn’t so bad.
The trip dossier said we would need a sweater for higher altitudes. Brought the extremely lightweight White & Warren cashmere open front cardigan. As someone who is essentially always hot I used it exactly once. Glad I did not pack more cold weather clothes.
Old linen scarf as head covering. A friend mentioned purchasing an abaya. That would have been totally unnecessary. In fact mosques have head scarfs to borrow, but not sure that’s the most hygienic.
I brought one dress (Sauth’s Kyoto in blueberry) which I had in my everyday rotation. I might have been the only person without a “nice” occasion outfit. I guess I could have worn my other clothes more and saved this, but TBH I wasn’t really embarrassed by wearing what I had on already to go to dinner.
- I did keep older standards of modesty in mind when selecting what to bring. I know TikTok has videos of young women in the cities of Central Asia wearing as little as someone might wear in LA or NYC, but nothing wrong with keeping all pants/dresses below the knee, shirt sleeves past the shoulder, necklines above the collarbone, etc.
Four pairs of linen pants – as a ‘short queen’ they are all cropped length, which essentially hits at the ankle for me (lol)
Eight tops (two for each pair of pants)
One pair of pull-on loose leggings to wear under a tunic
2 camisoles
10 cotton underwear
10 ankle socks treated with permethrin – this was recommended by my travel office and 100% unnecessary.
I slept in a silk-suede camisole pajama set. Can’t imagine anything packing smaller.
Bathing suit – I panicked when it was time to take the flight with a 15kg bag weight limit – and trashed it because it was my heaviest clothing item, plus we did not have any more swimming planned. Honestly though, wish I hadn’t. Turns out our trip leader paid the 5 kg overage that was for our entire group. I bet that bathing suit wouldn’t have been a big deal.
Jewelry: I chose to wear the same thing every day: gold hoops, two rings, and a necklace. It made life easy.

A word on blending in – while the specialty textiles we looked at were exuberant, it is not what people actually wear. We were told that all schools have the children wear black on the bottom and white on the top. But it would seem that formula doesn’t stop when school ends. Everybody is wearing black on the bottom and white on top. If you want to fit right in, go monochrome.

Laundry

Pretty much any hotel will do laundry overnight for you. I chose to get my clothes washed at a nice hotel in Tajikistan. In USD it cost me $10.82 for everything.

I took a travel mist bottle with Downy Wrinkle Release. I thought I would spray the heck out of my linen each night and it would help with wrinkles and odor. The verdict is that it did smell good, but I think it did virtually nothing for the wrinkles. Most hotels did not have an iron (even if you ask at the front desk). So…it is what it is.

I had a Tide stain stick (verdict: excellent!), CampSuds, travel rubber braided clothesline (see photo above), and universal drain stopper. Highly, highly recommend.

Before the trip I was thinking I might have to carry half-wet things in my suitcase if we were hitting the road before things dried. I did not take into account that we were in a dessert. This is literally not a concern.

Impressive hotel bathroom

Toilets

If you’ve traveled anywhere in Asia you know to expect to bring your own tp and cheer when you come across a “western style” toilet. The women in the group I think were of two mindsets. For me, I’d rather hold until I burst if the toilet is just “BA” (best available). For others, they went at every opportunity.

As mentioned above I gave in and used a squat toilet less than a half dozen times. Certainly did not need my own paper more than that. It is true that the local tp is frequently like crepe paper streamers, so some did opt to use their own, even when it was there, for the softness factor.

Using Google Calendar

Before I left I changed the setting, so my Google calendar would not muck with time differences. So if I put something in at 6 pm from home, it would still read as 6 pm on my trip. Then for each day I entered (all day) the location. Took a look at our preliminary itinerary making note of when we would go swim in a lake, hang out with animals, hike the desert, or spend the day on the road. From there I gave myself an OOTD each morning. Then indicated when I would plan to do laundry (paying attention to where we were staying more than one night).

During the trip itself I jotted down notes about where we went each day to try to help me remember what I saw. On an extensive trip like this it can be useful when things start to run together in your mind.

Staying in touch

Post-divorce my family has a standing Zoom call on the first of the month. It was great to video chat with the fam on schedule. Other than that I used WhatsApp and Telegram to share thoughts, photos, and generally keep in touch. On the other hand I did not keep in touch regarding work! Quite strict about that — with many, many thanks to my co-workers who stepped in for me!

4Stans2026

Practical Notes