No-luggage travel packs more potentialSpud Hilton Friday, September 17, 2010 |  |  FONT | SIZE:   |
Travel writer-author Rolf Potts is circling the globe for 42 days without any luggage, a journey being billed as the No-Baggage Challenge. Everything he's bringing has to fit in his Scottevest clothing.
View Larger ImageRolf Pottsmight be the only U.S. traveler not obsessing over baggage fees.
Not that the travel writer-author doesn't hate paying extra for luggage; it's that on his current journey around the world, it's just not an issue.
He has no luggage.
No suitcase, no carry-on, no man purse, not even a plastic Safeway bag full of boxers and socks. The trip is being billed as the No-Baggage Challenge, a journey that starts and ends in New York and passes through 12 countries in 42 days. If the challenge sounds like a publicity stunt, well, that's because it is. The trip is sponsored by online travel network BootsnAll.com and by Scottevest, which makes clothing with dozens of hidden pockets. (Three guesses on what Potts is wearing.)
For Potts, however, the challenge is in part to see if it can be done and how, but primarily to promote a philosophy: Travel is better without a lot of baggage - in every sense of the word.
"I can have a more culturally based experience that seeks out people instead of things because I'm not carrying my cocoon of comfort and familiarity with me," he said before he left New York in August. "I just want to be open to what's around me instead of obsessed with what I'm dragging behind me."
While Potts doesn't have baggage, he does have a cameraman, Justin Glow, who's documenting the trip and posting videos to a blog set up for the trip (rtwblog.com). While I'm not usually a fan of "dispatch-style travel writing," Potts has written two books on travel ("Vagabonding" and "Marco Polo Didn't Go There") and articles for National Geographic's magazines, so the writing (on an iPod Touch with a portable keyboard) and the videos are insightful and entertaining.
The rules are basic: No bags on the journey; no borrowing items from (or stowing with) the cameraman accompanying him; borrowing or buying from locals is permitted, but mailing items to himself is not. Without going into the entire list of gear (posted on the blog), it's important to point out that he has extra underwear and socks stashed in the Scottevest jacket, and he's bathing twice a day.
As of today, Potts will have been on the road for 29 days, traveling well over 17,000 miles through London, Paris, Madrid, Gibraltar, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa.
Highlights of his dispatches (so far) include:
-- Trying to extract himself from a rug merchant in Tetouan, Morocco - which was not the town they intended to be in (a linguistic mix-up with a taxi driver). Without luggage, however, they were able to explore without worrying where to stow the bags.
-- Attempting to hit as many London cliches as possible in under four hours. (To re-create the "Abbey Road" album cover, he had to recruit two teenagers who didn't know the names of any of the Beatles.)
-- The silent-movie-style video detailing the 21 steps of Potts getting a straight-razor shave from an Egyptian barber. ("Step 11: Ear hairs neutralized with cigarette lighter.")
-- And possibly the single best piece of travel advice I've ever read: "Walk until the day becomes interesting."
-- Quoting Mark Twain and Greek historian Herodotus in calling the Pyramids at Giza "the oldest ongoing tourist hassle on the planet."
The videos and Potts' writing capture the sense of adventure, although at the end of the day, said Potts, there's a lesson he hopes blog readers will take away.
"The idea here is simplicity and finding the best travel experiences in what you do instead of what you bring."
Spud Hilton is the Chronicle Travel editor and writer of the Bad Latitude blog at SFGate.com. E-mail comments to travel@sfchronicle.com.
This article appeared on page M - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle
Related Topics: Tourism, Writer, Rolf Potts, IPod Touch,Travel, Mark Twain, Egypt, IPod Classic, New York City,United States
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