Home Articles Posted by Izy Berry (Page 126)
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Guide To Travel Insurance
When I flew between Australia and New Zealand I never bothered with travel insurance. In part because I never flew with anything particularly valuable, but also because as a New Zealand citizen, healthcare in both of those countries is free for me. It wasn’t until I flew to Hong Kong and Europe that I first got travel insurance. I was debating between health insurance and travel insurance, but I need someone to explain how the ACA works? It was expensive for the two week journey, but the added security was a huge peace of mind. When I finally departed on my first solo adventure, I hesitated before purchasing travel insurance: I hadn’t come close to making a claim on my previous trip and it was expensive and I’m really careful. In the end, I realized it was a necessity and booked a few months travel in advance. I am so glad I did.
My trip progressed well and without any issue until I was in Calcutta, India and my worst nightmare became a reality: a family member of mine was killed in an earthquake that destroyed my city. It was a dark day, but thankfully my travel insurance pulled through and they organised my flights home to be with my family, saving me around $2,000. On my second adventure I was stabbed and my travel insurance reimbursed me for my medical costs (stitches – ouch), the damage done to my camera (almost $1,000) and paid for a replacement of my backpack. They reimbursed my medical costs when I had really bad food poisoning and even repaired my shattered laptop when it randomly broke. I have got my money’s worth and then some.
This is what you need in a good insurance policy:
- Coverage for the specific countries you’re visiting
- Provisions for lost or stolen property
- Coverage for your electronics
- Coverage for injuries and illnesses
- Medical coverage, including hospital stays
- Round the clock emergency help and services
- Emergency evacuation coverage
- Cancellation coverage during the trip, such as hotel bookings, flights etc
- Coverage for any hazardous activities you imagine yourself taking part in
- Personal accident and legal expenses
The first step to figuring out what travel insurance will suit you is to decide what electronics and/or valuables you are taking with you and how much they are valued at. You’ll find most companies will have limits to how much individual items can be insured for.
One of the best value and most recommended travel insurance companies, World Nomads, has an upper item individual insurance limit of $1,000NZD (varies based on your country of residence). This means for “flashpackers” like me, it is, unfortunately, not a viable option. I’ve heard such great things about World Nomads I was almost tempted to leave my laptop at home so that I could use them.
If you are New Zealand based another great insurance company you can use is Travel Insurance Direct – they meet all my above requirements but allow you to insure certain electronics up to $4,000NZD. They are around 10% more expensive than World Nomads, which is a bit of a shame, but I would prefer to have my laptop covered.
Certain types of credit cards will provide you with travel insurance, mine doesn’t so I am not very familiar with how extensive these policies are. I would advise that you check the policy wording to ensure that it meets my above criteria. It would be a shame to skimp out on decent insurance coverage only to find out when you really need it most.
Anyone have any suggestions of great travel insurance companies?
Travel insurance is something we all hope we wont have to use, but are really grateful for when we do need it.
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Do You Need A SLR?
So many of my friends come to me asking whether they should buy a dSLR for their travel photography. It’s hard to say whether or not exactly you should buy one, as it’s a very personal decision, but often I find people are buying them for the sake of it and not really thinking about the practicalities of them. When I ask people why they want an SLR their response is always the same
“I want to take great photos”
Here’s a big surprise: you don’t need an SLR to take great photos, in fact I know a few people who brought SLRs expecting to open it out of the box, press the shutter and to take amazing photos – they were sorely disappointed. It simply doesn’t work like that, it’s all on the photographer to take great photos. A good camera helps take things “next level” but when you consider the additional cost and price, it might not be practical for you.
My first SLR was a Canon 400d, which is an entry level SLR. I had this camera for a couple of years, but only ever used the kit lens. I enjoyed taking photos and occasionally got a few photos I was proud of, but the truth was I could have easily taken equivalent photos on a Point and Shoot that would have cost and weighed half as much. I got to the point in my photography where I became frustrated, I wasn’t really making much progress, so what did I do? I invested in a 5d mark ii and spent time researching lenses that would suit what I wanted to achieve from my photography. It was an expensive decision, but my reasoning behind it was that if I had the best camera and lenses I could afford, then it definitely wasn’t my gear that was limiting me anymore, it was me. I found my photography improved in leaps and bounds. Do you need to invest in a full frame SLR for your photography to improve? No! You just need to change your frame of mind.
The truth is a high end point and shoot is probably going to serve you better than a low end SLR, especially if you’re going to stick to the kit lens. If you’re reading this article, then chances are you’re interested in buying an SLR or at least upgrading your camera, so let’s point out what I consider to be essential when purchasing a new camera if you want to take great photos.
The first thing I would encourage you to look out for is a camera that shoots with adjustable settings – for example, a camera that you can shoot in AV (aperture priority) or manual mode. This will allow you to have a lot more control of the specifics of the photo – which I believe is absolutely key to making progress in your photography.
The second essential criterion is: a camera that shoots in RAW. For some people this might not be as important as it is for me – it is a deal breaker. I will discuss the benefits of shooting in RAW properly at a later date, but for now I will say that shooting in RAW basically takes an entire snapshot of what the camera sees. When you shoot in JPEG or other formats, the camera automatically compresses the image. This means that when you come to edit the photo (a key aspect of photography, for me personally) you have an image that already has a fixed exposure and if you try to edit it you will negatively impact the image quality. However, if you shoot in RAW, you have much more flexibility with your image processing at a later date, as the “snapshot” of the image has been saved.
A high end point and shoot will meet both of those criteria, for example the Canon G12 which is a great camera. But SLRs are bigger, so they’re better, right? You might be able to take marginally better pictures on the entry level SLR with kit lens than your high end point and shoot, but, for the extra price you pay and the size and weight of the SLR, my overall opinion is no – they are not better.
If you’re going to set aside thousands of dollars to invest in good quality lenses to go along with your SLR then by all means, go ahead and make the financial commitment. But if all you’re looking to do is take great photos on a practically sized camera without destroying your bank account, then look for an adjustable high end point and shoot.
What do you you use for your travel photography?
At the moment I’m camera-less as my 5d was stolen in Los Angeles, so I’m using my iPhone!
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Missing Things
It seems the more places I visit and the more people I meet, the more I have to miss. I believe that missing something in itself is a blessing, as it means you’ve had things, experiences or people in your life that were so valuable and precious that you ache in their absence.
There’s also the type of missing that’s more akin to missing out – missing out on birthdays, weddings, milestones, and even missing out on the ability to see someone you want to the following day. That feeling can be, at times, almost paralysing. It’s part of the reason I removed almost everyone on my facebook from my newsfeed – I was spending too much of my life away from home trying to keep up. I’m determined not to do that on this trip, especially as I’m planning to spend the New Zealand summer, this year, at home.
I’m not sure how much I want this website to cross over into my personal life, as I do believe aspects of it are… personal. But transparency is interesting, and I’m sure romance on the road is something that other people might be curious about, especially those contemplating long term travel. Prior to this visit home, I listed one of the downsides of perpetual travel as basically giving up on any hope of being in a relationship within the next few years. But then I met someone who’s, in summary, the epitome of badass and I’m a bit more open to things, in the future – read: I want to rearrange the universe so this can be something, someday soon. My plans were interrupted, partially due to be taken back by the feelings that developed. But I have managed to push my planets back into alignment and tomorrow I’m boarding a flight to Sydney.
It’s much easier to use heartache or a bad job as a motivating catalyst to up and leave when you’re not happy somewhere. I first left New Zealand in a bid to explore more of the world and mend a broken heart. Nobody mentions how hard it is to leave when you’re happy, when you’re fully content with life. I guess it’s easier if you can take what you adore with you.
How do you push yourself over the “to go traveling” edge, when all you really desire is right at home?
Well, I write lists. Lists of all the things I want to do over the European summer that I couldn’t do in New Zealand.
Starting with hugging one of my best friends, Rob, at Sydney airport tomorrow
Walking around National park with aforementioned friend
Trying to survive on AUD$150 for five days in Sydney
Wandering around Hong Kong for two days next week (suggestions welcomed)
Catchups with lovely English friends in London next weekend
Nine days to make my way from London to Madrid via awesome places (suggestions welcomed, again)
Learning Spanish to a conversational level
Eating All The Tapas
Finding my groove in Madrid
Making authentic Spanish friends
Finding a nudist beach in Spain and getting my first tanline-less tan
Attending Tomatina festival
Watching a Madrid v Barcelona football match
Exploring Croatia, Slovenia and Italy (finally)
Although I feel a bit weird about leaving right now, I think it’s going to pan out to be one of the most amazing summers of my life. I’m also really looking forward to coming back to New Zealand for the summer, too. Two summers in a row – absolutely spoiled.
I’m going to try my hardest not to worry about missing and missing out. Because if my attention is too focused on what I don’t have, I’ll end up letting all that I do have slip by.
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Postcards from Angkor Wat
There are places in the world that you’ve seen so many photos of, or heard so many stories about, that you expect in a way to be disappointed when you finally see them. I was born in Sydney Australia, but never ventured back there until I was 16. I’d always been fascinated with travel and saw numerous photos of the Opera House and by all accounts it looked stunning. Until I was on the ferry, making my way to manly beach, when I realised it was not as large, white or impressive as I had imagined.
It has been said that expectations are the root of disappointment and I agree to some extent. When I was traveling around Asia I found myself a little “templed out” – as in, I couldn’t have cared less if I ever saw another temple on my travels. But after volunteering in Cambodia, I knew that Angkor Wat had to be on my list of things to do. People had gloated about the sheer size and intricate detail. Everyone was impressed. I tried to brush away my expectations, but as soon as I stood before Angkor Wat I found myself both surprised and overwhelmed – not unlike that cute monkey pictured above.
It is all that they say and more – I love that I can say that to you and still your expectations will never exceed the reality of Angkor Wat. I have visited Angkor Wat again since and there is a substantial difference in the environment and the feel of the temples between the seasons (rainy and not). Like Cambodia, it is a place that I hope to visit throughout my life to see how it changes and evolves. I’m sure you’ve seen countless photos of the wonderful temples, so I decided to make my Postcards From Angkor focused around the things that are a little less static.
What is the most breathtaking place you’ve ever seen?
Angkor Wat is certainly up on my list, along with Ha Long Bay and Borobudur.
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Girl Interrupted
After just arriving in New Zealand I wrote a post about the downside to travel and since then I feel like everything has changed. The last time I was back in New Zealand was February last year. A devastating earthquake had torn apart my home town and family, causing me to cut my time in India short. As much as I was glad to be back, to be able to support my family, I wasn’t myself. I wasn’t happy here and I was itching to get back to The Rest Of The World.
This trip home was a conscious decision, fueled by a genuine desire to see my friends, family and country again. From the beginning it felt different. I had worried about reverse culture shock and had intentionally planned a short time frame home so I didn’t get bored. I wanted my trip home to be special, but fleeting.
And then life got in the way of all of my plans. My dad wound up in hospital and I chose to miss my flights in order to be here for him. He’s fine now, but, if I’m honest, there’s another reason I want to stay. I’ve already said more goodbyes than anyone should have to say in a lifetime and each is getting a little harder. Since being home I’ve met someone I’m not ready to say goodbye to. I just don’t want to. I know that I have to return to Europe for myself, but for now there’s a little less spring in my traveling step. I’m mindful of the fact that having my camera stolen has really changed travel for me, but it’s good being challenged and forcing myself past it.
As much as I’m tempted to stay, I think it’s important to follow through with my summer plans. I’m looking forward to spending some time in Sydney, getting lost in Hong Kong, visiting friends in London and making my way to Madrid for the summer, via Portugal. After I’m finished I want to visit Croatia, Slovenia and Italy before making my way back to New Zealand. I’m gifting myself a summer in New Zealand because I’m greedy and because I’m madly in love with my own country, too.
And because the coffee is just way better here.
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The Hard Stuff
When you’re backpacking it’s easy to get caught up in the fun of it all: endless boozey nights, with your days spent lounging on beautiful beaches drinking fresh coconut milk. Cambodia was the first country I really tried to get under the skin of, before I arrived I really knew very little about it. I’d met someone on my travels who suggested that I should volunteer in Cambodia. But when I arrived in Phnom Penh, I had no idea what to expect or anything about Cambodia’s history.
I had just been in Saigon, Vietnam, where I visited the War Remnants Museum with two of my friends. Coming from New Zealand, we’ve had a pretty neutral history (by international standards), so being in a place that displayed all the horrors of war was really moving. There were numerous times where I had to walk out and take a break from all the heart wrenching images. It’s not as fun as riding around beautiful Hoi An, shimmying between tailors, but I found it to be really important. When the three of us left the museum we barely spoke a word to each other for the rest of the evening. Life had been put in perspective and it had made us see Vietnam in a slightly differently light.
Arriving in Phnom Penh with a clean slate in terms of knowledge of their history, proved to be very interesting. I had no idea about the Khmer Rouge or about the fact that during the late seventies almost a quarter of Cambodia’s population, an estimated four million people, was murdered. The total population of New Zealand at present is around four million, so that really put the size of the trauma that Cambodia suffered in perspective. I was welcomed by the warm, beaming smiles of the local people, despite much of the population hovering a little too close to the poverty line. As I dug deeper and found out more about the history, it became obvious that everyone alive in Cambodia had been in some way affected by the Khmer Rouge. There was an obvious generation gap, it seemed that there was almost no one who was in their mid thirties, as it was just an impossible time for people to survive. The more I learned about Cambodia’s dark history, the more my affection grew for the people.
On a weekend away to Rabbit island, I found a copy of First They Killed My Father. It’s an easy read, as it’s written from a child’s perspective. It also makes it very relatable, because it’s easy to draw correlations between some of the confusion the author had as a child and to some of that I had growing up too, although our realities were worlds apart. I set aside a day to go to The Killing Fields, and although my stomach was in knots the whole time and I felt emotionally heavy, I’m glad I went.
It’s tempting when you travel to do the nice things, to stay in nice hotels, eat at nice restaurants, and have a nice time. While that’s good and well, for me it’s important to penetrate the surface; I want to know what life is like for the local people. Because I took the time and effort to see the worst of Cambodia, it made the best of Cambodia a lot more obvious, too. I appreciate the people more, because I had some understanding of the struggles they had faced and how far they had come.
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Downside of Travel
I’ve been traveling since August 2010, but it hasn’t been entirely constant: I’ve spent a little time living in Auckland, Christchurch and the Czech Republic in between that. In that time I’ve been to 23 new countries, met countless amazing people and done incredible things. I’ve enjoyed swimming with glowing fish in Ha Long Bay, volunteering with wonderful children in Cambodia, walking through the cobblestone streets of Prague, Coachella Festival in America and being stabbed in Indonesia. I feel like I’ve packed a lot of life into the past two years.
Sometimes I meet people and I tell them what I’ve been up to and they look at me, starry eyed, and they tell me I’m so lucky. I don’t doubt that I am, coming from a country like New Zealand has afforded me numerous opportunities not available to the majority of the world and for that I’m grateful. But I’m not lucky in the sense of having a trust fund backing my travels, it has taken sacrifice and I’m not just talking of the financial nature. Long term travel is much cheaper than most people think. If travel is a priority for you, then you will find ways to save as much as you can to make your trip a reality. And you’ll work almost any job along the way to sustain it. But there’s other sides to travel that in reality make it a little less awesome than everyone thinks.
From a materialistic point of view long term travel is hard. I don’t have a “room” anywhere in the world, there’s no fixed space for all of my things to be. Which is probably a blessing in disguise, because I’m less likely to buy things because there’s simply no where to really put them – unless I feel like giving my friends and family more keepsakes to mind for me (thanks team). When I’m on the road, every few days I’ll have a new bed – there’s very little that becomes constant when you’re on the move. Most of my active wardrobe fits in my backpack, I have three pairs of shoes and I rarely have an opportunity to unpack all my things. Whenever I go clothes shopping I have to think long and hard about whether this piece of clothing is something that I would want to wear in a third world country, because so many of my good clothes were ruined on my first trip to Asia. I haven’t bought any new jewelry in years, again, because I don’t feel it’s appropriate to take with me to developing countries.
My backpack has probably been the best investment of my trip, there’s no way that I could travel as I do with a suitcase. But some days I glare it and wonder why it can’t pack or carry itself. Could you imagine packing up your bedroom every few days and lugging it around on your back? That’s what I do, but on a smaller scale, although it doesn’t really feel like it! Although my backpack only weighs about 14kgs at the moment, when I combine it with my laptop bag and camera bag, I am borderline being winded after 20 minutes of walking with it. I thought packing would get easier or at least a little less painful, but it hasn’t. Just the other day I was in San Diego basically jumping on my backpack trying to cram everything in and shut the zippers before the contents exploded – much to the delight of a random guy in the hostel. Some days when I’m wandering around with my backpack on, I catch a glance of myself in a store mirror and cringe at my likeness to a turtle – it’s uncanny.
I love arriving in a new city with nothing but an address, and a map, and finding my way: it’s my own little version of The Amazing Race. I find the unfamiliar fascinating. There’s something special about finding a favourite cafe in a new city, or a mind blowing museum. Enjoying things you know would be impossible to do so at home, is just one of the little perks of traveling.
But sometimes it really sucks arriving somewhere and knowing that none of your friends are going to be there. I like meeting new people, but I’m at the stage in my travels where I’m getting a little tired of the typical traveler questions.
The “Where are you going?” “How long are you traveling?” “Where are you from?” and so on.
I understand why they exist and they serve a purpose, but sometimes you’ll be in a place for just a day and it seems like there’s little point engaging in the travelers introductory conversation for the 12th time today. I don’t like that I’m a little jaded in this regard, but I suppose it’s a necessary evil to keep me sane. It’s hard meeting people you know you can’t see tomorrow, and probably wont see again, on a daily basis.
Conversely, travel makes you act a little differently when you meet people whose company you really enjoy. Because travel, in one way or another, is fleeting, you’ll find that often the connections you have with people will be intensified. Whether this is merely because you’re on holiday and have all the free time in the world to spend together, or because you know you wont see them in a week/month/year and so you open up and let yourself be venerable. Either way, I’ve found myself developing bonds people which felt disproportionately strong when compared to how little time we’d known each other.
And in turn the goodbyes become disproportionately hard. Saying goodbye to someone who you’ve just spent every waking moment of the past two months with is hard. Especially when you know you wont see them for a very long time. Then, when you do see them, chances are it will be different. I feel like I’ve said more goodbyes in the past two years than anyone should ever have to say in a lifetime. I’m not particularly good at saying goodbye, because I find it frustrating when I want to see someone again and circumstance doesn’t allow: it just sucks.
A few months ago I realised that there’s absolutely no point even considering a relationship at this stage of my life. There’s still a lot of Europe, all of South America, Africa and the Middle East that I want to travel – that’s gonna take some time. While I’m not opposed to traveling with someone for some of my trip, there’s something special that I love about traveling alone – there’s a magic that I’ve not been able to emulate when I’m traveling with others. Being in a relationship right now would mean compromise. I would have to compromise my travels and in turn I’d be compromising myself. This isn’t easy for me to admit, let alone write, because I love being in a relationship, but now just isn’t the right time. And it’s probably not going to a good time for a very long time. It’s a bit hard to swallow, as I think few things in life would make dating as ridiculously impossible as perpetual nomadic travel, but it is what it is.
Traveling long term involves a lot of sacrifices, but, unsurprisingly, there is an abundance of rewards. At this point in my life, there’s nothing I’d rather do than spend my time exploring foreign territory, meeting unfamiliar faces and arriving in a new place with little more than a map and an address.
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Postcards from Hoi An
There are some places you travel to and when you think back to them all you can manage is a deep sigh. For me, that’s how I feel about Hoi An. Vietnam was an amazing destination to travel, one of my favourites in all of Asia. There was something different about Hoi An that struck a cord with me, it felt as if a little piece of Europe had accidentally been left here. The buildings, the colours, the food, the pace of life – all a dreamy fusion of European Vietnamese. It’s the perfect place to hire a bike, ride around, stopping at tailors while three ridiculously handsome English men get suits made (key to your Hoi An experience in my opinion). Unfortunately we were there in January which meant that the weather was wasn’t good enough to enjoy the beach and most days were a gray drizzle. It didn’t phase me, Hoi An is perhaps the only place in the world that I’ll love even on the grayest of days.
Hoi An is pure heaven for your taste buds, it is where I learned to like shrimp and it’s also one of the few places in the world I’ve managed to gain 5kgs in a week. We found a restaurant, Cargo, that sold European style desserts at Asian prices, which is a dangerous combination. If you find yourself in Hoi An, make sure you check it out – yum.
