Lessons learnt in 2015 when preparing for our travels
In 2015, we learnt a few fun and a few tough lessons while preparing for our 2016 round-the-world trip. We’re sure the lessons will keep coming but here are six important lessons we recently learnt.
1. Admin never goes away
A long-term vacation is the dream for most. You unrealistically also tend to think that it will be a vacation from the soul-destroying admin that comes with life. But before you can go to most countries, especially as a South African, you need valid visas to legally enter. Not matter how organised you are with your documentation, this is always a hassle.
Be sure to draw up checklists to help you submit all the right paperwork, and always make a few more copies of documents than you think you’ll need.
2. Never underestimate the power of the pencil pushers
Linked to the above lesson, you will need to work with many administrators who have the power to make your life difficult and unnecessarily complex when sorting out all the paperwork - from selling your house, moving your money to offshore accounts, providing the personal documentation you need for visas and processing the visas.
Try your best not to take out your frustrations with all the bureaucracy on them when things go wrong and progress at a snail’s pace. If you can keep your cool, be super friendly and win them over, you are likely to achieve so much more because they are on your side.
3. Save more than think you will need
You have a plan. But no matter how well you plan, things change. The currency devaluation of the South African Rand is our problem right now with $1 costing R15,47. Just a few months ago we wrote a blog post about how the Rand was at its lowest value ever at R13,86 to the dollar. We may have spoken too soon.
Whatever goes wrong, you are likely to need more savings than you think you may need. So squirrel away as much extra cash as possible or you may need to be more flexible with your plan to keep costs down - here’s hoping we don’t have to chop a whole country from our itinerary.
4. It is harder to say goodbye than you think it will be
It can be an emotional rollercoaster, bouncing between the massive excitement of planning your dream trip and saying goodbye to loved ones. Although technology allows you to stay and touch, and for most travellers a vacation is not forever, our end destination is a new country and new home making it particularly difficult.
Just take it one day at a time, focus on the exciting adventure ahead and know that the people meant to be in your life will stay close to you - even if only in spirit.
5. You can do it better and cheaper than a travel agent
We keep doubting our abilities regarding making the bookings and planning our holidays. We, therefore, still ask different travel agents for quotes or advice. Unfortunately, many of the travel agents have far less travel experience than we do. Also, the agents sometimes only work with providers that give kickbacks pushing up the costs far higher than what you would ordinarily pay by booking directly.
Remember that a part of the fun of travelling can be planning it yourself and doing all the research on the places to visit and things to see. The online resources available make this easy for any traveller.
6. You can’t control the pace
You put your house on the market because the sale could take a few months, only for it to be sold quickly requiring you to move out in two weeks. On the other hand, you apply for a visa that should only take five working days arrive late and then it has been issued for completely the wrong dates requiring you to begin the process from scratch (this happened to us this week).
Keep calm and learn to adapt. Things will happen but perhaps not quite according to your timelines.
All in all, we are learning a lot through this planning process, and unfortunately, we still have a lot of work to do on ourselves regarding being patient and not getting agitated with jumping through red tape hoops.
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| Lessons learnt in 2015 when preparing for our travels (Image source: https://pixabay.com/en/school-books-desk-chalkboard-chalk-926213) |
A long-term vacation is the dream for most. You unrealistically also tend to think that it will be a vacation from the soul-destroying admin that comes with life. But before you can go to most countries, especially as a South African, you need valid visas to legally enter. Not matter how organised you are with your documentation, this is always a hassle.
Be sure to draw up checklists to help you submit all the right paperwork, and always make a few more copies of documents than you think you’ll need.
2. Never underestimate the power of the pencil pushers
Linked to the above lesson, you will need to work with many administrators who have the power to make your life difficult and unnecessarily complex when sorting out all the paperwork - from selling your house, moving your money to offshore accounts, providing the personal documentation you need for visas and processing the visas.
Try your best not to take out your frustrations with all the bureaucracy on them when things go wrong and progress at a snail’s pace. If you can keep your cool, be super friendly and win them over, you are likely to achieve so much more because they are on your side.
3. Save more than think you will need
You have a plan. But no matter how well you plan, things change. The currency devaluation of the South African Rand is our problem right now with $1 costing R15,47. Just a few months ago we wrote a blog post about how the Rand was at its lowest value ever at R13,86 to the dollar. We may have spoken too soon.
Whatever goes wrong, you are likely to need more savings than you think you may need. So squirrel away as much extra cash as possible or you may need to be more flexible with your plan to keep costs down - here’s hoping we don’t have to chop a whole country from our itinerary.
4. It is harder to say goodbye than you think it will be
It can be an emotional rollercoaster, bouncing between the massive excitement of planning your dream trip and saying goodbye to loved ones. Although technology allows you to stay and touch, and for most travellers a vacation is not forever, our end destination is a new country and new home making it particularly difficult.
Just take it one day at a time, focus on the exciting adventure ahead and know that the people meant to be in your life will stay close to you - even if only in spirit.
5. You can do it better and cheaper than a travel agent
We keep doubting our abilities regarding making the bookings and planning our holidays. We, therefore, still ask different travel agents for quotes or advice. Unfortunately, many of the travel agents have far less travel experience than we do. Also, the agents sometimes only work with providers that give kickbacks pushing up the costs far higher than what you would ordinarily pay by booking directly.
Remember that a part of the fun of travelling can be planning it yourself and doing all the research on the places to visit and things to see. The online resources available make this easy for any traveller.
6. You can’t control the pace
You put your house on the market because the sale could take a few months, only for it to be sold quickly requiring you to move out in two weeks. On the other hand, you apply for a visa that should only take five working days arrive late and then it has been issued for completely the wrong dates requiring you to begin the process from scratch (this happened to us this week).
Keep calm and learn to adapt. Things will happen but perhaps not quite according to your timelines.
All in all, we are learning a lot through this planning process, and unfortunately, we still have a lot of work to do on ourselves regarding being patient and not getting agitated with jumping through red tape hoops.
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