If I could impart one piece of wisdom to everyone planning a trip like this, I would say: don't spend a lot of money on stuff. I know, I know, you're all excited about going and there is a lot of special stuff out there geared for the traveler, but you don't need most of it. Truly you don't. A good quality bag (I love my travel pack), sturdy shoes that are already broken in and clothes that aren't rags are really all you need. You can spend an enormous amount of money on synthetic fabric clothes for every activity, silk sleeping sacks, the latest in footwear suitable for trekking and water purifiers that you'll never use. But you really don't need them.

This is our original list of things we brought and how it fared:

2 pairs of lightweight pants each - actually, I ended up bringing 3 pairs. The cotton pair fell apart after 3 months and I left them in Chiang Rai. Pearse pretty much lived in just one pair but it's good to bring more than one for laundry days.

1 pair of shorts each - Pearse's fell apart around the same time as my pants and he bought a new pair in Chiang Mai.

1 long skirt for me - I never wore this and sent it home from Kuala Lumpur. I'm not a skirt kind of gal anyway.

1 fleece jacket each - we wore these once in Laos and sent them home from Kuala Lumpur. Pearse could have used it 4 weeks later when he climbed Mt. Kinabalu.

1 long sleeved shirt for me, 2 for Pearse - I used mine occasionally on air conditioned buses. Pearse sent his home from KL and borrowed mine for the mountain climb.

1 short sleeved camp shirt each - I actually brought 2 cotton ones and wore them almost every day. Pearse brought one made of technical fabric and never wore it.

4-5 T shirts each - We wore these often and even added to our supply by about 10 shirts. We sent some of the souvenir T-shirts home from KL.

5 pairs of underwear each (Ex Officio "quick dry") - These held up pretty good.

3 pairs of socks each - Used just about every evening as mosquito repellant socks.

2 swim suits each (one of Pearse's pairs can double as walking shorts - 2 suits are essential, especially if you're diving every day.

1 pair trail shoes/runners each - I think I used mine once, other than whenever we flew Air Asia and I had to wear them to get under the baggage weight restriction. Pearse needed his for climbing Mt. Kinabalu.

1 pair Tevas each - Mine held up great (they were actually Columbia brand), Pearse's were old to begin with and didn't quite make it the whole trip.

1 pair flip-flops for me (Pearse also uses these in the shower) - Since these were my only other pair of shoes I probably could have brought a second pair for the shower.

Rainjackets, sun hats & sunglasses for both of us - The hat was useless because it just made me too hot. Sunglasses are essential and if you wear glasses, an extra pair of glasses are useful - traveling in dusty vehicles and in ocean going vessels that spray salt water is hard on the glasses. The rainjackets were cheap shells and were only used a couple of times but I would take them again.

Toiletries, medicines & first aid kit - We used very little of the medicine kit, mostly just the Pepto and bandages but I'm not sure what I would have left behind. Almost all of the basic toiletries: toothpaste, shampoo, soap, we could have bought anywhere which is why we didn't stock up.

1 travel towel each, a couple washcloths and a sarong - The washcloths were only used once to clean my backpack after it fell off the roof of a truck into a mud puddle. Pearse ended up buying a cheap regular towel because he hated the travel towel. He also bought his own sarong and I bought a second one. Next time we're bringing more sarongs for use as sheets, towels, cover ups.

2 pillowcases - Not used. Originally I thought we'd use these for grungy pillows and/or as a dirty clothes sack but we didn't.

2 silk sleep sheets - Only used once. Very uncomfortable when it's as hot as it was. We ended up using our sarongs instead. If we had been staying in grungy hostels we probably would have used them more.

1 travel pillow for Pearse - I would probably make the room for my own pillow next time. Nothing says home like your own pillow.

Head torches & mag lite - Used often. Although we didn't need all the extra batteries we brought.

2 dry snorkels & 2 snorkel masks (mine is prescription) - Used often.

Inflatable life jackets - Used once while snorkeling off the shore in Phuket. I sent mine home from KL.

Digital camera & extra memory card - Worked out pretty good - I would have liked one with a more powerful zoom (only 3x) and a faster shutter speed to capture those dolphins mid jump.

Lots of sunscreen - Essential. You can buy it there but it's pricy.

Lots of large plastic Ziploc bags for just about everything - Essential.

Clothes line & Woolite - I don't think I'll bring the clothesline again - there is always something to drape wet clothes over. And shampoo works just as well as Woolite for washing clothes.

Diaries & lots of pens - Essential for doodling, writing down new friends' email addresses and for drafting blog entries.

Cards & dice - We played a lot of yahtzee and gin rummy.

Books - I read a lot less than I thought I would but we always had at least 2 lbs worth of books either to read or to sell in Pearse's backpack at any one time.

Guidebook (Lonely Planet Southeast Asia on a Shoestring) - The shoestring guide is only helpful in a "big picture" kind of way. We ended up buying a LP book for each of the countries we went to because we needed maps of cities and more in depth descriptions of the countries.

Money belts w/money, tickets & passports - We pretty much always wore our money belts unless we had a hotel safe. Eventually I started leaving the tickets and passports locked up in our bags except when we traveled.