Here’s a quick list of some of the things that I felt I needed to do before going away for four months. I’ve done some backpacking before, though admittedly I am no Ian Wright (Globe Trekker host) or Tony and Maureen Wheeler (Lonely Planet creators). With that disclaimer in mind, the follow tips come from a combination of my experiences and advice from friends, family and the World Wide Web:
1. Health: See a travel specialist and figure out what drugs and shots are needed and then get em all. Then grab some of those comfort drugs off the shelf that we all count on every now and then. I also called my health care provider (Alberta Gov) and told them I was going out of the country for an extended period of time, I think it’s a standard rule and not doing it can impact coverage. Related: I got a basic travel health insurance plan in case bad stuff happens.
2. Banking: I got new credit and bank cards; made sure they were the chip kind; ensured my pin was only 4 digits; and inform them that I’d be making withdrawals from a whole bunch of whacky locations. Often old cards are difficult to read, machines are only equipped for 4 digit pins, and more and more often they are only accepting chip technology-enabled cards. Really, I wanted to minimize the possibility of experiencing any of these situations at a foreign ATM.
Here’s a fun bonus tip: banks don’t let you have two bank cards, but if you have a credit and bank card from the same bank, you can often link them, which means you can access your bank card by using your credit card – and therefore make cash withdrawals from your bank account using your credit card. If you can do this you now have two bank cards in case you lose or break your card, or are defeated by a card-eating machine.
3. Budget: I did some research and came up with what I think is a fairly typical to lean backpacker budget PER PERSON PER DAY in the places we’re going. Here is my summary of the costs: $55 in Egypt and Jordan, $35 in India and Nepal, and $30 in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. These costs will increase and decrease depending on how much moving around we end up doing. With that said, I also took the liberty of toping up the per day suggestions of others to ensure Steph and I had some room for a little extra fun here and there.
4. ID: I got a new passport, so did Steph. Ours weren’t expired, but because of past trips we didn’t have enough space for all the border stamps and visas we were thinking we get this time around. This might not be such an issue for travel inside of the European Union, but other places are much more stamp and visa happy and will fill up our pages far too quickly. I’ve heard that a full passport can cause some serious problems in some places. Also, we got a visa for India. Of all the countries we’re hitting only India and Vietnam require a visa to be obtained in advance; we plan to get our Vietnam visa in Bangkok.
5. Transport: I found that the Round the World fare offered by Star Alliance was a rip-off, if we booked our flights individually through Expedia.ca and direct from each airline we saved big. By the time the trip is over I will have booked $8000 worth of flights for Steph and I, the same flights would have cost $10,600 via Round the World on Star Alliance (individually that’s $4,000 versus 5,300). Now, we’re losing some of the flight change privileges that exist with the RTW tickets, but I don’t think that perk is worth $2600. Also, by not being roped into the Star Alliance carriers, we have a lot more freedom in selecting destinations.
6. Gadgets: I convinced Steph to let me get an Ipod Touch and now I have games, guidebook and novels, and all my essential travel documentation stored on a device no bigger than a pack of cards. There’s also a variety of budget applications to help track of daily spending and if we’re lucky to stumble across wireless connections we can readily stay in touch with people back home. I also brought a handy Swiss army knife, and that’s just because Apple hasn’t incorporated a bottle opener and glasses screw driver into its Ipod design just yet.
I’ve surveyed my well crossed-off list of things to do before going away and these are the essentials for sure... Oh, I suppose we also spent a bit of time researching and selecting destinations...
