Long term trip: preparing your trip!
February
12th 2010. Leaving six months discovering Colombia,
installing a bridgehead to discover South America is as
much a dream as an organisational challenge.
At first, having all the identity papers in rule: passport,
identification card and visas. The dates written on a visa
differ according to the country: we can stay as a tourist
a certain period or else our presence is illegal on the
territory. It rarely passes three months. Postmark or
vignette in the passport, the visa is an authorisation to
enter a territory. You can buy your visa at the border or
at the visited country’s embassy, the price is supposed to
be the same.
Then if you leave for a long period, it’s useful to buy a two-round
trip ticket without any return date fixed. This will allow you
to leave whenever you decide all by already paying a large piece
of the price. Don’t hesitate subscribing for a cancelling
insurance or plan a picnic if you took low cost tickets during
your trip. As a matter a fact, a 6h trip without having
something to eat can be long…
For what’s for the insurances, see for your medical cover and
maybe subscribe to complementary options protecting you whatever
the country and activities. In the same register, verify with
your doctor the necessary vaccinations for your trip and keep
proof of these with you as well as your eventual allergies, and
blood type. If you travel with children, double your precautions.
Leaving six months, it may also be leaving an apartment or at
least by-rent it. With good practice, the ideal of box storage
is to consider to preciously keep your things. Confiding
overstock items to close ones also avoids bad surprises and
allows keeping an eye on mail or important issues. Once in
place, joining or being joined is now easier thanks to internet
and notably Skype who proposes subscriptions or deals defying
any competition.
Driving in another country can mostly be a head buster:
automatic cars, national license not recognized, we better think
about it, especially that it’s possible to receive an
international license in your original country.
Beyond the packsack to prepare and you’re checked and done!
