We are about a week away from taking off! It took us almost a year to prepare for our travel. We have planned for as much as we can and the rest will be dealt with as it comes.
In the last couple of months, we have spent our time getting ready to leave home. Here is our pre travel checklist –
Travel Insurance
Manish did a lot of research and we decided to go with Southern Cross. We read through the terms & conditions and forums to understand and learn from others experience dealing with insurance companies.
Mobile Number
We researched global sim and have decided to go with Coles Global Sim for our travel. This will allow us to be connected with family and close friends.
Existing Mobile Plan
My 24 month contract finished in May this year and I was ready to cancel my line. After speaking to a customer representative, I decided to switch to a prepaid plan for $20 for a year. I can retain my number and not worry about updating my bank accounts, etc. Manish has decided to hand his number to his mum so she can continue to use his number while we travel.
Bank Accounts
While talking to one of the bank customer care representative we learnt we are suppose to inform the bank about our travel plan for security reasons. They will then inform us about formalities we need to fulfill and look out for any tanscations that happen while we are away. Manish and I will be spending a day visiting all our bank branches.
Digital Backup
We will be taking lots of photos (of course) and making notes of our travel log. We realised we need a digital backup plan for all our assets. After reviewing Drop Box, Google Drive and One Drive, we decided to go ahead with One Drive for our photo backups. It is a cheaper option and it is native to our Surface Pro tablet.
For notes, we will be using Evernote which is installed on our handphones and synced to our Google Account.
Budget Tracker
I have also setup a Google Sheet to track our expenses. The workbook is split by currencies and has an overview sheet for quick summary in Australian Dollars. I will share the template soon.
Travel Diary
A lot of our friends said they will be following our journey on Facebook and Instagram. While thats great, these channels only allow us to share a short post with images. We discussed what we wanted to do and this blog was the result. We also decided to use #arrangedtraveler for all our social posts. We will try and post our experiences while they are still very fresh in memory.
Iconic Shot
With so many people traveling and blogging, we wanted our unique identity. Though we haven’t decided this yet, we have a couple of options and we are hoping to make a decision soon.
Packing Room
Once we were done with our RTW packing, we realised we don’t need the million things we have at home. We decided to clean out our room and give away stuff we haven’t used in months. Marie Kondo’s “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” helped us a lot and we got rid of about 8 bags full of clothes, accessories and other things we haven’t used in a while.
We also decided to clean our room (properly!) and organise everything so if in case mum and dad wanted to use it, they can.
Utility Bills
Luckily we stay with Manish’s parents, we do not have to worry about utility bills, ownership transfer, etc.
Farewell
A lot of our friends wanted to meet up before we go. Considering we are on a budget and limited time before fly out date, we decided to host a farewell / good bye session for ourselves. It is the best way to meet everyone before you go!