Toilet Kit
If you travel very frequently, pack a complete and permanent toiletry kit. Buy a set of plastic travel-sized bottles and fill them with lotions and the usual items you need on the road. This keeps you from having to reassemble your kit each time you take a trip.

Plastic Bags
Bring several used laundry or supermarket plastic bags to keep shoes and soiled / wet items.

Cellophane Tape
Keep a roll of cellophane tape in your bag at all times. It can be used to quickly mend hems, seal bottles or remove lint.

What Else?
Your favourite things back home which you may crave and are hard to get abroad … instant cup noodles, local snacks, favourite CDs, books… you know best what these are.

Secrets of Successful Packing

Packing Your Hand-Luggage
If possible, try to travel with only hand luggage. This saves time when claiming luggage and cuts down worries over lost, misplaced or damaged luggage.

If you have both check-in and hand luggage, pack as many items as possible in your hand luggage.

Pack items like toiletries, books, business papers and things you need on board in a smaller tote to store under your seat to avoid the inconvenience of reaching for your hand luggage in the overhead compartment.

When with a child
When you travel with an infant or a toddler, the safest option is to buy the child a ticket and take along a car seat that is adaptable to a plane. Otherwise, hold the child on your lap, outside of the seatbelt, during takeoff and landing.

In the cabin
The relatively low air pressure in your aircraft can cause discomfort. Cabin pressure if equivalent to that at 8000 feet above sea level. If your ears bother you during takeoff and landing, try yawning, chewing gum or doing this: pinch your nostrils shut, inhale, close your mouth and try gently to blow your nose.

The air in the cabin will be very dry. Accept all of the flight attendants’ offers of free beverages. – choose plain non-carbonated water or fruit juices instead of caffeinated or alcoholic drinks, which will dehydrate you. If your eyes begin to smart, remove your contact lenses and wear glasses. Unscented air moisturisers are available in aerosol form. Use one periodically to spray your face and the air in front of your face for a refreshing pick-me-up.

If you’re not crazy about airline food, take a tip offered by well-travelled people – order the vegetarian meal. This tends to be usually more attractive and delicious , perhaps because it’s specially made, than the regular meals served.

The truth is that at the end on this beautifully planned journey… you hair will look as though you’ve just been dragged through a hedge backwards. You are a nervous flyer and have bitten your nails to the quick and you resemble “black-eyed Susie” with deep black rings under your eyes and puffy lids. Real attractive.

Jet lag
Basically, you don’t feel good. You feel a little under the weather and your body feels as if it’s falling apart.

What it really is
Disrupted eating pattern, bowel pattern and conversational pattern. Everything is a little chaotic for a while. You do not know what day it is or what time it is back home. Your regular internal clock is rather topsy-turvy at the moment.

Why do we get jet lag?
Our internal little 24-hr clock just loses its grip on place and pace if we alter it by more than a few hours by passing through different time zones.

Solution?
Don’t drink the free bar dry just to pass time – there’s a price to pay for such overindulgence. Too much of anything is never a good thing. Drinking too much alcohol tends to dehydrate your body so much that you are likely to smell like the inside of a brewery on disembarkation. The sensible thing to do? Stick to plain water, lots of it!

What if my body says it is daytime?
Set your watch to your destination time as you take off. Then start programming your body to it. On a night flight, take your shoes off, decline both the meal and the movie and switch off.

Economy class: will it be worse?
Invest in a cheap pillow. Wedge it against a window and notice the difference. However, on really long flights, it is often better to secure an isle seat, which is less problematic and easier to manoeuvre from if you need to visit the toilet, especially if you are drinking lots of water.

Recovery time?
Allow a day for each time zone.

What about my hair and appearance?
An hour before you land, freshen yourself up in the toilet. Wash up and pop some curlers into your hair. Don’t be embarrassed. The likelihood of you ever seeing your neighbour again is a million to one and they’re probably wishing they have the courage to do the same.

Medical option?
Melatonin is the answer to all jet lag problems. It is a hormone produced by the pineal gland in the brain. It helps to control the body’s sleep/wake cycle. By resetting the body’s internal clock, melatonin can treat the underlying cause of al jet lag problems, which is the disruption of the natural sleep/wake cycle.