The problem with using a big bag is the temptation to haul all your necessities and the kitchen sink simply because you have all that space. So as you limp around with one shoulder weighed down by all these things that you don’t need but have in your bag just in case… don’t you want to shrug it all off? Well, I for one have liberated myself from what I call my Boy Scout (“be prepared”) OCD. When I’m on the road, I always think I need to lug all this stuff around just in case I get stranded in a rainforest, desert, or ocean. But really, do you think a machete, foldable tent, or astronaut ice cream could really save me if I somehow got lost in the Amazon? The answer is no, because as soon as I see that there’s no indoor plumbing I might as well just give up and pray an alligator will make me its quick dinner (and wouldn’t that be ironic if I were carrying a gator bag?!). And still, my travel bags would be full of such ridiculous things that have never yet been used once.

Surely I’m not alone in this. I’ve seen some of you dart between traffic on the streets of NYC carrying not one but two huge totes, day after day, as you go to work. And I’ve seen others of you in HK hauling serious luggage on your way home. What is it about us? Are we conditioned as women to carry everything we’ve seen our moms carry in their bags when we were young? Mom, do you have a kleenex? Mom, do you have any candy?

On this trip, I’m going to give myself a break. Or I should say my shoulders and back. I’m trading in a roomy tote for the slim Louis Vuitton Thomas bag from their Damier Graphite line.

It holds my coin purse, phone, digicam, passport case, sunglasses, and small sketch pad. When I get a tablet, it should also fit in there even if I might not be able to zip it up completely. That tiny coin purse that you see is used when I’m overseas since I can fit my credit card and insurance cards in my passport case. But I’ve also recently downsized my wallet. This functional and flat Insolite coin purse is now my wallet–I’ve managed to fit all my true necessities inside this compact wallet…

and when folded, it is not much bigger or thicker than my iPhone:

Hey, men have been able to survive forever with small billfolds so why do we women need such huge wallets??

I’ve been a loyal fan of the Vuitton canvas accessories for a very long time; they can survive anything so maybe this messenger bag will become my ultimate travel bag…we shall see after this trip. But I know some of you are perplexed given my obsession with a certain label. What, you say, not a single set of interlocking Cs anywhere on her accessories? Well…let’s see in the next entry what else I have in my luggage, but sometimes it’s good to change things up. If my Chanel bags could talk, they may be saying Don’t you want a chance to miss me? 😀