When you are travelling to Australia, generally you are allowed to take 2 big bags carry-ons including 30 kg baggage and a 7 kg carry-on and a bag for ladies. For your information, if you are travelling from China Southern airlines you are allowed to take 3 baggage’s: two baggage with 23kg each and a 7 kg hand carry. Along with the hand carry you are allowed to carry 1 laptop bag; besides these you are permitted to carry clothes, couple of electronic items if you have any, camera, laptop, iPad, important document, your phone charger, a book.

Let me tell you about what are the things you will be taking in the hand carry. First of all, the maximum weight you are allowed in a hand carry is 7 kg. Put only the necessary items in it and I will be telling about the essential things that you should take to Australia so that you don’t take a lot of thing which are not going to use there. Let’s get started with 7 kg hand carry. Now, don’t stuff a lot of thing in the laptop bag as the custom officer won’t allow other items beside it and couple of books. So, the 7 kg bag should have extremely important things. What are these things? At first, you should have at least 2 pairs of clothes: t-shirt, shirt and shorts or pant, towel, a hand sanitizer, a shoe, a pair of sunglasses if you have to change just in case. Apart from that you should have your important documents because this is what you’re going to have with you while you’re travelling on a plane. Documents include your COE, academic certificates, insurance, and others. You can also carry a camera if you wish because you can create beautiful memories of yours.  Most importantly, you will be carrying your money so it’s better to divide the total amount of money in all your bags to prevent the theft. As the flight will be way too long it is better for you to take a book which is your perfect partner of all time.

Let’s talk about the items that you will be taking in the 30 kg baggage. Very importantly, you will be stuffing clothes for sure according to suitable climate in Australia. Do you know that the climate is totally opposite in Australia from Nepal? Let me give you an example, during June/ July the weather in Nepal is hot and the temperature ranges from 24°C -30°C degrees whereas the weather in Australia (Sydney) would vary from 13°C -18 °C. Similarly, during January the temperature is hot and it ranges to 23°C- 26°C in Australia (Sydney) and the weather in Nepal is 4°C -7°C degree at that month which is the coldest month. The wettest month is March with an average of 164mm of rain and the temperature ranges from 18°C – 25°C in Sydney. So, plan and put the clothes accordingly and also don’t forget to put an umbrella and a raincoat if necessary, as the weather is very uncertain you never know when it rains. If you find a sunny day in the morning, then the evening might rain.  You also need sweaters and hoodies, take at least 2-3 good sweaters, at least 1-2 hoodie and if you’re travelling to Melbourne then you will have to take thermos too. Or you can buy as it is cheap, but why to waste a single penny if you can save a lot. Carry 2 windcheater as it is must to wear as you will feel very cold because you will be experiencing Australia’s weather for the first time. Due to different weather condition one can become sick, so carry a first aid kit with the prescription just in case the officers may ask you in the transit or in the airport.

Australia being a multicultural country, people celebrate different festivals so putting the traditional dress would be the great idea to wear in occasions. If you think the clothes must be extremely expensive then you’re not wrong but that is only when you go to the huge big brands. If you go to cotton on, Kmart, bigW; these are the place where you can get good shirt, t-shirts and pant in a reasonable price. Put a white shirt and a formal pant with a formal shoe, you might need to wear to attend the interview. On top of that, stuff few black t-shirt and black pant as it is preferred at the work place. Besides these, you need shoes take sport shoes, non-slippery working shoes, casual shoes, slipper to wear in the beach. You know in Australia it is called thongs.

If you are going to Sydney and thinking to carry the kitchen items like rice cooker, pressure cooker, then I would suggest you not to carry any of them because you can get those items in reasonable and affordable price including good quality in any malls or even in the Nepalese or Indian shop. Therefore, choosing not to buy would be the good option also it is hassle to carry the heavy items too. Rather than spending the money and excess weight, it is better to replace with some important items that would be useful to you. But if you are traveling to different state, apart from Sydney and Melbourne where the Nepalese population is comparatively lower then it is a very good idea to take those items. As we Nepalese love to eat dal, bhat, tarkari; pressure cooker is our friend. As many of your parents think you will be spending more during your stay in Australia, to save the expenditure yes that is true but be selective because it is useless carrying stuffs that won’t buying. This is the reason we have the best family but for our better future we have to be apart from them for some time. Listen to your parents and put a cup, a plate and a spoon which might be very useful for you in the initial stage during the stay in Australia. Get the basics because you’ll be very surprised because you can get utensils starting from $5 at Kmart, so get the basic and rest of them you can buy.

Let’s talk about the very important topic food. We are very fond of food and Nepalese food are our favorite. When food comes in mind you must be thinking waiwai, biscuits, titaura, churpi, gundruk, beaten rice, lakhamari (Newari snacks) and many more. Let me tell you that you are not allowed to take many food items except the diary product (churpi) and meat product. Remember the items you are carrying must have the label in it including manufacturing date and the expiry. Make sure you mention every item you are carrying in the immigration form you will fill before you reach in the Australian airport. I recommend you take lot of snacks with you. First couple of days you will be jet lag and you will be roaming around the city. Of course you would like to see the city that you are going to live in. So the snacks will get you through couple of days till you learn cooking besides that you can find parathas, snacks in the Indian grocery shop so don’t bother bringing lots of things.

I hope you will find it useful. I will be bringing many blogs in the future for you.