Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Travel Insurance

We purchased our first 6 months of travel insurance today through World Nomads....shark diving, Yes please! (Parental units - omit this last part!)




Preview



This company is recommended by Lonely Planet and was used by several other Round the World travelers, like TWINF. World Nomads "is designed for adventurous travelers with cover for overseas medical, evacuation, baggage and activities such as skiing and snowboarding." We thought this sounded like a pretty good fit for us, but researched a couple other international insurance agencies for comparison. We found, however, that World Nomads was the most affordable with the appropriate coverage for us.

The process doesn't get much simpler. First you select your home country, individual or family coverage, and the length of coverage from 1 week to 6 months. The cost of extending a policy would be the same as purchasing a new policy for the same duration, but less a 5% discount, is what we where told as we will have to extend for 3 more months. Then you receive a quote and a brief explanation on your policy coverage.

We will also renew our DAN (Diver Alert Network) DAN Logo
insurance, as our most extreme and frequented activity will be diving. We have been fortunate enough to not require DAN's services, and don't want to start anytime soon, so we will pay the $35 per person fee for a year of coverage.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

We are on our way!

We've bought our first round of plane tickets! Yeah!!! No turning back now, we're on our way (at least to Thailand).

There are numerous ways to purchase airfare for a RTW trip, but we opted for buying individual tickets. Check out the website for a more indepth description of the different options available. We decided to purchase the first few tickets before we depart on our trip just to solidfy our departure date (so that some of us don't keep changing the date...Jason). We haven't decided if we're going to buy all of our tickets prior to departure or purchase the remaining ones on the road...we'll just play it by ear.

Charleston to Berlin - July 13, 2009
- Overland from Berlin to Rome

Rome to Athens - August 10, 2009
- Check out the sites around Athens; the Greek Isles will have to wait until the next trip.

Athens to Cairo - August 12, 2009
- A couple of weeks taking in the history and some diving in the Red Sea.

Cairo to Jo'Burg - August 25, 2009
- Explore South Africa with a rental car from Jo'Burg to Cape Town.

Cape Town to Delhi - September 20, 2009
- Explore Rajasthan!

Delhi to Bangkok - October 2, 2009
- Setup tiki bar on the beach! Just kidding, maybe...

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Packing for 9 months

Putting our packs together has been an experience in itself. It is hard to believe that we will be surviving out of these bags for 9 months with all of our possessions on our backs. Our goal is to keep the weight under 30lbs per bag and as of right now they need to start dieting. Our list is forever changing but this is what we have planned so far.

We are by no means experts on selecting a backpack. But we selected the Eagle Creek Grand Voyage for Jason and we don’t remember which one Jenny has. It was bigger than the Maiden Voyage but lighter. They are comfortable, had good reviews and have zippers that can be locked. There is a day pack that zips off the front of the bag. We are hoping that our eyes were not bigger than our backs when it comes to over packing.

There is a fine line between over packing and not packing enough when it comes to an extended trip over a few months. You don’t want to lug around your normal vacation attire nor do you want to look like an animal trainer every day. We choose lightweight, mostly synthetic materials with a few sheer cotton outfits as our main concern is obviously the weight but the time our items will take to dry after they have been washed as well.

A complete PACK LIST can be found here.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Weenies with that Vaccine?

We got our Hepatitis A and Thyphoid vaccines today. The Hep A is a 2 dose IM injection with the second dose given 6 months later and the Thypoid is 4 pills, one every other day. We researched the vaccines that are required / recommended for the countries we will be visiting and had our primary physician write the scripts. We then dropped them off at the pharmacy and got them a couple days later. We used the CDC travel website to look up vaccines by country. This website also lists clinics that specialize in travel medicine as well as a rough list for a first aid kit.

We already have our Hepatitis B, Diptheria, and Tetanus. Japanese Encephalitis was recommended, but we decided not to get it. As the trip comes closer we will get our Malaria medication, mostly likely a mix between different pills along with some antibiotics to ward off bad juju from Montezuma’s Revenge, Dehli Belly, and the likes.


This is our First Aid Kit:
  1. Bandaids
  2. Moleskin
  3. Tweezers
  4. Scissors
  5. Steri Strips
  6. Ace Bandage
  7. Gauze pads and wrap
  8. Tape
  9. Thermometer
  10. Hand sanitizer
  11. Sun Screen
  12. Bug Spray
  13. After Bite
  14. Antiseptic Cream
  15. Hydrocortisone Cream – rash relief
  16. Benadryl - Allergies / sleep aid
  17. Dramamine - Motion Sickness
  18. Sudafed PE – Decongestant, cough suppressant
  19. Tylenol – Pain and Fever
  20. Pepto Bismol - antidiarrheal medication
  21. Ciprofloxacin - for Traveler’s Diarrhea, but also treats lower respiratory tract infections (such as pneumonia and acute bronchitis), and Urinary tract infections.
  22. Azithromycin - For Traveler’s Diarrhea especially in South Asia, but also middle ear infections, tonsillitis, throat infections, and sinusitis.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Where are we going?

Our dream is finally starting to come true; we are backpacking around the world for a little over nine months. Our departure date is set for July 13, 2009 with a return of April 10, 2010.

We will hit all of the continents except for South America and Antarctica and potentially travel around 22 countries depending on our overland route in Africa. We will be taking planes, trains, buses, ferries, and who knows what else. Here is our rough itinerary:



DATE

DEPARTING

ARRIVING

7/13/09

USA

Germany

7/16/09

Germany

France

7/18/09

France

Germany

7/29/09

Germany

Italy

8/10/09

Italy

Greece

8/13/09

Greece

Egypt

8/25/09

Egypt

South Africa

9/20/09

South Africa

India

10/2/09

India

Indonesia

10/12/09

Indonesia

Malaysia

10/27/09

Malaysia

Indonesia

11/2/09

Indonesia

Australia

11/14/09

Australia

New Zealand

12/4/09

New Zealand

Australia

12/17/09

Australia

Vietnam

1/5/10

Vietnam

Cambodia

1/12/10

Cambodia

Thailand

1/26/10

Thailand

Laos

2/6/10

Laos

Thailand

2/21/10

Thailand

China

3/20/10

China

Japan

4/10/10

Japan

USA