FIRST-AID KIT
While traveling, do not forget to keep tablets of aspirin, paracetamol, and vitamins like the B-Complex. If you have a history of feeling nauseated while traveling, consult your doctor for any medicines you can use while traveling. Keep a pack of glucose powder handy, as you or your fellow travelers might need it. Bandages and antiseptic creams or lotions are also essential. Do keep a pain-relieving balm or spray along in your first-aid kit. Change of place, climate and food habits tend to make a throat sore, the cure for which is to gurgle with hot water with salt in it. A good medicine for abdominal problems is the cheap and easily available Isabgol. It is a tasteless dry seed that can be taken with water, milk or yogurt and perform the miracle of holding one's insides intact while on the move. Foreigners often jeered at this native remedy but now that its properties have been acclaimed by science, you can buy a sugarcoated variety.Medical kits must be attuned to your personal needs. Don't lug around on a trek medicines you know you will never need.

NEWSPAPERS
Invariably useful for a wide range of purposes is an old newspaper. You can open it under your sleeping bag on a cold pier waiting for the boat, or spread it on top of your sleeping bag as an extra blanket. It can help dry your shoes; folded it carries fruit and vegetables. It can stabilize a rocking table in a restaurant and enable you to survive a windy night by sealing a window that rattles. Newspapers are ideal to hide behind when you don't want to talk or when you can't find your trousers are big enough to preserve your modesty. They swat files, double up as blotting paper, provide crosswords, and will turn into paper airplanes.