Travel – Page 2 – Natalie K. Martin

Deja vu, but new

January 9, 2015October 17, 2015by NatalieLeave a Comment

Ok, so I’ve been very, very lax with my updates, but it’s hard to keep in touch when you’re busy chilling out all the time. Actually, that’s a lie. I’ve not been chilling too much. I’ve had deadlines, patchy internet and moved house. I think I’ve been to the beach three or four times since I’ve been here. Ho hum. In any case, I’m back in Arambol and having a major case of deja vu.

I guess it’s a pretty special place, in that there’s a core community of people who come here year after year, in some cases, the last two decades! So I’ve not been surprised to see so many of the people I met last year. In fact, I was banking on it. But, like most things, life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

The people I hung out with last season are not the same people I’ve been hanging with this time around. I’ve seen them, spent a little time with them, but that’s about it. I suppose it’s a important lesson not to have any expectations of anyone, or plan around people too much. In the upside, I’ve made a bunch of new friends who have kept me thoroughly entertained.

And the deja vu? Well, I’m back in the Purple House, the same one I stayed in last time. But this time, I’m sharing with two awesome guys, German yoga teacher, Simon and Aussie surfer, James. And as of yesterday, German contact dance teacher, Anir. That is where the deja vu ends though. Even though I’m technically sleeping in the exact same room I did last year, most nights we’ve all slept on the balcony (pictures to come soon). Unlike last year, we’ve decorated it with mattresses, cushions and wall hangings and most of the time, we hang out there. Even though the surroundings are the same, the feelings are much, much more different.

I guess it all boils down to the saying that’s so prevalent throughout Asia. Same, same. But different.

🙂

Backpacking, Travel

Arambolling

December 5, 2014December 4, 2014by NatalieLeave a Comment

I have touched down in Goa. Hooray!

In one day, I’ve rented a scooter, found a cute little house and now all that’s left for me to do is get a sim card. Yesterday, I had my orientation meeting for my shiatsu course and man, oh man, it is INTENSE! 4/5 days a week, eight hours a day.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to write and find time to update this site!

Until next time, adios peoples!

Backpacking, Blog, Travel

Do you need backpacker/travel insurance?

November 20, 2014October 17, 2015by NatalieLeave a Comment

Yes, you do.

End post.

Just kidding 😉

In all seriousness though, why wouldn’t you? This week, I’ve been looking into insurance for my upcoming trip and man, it can be a bit of a minefield. And, it can be pricey, but if you’re thinking about shirking, don’t do it! Let’s imagine, you’re in Mexico, or Sydney, or Bali. You’re having a total blast, meeting new people, getting drunk, going around exploring – the usual. You think to yourself, I wanna swim with dolphins. Why not? Everyone knows how human friendly they are and anyway, it’ll look beyond cool for your Facebook photos. You sign up, get in the pool and:

Sound extreme? The fact is, people get hurt on holiday all the time. It has to happen to someone and as much as you won’t want it to, it could happen to you. We’re lucky in the UK, we have the NHS to look after us after a mishap, but Belize? Cape Town? When you travel, you will no doubt hear about people who’ve fallen off their scooter (have witnessed that and it’s nasty), lost their bag thanks to the airline, got caught up in an earthquake, spent 10 days straight on the toilet (why is it that travellers bond over dodgy tums but you wouldn’t dream of having that conversation back home) – shit, sometimes literally, happens.

The day I arrived in Goa, I met one one of the girls who’d travelled from France with my friends. She was a lovely 19 year old German girl, travelling for the first time. She’d been in hospital and was STILL sick with some kind of stomach problem. Think about how much scans cost, consultant fees – it’s insane but it’s better to pay a little upfront instead of blowing your whole budget on medical care.

So. Comparison sites are a good place to start and there are a great many – moneysupermarket.com, comparethemarket.com etc etc etc. Or, you can go via a recommendation from a friend, Lonely Planet, Trip Advisor – my point is, there’s a lot out there. They often come in tiers. Bronze, silver, gold, black etc, and each level will have varying amounts of cover. It definitely isn’t an idea to just go with the cheapest.

You have to consider what you’ll be doing. Will you be going to one country, two, or do you not know yet? Will you be doing ‘activities’ like kayaking, mountaineering or board sports? Will you be taking camera equipment, a laptop, a mobile phone? All of these things could well end up being add ons you need because the maximum cover amount might not stretch to it. Lets say you’re taking a laptop, mobile phone and camera, and lets say they’re top of the range. Your laptop might be a Macbook, that’s around £900. Your smartphone, let’s say £400. Your camera maybe £100. That’s £1,400. Now, they might not be brand new, but is your maximum cover of £500 going to stretch if you get robbed?

What’s that you say? You won’t get robbed? Well no, you hope not but shit happens. You need to weigh up what’s important to you, and how much you’re prepared to shell out just in case. In some cases, an upgrade for valuables might only cost an extra £10-20 but the cover difference is immense.

So, my advice – don’t be cheap. Shop around and READ THE SMALL PRINT. And take care 🙂

Blog, Travel

I can’t travel because … money

November 14, 2014October 17, 2015by Natalie2 Comments

Cash. Dough. Bread. Pounds. Dollars. Euros.

I’ve decided to do a series of posts about common blockers that might stop someone from travelling and the first one is – money. It costs money to travel. Fact. Unless you’re one of those super savvy people who manage to blag things all the time, or find an ingenious way of getting what you want, like that dude who put a paperclip on eBay and then kept trading random things until he eventually got a house. But most people aren’t like that, so you’re going to need some cash.

I remember emailing my friend Caroline (I do have more than one friend, I promise) a couple of years ago. I wanted to travel, and I had my sights set on Brazil, but I had a huge blocker. Money. For some reason I had it in my head that I needed £10,000 to do it. TEN GRAND?!

Ridiculous, isn’t it? I mean, I still over estimate what I need money-wise and it stems from thinking its better to have too much than get stranded – I’ve been there, done that and it ain’t fun – but these days, I’m a lot more realistic. So, how much money do you need to go travelling? It’s a complicated question, based on a lot of things.

Are you doing a ‘big bang’ travel adventure? There’s the whole gap year thing which insinuates that you should get it out of your system in one go. Before or after uni, before you get a ‘real’ job and start making money, having babies etc etc. That’s all nice and dandy if you have that set up behind you where you can afford to go travelling before you’ve really earned a decent wage and saved for it. Maybe you’ve got family who can fund it or credit cards (just no), but either way, travelling for a year, across the world, will not come cheap. Flights alone will dent your pocket in a big way. Personally, as much as I’d love to globe trot for a year solid, I know that’s just not in my remit right now. I’m happy to go somewhere, come back, go somewhere, come back. Like a boomerang. That way, the cost can be spread and you can do things at a more leisurely pace.

Second of all, destinations. Australia, The States, Canada and western Europe will cost bucks. That’s pretty much a given. Africa, South-America (some parts anyway), Eastern Europe, some parts of Asia – they’ll cost less. This is where your personal preferences come into play, as well as what it is you want to get out of travelling. Invariably, the cheaper the place is, the harder the place is. No fluffy pillows to lay your head on, lack of sanitation, etc etc, but hey, you’ll live like a king. And how much do you need to live like a king? Can you stretch £3k to last 4 months? Yes, you can. I did. And I didn’t budget myself at all, really. Honestly, I could easily have taken half of that.

Activities. This is where a HUGE chunk of money will go (apart from booze). If you’re going to want to ride elephants, pet big cats, zipline through the jungle, go on safari, take cooking classes, take a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon, you better be prepared to pay for it. Personally? I don’t like most of the organised, targetted activities. I was, but then I looked into a lot of them and decided I didn’t like the ethics. So you want to ride an elephant? Good for you. Just be aware that the elephants you pay to ride on may not be treated in a humane way. After all, they weren’t made for you to sit on. Going to a decent sanctuary (and most worth their salt will allow you to get up close and personal, wash them etc without riding them) is just as good. And as for petting big cats? I think the Tinder thing of men posing with them hasn’t helped here. Most of them are heavily sedated in order for you to do so. All I’m saying is, do a little research and if you want to have these experiences, there are plenty of alternatives where you can get the same effect without the nastiness. It’ll still cost, at any rate.

Basically, there’s no easy answer to how much money you’d need, but I’d say whatever figure you’ve got in mind, halve it. Most of the time, we apply western/first world prices to things and that just simply doesn’t work (again, depends where you’re going). Be savvy. Eat local food instead of heading towards a McDonald’s, Starbucks or whatever (depending on where in the world you are). Organise things yourself or with your friends instead of going along with a tour operator (where safe and possible to do so). Learning to budget while you’re travelling, whether it’s in Cambodia or your girls holiday in Ibiza is a good life lesson. We all have to budget, unless you’re a millionaire.

You’re already living on less than you usually would – you’re not planning on carrying every single item you possess in your backpack, are you? So why not apply the same logic to your money?

Travel

Wherever you lay your hat – A guide to room hunting

November 7, 2014November 6, 2014by NatalieLeave a Comment

For the past week or so, I’ve been doing something really, really dumb. Instead of going to sleep at night, I’ve been laying in bed wondering where I’m going to live for this season in Goa. I’ve been mentally going through all the places I looked at last time (and there were a LOT) and putting them into piles of ‘definitely maybe’, ‘maybe’ and ‘heck no’. The reason why it’s pointless? There’s no point in me worrying about it until I get there. Absolutely none. Even if I looked online, the reality probably wouldn’t match up and anyway, room hunting is all part of the fun. So, not that I’m an expert or anything, but here are my tips:

1. Don’t plan ahead
If you’re used to going on a standard holiday and pre-booking your hotel, your instinct will be to try and find somewhere to stay for when you arrive. One of the things my friends and family said when I told them I didn’t have a clue where I’d be staying was ‘OMG, I could never do that’. Everything in you will want to pre-book a room but my advice is: don’t. The reasons are:

– As I mentioned already, things look a lot better on photos. Even with the likes of Trip Advisor, you still just don’t know and how many people end up booking into a place they have to stay in for ages that ends up being crap? I bet it’s more than a few. It’s always better to see the place and its location first.

– You might miss out on something great. Getting tips from fellow travellers is always a good hit. They’ll tell you where to avoid and where to go.

The only time I’d say this doesn’t apply is if you’re getting into a location in the dead of night.

2. Adjust your expectations
This definitely applied to me. Having only ever stayed in hotel rooms and one empty dorm beforehand, I was a bit miffed at the ‘state’ of the rooms I first looked at in India. But after a while, I just came to realise that I had to change my expectations, and so will you. You’re not staying at the Ritz, you’re backpacking. If you can find a room with your own bathroom, hell if you can find a place with hot water, you’re ahead of the game. As long as it’s clean, has a bed and is secure, then your bases are covered. That being said, it does depend where in the world your going. You might have to make do with a sleeping bag on the floor but, hey, whateves, it’s all part of the experience!

Chok Dee Guesthouse in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Ave Maria Guesthouse in Arambol, Goa

3. Location, location, location
There’s a reason this phrase is so well known. That’s because it’s true!! Your own personal preferences will come into play here, but for me personally, I can’t do dorms and I don’t like to be right in the middle of things. I like to be close enough to walk into the hustle and bustle but far away enough to be able to chill without constant noise. I moved A LOT in Goa, and I went from being right on the main road and being kept up at night by rumbling motorbikes outside my door to a room in a house backing out onto a field with cows roaming around. I way preferred the latter. On the subject of location, it goes without saying that you want to be safe. Finding somewhere that isn’t isolated and well lit is always a good bet, however hard that may be. This is the house I ended up living in – The Purple House.

It was accessible via an alleyway (for want of a better word). What made this okay was that on the corner of the alleyway was The German Bakery, a place that’s open til all hours and where people usually stop off for a pizza or cake on the way home from a night out. Plus, there were plenty of other houses around and about where the people staying there would hang out on the balconies playing music so I always felt safe on the way home.

4. Take your time
If, like me, you’re going to be staying in one place for a while instead of hopping around, it makes sense to find somewhere you can stay long term. It usually works out cheaper and it’s nice to have somewhere that can feel a bit homely away from home. But that doesn’t mean you should take the first place you see. Shop around and haggle, and take something that feels right. On the flipside, don’t take too long. Finding a great place for a great price is like looking for gold-dust and if you dither too long, someone else will come and take it in your place.

5. Haggle
This is something I still struggle to get to grips with but accommodation can add up quickly. You might not want to barter down the price of a pair of trousers but you absolutely should when it comes to a place to stay. If you’re looking at somewhere to stay upwards of a month then you absolutely need to. Chances are you can negotiate a better rate for staying in longer – owners would rather have you there than have it empty.

6. Basic checks
Of course you’re going to want to check that the room is clean, but it’s a bonus if it’s clean to yours or your mum’s standards. I had to clean a place from top to bottom before I felt comfortable enough to stay in it (and then moved out two days later. Ho hum). So, check under the bed, the bed itself, toilet etc etc but don’t be afraid to put a bit of elbow grease in if needed. The simple fact is, some owners just don’t care about it being five star clean, as long as it will do. Other checks you should do are to look at security. How does the door lock? Is it with a key or do you need a padlock? Are windows lockable? Are there easy entry points for would-be burglars? If you’re sharing a house, how many keys will you get and is there a safe hiding place for the main door key?

7. Make it a home
Okay, so you’re backpacking. You’re away from home and experiencing crazy shit. But chances are you will still get a pang of homesickness at some point. So, do something to make it feel homely. I bought a couple of wall sheets and used them for bedsheets. Not only did it make me feel more comfortable than sleeping on the dubious sheets they’d provided, they brightened the place up. Ditto with some candles and other little nick nacks. They don’t cost much and while you might not want to take them home or would ever buy them usually, they can make you feel better on a down day.

Good luck (for me too!).