We are bound to fall sick at some point - whether it's motion sickness Delhi belly or mosquito-borne diseases
- it's part of the traveller's life and must be accepted alongside those terrible creepy crawlies!
A little extra that we have decided to take with us is an International Driving Permit. It costs very little and enables us to drive a rented car abroad; that is if we decide to do it!
Visas and other requirements
We are gonna need quite a lot of visas for some countries and some are not really easy to obtain simply
because the process is tricky or you have to obtain them well in advance usually using the services of a specialised company.
We definitely opted for the corporate help because taking days off work to queue at the embassies just wasn't worth it. For
a small to medium fee they process your visa applications.
The Russian visa is particularly tricky since everyone needs an invitation/voucher from a russian tourist
company on top of the usual application form which includes the exact details of your itinerary. We've used the services of
the International Youth Hostel of St Petersburg to obtain our invitation and they've been great. In England Tom has used Go to Russia and they have been impeccable. For the mongolian visa it's easier to apply directly using the postal service of the embassy. Make sure you order and pay for the entry/exit
visa and not the entry only one.
Nepal deserves the title of the easiest country to get into (when a visa is needed that is, otherwise it
would be Thailand and Malaysia where no visas are required for EU nationals). A no-nonsense visa on arrival (although we went
to the embassy in Lhasa beforehand) and you can stay for up to 60 days in the country (and get a discount if you come back
again within the year!). We had to queue 3 times in Nepal to get our Indian visa (a double-entry visa valid 6 months!)
because there is an extra step to go through before the application process: a fax to be sent to your consulate to make sure
that you are not under investigation by the police. The good news is that if they don't reply you're cleared (obviously no
one is bothered coming after you).
Mauritius is also V.O.A (Visa On Arrival) but remember to book your hotel in advance or at least say so
because otherwise they won't let you in the country until you've booked one from the airport! Sri Lanka's visa was also given
to us on arrival (valid for 30 days). Burma/Myanmar was another kettle of fish... we flew to Bangkok to have it done (and
use the extremely cheap and reliable services of one of the numerous agency there). As for Indonesia you can actually
obtain a visa on arrival (at the time of writing) but they have the habit of changing the visa requirements rule quite frequently.
On average a visa costs 30$ to 50$ - to be taken into account in your budget if you're planning a 'let's
fill in this passport' type of trip.
Insurance
There are quite a lot of insurance companies specialised in backpackers deals. Here is a comparison between the main travel insurance providers in the UK. We've opted for the Adventure Travel Insurance of
Insure and Go which will cover us both for the year for £450.
Money
We have both a Visa and a Mastercard and no traveller cheques - too inconvenient. However we will be keeping
some USD with us and withdraw little cash every week or two. In case of emergency Maman/Mam are here to send us cash through
Western Union!
