Travel Bits: July 2016

The to-do-list before embarking on a trip.......

Fresh from a short trip in early July to nearby Phuket, I am already looking forward to my travel plans for next year. I already have one confirmed trip in the month of May next year where I will travel to Helsinki, Tallinn and London for a 10-day vacation. Only the air tickets have been booked. I will settle the rest of the bookings closer to the travel dates.

But before you think that I really truly enjoy myself on my travels, think again. The hectic nature of my job meant that any vacation is never really a vacation. When on vacation, I am still expected to reply to office emails promptly which usually means within an hour or two. Replying to office emails is the easy part. The difficult part is when I have to prepare tender and contractual documents, budgetary quotations etc and the list goes on. The need to handle such tasks and to deliver the output required, usually within a single business day regardless of where I am in the world and whether I am on vacation or not, presents a big challenge. To accomplish such tasks (even when I am travelling on vacation on my own expense) means that wherever I go, I have to lug my office laptop computer with me. And it also means spending late nights in the hotel room working so much so that by the next day, I am usually so tired out that I couldn't really enjoy the vacation. And to top it up, I have to ensure that my roaming mobile and data plans are all taken care of before I travel which also means paying a hefty sum in roaming fees on my mobile line! And I am not reimbursed by my company for these extra expenses. But I can't really complain too much because my job is the only reason I can afford to pay for my vacations. :-) Besides, what I have just described is probably similar to what most working professionals are experiencing.

Besides the office matters to take care of, I also have domestic affairs to arrange before and after each trip. Thus, my daily schedule before and after each vacation is usually jam packed and stressful. So much for taking a vacation for a break!

So in this modern day and age, my personal checklist of tasks to do before any trip is as follow:

1. Check that I can afford to be away during the planned vacation period. This means that there must not be any major work activities which I cannot accomplish from a remote location. Major events like key project milestones must not be happening during the period(s) when I am planning to be away.

2. Check that my petsitter is available to petsit my "daughter" for me. My daughter refers to my 7-year old pet, a Lhasa Apso doggie.

3. Book my air tickets followed by my hotel accommodations. My nationality and passport allow me to travel visa free to more than 120 countries. Thus, the hassle of arranging and obtaining a visa before travel is thankfully not one of the usual tasks in my pre-travel must-do list of activities.

4. Plan my travel itinerary. I usually keep this to a minimum so as not to add to my pre-travel stress level. ;-) I plan on the go during the trip itself!

5. Make a trip to the money changer to exchange for some local currencies. Although I uses credit cards to pay for most of my travel expenses, some local currencies are mandatory for those unexpected and minor expenses such as local transport, tips, snacks, drinks and souvenirs etc.

6. Print copies of my air tickets and hotel accommodations. Although most airlines and hotels worldwide now accept electronic copies, security requirements at some airports and customs may require one to show printed copies of theses documents. It is better to be safe than sorry. I prefer to ensure that I encounter as little unnecessary hassle as possible during my trip! For that reason, I always have printed copies of my passport, travel itineraries, air tickets and hotel bookings with me.

7. Check the weather of the places I am visiting and pack my luggage accordingly. I usually prefer to travel light but at times, the local climate may mean that I have to pack more than what I really wanted to. If I am traveling to a temperate region during winter, moisturisers are a must for me as I have rather dry skin. And of course, lip balms as well. Heavier jackets for wintry places are a must while for tropical beach holidays, I usually throw in just a couple of tank tops and some swimming trunks into my luggage.

8. Disposable cutlery is something I usually pack into my luggage as well. These are light and can be discarded if required but can also come in very handy if I need to dine on some instant noodles on those hungry nights during the trip. This is because I usually need to stay up late to work even on vacation!

9. Camera gear is easy for me to pack. I usually bring along my DSLR fitted with a standard 60mm macro lens. This lens allow me to take close-ups photos during the trip. It also works well for standard portraiture and landscape shots. For other general photographs, the in-built cameras on my two iPhone 6s Plus handle the job very well.

10. And of course, my office laptop computer and its charger! Never leave the charger at home or my laptop computer will be nothing more than a dead weight once the juice in its battery has been drained!!!

The last part is not to forget to sign up for that roaming plan! With these tasks checked and completed, I am all set to fly...

Sipping coffee at Ximending, Taipei, Taiwan (2015)