[singlepic=1465,175,,,right]One thing I don’t leave home without when traveling is a silk sleep sheet (also known as a mummy liner or sleeping bag liner). It’s lightweight and will be your savior when you check into a seedy hostel* in Greece, find yourself sleeping on an overnight train in Vietnam, or staying in a village in the hills of Thailand.

A sleep sheet is a lightweight sleeping bag minus the zipper. It’s made of silk and simply provides a barrier between you and any questionable beds, sheets, or bugs. (The silk versions are more expensive than cotton but much lighter and compact – worth the price difference.)

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Before I discovered the wonders of a headlamp, I never went on a trip without my small Maglite flashlight. It was small, light, useful and extremely handy – or so I thought. When I nearly lost it down the squat toilet late at night while trying to keep a cow from entering the tent, I became very envious of the other trekkers and their headlamps. And it would have proved useful on that same trip in Nepal as we began our ascent of Thorung La Pass at 2am in the morning. After that trip I was sold on the headlamp and haven’t traveled without one since.

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