Shopping in Wu Dao Kou

I did some shopping in Wu Dao Kou. I bought a fanny pack. When I first traveled to Japan as a teenager in 1993 I had a fanny pack. Then they became uncool, even the Ben Folds Five made fun of them. However while in Xi’an I took my big backpack which I leave in the hotel and had nothing to put stuff in on the day’s outings.

I wanted to travel light so I took just one bag. It was a big bag and I brought too many changes of clothes, but I like to keep my hands free. Previously when backpacking in Europe and South East Asia I had a satchel which I threw over one shoulder too. Then when I got to a destination I left my main backpack at my guest house and used the satchel on the days outings.

Even twenty years later I still use the same big bag I got from my mother, it has more patches sew on it now. When I travelled in Europe I had a bag I got at UVIC I really wasn’t planning on backpacking through Europe, I was just working on a software development contract and it ended so I took the chance and travelled for two weeks. I got the bigger backpack pictured below after that so probably 2003. It took me over twenty years to get back to Europe.

Satchel VS Backpack VS Fanny Pack

The satchel was black and leather and was given to me by my late uncle Rob. It wasn’t really meant for the jungles of South East Asia. Despite replacing the strap with a better one, it also wasn’t that comfortable when filled to the gills. In fact putting books and magazines in it was alright on planes and trains but not so great out and about.

I tried the Sauder MBA bag out for one plane and ferry trip but I didn’t like it either. I like the bag I bought in Japan, especially when carrying my laptop. So today I bought a macho high quality fanny pack. It is orange. I wanted a blue one to match my backpack but I liked the style and size of this one. It is made by the One Polar brand. I had never heard of that brand, but it seems pretty good. There is a mountaineering/outdoor store in Wu Dao Kou. I picked it up for 74 RMB which was the price on the tag, perhaps I could have haggled. I’m going to test it out on my upcoming trip to Shanghai.

Travelling in 2024

In 2024, during my trip to Scotland I did not take my fanny pack. In fact I did not take it the Philippines either. At some point I bought a single shoulder MEC backpack which I used a lot, taking it abroad and to the gym. I even remember taking my gym shoes to the Mountain Equipment Co-op on Broadway to test fit them in the bag. For the record it was blue. I abandoned it when I left Shanghai after living their for four years, either that or it is at my mom’s house.

I remember sewing a Canadian flag on it. I bought another single strap backpack, this one likely cost me more, definitely more than 74 RMB. I got it at the MEC in Calgary, so that is what I used in the Philippines and Scotland. Do you have thoughts on fanny packs versus satchels versus single strap backpacks? I’ve switched allegiances to the single strap backpack, so it can act like a satchel but is more comfortable to wear. Now I must go through thousands of pictures to find some to upload to Flickr, because that is how I roll now.

Updating blogs posts and HTML

I even used the fancy embed HTML which looks much better than WordPress’s built in Flickr block. I just need to remember to use it. It takes a few more seconds but having written thousands of blog posts I think it is worth it. I definitely prefer Flickr over Instagram for including photos in your blog. You can leave a comment below if you thoughts to share. I still have that fanny pack here with me in Calgary, but I tend not to use it. It took effort to find a vintage picture, I didn’t want to take a new one, it may well be in one of the shopping bags in the featured image but apparently I took the fanny pack to Shanghai and turned up a photo of me packing for that trip in my old apartment in Wu Dao Kou which I included above.

This post probably has zero value it definitely earns me zero revenue but sometimes I just want things to be accurate and complete. Quality matters, so I fix links and include pictures now that I can afford to pay for more bandwidth.

This entry was originaly posted on December 11th, 2005, it was last edited on May 9th, 2024 and is filed under: Travel and tagged: Beijing, Shopping, Wu Dao Kou.