In Case of Emergency: use cell phone. [update]

This is definitely one of those "it's better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it" kind of things.  The last thing we really wanted to deal with was a cell phone, but we decided it made sense to bring one.

We chose to suspend both of our cell phone numbers with AT&T.  They have a Reduced Rate Suspend (RRS) option, which basically means you pay $10 a month to not use your cell phone, but you get to keep your number when you come back.  We also picked up an 'international' SIM card from Telestial.  This is a prepaid SIM card that works just about everywhere.  This way we save the cost of keeping one of our AT&T numbers active and paying ~$40/month.

We purchased their "Passport US Lite SIM Card" which when we bought it was free and included a $5 call credit, you just had to pay $9.90 in shipping (we will have to add some credits to the card or the free credit will expire in a month).  It will allow us the ability to use our cell phone in every county we travel to, the downside is the call rate is about $1-$2 per minute, but still cheaper than what AT&T would charge.

This should provide us with all the benefits of keeping our home numbers when we return, having a cell phone for an emergency, not having to pay the full monthly charges to AT&T to keep service and have slightly reduced per minute charges when traveling.

A few things to keep in mind: in order to use a phone 'around the world' it's best to be a quad-band GSM (850Mhz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 1900MHz) phone.  This allows you to connect to cell networks in just about every country except Japan and South Korea.  AT&T and T-Mobile are the GSM carriers in the US, so if you have either you might not need a new phone. The next thing you need is an unlocked phone, one that isn't tied to a specific carrier.  In the US when you buy a phone it's typically tied to the carrier (AT&T or T-mobile) and you can't switch out the SIM card.  Usually if you have been with the company for a while they'll unlock it for you.  Luckily we had an unlocked, quad-band phone that was purchased a few years ago off E-Bay so we didn't have to worry about either of those.

update:
Purchasing the Telestial international SIM card has basically been a waste of money (albeit only $10 for shipping).  So far we've purchased prepaid SIM cards in India as well as Kenya and have found the process rather straightforward and rates are significantly better than using the Telestial SIM.  We are paying cents vs dollars per minute when using a prepaid SIM vs. the Telestial international.  Plus both prepaid SIMs we have purchased had international roaming and even that was cheaper than Telestial.  In India the process to get a prepaid SIM involved getting a copy of your passport and handing over a visa photo (supposedly to stop terrorists from using the prepaid SIMs).  In Kenya I handed over 200 KES and walked out with a SIM card and 100 KES credit. Going forward we'll be going the prepaid local SIM route and are tossing the international one.

foreign transaction charge madness! [update]

The nice thing about traveling abroad in recent years is the ease of getting cash out. Pulling money out of ATMs and using your debit card seems to be the way to go. You don't have to deal with exchanging money or dealing with travelers checks and from what we've read the exchange rates are typically very good when you use a card. Over the last few years we've had no issues in France, New Zealand or Peru. The downside however is the finance charges that most banks charge, typically around 3% (at least with our current bank and many we've seen).

For our extended trip we figured rather than getting hammered for every purchase we'd see if we could do better than 3%. Well the good news is we did...how's 0% sound? Luckily we found CapitalOne. We started out looking at their credit cards, which currently charge 0% for foreign transaction fees. We thought it would be great for purchasing plane tickets and booking places to stay. However, knowing a lot of the places we would be heading wouldn't take credit cards we still needed to do something about getting cash out. Luckily CapitalOne also has checking accounts which also charge 0% for foreign transaction fees as well as no fees for using other ATMs, they even reimburse up to $10 each month for other banks ATM fees. It sounds like a match made in heaven for travelers.

The checking account is all online and allows you to easily transfer money in an out of another non-CapiltalOne account without having to deal with an ATM. We were approved for the credit card and checking account in minutes so we're ready to go. We'll still have our other cards as backups, but we're hoping CapitalOne proves to be as good as it sounds.

As always, time will tell.

update:
After several months of travel through many countries we've been able to use our CapitalOne credit card and debit card rather extensively (of note: they are both MasterCards). For the most part they've served us well, but they haven't been flawless.

Our CapitalOne debit card was completely useless in Nepal. We were unable to withdrawal money from any of the countless ATMs we tried. We were forced to fall back on our U.S. Bank card, which worked without issue, except for the $2 USD ATM fee and foreign transaction fees, but at least we had access to our money.

We have occasionally run into issues purchasing tickets online with our CapitalOne MasterCard, but after trying hours later transactions typically went through. We also ran into a few issues in India where the debit card wouldn't work with certain ATMs, but worked fine with others (even through the machines claimed to take MasterCard/Cirrus/Maestro cards). Usually we were able to find a working ATM, but a time or two we had to use our U.S. Bank card.

In Turkey we had to withdraw a good chunk of change for expenses related to our upcoming African overland trip and ran into issues pulling out more than a few hundred Turkish Lira, thankfully we didn't have any issues with our U.S. Bank card and were able to get the money we needed.

So far we're glad we have the CapitalOne cards as they've saved us from pointless charges and fees, but we couldn't have survived without our U.S. Bank debit card (which is a Visa, if that has any affect on it's success rate). I guess the lesson here is always have a backup.

Photography Workflow: Gear

First I'll start off with the gear I'm using, not that getting a great shot is all about the equipment, but we're lugging it around the world so it's worth a mention. A complete gear list is on the packing page.

camera: Nikon D90 - a prosumer DSLR. DSLRs have their advantages and disadvantages. This camera with lens is sometimes a bear to carry around, it can't slip into your pocket and sometimes it's a little big to get those 'discrete' shots. Luckily Abby has a small Canon point and shoot that can fill those gaps. On the plus side it has about all the functions you could ask for in a camera in this price range and I'm consistently able to get the shots I want.

lens: Nikon 18-200 f:3.5-5.6 - this is basically the swiss army knife of lenses, it allows for good wide angle shots, think mountain landscapes, and also has a good telephoto for getting in close. I chose this lens so I wouldn't have to deal with carrying around multiple lenses or having to change lenses in difficult situations, like hiking or on a cramped bus. Basically it's not the best lens, but it does a lot of things well.

accessories:

• Joby Gorillapod SLR-Zoom Tripod, it's been great for night shots or photos of Abby and me when no one is around

• Dawn Tech di-GPS Mini 3L, basically a little gadget that attaches to the camera so photos are tagged with the location of the shot (GPS coordinates). It has been a lot of fun being able to see the exact spot a shot was taken, Here is link of all my photos on a map.
• SD cards, about 30 GB worth, basically I can shoot over 1500 photos before needing to download to a computer.
• Tiffen 72mm Polarizing filter, basically polarized sunglasses for your camera, helpful in getting getting dark blue skies and shots of water
• spare camera battery, you don't know when you're not going to have a place to charge your battery

The above things help get the shot, but after that comes the post processing of the images. I shoot in RAW, which basically means the camera is taking a digital negative and once it's on the computer I have a lot more control of getting the photo to look how I want, similar to the film days when you would head into the darkroom. So along with the camera gear, we have a laptop for processing, uploading and backing up photos.



computer: Dell Inspiron Mini 10v - your standard 10" netbook, but it's running Mac OS X, that's another blog post in itself.

accessories:

• LaCie 500GB Rugged HDD, this hard drive was a big must have for me, since we were going to be gone for an extended period of time I needed a way of knowing that all of our photos would be safe so this hard drive is used for backups, which I'll cover in more detail later. This hard drive also touts being a little more durable than others and is supposed to be able to withstand a drop, so just in case...
• wireless mouse, cables, etc.

One of the challenges of planning what to bring is how much hard drive and memory card space we'd need to house and then backup all of the photos. As a starting point I looked back at several of the extended trips we'd taken (Peru, France & New Zealand) to calculate that I had taken on average 91 photos/day, which based on this trip at 7 months would be a total of almost 20,000 photos and over 200 GB of space.

So with that as a starting point and factoring in Abby's photos as well as documents, some movies and whatever else we had on the laptop I decided to upgrade the hard drive in the laptop to 500 GB and purchase a 500 GB backup hard drive. I also purchased a several 8 GB SD memory cards so that if we were without the laptop for a few weeks I could keep shooting.

Now all we have to do is lug this stuff around and make sure it doesn't get broken, which we've been successful at so far.

For more info on the other aspects of my workflow, check the main post for links: Photography Workflow

Photography Workflow

One question that quite a few people ask is "What do you do to your photos?..." It's not always a straight forward answer, but I figured it deserved a blog post to go over my photography workflow. So I'll try to explain it and hopefully not bore everyone, but keep in mind you are reading the words of a big nerd.

Actually, after starting to write this up I realized it's probably too much info (and would get way too boring) for one post so I'll break it out into several posts that will link from here.

Also as a blank statement for all these posts, I'm not a pro, I'm just a guy with a camera who likes taking photos, nothing more.

Topics:
Gear
Getting The Shot
Post Processing
Publishing
Backups

a second passport in a hurry

We probably shouldn't have waited until the month before we left to decide we should each get a second passport, but we did.  Based on a tip from The World Effect we thought it would be helpful when trying to get some of our African countries and Brazil visas while on the road. It would allow us to send off one passport and keeping one with us. We were also concerned that we were going to run out of pages in our current passport, it only has a few countries in it right now, but based on the fact that visas take up a page and most require you to have 2 blank pages we didn't want to take any chances of not being allowed into a country.  However like I said we were about a month away from leaving and didn't have one.  So after some research we found that we could apply in person at a Passport Agency and luckily there was one in Denver.

After making an appointment, proving we needed to apply for visas in the next 4 weeks and had a need for a second passport we were issued one. We went in on a Friday and were able to pick up our passports the next Wednesday.  The fee was the same as if we did an expedited passport service, $170 ($110 + $60 for the rush) however we had our passport in about 3 business days rather than the normal 2-3 weeks it takes to mail it in.

So now we are all set and just completed our India visa application using our new passports.

Googleized

As we are planning we realize how much we are investing into Google for this trip.  For better (a great set of apps and great features) or worse (they have a lot of our info) Google has become a huge resource for this trip.  Here's the breakdown:

• Gmail - has become both of our primary email application, it's labeling and search has been great for finding all those confirmation emails and receipts
• Blogger - the site you're viewing now
• Google Docs - hosting spreadsheets of expenses and documents we might need on the road, shared between both of us
• Google Calendar - our trip schedule, shared between both of us
• Google Voice - we'll have to see how this works, but we'll be using Google Voice as our main contact number as well forwarding our phones to this number. This will allow a single place to check voicemails and the best part is Google Voice transcribes voicemails into text allowing us to either listen to them online or read the message without having to call stateside or miss important calls.  It also has great international calling rates for making calls overseas.
• Google - need some info, have a question, Google it!

So with all that I'd say Google knows more about us than our parents. 

visa photos on the cheap

Between taking the time to get a visa (or passport) photo taken and paying the $3-$4 per photo (the usually come in sets of 2 for around $8) we decided to handle the task ourselves.
Here's the list of supplies:

1. digital camera (we used a D90 with an SB400 for better lighting)
2. tripod
3. white foam core board (had some from other photo projects)

After reading up on the guidelines on travel.state.gov and using epassportphoto.com's handy sizing and alignment tool we've got a set of 6 (it was 5, but I photoshopped the page to 6) passport photos each, and we just have to spend ~$.20 to print off some 4x6s at Walgreens. Net result: $.03 per photo, not bad considering we're going to need 2 for several of the visas we need.

another shot and malaria stuff

After another trip to Passport Health (and another $224) we received our second shot (of three) for hepatitis A/B. This is our last shot before we leave in September. Our final shot will be when we return home in the spring of next year.

As mentioned earlier we were a little worried about our malaria medication, doxycycline, and it's side affect of increased sun sensitivity. After some awesome help from some of our medical friends we were informed about an alternative prophylaxis (a fancy term I learned, basically meaning 'preventative medication') called Malarone. It's said to have fewer side affects than doxycycline and is just as effective. However it's one side affect is it's cost. I called up our local pharmacy and was quoted about $25 for our supply of doxycycline and $880 for a comparable dosage of Malarone. No, I didn't misplace any decimal places, it's basically 35 times as much...that's a lot of sunscreen. Needless to say we'll be having our doxycycline prescription filled. We've also heard the increased sensitivity to sun doesn't affect everyone, but only time will tell.

Wikitravel has a pretty good post on malaria: http://wikitravel.org/en/Malaria.

insured.

Well the 'dread' of booking travel insurance is over. Let's hope that now that it's booked we don't have to ever deal with it again. After scouring the internet for reviews and comparing prices we decided to go with World Nomads for our travel insurance.

Of all the sites we looked at they were far and away the most easy to understand and their prices seemed very reasonable. Everything was laid out clearly, it seemed to fit the exact trip we were taking and they seemed reputable. Insurance was about $500 for 6 months, which is the max you can book at a time. We'll be gone about 7 months and we can extend the coverage online while on our trip.

Reading through the policy we should be well covered, the only thing that didn't completely cover us was a $500 limit on cameras, computers and other electronics. Hopefully that never becomes an issue and we can hold on to the expensive stuff. Otherwise as long as we don't die learning to fly a plane or on some high altitude rock climbing expedition we should be good.

shot through the arm

After a total of 8 shots, several pills and about a grand between the two of us we left Passport Health ready to take on the diseases of the world.  The experience was actually pretty painless, well the Tetnus shot did sting a little, but in all seriousness it was a pretty straightforward process.  We made an appointment, met with a nurse, told her where we were traveling and then discussed the potential risks and various vaccines we would need.  I was also glad that all of the recommended vaccines from Passport Health lined up with what the U.S. Dept of State travel site recommended.

So here's the breakdown for each of us:

• Hepatitis A/B, Twinrix shot (3 shots over several months)
• Polio, IPOL shot
• Tetanus/Diphtheria/Pertussis, Tdap shot
• Typhoid, Vivotif pills (4 pills taken over 8 days)
• Yellow Fever, shot
• Malaria, Doxycycline pills (150 pills to be taken when in Malaria areas)
• Diarrhea, Ciprofloxacin pills (20 pills taken as needed)
• 10 pills of Ambien

Due to some stomach issues on our recent trip to Peru the Cipro was a must have on this trip and Ambien never seems to hurt, although I've never had much luck with it.  The only real concern I have is the Doxycycline is said to cause sun sensitive skin, so I might see if there is any better alternative before we fill that prescription.

travel insurance...dread.

Of all the planning we have to do and have already done, travel insurance has been the one I have dreaded the most. Insurance is one of those great things you buy that you don't ever want to use. That being said we're getting some. Now the trick is which one to go with. Hopefully in the next week or so we'll have it sorted out and purchased and well after that, hopefully we never need it.

moving right along

We've started booking our flights through Australia as well as from KL, Malaysia to Bali, Indonesia.  In the US the new thing to complain about is the majority of airlines charging to check bags. Our eyes have been opened to the South East Asia airlines not only charging for checked bags (and the heavier the more you pay), but they also charge to pick your seats. However, we're not complaining since we can fly from Perth, AUS to Singapore for about $50 USD.

So far Tiger Airways has had the cheapest tickets throughout Australia.

australia: we're in!

After booking our plane tickets the next step was actually getting allowed into the country.  As an American, Australia allows you to submit an Electronic Travel Authority (ETA), it replaces a visa stamp by filling out an online form and of course a $20 AUS payment (per person).  We were both approved 'instantly' and should hopefully allow a smoother entry once we land.

Information for this process is was all through the US Department of State's website: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_954.html.  While we were a little surprised the need to for the ETA of all the countries that require visas AU seems to be the easiest, about a 5 minute process each.

round the world fare vs. one ways

No one really talks about this in any decisive form. Sure everyone mentions you can purchase a single round the world fare from one of the partner alliances (OneWorld, Star Alliance, etc.) or you can just book one way flights as you go, but no one ever gives you much more than that.

Due to the ease of the round the world ticket that was our first choice. You pick your stops, buy the ticket and you’re off. It, however, is not quite that simple. We started with the OneWorld fares, everything seemed to work out, we could travel for 16 segments, we had to fly in one direction between continents, all pretty standard stuff. Basically days before we decided to pull the trigger we discovered our 16 segments (stops) didn’t include any layovers we might encounter which depending on the alliance you choose and where in the world you are planning to travel could be significant. So with that news all of our flight planning was out the window…

Luckily we’ve managed to connect with several people who are either currently on a world trip or have already taken one. With some real world suggestions we’ve decided to go with the one way ticket idea. It allows for the utmost flexibility and quite frankly adds quite a bit to the adventure. Now I guess the key to the one way ticket is actually being able to book that next ticket, or group of tickets. Here’s where one of my new favorite travel companions comes in, a computer! The next suggestion was to bring a computer on the trip, which is something we initially decided against, even though I’m a huge geek. After this suggestion it really seemed to make sense and not just for the sake of booking tickets, but also being able to more easily keep in touch as well as one of the other challenges: managing the gigabytes of photos we’d be taking along the way (I’ll post more about the photography issue later).

So there you have it. We are going with the one way ticket and I get to bring another gadget. Our plan is to book our first few legs ahead of time and then any major flights well in advance, but anything local or spur of the moment will be on the fly (pun intended).

the "Rough" start…

Our first thoughts about planning a round the world trip involved “where to we start”, “what do we bring”, “when do we buy our tickets”, etc. We started by reading as much as we could, blogs, websites, etc. We also picked up a book “The Rough Guide: First-Time Around the World“. It has proved to be an excellent resource. It talks about planning the trip (when start planning and booking), actually traveling and what to do when you get back (basically re-acclimating to your “old” life).