What's Inside the Bag?

I always travel light. I like to carry only one backpack, for my computer, clothes and everything else. The reason is because it makes me faster to go out from destination airport since I don't need to wait for checked-in luggage. And sometimes I have to travel to the countries where the baggage handling is not really reliable, I want to avoid the situation of losing the bag. Last but not least, if I want to extend my trip and go to different place using budget airline I don't have to pay extra for the luggage since I have only one cabin bag.

What's inside my bag?

Macbook air, Cisco badge, headphones, and one water resistant box contains all my electronic accessories e.g. macbook and iphone chargers, VPN token, universal power socket adapter, adapter for projector, adapter for ethernet, portable speakers, all USB and ethernet cables.
Sometimes I bring lightweight book, just in case I want to read.
Perfume, tooth brush and tooth paste inside airport approved plastic bag.
Four sets of clothes, North Face water proof jacket, swim wear, spare pant.

I don't need to carry lots of clothes since I always wear a jacket. When you wear suit or jacket nobody pays attention to the shirt underneath :)

Why tooth brush and tooth paste? Now even top airlines like Emirates or Singapore airline stop giving them for free inside the lavatory! And I always stay in 5-star or 4-star hotel but in some countries they don't provide one as well. If I have stay in one place for few weeks I'd simply buy the stuff.

All the items make the backpack weight around 8 kg only. No airline will refuse me to carry 8 kg bag to the cabin. And the set was more than enough for me to travel for 2 to 3 weeks continuously before going back home.

It's Not More Time That We Need

February has been a very busy time for me. First, because I have to travel back to back for 3 weeks within this month. Second, because I'm leading three concurrent projects at the same time for three customers in two different countries. Third, I also need to help the program manager finalizing the CCIE presentations we will be presenting in Cisco Live Melbourne next month. Fourth, since I travel to South Africa and Nigeria I use the opportunity to deliver free CCIE R&S Unofficial session over there. And last but not least, during my busy time I still conduct several free WebEx sessions with technical subjects like IPv6 for Indonesian professionals and students.

Now I'm in Lagos, Nigeria, doing design workshop with the customer. Yes, it's the same place where I have to use armed escort between the airport and the hotel.

I will host CCIE R&S session here this Friday, then while waiting for my flight to Johannesburg next Monday, I will conduct another WebEx session in my native language to discuss the architecture of Cisco ASR9000.

Even the schedule is really tight, I still believe it's not more time that I need. But less distraction. Appreciate and utilize any available time and try not to get distracted easily in order to focus, and one can deliver many things even within a very limited time.