Confucius once said: “If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools.” Many people interpret this saying in the context of travel as meaning that you must prepare all your gear before setting off. On various travel websites, discussions about destinations often include an “essential items checklist,” which seems indispensable. And more than half of the items on these lists are things you’d never use at home. The compilers of these lists mean well—after all, as the saying goes, “Home is a haven, but the outside world is unpredictable.” They always have the mindset of being prepared for the worst.

But in reality, there’s absolutely no need for that. Most people aren’t heading into uninhabited areas, and ordinary travel involves very limited time spent outdoors—there’s no need to prepare as if you’re going on an extreme sport expedition. I’ve also gone down this wrong path before, buying a raincoat that could withstand torrential downpours. Once I had waterproof clothing, I felt I also needed waterproof pants and shoes, and then I even thought about waterproofing my backpack.

But in truth, it was completely useless. The only time I used it was many years ago in the Zhoushan Islands, just before a typhoon hit, when it was pouring rain. I wore it on the beach, purely to test whether the outfit was truly waterproof. The test result? The clothes were fine in the rain, but walking in a downpour without a helmet is basically self-torture—the rain hitting your eyes and nose is terribly uncomfortable. Moreover, no matter how good the advertising is, any waterproof clothing is definitely less breathable than normal clothes. Wearing it on a non-rainy day feels stifling.

So after that typhoon, I never wore the outfit again. I used to pack it in my suitcase every time I traveled far, but now I don’t bother bringing it at all. It’s not that I never encounter rainy weather when I’m out, but in such conditions, I can’t think of any reason to be outdoors. When traveling, I can fully control my schedule and itinerary. Isn’t it pleasant to find a spot, have a cup of hot tea, and enjoy the scenery in bad weather? If there’s no scenery to see, you can chat with someone. If there’s no one to talk to, you can call your parents to let them know you’re safe—parents may not say it, but they always worry when their children are away. In short, whatever you do, it’s better than getting drenched in the rain.

There was a time when I was also into high-powered flashlights. After buying all kinds of them and bringing them home, I found their only use was to find things in dark corners at night. They were completely useless when traveling—cities have streetlights, so you don’t need them; in places without streetlights, you’re in unfamiliar territory and really don’t have the courage to wander around in the dark. Occasionally, when I needed light in a dark spot, the flashlight on my phone was sufficient.

A “veteran expert” I know bought a pair of highly specialized hiking boots, but these boots have now become a white elephant. They’re extremely uncomfortable to wear daily—functional shoes like these aren’t designed for comfort. As for hiking, there’s no need to wear them for climbing a small hill; for high-difficulty mountains, wearing these boots doesn’t give you the courage to climb—they’re a matter of life and death.

So for the vast majority of ordinary travelers, these outdoor gears are like the story of “dragon-slaying skills” from *Zhuangzi·Lie Yukou*: “A man from the Song State spent all his money to learn the art of slaying dragons. After three years of hard study, he finally mastered the skill. But where could he find a dragon to slay?”

Preparing a bunch of things you’ll never actually use not only wastes money but also adds weight to your backpack and drains your energy. A big backpack makes traveling anywhere a hassle. Plus, everywhere you go, you’ll look like just another similarly dressed traveler—not cool at all. If you want to look cool, take inspiration from the male lead’s outfit in Lu Chuan’s promotional video for the Tibet Tourism Bureau, *Beautiful Tibet*—a cowboy hat and a Mexican poncho. That’s truly cool. The cowboy hat is almost a standard accessory in Tibetan areas; you’ll see locals wearing them everywhere, and you can buy one at any market. The Mexican poncho, however, isn’t available even on the all-powerful Taobao—you might have to go to Mexico to get one. If that outfit looks familiar, imagine the person also holding a small cigar in their mouth. That’s the classic look of Clint Eastwood in *The Good, the Bad and the Ugly*, a quintessential tough-guy image that has been successfully established on screen for half a century.

In the promotional video, the male lead wears a normal trench coat in the city and only switches to this outfit when he’s in the countryside. The difference between that and my ideal travel vision is that the protagonist in the video is either hiking or hitchhiking. The *Good, the Bad and the Ugly* guy rides a horse, so this outfit would only be truly stylish if paired with a motorcycle. In Tibet, motorcycles are the basic mode of transport—herders now mostly ride motorcycles to tend their flocks, and most tourist areas have no accessibility issues.

The idea should be to stuff the Mexican poncho into a small backpack, head straight to Tibet, buy a cowboy hat and a motorcycle locally, then gear up and cruise around the city and countryside. When it’s time to go home from Tibet, you can sell the motorcycle as a used vehicle there—it’s cheaper than hiring a car, freer than hitchhiking or taking public transport, and most importantly, incredibly cool. This look isn’t just perfect for Tibet’s promotional videos; it would stand out in any scene that needs to convey a wild vibe.

But if a traveler shows up in this kind of scene wearing a full set of rain gear, hiking boots, and a huge backpack bulging like a snail shell, the effect would be the complete opposite—it would immediately look like some delicate city boy out for a vacation.