A metaguide to comfortable and safe long haul travel
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Travel Safety
Avoiding the baddies
The most tempting thing is that big travelling document pouch, the one that you get out while you are looking for that ticket – its got passports in it, money, documents, it is the target and prize of every pickpocket – and completely unnecessary. Almost every document can be carried only electronically – and carrying paper versions of hotel reservations and travel itineraries is not a good idea.
Remember this: They are quick, professional, and work like magicians, usually in teams. Do something dumb, and in a second your wallet or jewellery is gone. They use three techniques:
More elaborate versions of this include befriending people, taking them to bars and restaurants, showing them sites, and cleaning them out of everything. I have a nephew that can attest to that one.
There are some airports and train stations where I can assure you, someone is watching your every minute. As you step up to the car hire counter, or café in an airport, you bag can be just behind you on the ground or on a trolley, and it will be whisked away – take your eye off that bag for 1 second, and it will happen.
And don’t be re-assured by conviviality. The number of people that have said they have their passport in a small bag slung over the back of a chair in a bar or restaurant, and it disappeared – horrifies me. Don’t have valuables in small bags slung over chairs. In Peru, they even have clips on chairs in hotels so that you can attach your bag – and that is in addition to the security guard at the door.
Finally, and above all, either keep your valuables in and inside jacket pocket, or a bag with strong straps over your neck. Never, ever have valuable in a bag slung over your shoulder, in a back pocket of trousers, or a neck pouch – frankly, if you do, I’m on the thief’s side – as you are clearly giving your possessions away. A shoulder bag will be removed and motorbiked off before you know what happened, and an obvious document pouch will be cut off with a knife or scissors – if you want to see how that is done, catch the 64 bus in Rome at peak tourist time, and watch it happening – or have a wander around Barcelona.
Basic Safety
Unexpose – don’t have a wallet accessible from a back pocket, wear expensive jewellery or flash around expensive stuff.
Respecting Culture and Law
Beware that shouting at officials, or insulting the leader of a country can get you arrested – and imprisoned for considerable time in a surprising number of countries.
Equally, be aware that in some places, you can be in crowded conditions, particularly on busses and trains, or in queues, and people may be squeezed together in conditions you are not used to. Grin and bear it – there will be new smells and many other sensations that will add to the experience of your travel.
Never, ever, go where you are not allowed – don’t cross a barrier, even a low-slung chain – however subtle. Your chances of getting arrested are high, and it isn’t going to be fun.
Illness
The same goes with entry to countries – you may find yourself in quarantine if you try to enter a country with an illness.
Insurance
Or you could get stuck in a country when you think you are fit to fly home, because the airlines do not permit ill travellers. So if you come down with a bad flu or any contagious illness, you will have to extend your trip – which will most likely be covered by insurance – the alternative could be going to the airport only to be refused permission to board the flight, or being offloaded at a transit location.
The good news, is that the Australian government made basic hospital cover and repatriation a compulsory element of international travel insurance in this country (you can guess why). That means you can shop around for pretty economical insurance, and you know you are covered for the worst case scenarios. There will be other insurance policies that offer all sorts of extras, covering lost items, flight delays, and so forth. These premium policies are exactly that, in every way. Someone I know told me he claimed the cost of replacing his sun-glasses that he left on the seat next to him at an airport lounge. Do you want to pay for that?
There have been two comparison studies done that indicate that the insurance policies offered by airlines during the process of purchasing a flight online tend to be quite expensive – potentially double the price of other offers – but they are convenient – and can sometimes be purchased with frequent flyer points.
But watchout for catches – a policy purchased for a holiday may claim that it is invalid if they find out that you were working on the trip – so read and ask about the details.
Personally, my choice is to use a premium credit card (nearly every brand has this option) that offers frequent flyer points and travel insurance for trips purchased with the card. Watch out for the details, these often only cover card holders that are paying for certain proportions of the trip or are travelling together at all stages, so if you buy tickets for your family, but someone you purchased a flight for is travelling separately, they may not be covered.
Fines and parking tickets
Here’s the catch. These agencies and governments then sell the fine to a lawyer or debt collector. Nearly every European government and local government agency has such an arrangement. They pursue the debtor, and if the fine is not paid, the next time you step into any related country, you may be arrested. A parking fine in Germany? Unpaid, you can never go to Europe again. And so on.
The solution: Pay the fine immediately, before you leave that country. And do everything you can to avoid a fine in the first place. Always get the right parking, bus, ferry or train ticket. They will pursue you, they never, ever give up. The more you try to avoid them, the more the big bucks build up.
At the hotel or other accommdation
However generally it is vastly safer to keep valuables and your passport in your hotel room that to carry them with you for the day – you want to carry such things with you as little as possible.
But at the same time, I am rather sceptical about hotel safes. They are as good as you are going to get for a laptop or camera – but remember that the hotel can always open the safe. The way this one works is that the staff just remove one item, a passport, some cash, or a card, leaving everything else exactly as it was. If you challenge reception about this, the story is that ‘you must be mistaken, maybe you didn’t put that item in the safe’.
My technique is that I carry a small safe box, and leave passports, cash and cards at the
While I am not going to tell you how it is done, it is damned easy to get into any hotel room – so heed my warnings.
And leaving a hotel – have a check of the room – after you have left. Some people look around the room before leaving, to check that they have everything. Then they leave. Without – the ipad, wallet, the obvious thing they just looked at. Exit the room, with your bag, then walk back in and check then.
Use the Frisbe check:
• Fridge (for water bottles)
• Room (all around)
• Incidentals (check for the key, phone or wallet on your bedside table)
• Safe
• Bathroom
• Electric charges. (Or can you come up with a memorable way to incorporate ‘C’ into Frisbe?
Planning long haul travel
When and wher to travel
Planning – www.rome2rio.com is an amazing website that will allow you to plan how to get from just about anywhere to anywhere else – offering train, plain, car and other alternatives. And above all, talk to people that have been there. If there is one message to take away from this site – it’s that everywhere is different (which is also the most amazing thing about travel), and advice for one country, may be entirely inappropriate for another.asd
Long haul to and from Australia
Wearing the right clothes and having the right stuff at hand on a long haul flight can make a big difference.
Jet lag
Jet lag can be quite disabling for some days. My observation is that it is easily overcome on outward journeys – probably owing to the excitement and energy of the trip – but coming home, it can take days to recover from it. The most basic avoidance strategy is to think, eat, drink and sleep according to the time zone of your destination as soon as you board the plane. Another thing that helps is to try and arrive in the morning or at least during the day, avoid sleeping until night time, and that will help you at least get to sleep at the right time.
Rest times
Have a rest day or half day every few days – where you do nothing more than set around at some picturesque spot and read, catch-up on emails and Facebook, edit your photos. It isn’t necessary to constantly be on the go or in a museum when you are away – sitting in a café doing your own thing adds to the experience – perhaps more so, than being a constant tourist.
Trains
Coming from a country that doesn’t use trains much, it can be easy forget how useful they are in other countries, especially across Europe where good regional trains cruise at 300 kmh. In most European countries tickets can be bought online between one and three months in advance and printed out at machines (that always have and English option) at the stations by just knowing the ticket code number. It is strongly recommended to purchased number trains seats in advance. Random thought: English trains are very expensive.
Driving
When you get in the car – familiarise yourself with the controls – some things that can be really weird is where reverse is on a manual, the lights, and remember to adjust the mirrors. It is that very first moment that you drive out of the car hire when you may be tempted to drive on the wrong side of the road. Make that first exit slowly and mindfully, after 10 or 15 minutes, you will already be used to driving on the other side of the road. Take it easy, if in doubt, give way.
Also consider whether you need to drive – having a car in a metropolitan area is generally much more trouble than it is worth – and in Europe it can be very hard to park – with many cities not having private car access to central areas. Cars are only useful for country areas.
Choosing accommodation
Be prepared that European hotels may not have lifts – you could be taking baggage up narrow staircases. In Italy you sometimes come across tiny, tiny lifts in hotels – we just pop our suitcases in these, as there is often no room for a person in addition, send them up to the floor of our room, and meet the lift at that level. It’s all part of the fun.
Generally, I recommend for places that include breakfast – that is a great start to the day, and can be a primer for packing a picnic lunch.
Finally, choose the location carefully. The more central the accommodation, the more expensive it will be, but at the same time, being able to walk straight out into the centre of town adds significantly to the immersive experience you will have. All accommodation sites will have a map showing where the place is, and this is definitely worth looking at closely. The best deal can be to find accommodation that is not central – but very close to a metro or subway station, so that you can get into the centre easily.
Frequent flyer points
Firstly, points can be used to purchase or bid on upgrades. At peak season, this is no benefit, but in off-season periods, the points price of the upgrade can be an amazing deal. Flying from Sydney to Darwin, a 4 hour flight, just $40 worth of points – less than 10% of the cash price of the upgrade.
Packing
Choosing a bag
A few things to bare in mind are:
Hard-shell cases offer better protection – but often don’t have easy access pockets for popping something into them – and they usually open as a split in the middle. This means that at accommodation, you need a bigger area to open them or leave them open for access – it’s a bit of a pain, and I am looking forward to someone inventing a solution to this soon – hopefully quicker than the invention of the wheelie bag – which was some 20 years after man walked on the moon.
Packing baggage
And here is an important baggage tip – always look after your own bags, whether you are travelling with one other person or a group of 10. It’s when one person says, oh’ I’ll lift your bag onto the train, and that somehow, someone else’s is left behind. Even putting bags in a hire car or taxi, each person should only handle their own bags – that’s the control technique that nothing is left behind.
Here are some key items to take - If you wear spectacles, sunglasses, clip-on sunglasses, or take medication – take a complete spare set. Loss of any of those items small items can wreck the trip for you, so be sensible. Have one set in your carry-on bag, and the backup in your checked baggage. I have a favourite folding cap, and bring a spare of that as well.
And – have a departure check list for the day of departure, the key things that you need to remember. It is exactly the things that you don’t think you will forget (computer charger, passport), that you do forget.
Compact Packing hack: put things inside your shoes
What not to take? Your wallet or purse.
On the play and carry-on
Generally keep carry-on baggage as light as possible – but here are a few tips:
Have a really small pouch with a few key items in your bag – so that you can have that with you at your seat – your phone, Kindle, a pen (for filling out immigration forms), ear plugs and eye patch. An inflatable neck brace can be handy – even if you don’t use it around your neck, I have found that by inflating it, you can also use it as a laptop table – very handy. IT’s also handy to nade a few meds – on a whole packet, but some codral and gastro tablets – if there is one time you don’t want to have the runs, it is on a crowded airplane.
Find out what can be take on-board – on International flights the limits can be found at
International flights generally require that you do not carry or pack loose batteries, and there is a 100 ml maximum size for all liquids and gels – and these need to be packed into clear plastic bags. But you can have an empty open bottle - that you fill-up once you are through customs, that is fine.
On foot and day packs
If the weather is variable, Uniqlo puffer jacket is the trick – packs away into a tiny bundle, perfect – and if you have anything delicate in your baggage – pop into the middle of your packed-up puffer jacket for protection.
And if you trying to save money with picnic lunches, take a couple of good plastic knives, and some salt and pepper sachets from McDonalds. A buffet breakfast at your hotel can be a great source for picnic lunches. Don’t carry a real knife (it will be confiscated at various museums and other places). And don’t forget photo ID – your driver’s licence will usually suffice.
Documents and money
Cards and Money
Don’t let anyone take your card away – everywhere uses mobile card machines. Another wise thing is to check your bank and credit card transactions every day or so – they will all have apps that will allow you to do that, and that is a fast way to see if there are any dodgy transactions occurring.
You don’t want to take to much cash, because you may not be able to change it back. For example, you can buy Peruvian Sol but – you’ve got them for life, you can’t change them back to any other currency. Mind you, there are money changers with wads of notes on every street corner. Similarly in Cambodia – but Cambodian Riel is only used as small change (and there are no coins used in Cambodia whatsoever) – the currency used for everything from small shops to buying cars or homes is US dollars. Actually, in many countries the US exchange rate offered on the street or in shops will be better than at a bank. Just be careful.
The key thing is to ask people who know about each country. In Sweden, no local currency is required at all – not only are cards used everywhere – but cash is often not accepted. Occasionally there are lockers in museums that operate using a 5 Kroner coin – but a Danish – and probably other currency coins also work.
And don’t carry all you cards and cash with you! Just take one or two cards, and the cash you need for the day – especially a few coins for bathrooms that require payment. See At the hotel.
International Driver Licence
Watchout, in a few places (such as Palma, in Spain) discount car rentals can have a wait of 2 or even 3 hours to pickup the car - you can pay extra express pickup and drop off. Also, be careful, some drop off locations are not at the airport that you picked the car up from - they use an 'off airport' location with a shuttle service that can be slow.
When booking car hire, look carefully at the inclusions and choose your level of insurance excess carefully. At nearly every car hire pickup, the staff are going to offer you an upgrade, such as a bigger car, automatic transmission (in Europe, manuals are cheaper to hire), gps, or scare you into reducing your excess. Note that if you don’t ask for GPS, some cars may still have this, or may not – it’s a gamble. Your backup (data plan permitting), is to use your phone and a travel-mount – and that can work perfectly well.
Insurance
Or you could get stuck in a country when you think you are fit to fly home, because the airlines do not permit ill travellers. So if you come down with a bad flu or any contagious illness, you will have to extend your trip – which will most likely be covered by insurance – the alternative could be going to the airport only to be refused permission to board the flight, or being offloaded at a transit location.
The good news, is that the Australian government made basic hospital cover and repatriation a compulsory element of international travel insurance in this country (you can guess why). That means you can shop around for pretty economical insurance, and you know you are covered for the worst case scenarios. There will be other insurance policies that offer all sorts of extras, covering lost items, flight delays, and so forth. These premium policies are exactly that, in every way. Someone I know told me he claimed the cost of replacing his sun-glasses that he left on the seat next to him at an airport lounge. Do you want to pay for that?
There have been two comparison studies done that indicate that the insurance policies offered by airlines during the process of purchasing a flight online tend to be quite expensive – potentially double the price of other offers – but they are convenient – and can sometimes be purchased with frequent flyer points.
But watchout for catches – a policy purchased for a holiday may claim that it is invalid if they find out that you were working on the trip – so read and ask about the details.
Things you can't bring into a country
Many countries do not permit you to bring in fruits or vegetables - and wooden souvenirs may face issues coming back into Australia. Check the Borderforce website to find out what you can bring back into Australia.
Spare specs and meds
If you are dependent on reading glasses or take prescription medicaton, make sure you bring two pairs of glasses and two sets of your medication, one in carry-on, and the other checked in. Your travels will be totally ruined if you lost either of these.
Health documents
If you are travelling with any medication other than a couple of headache tablets, get a letter from your doctor (they are used to this) regarding your medication, particularly prescription medication. You may find that medicaton is confiscated in another country without such a letter - and you could be surprised to find that your regular happy-pills are illegal in another country without such a letter.
Forget about paper tickets
Passport, visa and travel laws
Check if you need a visa (or, in the case of the US, a ‘visa waiver’ – which seems to be a clayton’s visa. Keep backup copies of related documents. Always get the correct visa for your visit – travelling Check the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs site.
Immerse yourself
Learn some language
There is no country where everyone is not delighted (excuse the double negative) that you try to speak some of their language – learn the greetings and departure phrases, thanks and excuse me – there are dozens of free apps that will help you with this, such as Duolingo.
Rest Time
There is no country where everyone is not delighted (excuse the double negative) that you try to speak some of their language – learn the greetings and departure phrases, thanks and excuse me – there are dozens of free apps that will help you with this, such as Duolingo.
Cultural immersion
Go to the supermarket and make some light lunches using the local fair – walking and exploring supermarkets in other countries should be part of your visit everywhere your go. Watchout, in some countries you weigh the fruit and veggies yourself, enter a code and put a sticker on the bag – and that is part of the cultural exposure process.
Get off the beaten track – and get out of town. One of the best ways to get to understand a country is to see regional and small towns off the tourist beaten track.
Don’t stay in International hotels – they are all the same the world over. Choose a small hotel or bnb, where when you wake up you know and feel you are in that country – and likewise with restaurants, choose small and local. Some people seek out the famous top restaurants in foreign cities – mainly so that they can show off on facebook to their friends – do better, eat local, genuine and cheap.
Urban travel
Walk and use public transport as much as possible. The metro or underground in any big city is always easy to use – the ticket machines almost always have an English selection. Most places have multi-ticket buys and day passes – the latter of which makes for a good deal for tourists. The metro will also get you to and from the airport in most places, but check out the situation with regards to stairs - while the tube in London usually has lifts and escalators, the metro in Paris has seemingly endless stairs. Also, think ahead about timing – metro to the airport in the middle of the day can be fine, but at peak hour, completely horrific with baggage. A few places also have some great deals – in Geneva in Switzerland, hotels provide coupons for free public transport throughout your stay. In London you will discover that each tube station will have a different convention with regards to riding the escalators on the left or the right – check it out.
Phone and photography
Keeping your phone safe
Backup your photos
‘My phone/camera/Ipad’ got lost, stolen, eaten by a monster on the trip – I am ok about the device, but upset about losing all my photos’. Not again? There are dozens of solutions, don’t let it happen to you. You can backup from a mobile phone to various cloud services, copy the phones to a small SD or micro SD card that you keep in a safe place, just make sure the backup travels seperately - Ie one version of the photos in checked in baggage, the other in carry on.
Mobile Usage and Sims
‘International sim cards’ advertised – but look at the rates – sometimes they are more expensive than using your home country sim card – the rates vary dramatically and many are just a complete theft.
Also some international sim cards block hot-spotting, so they only work for usage from the one phone they are installed in – and they can also be very slow – 2G or 3G only.
Generally, the cheapest sim cards are local ones – a pre-paid sim for one country on locally competitive rates is almost always the most economical. You can sometimes order these ahead online, or even share a sim with a friend that travelled to that same country. Or you can buy them on arrival – just watch out for the details – you are arriving tired and bewildered, and vulnerable to sharks.
Phones with dual sims can be great for travel – with your home sim set to not use data, and a locally purchased sim for data – both working simultaneously. No Australian mobile service packaged phones have this facility – you have to buy a phone off-the-shelf. Motorola have very good dual sim phones.
Organising your photos
If you don’t do anything else, organise your photos as you go. Every day, copy your photos to another device, and plop them into folders identifying where they are. That will make using for a photobook or slide show on your return that much easier.
Choosing a camera
My own choice, now, is an Olympus OMD 10. I will explain my choice, not because I particularly recommend this camera – but my thinking about this choice should help. This is a mirrorless micro-four-thirds format – meaning that the CCD is exactly half of a full frame 35mm camera. It is not a top professional camera, but I use the 12-50mm professional zoom lens with it, which has a fast F 2.8 maximum aperture. Essentially this means the lens is very tolerant of low light levels, and goes from a quite wide focal length to short telephoto length (24mm to 100mm in 35mm language). I picked this based on reviewing my photographs, where I noted that I tended to use wide to standard focal lengths 90% of the time – and only occasionally a long focal length. The wide aperture also offers the opportunity to reduce the depth of focus, so that the target item of the photo can be in focus, with other distractions in the background deliberately rendered out-of-focus – something nearly impossible to do with a phone.
The OMD 10 choice was deliberately not the top model – as the best cameras usually don’t have a built-in flash. Sure, a built in flash delivers horrendous photos in most cases – but I do find it handy for fill-lighting in contrasty day-light conditions.
The Olympus has built-in wifi, so photos can be transferred to a mobile phone, but this facility only transfers the jpg images – so I also bought a FLASH air LINK SD card that allows wifi transfer of the raw images too – however I suspect it is a bit of a battery eater.
I carry only a few other accessories, most of which are absolutely essential – just as important as the camera:
A gorilla grip for selfies, time exposures, vastly more convenient than a tripod – in the evenings I just have it attached underneath the camera as I walk around.
A spare battery – totally, totally vital – and keep it charged.
An after-market usb-powered battery charger – much more convenient than the standard plug-in battery charger that came with the camera – more compact, can be charged anywhere – a must.
Some handy phone apps
Hotel booking apps
Maps – offline, or if you use google maps, either ensure you have connectivity, or create and save maps for the days activities when you are in a wifi zone
Item trackers such as or TrackR. Keep one in your small documents folder, if you suddenly can’t find your documents buzz the app – I head about one guy that suddenly realised his document wallet was missing on a crowded bus – he used the app, and heard the device buzzing in the pocket of a nearly traveller – who handed it back to him.
Google translate
About
This is a guide to ways and what to pack, how to avoid stressful or physical endurance – how to make sure you are not the one that comes home with the disaster story. In particular, it deals with avoiding the worst disasters, not having valuables stolen, not getting stuck in the wrong place at the wrong time, and how to adapt to the local situations in different countries. At times the author has been tempted to expand this into a travel guide – but such divergences have been largely edited out – bar for a few overly tempting examples. Instead, this site provides some links to travel sites and guides – that do this much better, hence, this is a meta-guide – a guide to the websites and guides that you can draw-on for planning your travels. But additionally – it is vital to find people who have been to the places you are going to, and to ask their advice. If they are vague, find more experienced travellers that can advise you. Your travel experiences will be radically better having done your research and planning.
Oh, one other thing – this guide recommends some websites, apps, products and services. In all cases, these are the actual preferred products of the author.
Second Set of Eyes is based in Sydney, Australia - and acknowledges the Wangal and Gadigal people as the traditional owners of this land.
Second Set of Eyes offers services globally.
© 2020
CONTACT
Matt Balogh
Based in Sydney, Australia – we acknowledge the Wangal and Gadigal people as the traditional owners of this land.
Second Set of Eyes is based in Sydney, Australia - and acknowledges the Wangal and Gadigal people as the traditional owners of this land.
Second Set of Eyes offers services globally.
© 2020
CONTACT
Matt Balogh
Based in Sydney, Australia – we acknowledge the Wangal and Gadigal people as the traditional owners of this land.