Resources

Welcome to the Legal Nomads Resources page, created to highlight some of the tips, tricks and resources I’ve learned in my years of travel around the world. I’ll be adding to this going forward, and if there are any subjects missing that you’d like to know more about, please leave them in the comments.

Three years of travel, all in one photo

1) Why Quit your Job to Travel Around the World?

This is a question I get all the time, and it still took me 2 years to put it down in words. I devoted a one-year anniversary post to exactly why I quit my job to travel, and several years later, the initial impetus remains the same. Because I’m thirsty to live life by seeing and tasting, because the infinite ways that people live and work and exist elsewhere is a source of never-ending wonder. My path is not for everyone but it is what I felt passionate about and thus it is something I wanted to share. Three years after I departed, I’m still unable to sleep the night before I head to a new country, too excited to discover what it has to offer. Despite the ailments and occasional road accidents, despite the experiences already under my belt, it still feels new. If that’s not an endorsement for my decision, I don’t know what is.

2) Tips: Packing, Planning and Staying Positive on the Road

Before You Go: Planning and Insurance

Research the Weather. Do not discount weather in your planning. Exploring the Philippines was an awe-inspiring few months, but when monsoon season started I quickly learned just how difficult backpacking could be when you’re constantly dripping wet. While wet and dry seasons are less delineated these days, it still makes good travel sense to get a rough idea of when to go. The best times are usually shoulder seasons, on the cusp of the high or low periods. Prices are lower and while you might get some bad weather you’ll also avoid a good amount of the crowds. Bonus: some seriously beautiful sunsets.

• Resources: The Traveler’s Handbook, Travel Independent’s country guides.

Vaccinations. Yes, you need them. Not all of them, but some basics are important before you head to environments wholeheartedly different from the one your body is used to. Regardless of country, I’ve always made sure I had the following shots up to date: Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Meningitis, Yellow Fever, Tetanus booster, Typhoid/Diphtheria, MMR booster (measles, mumps and rubella) and Polio. There are others such as cholera, rabies, and Japanese encephalitis that are more subjective based on budget and destination, and your doctor will be able to help ascertain how necessary they are.

• Resources: The Adventure Doc’s vaccination page, CDC’s Malaria Map, CDC Traveler’s Heath recommendations, World Health Organization’s Country-specific Reports.

Medical insurance. There were several times on this trip where I got sick, and while some countries are not expensive to find good medical care, others break the budget. Medical insurance is something that you hopefully won’t need on your travels, but if you do get sick, you’ll be relieved to have a policy to protect you.

• Resources: Bootsnall.com has a handy comparison chart for several medical insurance plans popular with round-the-world travelers.

PDF copies of your things to yourself. Before you leave, PDF yourself (and archive) copies of your passport, your visas obtained in advance and any other documents you might need to show and/or potentially lose on the road.

Consider getting a Google Voice number so you can receive emails of voicemail transcripts or texts left for you while you were on your travels. While not a failsafe method of communication (let’s just say their voice transcription technology needs a little work) it comforts me to have a number for my parents, bank or friends to reach me along the way.

Back up your Laptop: If you are traveling with a laptop, consider backing up your photos and computer files online. It’s awful to lose all of your photos and if your computer and backups are stolen, you’re going to be very upset.

• Resources: Companies like Carbonite or Mozy will backup your laptop or desktop to the cloud.

Read How to Shit Around the World before you go. Written by a doctor with a great sense of humor, the book aims to demystify street food, help you stay healthy and get people to give you strange looks when you read the book on the subway. Ok, the latter is my own contribution but riding the R in New York was much more fun with this book in hand.  The book has some helpful tips on how to avoid getting sick when you travel and how to minimize the pain when you do.

Build a timeline and spend some time looking at visa requirements. You’ll need them in some countries and have a visa-waiver exemption in others. It’s a good idea to read up ahead of time, as some countries are very specific about obtaining a visa ahead of time.

• Resources: For American Citizens, entry requirements are here; for Canadian Citizens, entry requirements are here. IATA’s global visa database is also a great resource for anyone – plug in the country you’re from, your resident country and where you are headed.
• Airtreks has a sample timeline for potential round-the-world travelers here.

A Few Packing Tips for Your Travels

Round out your First Aid Kit. A first aid kit is a must. While people made fun of me for carrying it at all times, the travelers who did fall/break something/tear their calf open while jumping off a boat were among the supporters. Many of these can be purchased and/or replaced from the road, but if starting out in a more remote destination, it’s a good thing to have a more thorough kit from the get-go. Things I don’t leave home without:

1. Neosporin or a similar triple antibiotic cream; (Note: if you’re going to be spending a good part of your time in the tropics or somewhere with high humidity (Southeast Asia), you might want to also include an antibiotic powder. I’ve had deep cuts where using the cream actually made it worse, because the cut never dried out. In high-humidity environments, antibiotic powder is your friend).
2. Anti-itch cream;
3. Small sutures/stitches;
4. Burn gel;
5. Diclofenac (anti-inflammatory cream sold over the counter);
6. Gauze;
7. Ciprofloxacin (if you get food poisoning/stomach infections, you will want some of this);
8. Metronidazole (for giardia or amoebic dysentery; I’ve picked these up for reasonable prices in Thailand or other parts of Southeast Asia);
9. Immodium, but only to take if absolutely necessary since trapping whatever bacteria you’ve got in your intestine is a bad idea. I only use it if I’m about to board a bus for 8 hours and know that I’m not going to make it without copious bathroom breaks.
10. Sewing kit;
11. Ibuprofen;
12. Benedryl or other anti-histamine pills
13. Anti-malaria meds (consult your doctor about using these as a prophylactic; I keep a dose on my in the event I do contract malaria and no doctor is nearby);
14. Band-aids;
15. Matches;
16. Moleskin for blisters;
17. Charcoal tablets for your stomach, to help absorb the bad stuff after a bout of food poisoning;
18. Oral rehydration salts;
19. Diflucan (for the ladies);
20. Anti-mozzie spray plus 100% DEET (for spraying drains in showers/sinks);
21. Sterile syringes;
22. Second skin (for blisters);
23. Alcohol wipes; and
24. Tweezers.

Waterproof your Electronics. I use Ultra-Sil nylon dry bags to keep my electronics dry and dust-free. If you’ll be headed to the islands or will be on water, I’d recommend a sturdier, more waterproof bag like this See Bag from Sealine.

Get a Point It Dictionary: People often write to ask how I get by in places where I don’t speak the language. This Point-It Dictionary is a big help. From a homestay in Siberia to ordering food in China (by pointing to my meat of choice in the book) to entertaining kids in Burma, this dictionary comes with me no matter what.

Duct Tape: For everything from taping up ripped window screens (Jodi 1; mosquitos 0), to rips in my pack to a cut that won’t close, I don’t leave home without it. You shouldn’t either.

Safety Whistle: A safety whistle is small, but important. I wrote a post about how my safety whistle saved me on three separate occasions in Asia. It’s a small piece of plastic, but when you need it, you need it. Highly recommended. You can pick one up from Amazon or at your local outdoor store.

Headlamp: I’ve used my headlamp in a staggeringly broad cross-section of situations, from cave spelunking to reading in a tent to navigating my way to the bathroom in a hostel at 4am. I use a Petzl Tikka Plus headlamp and it has stayed intact over 3 years of travel.

Smartphone. I’ve found having a smartphone on the road a very useful thing, from currency apps like Oanda to incredibly helpful data minimizers like Onavo to great online phrase translators. If unlocked, SIM cards are very cheap and easy to procure from the road – in Thailand, for example, my SIM cost me $1.50 and came preloaded with enough to make several calls.

Doorstop. Small and easy to carry but brings some extra peace of mind if you’re staying somewhere and are worried about someone trying to get into your room at night. While not fail-safe (of course!) I’ve used it several times on my travels and it’s been a small tool I am glad I had.

Staying Calm and Positive on the Road

These are more philosophical than practical, but are equally important when the sights, smells and chaos of a new place overwhelm you.

• Give yourself a few days to adjust before making judgments about a new place. You usually arrived tired from the trip and less open minded than usual. Give yourself a chance to warm to it before you decide to leave. Initially I didn’t enjoy my time in Bangkok but after getting out of the main tourist areas and living in the middle of street food heaven, I found myself enthralled with the city. Sometimes the places that make the worst first impressions end up being your favorites.

• Learning a few words of the local goes a long way. This is helpful not just to get what you need, but also to break the ice in a new place. I’d also and make sure that the translation of “no problem” is on that brief list – it’s a surefire way to get a smile!

• Don’t sweat the small stuff. Clichéd, but true. The sooner you start to weigh down your days with resentment or anger at things that cannot change, the sooner you’ll want to leave. Things will not go as planned, but that’s part of the adventure, and oftentimes they really do work out in the end. Save the stress and the anger for the things that really matter.

• Build a vacation into your vacation. When I came home for the holidays in 2009, people asked me how my vacation was going. I explained that my round-the-world travels were my life, and my time home was my vacation. Travel in developing countries can be tiring and it can be frustrating, and there are times when you really do need to give yourself a break. Whether that means sitting on a beach for a week, finding a festival you love (some  festival options), and relaxing or treating yourself to a nice meal every so often or upgrading your hotel to something different, figure out what you need to give your brain and body a break, and then indulge in it once in a while.

• Experiment with food and markets. Experiencing the world through food is by far my preferred method of traveling, and the best ways to do so are to parachute into a busy market in a new place and see what’s what. From the bustling, colorful morning shopping on Inle Lake in Burma to the teeming animal markets of Otavalo in Ecuador, markets led me to new explorations in food and a connection to locals that I would have otherwise missed.

• Remember that the travel community is very active online, and will happily provide advice and support whenever you need it. Prior to starting a blog, I had no idea that there was such a robust, supportive community of fellow travelers out there who were available to provide advice and suggestions. For those who aren’t planning to write about their trip but are active in social media, Twitter is an excellent place to get off-the-cuff accommodation picks, food suggestions and people to meet along the way.

3) Budget and Savings

Budget is, of course, integral to any endeavour of this kind. How much you save for your travels will in part be determined by where you want to go. For travels through Southeast Asia or the Subcontinent, you’ll definitely need far less than if you were to spend that same amount of time travelling through Europe or Australia/New Zealand.  I saved up to spend an approximate $12,000 – $15,000 per year, and I came in at the lower end of that spectrum, even when you factor in long-haul flights back to North America for family or health reasons. Unfortunately, I’ve never done any spreadsheets / budget breakdown but the travel community is full of great resources in that domain. Here are a few of them, broken down by destination:

Round the World Travel Budget

• Shannon from A Little Adrift’s RTW budget breakdown (including spreadsheet).
• One Giant Step’s RTW planning and budget page and their dollar-by-dollar breakdown.
• Neverending Voyage’s RTW full cost breakdown.
• David from Go Backpacking’s cost of a RTW trip post, and his actual expenses incurred.
• The Road Forks on how they budgeted for a RTW trip, including cost breakdown and links to other bloggers who have done the same.
• Kirstin from Take Your Big Trip on estimating budget for a RTW adventure.
• BootsnAll rounds up budgets from 10 different RTW trips, including a “by-the-numbers” section and budgeting tips from each traveler.

Asia Travel Budget

• Roger Wade’s Price of Travel is a great source of information and he has a cost-per-day breakdown for Asia (26 cities)
• Johnny Vagabond has a budget section, with cost-per-day in several Southeast Asian countries.
• Travels of Mike on how much it cost to travel in Thailand.
• Shannon from A Little Adrift on how much it costs to live in Chiang Mai.
• James Clark from Nomadic Notes on living in Indonesia for $15 USD a day.
• Lloyd Lancaster on Bali for $500 USD a month.

Europe Travel Budget

• Price of Travel on the cost of travel in Europe (40 cities).
• The Aussie Nomad’s series of how much it cost to travel through Europe, broken down by city.

Oceania Travel Budget

• Travels of Mike on how much it cost to travel in Australia and New Zealand.

South America Travel Budget

• Keith from Traveling Savage on how much it cost to travel in Argentina.
• David from Go Backpacking on the cost of travel in Colombia.
• Neverending Voyage’s budget breakdown for Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and for Bolivia and Peru, as well as their full budget for 1-year in South America.

4) Round-the-World Ticket or As You Go Flying?

This remains the mother of all questions for RTW travelers, and the subject of much vitriol on many of the travel forums. People seem vehemently for or against a round-the-world ticket, with little room in between. I’m a big proponent of not buying a round-the-world ticket, mostly because some of the places I loved the most – and spent the most time in – weren’t even on my initial itinerary. A person you meet who tells you it’s somewhere you cannot miss, some article that catches your eye along the way; many reasons why you want the freedom and flexibility to do as you please, as you go.

For me, it was more important to have the flexibility and freedom of being able to change my plans on a whim, than it was to calculate the aggregate savings of a RTW ticket. I am sure a RTW ticket would have run me less in terms of bare costs, but I’d like to think that the fun I’ve had in being wholly spontaneous was a fair opportunity cost for those savings.

Round-the-World Ticket

For those people who feel more comfortable knowing the general route and schedule in advance, this is a perfect option and generally cheaper than the pay-as-you-go ticket buying, below. Conversely, the downside to these types of tickets is a lack of flexibility in destinations and mode of transportation, as well as the limit of 12 months.

Resources:

• Star Alliance - Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, bmi, EgyptAir, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Spanair, SWISS, TAP Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines, United, US Airways. RTW ticket is based on mileage (and not “stops”). Overland mileage between destinations counts toward your total.
• One World - Aer Lingus, American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, JAL, Iberia, Lan and Qantas, offering either of a Global explorer or a oneworld explorer, depending on the amount of continents and stops you want to include in your trip. Good for South America due to the inclusion of LAN in the OneWorld alliance.
• SkyTeam Alliance - Aeroflot, Aeromexico, Air France, Alitalia, China Southern Airlines, Continental Airlines, CSA Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Korean Air, Northwest Airlines, Air Europa, Copa Airlines, Kenya Airways.
• Airtreks RTW ticket options is another option. I used them for the first series of long-hauls I booked on my travels, a set of open-jaw tickets when I knew I had to be somewhere specific. E.g. I booked a flight from NY to Santiago and then several months later, a flight from Buenos Aires to Cape Town. This can be done separately, of course.

As-you-Go Flying

For many travelers, the idea of a RTW trip often includes freeing themselves from whatever routine or life they have been living and giving themselves up to the unknown. If this feeling/goal is more important than knowing where are heading next, opting against a RTW ticket might be better for you. As-you-go flying means taking advantage of the budget airline options out there, as well as any other modes of transportation between countries (trains, buses, motorbikes, etc). It also means that you might decide to change your itinerary entirely upon meeting people headed in a different direction, and that you need to do a lot less pre-trip destination planning since you could inevitably end up somewhere entirely unexpected.

Resources:

• AirNinja’s budget airline finder
• Travel Independent’s list of budget airlines

5) Technology and Travel

I get a lot of emails about technology and travel as well, about what computer I bring (if any) and the phones or gadgets I use.  From my own travels, I have

- Canon S90 point & shoot camera: All of my travel photography is taken with a point and shoot camera. At the very beginning, my photos were tepid at best, but I’ve tried to learn as much as I can as I go, including using the aperture priority mode for food photos. As point and shoot cameras go, this one is great and in the new S95 model you can shoot in HD video as well. Lens is wide-angle, the camera goes down to f/2.0 and it’s extremely tiny meaning you can take photos inconspicuously.

- Asus eee PC netbook: at $299.00, this little computer is powerful enough to get work done on the road (including using Picasa to upload photos) but small and reasonably priced enough that if something does happen to it, I won’t be devastated. For those photographers looking to run Lightroom or Photoshop, this will be too slow for your tastes, but for most casual travelers it works just fine. I picked mine up in Singapore on my trip in 2008.

- Smartphone: I still use the data plan I had from my prior time in New York and it allows me to access email worldwide for a very reasonable fee. As the phone is locked, I also have a cheap ($5) phone from the Philippines that I use for local SIM cards. When I initially started travelling, I put the plan on hold but quickly found it would be useful to have access to emails as I travelled.

- Western Digital 500GB My Passport Drive: 500GB drives are mighty small nowadays, and as someone who had all my photos stolen with my laptop and cameras, I make sure to back up my photos as I go. I also use Mozy.com to back them up into the cloud, just in case.

Useful Smartphone Apps for Travel

When I started my trip in 2008, I had no laptop and no smartphone. As the years have gone by and I’ve continued my travels, I’ve picked up a phone and kept an eye out for apps that help me as I navigate strange places, be it via language, food or helping make my life a little easier as I go.

1. Onavo (iphone only): Onavo’s aim is to shrink your data usage, and it does so by installing a configuration profile on your phone, so that the data you receive from the interwebs is streamed through their cloud-based compression service. This means that the compression takes place before it gets to your phone, and this also means Onavo saves you some money if you’re not on an unlimited data plan.

2. Skype: Being on the road for over three years means that I’ve had no SIM card and no home base. As a result, Skype has been a saviour – it allows me to use WiFi to reach my friends, I can forward its services to a local number, and I’ve added SkypeOut credit for those family members (*cough* dad *cough*) who refuse to get an account themselves.  For those of you who want to stick to apps from Google, Google Voice’s app is an alternative, allowing you to text freely within North America from anywhere in the world.

3. TripIt: TripIt has been getting rave reviews from friends and travelers alike. It’s essentially a trip organizer – forward your trip details or confirmation to them, and TripIt will build you the full itinerary, accessible from mobile or the web. If you’re a frequent traveler with plenty of reservations to keep track of, this app might make your life quite a bit easier.

4. Urbanspoon (for travel to UK, US, Canada or Australia): I’ll admit, I don’t travel often through North America or Europe; most of my trips take me further afield, to Asia. But for the trips I do take in these parts, Urbanspoon is a great way to find out where I should eat. I prefer its interface and enjoy using it more than the also-popular Yelp app.

5. ICOON Global Picture Dictionary: When words just won’t work, be it because you can’t speak the language or you need a doctor ASAP, this is your friend. Photos by category, foods, body parts, lodging basics and more. For Android, the Picture Dictionary is an option, though less pretty in design and function.

6. Google Maps: it works in a startlingly comprehensive list of countries; it helps when you’re really exhausted and just cannot figure out where your hostel is and all the street signs are in an unfamiliar language. If you’re directionally disabled like me, Google Maps is a must, especially when you can use it to show your taxi driver where you need to go in their native language

7. Speaking of language, I’m enamoured with Word Lens (iPhone only). The app instantly translates printed words from one language to another using your phone’s video camera. It’s a pretty nifty idea, and even if you don’t absolutely need to get a message across right now, you’ll have a great time playing around with translation on-the-go.

8. Oanda’s Currency Conversion App: Currency conversion is a helpful thing to have available on the road, especially farther afield where you are sometimes negotiating for rates when changing money. Those countries with a closed monetary system (Myanmar, for example) won’t really care what your app says, but for the most part it’s very helpful to have an interbank rate at your immediate disposal. I’ve used this app throughout my worldwide travels and it comes in handy not just for ensuring I get a decent rate, but also to keep track of what I’m spending by converting to USD as I go.

9. Sit or Squat (available for Blackberry or iPhone) might not be the most useful, but bonus  points for creativity and for listing 109,280 toilets around the world (and counting). Just plug in your address and find a place to relieve yourself.

Bonus: Tipping Bird. A Hipmunk user created this app and I have to say I wish I had it prior. Divided by country, the app lets you know what you ought to be tipping as you go, in a cross-section of industries. Country tips are divided by restaurants, bars, taxis and others, with info from Thailand to Argentina to the States. Looking forward to using it the next time I travel!

Fun USB Gadgets for Travel

1. Belkin’s mini surge protector is one that I keep with me at all times. It allows me to charge whatever I need, is tiny enough that it doesn’t take up too much room, and comes in handy when there’s only 1 outlet in a hostel and people are clamouring for it.

2. For those of you with a serious amount of USB charging required, the USB Octopus has your name on it: 7 USB ports in one tiny gadget.

3. A similar idea for USB only is the Flip-It, allowing you to charge a device even when all the outlets are taken.

4. Less practical but very fun to have on the road is the X-Mini II speaker. The tiny podlike speaker fits in a felt bag and gives off far more sound than their size would indicate. I’ve used them all over the world to play some of my music to locals who are curious about what I listen to; inevitably, people forget about the music and start oohing and aahing over the X-Mini instead!

5. Finally, for those of you in warmer, sunnier climates: JuiceBar solar charger for USB charging goodness.

Coming soon – Photography apps and gadgets for the road.

6) Career Breaks and Career Transitions

Two sites, Career Break Secrets and Briefcase to Backpack provide excellent case studies, interesting articles and helpful tips in planning a career break or transition.

Articles to help you re-enter your career or start a new one:

How to Decide if a Career Break is for You

Career Break Secrets case studies

Updating your Resume with Your Career Break Travels

Benefits of Using a Career/Travel Coach

How to Make Travel A Part of Your Career Brand

Easing Into Re-Entry – The Do’s and Don’ts

Career Breaks – Traveling Solo

7) Fun Business Cards

Working as a lawyer for several years meant that I was guaranteed a very staid, simple business card. So when I decided to head out and travel, I was excited to get something a little more fun. I ended up with Moo cards, which allow me to upload my own photos (up to 50 of them per order) to the front of my card, as well as a headshot on the back. What ends up happening now is that an exchange of business cards turns into a destination guessing game as people look through my photos and try to see if they can figure out where they were taken.

Moo Cards for Legal Nomads

You can pick up your own MOO Cards as well – I’ve got nothing but great things to say about their service and their site. Bonus: when you get the box of cards, it says “created by Moo and you.” WIN!

(photo credit: Answering Oliver)

8) Some Personal Posts

Why I Quit My Job to Travel Around the World

The Limits of Long-Term Travel: It Doesn’t Fix Everything

How Travel Helps us Keep Life in Perspective

Three Years of Travel Sickness, Injuries and Mishaps, All on One Page

What does Travel Off the Beaten Path Really Mean?

Solo Female Travel, Trust and the Art of Fitting In

9) Have Questions? Want to Connect?

If you have any questions or want to chat further, you can reach me in the following ways:

RSS Feed. Legal Nomads updates, directly to your RSS reader or inbox.

The Facebook. I set up the Fan page last year and have been really thrilled with the level of interaction from fans. It’s a great place to connect, share commentary and stay in touch.

The Twitter. I post a wide variety of links, mostly technology, news and astronomy related. Travel interspersed between those categories, but it isn’t the focus.

The Google + Some travel, some technology and news and a lot of random quirky links from the internets.

The Pinterest: Why yes, I did create a board called “trees that look like broccoli”. Why not?

Via email. Send me a message or any questions to legalnomads-at-gmail.com

Hopefully I have inspired you in some way to seek out those things in life that make you thirsty to live in technicolor, despite any obstacles in your way.

Thanks for reading!

Jodi