Who Are You as Backpacker?

Whether you’re a 'otai' backpacker or preparing for your first timer, the world awaits. Backpacking provides incredible experiences and opportunities for travelers of many varieties. Check out these types tour backpackers you might encounter on your next trip and ponder about which group you fit into.

Spiritual Travelers

Looking to find themselves and serve others, these travelers often flock to Asia. After purchasing missionary insurance in case of any needed medical treatment, spiritual pilgrims set off in search of inner peace. Many spiritual backpackers visit religious sites or work for charitable causes during their travels. As Muslim, I can say going to Mecca & Madinah are considered in this category. 

Hippie Trippers

Developing countries attract hippie travelers who eat local and use local transportation. They often sport dreadlocks and avoid average tourist destinations.

Gap Year Adventurers

The year between high school and college finds gap year travelers exploring the world and seeing the sights without the responsibility of educational or work pursuits. Particularly in Asia and Australia, they often stick to the beaten path.

Party Packers

A drink in hand identifies this group. Primarily congregating in party destinations like Barcelona, Prague, Thailand and Amsterdam, these backpackers are loud and fun.

The Couple

Worldwide, couples seek to escape the routine and spend time reconnecting with each other. Older travelers tend to avoid the party scene while younger couples actively seek out the party crowds.

Flashpacker

Identify these travelers by their attachment to electronic devices. Found worldwide wherever they can find Internet access, flashpackers usually don’t pinch pennies or sleep under the stars.

Nostalgic Travelers

Long-time travelers fall into this category. They’ve been everywhere and often return to their favorite locations. Filled with stories of the good old days, they may spend time reminiscing on how the best sites were better back in the day.

Tour Types

As you backpack, you will encounter travelers from one or more of the above categories. Perhaps they are journeying solo or in a guided tour. Find out more about the tour types that attract backpackers from around the world.

With the variety of tours available, you can find the trip that meets your needs. Whether you spend a few months exploring the beaten path or tour local sights for a day, find a backpacking experience that meets your style. You’ll be glad you took time to discover the adventures that await.

• Guided group Tours – Backpackers on a guided tour simply show up and follow the qualified guide on pre-arranged sightseeing tours. The cost typically includes housing, transportation and activities.

• Independent Tours – Individual backpackers arrange the details on this personalized tour option. You decide everything from what to see to how long you stay.

• Active or Adventure Tours – Exercise your need for adventure as you participate in mountain climbing, hiking or biking.

• Hop On/Hop Off Tours – Travelers on a budget appreciate this tour type. Reserve a seat on the bus for the tour then hop off the bus to explore a location or relax. Jump on the next bus when you’re ready to continue the tour.

• Day Tours – Some travelers can’t escape reality for weeks or months at a time. Often designed for sightseeing rather than adventure, day tours provide travelers with a taste of the backpacking experience.

• Trekking – Multi-day hikes allow travelers to enjoy the great outdoors while exploring rugged locations.

Deciding where to begin your backpacking adventure isn’t the first or hardest decision you’ll ever have to make. Deciding what type of backpacker you are will help make the rest of the choices part of the fun!

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What is Hammock Camping?

One of the best ways to camp in the jungle is by using a hammock with a tarp over. The hammock keeps you off the ground, away from the wetness of the rain and creepy crawlies. Personally, it is by far the single type of shelter that is practical and jungle friendly.

The biggest challenge in using the conventional ground tents in the jungle is space. In the dense tropical jungle of Malaysia, finding a suitable ground space that is big and flat enough for a tent is almost impossible. Every inhabitant in the jungle is always competing for a piece of the ground. Plants grow on every patch of ground available and animals like ants and centipedes swarm the jungle floor for food at all time.

The hammock approach solves many of the challenges in trying to use a tent in the jungle. All that is needed are two good size tree, strong enough to hold your weight and spaced just right for the length of the hammock. The two trees act as the main ‘posts’ for the hammock and the flysheet that will later go over it. One can even setup this type of shelter at uneven ground and there is no need to chop or clear ground bush unnecessarily.

The 'guys' I brought for Fitness Adventure Challenge at Mount Ledang

My 'home'

The tired knotted back muscles relax extremely well sleeping in hammock curve, and after getting used to it, you will prefer it. You can elevate your feet above your body, it helps to reduce the swelling that sometimes happens overnight after a good hard day of hiking. Besides supporting you back, relaxing your body, and reducing foot swelling, there is the gentle rocking that can lull you to sleep, as well as the lack of mystery bumps like rocks and roots that you think are not there until you lay down to sleep like there is sleeping on the ground.

Hammocks are actually some of the lowest impact hiking systems out there. Instead of grooming a flat spot or compacting earth, a hammock keeps you above all that. Tree bark can be protected by either flat straps or by using a rope system that uses multiple wraps to distribute the load that keeps the rope from digging into the trees.

The benefits to hammock camping besides comfort and low impact are quite a few. The main ones for me are site selection, weight,  and flexibility.

The number of camp sites when you use a tent or tarp are limited to the places where you have flat ground, no pooling of water, clear of bush, clear of rocks and roots, and many other little things to make your sleep enjoyable as well as just supporting the structure. Many times you must either crowd into a limited number of spots with others, go to designated sites, create a site (increasing impact to environment), or take a less than perfect site. With a hammock, it's almost all good.

Enjoying every moment inside 'the home'

Feel asleep while the dinner served

When you have a hammock, your campsites are limited by imagination. All you need is a couple of trees the right distance apart. What is under you may not matter at all. I have personally can set the hammock and slept on the side of a mountain. There are things that make better camps than others, and some safety things to consider, but unless you are camping where there are no trees, then the hammock will increase your camp sites.

I also say weight because I select hammocks that are lightweight. There are some hammock models out there that weight a lot more, but that is your choice as what to carry. But the absolute lightest camping hammock with bug protection and rain fly is less than a pound, the absolute lightest tent that gives bug protection weighs twice that.

And as for flexibility, well my hammock serves as, chair, lounge, gear loft, solo tent, and of course - a hammock. A tent is always a tent.

The right to make a copy for personal use is part of most existing publishing agreements. This right is recognised as an important right for the author. Because the right is attached to the author and in most cases well defined, personal use won’t harm the publisher.

Outdoor Recreation Course Level 1

This is another consequences from previous effort I put since 2007 to organize this course. Let's check it out as details below:

Course: Outdoor Recreation Course Level 1
Date: 20-22 April 2012
Venue: UTM Johor Bahru Campus
Fee: RM180 per person
Organizer: UTM in collaboration with Jabatan Belia & Sukan Johor

This course including:

• camp craft
• night jungle exploration
• basic navigation
• knots & abseiling set-up
• wilderness first aid
• water confident & maneuvers
• kayak
• lecture: Outdoor Program Management

This year I involved in this course as external consultant to helps the students tackling the tricky aspect of organizing the event. As I no more serve as government servant, this effort I considered as my public responsibility while without thinking about the payment get.

May the course will benefits all.

For more details & registration:
email me: miha5123@gmail.com
facebook: Blackopoulos Johor

Nutrition for Outdoor

Just like a car needs fuel to drive, so does the human body need food and drink to build up the energy needed to walk. The provisions you take with you will largely depend on your own preferences, the duration of the hiking or outdoor trip, and if you will be able to replenish your supplies along the way. In general, good planning and precautions can prevent serious nutrition problems.

Selecting your Foods
Selecting what food to take with you will depend on your plans. On short hikes, you can pamper yourself by taking all kinds of snacks. The additional weight and volume might not be any serious factor, so why not. However, if you are going on multi-day hiking or camping with no sure places to replenish your provisions, careful choices will have to be made to make sure you can pack the necessary provisions. Thus, choosing your food becomes a challenging puzzle where nutritional value, volume, weight, and preparation method have to be taken into account.

Here are some tips when it comes to selecting your foods:

• Dried or dehydrated foods: retain most of their nutritional value but since most of the water content has been removed, the foods are lighter in weight and smaller in volume. This makes dehydrated foods very popular in the outdoor community. Preparation is mostly very simple but will require water.
• Canned Foods: are even easier to prepare but are both heavier and take up more space. Canned foods can be added to your selection if you want to build in some luxury treats.
• Select a variation of foods that fulfill different nutritional needs. Variation in your food intake is very important especially on longer trips.

 planning & cooking a meals is a greatest & worthiest things to be mastered

Plan your Meals
You need to plan your food and fluid intake to make sure that you have enough to last for the duration of your hike. Planning your meals will make sure that you do not over indulge on day one, leaving you with nothing to eat on the third day.

Here are some guidelines in planning your meals:

• Do not depend on other possible sources of food and bring everything you need to keep yourself well-fed during your hikes. Only if you are 100% sure that you will be able to restock should you take less with you.
• If you are sure about re-supply points in your outdoor plans then anticipate on what provisions they can replenish.
• Separate your meals in daily rations and package them separately. This will make it easier to determine how much you are allowed to eat to have enough for the full duration of your outdoor trip.
• Package and label emergency rations. Labeling them as emergency rations will make you think twice before you use them as a snack!

Plan your Water Needs
Under normal conditions, the human body will be able to go without food for days. Without water, however, problems come a lot quicker.

Here are some guidelines in planning your water needs:

• The absolute minimum is at least two liters per day. Take at least two liters with you even if you expect to find places where you can refill your water reserves.
• Take about one liter for every two hours of hiking or other outdoor activities with the above mentioned two-liter minimum.
• Under normal conditions, three to four liters per day should suffice.
• Higher temperatures will increase the needed fluid intake.
• Increased intensity will increase the needed fluid intake.
• If you plan to spend nights outdoors, calculate extra water reserves for washing yourself and possibly rinsing cooking utensils.
• Hydration Packs and water bladders have drinking tubes that make it easy to drink as you continue hiking. However, a possible danger is that you have no real way of checking your fluid reserves. So make sure to stop and check your bladder's content at regular intervals.
• Make sure to bring water purification pills or devices even if you are bringing sufficient fluids for the trip. Water bottles and bladders can burst, leaving you with nothing. In these cases, water filters and purifiers can make the difference. If you have nothing to filter the water with but you do have your cooking gear then you can make most outdoor water potable by boiling it for at least 10 minutes.

Eat adequate amount of nutritious foods and drink lots of water to keep you energized on your outdoor trips. Proper selection of foods as well as enough planning and preparation of what to bring will ensure that you will not go hungry while do outdoor activities.

The right to make a copy for personal use is part of most existing publishing agreements. This right is recognised as an important right for the author. Because the right is attached to the author and in most cases well defined, personal use won’t harm the publisher.

Why Lightweight Backpacks?

As a backpacker, you can travel further and faster by packing lighter with lightweight backpacks. Many who have jumped on the lightweight bandwagon find they can wear light running shoes when carrying a 7 to 15 kilos backpack instead of the heavy-duty hiking boots they must wear when carrying the 20 kilos plus heavy-duty pack. This means that the backpacker can travel more kilometres in a shorter period of time and may even equate to a higher safety level. The comfort level is often greater because less weight means you will be less sore at the end of the day.

Traditional backpacking has a few disadvantages that are overcome by using lightweight backpacks. First,  when you backpack with heavy equipment, there is less freedom of movement. You can’t simply run off the  trail to see what is there because speeding up that much with a heavy pack would be terribly exhausting. If you put down the pack so you can run and see what is over the hill, you leave your equipment behind and have to backtrack to get it.

Carrying heavier gear means that you are more apt to be tired or even exhausted at the end of the day. More sore muscles will be evident and a greater likelihood for such things as blistered feet, knee injuries, sprained ankles or even back problems is possible. With too much weight on the back or the legs, the soreness can cause the camping and backpacking trip to be less fun than it would otherwise be.

Another disadvantage to the traditional heavy backpack is that packing time is often increased. Time must be spent to pack the backpack carefully for proper weight distribution. There is the additional time spent in taking the pack off and putting it on. If you want to quickly reach your adventuring destination, you may really appreciate the benefits of lightweight backpacks when it comes to ease of packing.

Another disadvantage to the traditional heavy pack is when you are caught in a storm. The heavy pack will  weight you down and keep your pace to a minimum as you seek shelter. Another problem may be if an injury  occurs, you will be weighed down by your pack as you head toward civilization to get help.

Basically, lightweight backpacks counteract all of the disadvantages of the heavier packs. You have much more freedom of movement because you don’t have a heavy pack weighing you down. You can zip off the trail any time you have a fancy to see something different and head across country without a trail until you meet up with your original trail. If you lose your balance, you are less likely to twist or sprain an ankle because the load on your back weighs less and won’t pull you down as quickly. This means that you won’t have as many aches and pains at the end of the day. The lightweight backpacks are easier on your legs and back and you won’t be as stiff. Getting to your destination faster may mean that you have more time to relax and work out any sore spots before you go to sleep so that you will have a more enjoyable experience.

If you needed to quickly get to civilization because your hiking companion was hurt, your light pack would not slow you down. Basically, using lightweight backpacks can be more comfortable because you will have quite a bit less equipment to haul around. You can find lightweight versions of all the camping gear you like and use, so you won’t have to sacrifice the gear you used for the weight limits of your pack.

You will have to be very organized and efficient if you plan to go lightweight backpacking, but it is very enjoyable.

The right to make a copy for personal use is part of most existing publishing agreements. This right is recognised as an important right for the author. Because the right is attached to the author and in most cases well defined, personal use won’t harm the publisher.