This is a cross post writ­ten by Basho, ori­gin­ally pos­ted on www.rohantime.com

Shimla, Himachal Pra­desh, North­ern India. Escap­ing to the cool of the moun­tains was essen­tial after the 40 degree heat of the deserts of Rajasthan. Up here the bright sun is tempered with the breeze blow­ing off the snow covered moun­tains of Tibet, vis­ible in the dis­tance but over 80 miles away.

Try­ing to plan for the unex­pec­ted, when lim­ited to 25kg of weight in your pack, can be daunt­ing. Warm clothes usu­ally take up lots of space and weigh you down. Wet weather clothes often won’t pack down tight and can stay wet for days after use. Not to men­tion break­ages. When you are doing all sort of activ­it­ies from brush-cutting in the Aus­tralian Out­back, cross­ing the ser­ing deserts of Jais­almer on a camel, bun­gee jump­ing off the bridges of New Zea­l­and or hik­ing through the jungles of the Thai/Burma bor­der, you need clothes that can stand up to abuse and yet still be smart enough to wear in a top Singa­pore Restaurant.

Thank­fully, we spent the time and effort to research our choices. I knew that we would need clothes that were going to be wel­come any­where, with subtle brand­ing that hin­ted only at the unspoken qual­ity in the build and mater­i­als. After almost a year of con­stant travel only the Rohan clothes show little or no sign of wear and tear. My Rohan “Cross Bor­der” trousers look as good today as they did on day one. Which is a lot more than I can say for my oth­ers from a com­pet­itor; those have needed stitch­ing more than three times. Other great buys include the “Cloud Base” Rohan jacket that not only dries extremely quickly, but is ultra light and packs down into itself. I was able to take it into the Jais­almer desert just in case; a freak storm hit the sands that night and I was the only dry camper. Also, when not in use, it doubled as a bril­liant pil­low cush­ion. By far my favour­ite item is my “Travel Linen” shirt which is very soft and as tough as nails. I wore it trekking in the Thai jungles and yet it was also smart enough to wear in a top Mum­bai res­taur­ant without rais­ing an eyebrow.

Our Rohan clothes have per­formed unwaver­ingly, they have been washed in everything from New Zealand’s indus­trial machines to the hand-wash Dhobi Ghats of Mum­bai and yet retain their ori­ginal col­ours and shapes. Francesca points out that we have sent many items back to Eng­land over the months, but we both still have all our Rohan clothes. Also, that her choices retain a fem­in­ine look for the even­ing and yet are every bit as tough as the men’s items. Being able to throw off the “back­packer” label is vital to fit­ting in with the loc­als every­where from the high-class wine tast­ings of Aus­tralia to the street vendors of Laos.

Today in Shimla, we are both eying up those snow covered Him­alayan peaks in the dis­tance and plan­ning our next trek. I know we will be going to Rohan for our kit no mat­ter where the next adven­ture takes us.

Basho

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