Let’s go shopping for…backpacks

So it’s time for a spot of shopping. There were five stores all lined up in retailer fashion on the same strip – Kathmandu, Mountain Design, Snowgum and a couple of others. The kids, all four of them excited at the commencement of the retail journey, soon realised this was not going to be the shopping expedition they were used to from time to time at Supre or Factorie or even Target. No, this shopping experience was all about gazing long and hard at a wall full of dark-coloured, zippered bags and throwing them over shoulders and onto backs and unzipping them all one by one.

Charlie our eldest daughter wanted the “women’s” styled backpack. It came with a wider area for the straps around the top of the shoulders so as not to crush the boobies. I think she really wanted it because she feels entitled to “women’s” products now since wearing bras and having noticeable chest now. She kept eyeing off the bright pink and yellow fake frangipani flower secured onto the pack itself too so it might have been the flower? Anyway, it was above our backpacking budget, since we were there to purchase SIX of them!

In the end, we put some on hold so we could look at all the stores in the retail rich backpacking strip. Thank you to the very patient woman who served us at Mountain Design for packing up our mess of backpacks and bunched-up plastic. My youngest daughter jammed a ball of that plastic up her top to play with in the car on the way home.

In the end we chose two 30 litre Mountain Design backpacks for the biggies (11 and 10 year olds) and two 20 litre day packs for the littlies (7 and 6 year olds). All happy (bar one who was still having a huffy-puff over not being able to purchase the most expensive “women’s” backpack for herself). In total we grabbed bargains all round with the summer sales on in January.

We are not leaving until 4 July this year but thought we’d start the journey and get organised for our trip. I have already been to the local library and borrowed travel guides and picture books on Vietnam. The internet is a wonderful source of information, and also FB with friends responding to my video post of the girls receiving a BIG Christmas present on Christmas Eve – Air Asia tickets! Look at their reaction on this video.

My husband and I have been wanting to do a backpacking adventure with our kids for some time now and finally the year has arrived to do just that…KL 4 days and Vietnam 30 days from north to south. Cannot wait 🙂

PS After getting home from our shopping spree, hubby pulled our old backpacks out from the shed. Everything still worked, well nothing that a spray of WD40 can’t fix and a soak in a bath full of Wool Mix. Last time they were used was in 1999 on our honeymoon to South East Asia. And now that makes six backpacks ready to travel.