We purchased our 1998 Subaru Legacy at the Backpackers Car Market in Christchurch, New Zealand in November (2008).  It was a gamble. We debated purchasing a campervan instead of the Subi but we calculated the cost of petrol vs. the money we could save by living out of a camper van and opted for the Subi instead.

Arriving in March to sell our car at the Backpackers Car Market in Auckland was not the best idea.  We pulled onto the lot  only to discover it was almost full and another green Subaru Legacy was for sale. (Luckily it was a 1995 automatic so it only made our Subi looked that much more appealing.) I had the foresight to email the Backpacker’s Car Market a few days before arriving so Sam saved us a spot on the lot.  The last spot left was ours.  With the lot full and few backpackers arriving we decided to wait around hoping someone would show up looking to buy a car.

In New Zealand, the summer season runs from mid December until the end of February.  By mid March, everyone is desperate to sell their car/camper van and flea the country.  If you want to buy a cheap camper van/car, arrive in March.  You will be traveling during the winter, but this can be attractive to anyone who is wants to work the ski season.  Once the winter concludes, and numerous backpackers are flooding the country looking for that perfect vehicle to purchase, you can sell your vehicle and make a profit.

We were selling in the wrong season. We knew that with summer coming to an end selling our car could prove difficult.  We didn’t realize how few travelers were arriving, seeking a vehicle to purchase.  Fortunately, within the first few minutes of arriving on the lot, we met Barrie from the UK.  Barrie knows a lot about cars.  He started up the engine, spent about 20 minutes inspecting the car and fondling the engine, and decided to take it for a test drive.  Two days later Barrie returned to buy our green 1998 Subaru Legacy.

November 2008 – we purchased the green 1998 Subaru Legacy for $2800 NZ.

March 2009 – we sold the green 1998 Subaru Legacy for $2100 NZ.

Although we took a loss on the vehicle, we were some of the fortunate few backpackers actually able to sell our car (since the high season is over).  My best advice for buying and selling a car in New Zealand is to “go safe”.  Our Subaru, despite its 275,000 kilometers, was a great car that never gave us any problem. Many of the vehicles at the Backpackers Car Market were old, abused and going for peanuts.  In fact, I would rather have some peanuts (and cashews) instead of purchasing many of the vehicles for sale.  Barrie was able to recognize the old, decrepit vehicles and found confidence in purchasing our vehicle because he knew it would be safe and reliable.

Many backpackers arrive in New Zealand, decide to buy a car and purchase the cheapest vehicle they can find. If you don’t want to spend the money for a good car, buying a car is not the right option. Consider a Magic Bus pass instead.  Or, you could find a travel buddy.  With another backpacker (you are willing to travel with for several months) the cost of a car can be cut in half.  Everything will be 50% off.  The price of gasoline/petrol, tolls, parking meters, camp sites, and any necessary repairs or oil changes.

After calculating our losses, Justin and I realized that we drove and enjoyed a very cheap 4 month car rental.  Renting a car while spending an extended amount of time in a New Zealand is ridiculous.  Unable to justify the cost of renting a car for several months we took a gamble and bought a car.

If you are planning to backpack or travel for a month or more in New Zealand, purchasing a vehicle could be a viable option for you.

Murphy’s Law: “If something can go wrong, it will.”

I don’t like buying insurance because I can’t shake the idea that the insurance industry is a legalized and socially acceptable version of the mafia, with Murphy happily filling the role of the Godfather. Think about it. I buy insurance (read: send my money to the dark pit of oblivion) because I am afraid that if I don’t, something horrible will happen. For example if I don’t carry health insurance and I catch Pneumonia (while shoveling 3 feet of snow off my driveway in the freezing rain because the driveway will resemble an Olympic bobsled run the next morning if I don’t) what will it cost me to stay several nights in the hospital to avoid death? $5,000? $10,000? More???? The exact number is irrelevant. The point is that I want to know, while my goatee becomes burdened with pounds of frozen ice, that if I do catch phenomena all I will need is enough cash to cover the copay. No death. No cranky bill collectors. No liquidation of our nest egg. This is extortion. First of all, because I do have insurance, I could shovel every driveway on the block with out catching so much as a cold. Murphy is irritating like that. Secondly, the idea that not dieing is such an expensive proposition that I need to pay into a fund to afford to survive the next big storm that comes blowing down from Canada, seems a bit ridiculous.

I understand that doctors are highly trained and go to school for many years so that I can have some measure of confidence that when they stitch me back up, the scalpel they were using ends up in the trash instead of inside my body. I appreciate their expertise. Really. I just wish that I did not need to pay off Murphy so that I could afford it.

Whether health, auto, home, travel, or wedding insurance (oxymoron eh?), the concept is still the same. I pay money  to these people, so that when something goes wrong, I can pay less money to these people than if  I had not paid them in the first place.

As their is no getting around this legalized extortion, Natalie and I recently purchased travel insurance. After reading many favorable reviews, and feeling only a bit like I was paying of Uncle Murphy and his fearsome crime syndicate, we decided to go with World Nomads. (Their name is only a happy accident and did not influence our decision in anyway). Here are a few of the things I like about World Nomads.

Very Informative
The worldnomads.com has large amounts of information that answered all of my question. (“We cover this, this, and this, but not this.”)

Absence of Legal Jargon
Insurance policies usually read like an insurance law study guide. World Nomads decided to use something more closely resembling English. Plus, and this is significant, they provided easy to find definitions for terminology that might be confusing.  This is of course necessary because Uncle Murphy’s insurance syndicate uses their own unique definitions for words like accident, baggage and family member.

Short or Long Term
World Nomads allow travelers to purchase a policy for a duration of 2 weeks to 6 months. This is handy as they may turn out to be just another insurance company with a good marketing scheme and a solid web 2.0 designer. What sweetens the deal is that every policy can be extended as desired using their website. I like flexible.

This is not a comprehensive list of why we chose World Nomads travel insurance but I trust, if you are interested, that you have your own unique questions and their website is good resource.

Why type of travel insurance do you have? Why?

Thanks to Steve, we’ve now made our feed available through email. This means that every time either Justin or myself write and publish a post (such as this, that you are reading right now), you will be notified via email if you subscribe to the correct feed. It’s almost magical! But you still have to set it up. Located on our home page in the right column under the heading Nomadic Essentials is the link, - Get the Feed via Email. Click on the link, make sure that you spell your email address correctly, and you should have no problem receiving regular updates.

Check out Steve’s website: www.thailandmusings.com

Thanks again Steve, Justin and I appreciate your help! Hope you like the thank you photo I took.

Help us improve the quality of our blog. Have any ideas for our blog? Please let us know things we can change or enhancements we can make to improve the quality of this blog.

All of this brings me to the new found realization that it is possible to install programs on a USB Flash Drive. This is an important realization because it will allow me to take essential programs from one internet cafe to another without needing to download and install the desired programs. The installation of programs may or may not be permissible but it would be a waste of money as I will be paying by the hour.

Most programs will allow a user, during installation, to select a USB Flash Drive. Skype does not provide a user with this freedom. It took a bit of tinkering to figure out how to run Skype from a USB Flash Drive, so I thought I would include the directions here to save all of you future world travelers/Skype enthusiasts the effort. (For more information about Skype see Nomad Backpackers Phone Home)

1. Download and install the newest version of Skype.
2. Install Skype to the local workstation (read: whatever computer you are using)
3. Plug in your USB Flash Drive. Create a directory (read: create a new folder) named Skype
4. Located the Skype.exe file from where it was installed during step 1. It is usually located at:
   C:/Programs Files/Skype/Phone/Skype.exe
5. Copy the Skype.exe filed to the Skype directory on your USB Flash Drive.
6. Within the Skype directory, on your USB Flash Drive, create a new directory named data.
7. Open Notepad. (Start<All Programs<Accessories<Notepad)
8. Paste the following line text into the notepad document:
   “skype.exe /datapath:”Data” /removable”
9. Select File<Save As. Name the document skype.bat
10. Place the skype.bat file in the Skype directory on your USB Flash Drive.
11. Uninstall Skype from your local workstation.

Your done. To start Skype, simply click on the batch filed (read: skype.bat). You will need to login the first time Skype is launched, but all of your settings, voicemails, contacts, etc will be saved to your USB drive.

For my own piece of mind, I asked our travel doctor what would occur if this type of reaction was to mysteriously appear. Believing that I was nervous about being injected with a weak version of a brain recking virus, our travel doctor attempted to comfort me by telling me that none of her previous patients had ever had a reaction. Now I am not a hypochondriac, but mentally I was wondering why this fact would be comforting. A summery of my internal thought process is as follows.

“Wait. You are directed by the makers of this vaccine to keep me under observation for 30 minutes. You have never seen a bad reaction so you are not really sure what to look for. Also, if some type of reaction does take place you will not know what to do because you have never done this before. Whelp. I am comforted. Give me the killer disease”.

All of the drama aside, we have safely obtained round 1 of the JE vaccine and we are still alive to tell the story. If you are curious about JE, The JE Prevention Network can answer all of your questions.

If you know what the doctors should do if my throat begins to close as the result of a killer virus digging tunnels in my brain, you should post a comment and let me know.

After much debate and consideration, Justin and I have decided to go with Focus Dailies (one-day contact lenses).

There is great appeal to the ease and flexibility of daily wear contact lenses.  We enjoyed being able to pop them in without solution.  While wearing them I could see very well, my night vision especially improved.  And then ending the day was a breeze; pop them out anywhere no need for a case or solution.  Just throw them away!

The only problem we experienced was dryness.  Which can easily be combated by bringing eye drops.  

Overall, we are glad that we attempted to trial daily wear lenses. Otherwise, we would always wonder if they could have made our trip easier.  We hope they will prove to be the right choice.

Are you backpacking?  Are you not?  Do you wear glasses?  Contact lenses?  Nothing?  Sunglasses?   How do you see the world?

Of course, how to make those calls is a bit daunting. Thus I did a bit of research and found the 4 best ways to make phone calls while traveling abroad.

Skype

Skype is a VOIP (Voice Over IP) service that allows users to make free audio calls from one Skype internet account to another. For a whopping $2.95 a month, a user can get unlimited calls to landlines and cell phones in the United States and Canada. Included n the $2.95 a month, is a voice mail box.

The Verdict: I am a big fan of Skype and I think this is the best deal for the money. With the exponentially increasing prevalence of internet cafes, this appears to be a very cost effective option. This will be our main mode of audio communication.

The easiest way to use Skype, particularly in a crowed internet cafe, is to use a Skype Headset. We opted for the Plantronics Audio 625 headset because it will allow us to use either audio line in ports (read: mic and speaker ports)  or a USB port depending on the available technology.

International Phone Cards

I believe that the creation and distribution of international phone cards requires a doctorate degree in some obscure branch of an unknown science. In looking for international phone cards, I can find no consistent pattern to the cost of calling from one country to another. The thing that I really like about international phone cards is that they can be bought anywhere and used in most places. Thus, if we find ourselves in a location without a decent internet cafe, I am sure that we can find a phone card. With any luck, about the time this trip is over I will have mastered this obscure science and can explain it to all of our curious readers (all 5 of you that is )

International Cell Phones

International cell phones are all the rage right now. Apparently some travelers choose to rent a phone when they travel abroad. If I was only going to travel for 2 weeks, I imagine that this may be cost effective. That being said, extended travel and phone rentals appear to be mutually exclusive.  I was able to find an international phone vendor that is selling phones for between $49 and $179. At first, I was thinking that this might be ideal. I mean, what is the point of finding an internet cafe when I could pull a cell phone out of my backpack and make whatever calls were necessary? Then I started looking at the rates. This is the deal breaker. Even from tech savy Western European countries, calls to the United States will cost $1.25 a minute. Ouch! That means (not counting the cost of the phone) that a 3 minute call from Europe to say “Merry Christmas” to my mom (1.25 * 3 = 3.75) would cost more than the monthly Skype plan.  After doing some serious meditating on the astronomical cost of actually using an international cell phone, I came to the conclusion that International cell phones are a lot like short term health insurance. The cost is justified by the assurance that if something horrible happens (read: I break my leg when I inadvertently step into a Michigan pot hole) I will have the necessary tools to successfully navigate the situation. If something truly bad happens (read: natural disaster, civil war, rare disease epidemic, no coffee for 2 days straight) we have travel/health insurance (www.worldnomads.com) that will help us weather the storm.

Satellite Phones

Satellite Phones of course are, at least in theory, a very cool idea. Just the technology alone makes my giggle like a Catholic school girl. The real downer is that a cheap satellite phone will set us back about $1,000. None of the satellite phone companies are forthcoming about how much it actually cost to use their services. This makes me nervous and a little bit irritated. When I am trying to buy a service, I do not want to contact someone to find out how much it costs. They created the website. Is it really that difficult to post prices? Anyway, this is way out of our budget and seems impracticable because I cannot see me wanting to make phone calls from the middle of desert anyway.

For example: On a plane, train, boat, whatever, I like to read and don’t wear my contacts. The next day, experiencing jet lag will make my eyes tired and I will probably go without contacts. Then I might want them for an activity in which I will be hot, and not want to have sweat and oil collect on my glasses (that’s gross). If I open a 1-2 week pair but only wear them 3 of the 14 days that they are usable, it just seems wasteful.

Overall, it’s nice to have a choice. Although, I am still not sure if we will go with the “daily wear” lenses or if we will buy 1-2 week lenses for backpacking.

I have a biased view, due to the fact that while trialing a sample pair of lenses yesterday, I was able to see better than I have in a while. My night vision was incredible!

What do you think? Should we go with the ease, comfort and flexibility that “daily wear” lenses offer? Or should we bring 1-2 week contacts like we have always used?

These items tend to fit into 4 categories:

Things that: – we already use

- may not be available in another country

- are great to “MacGyver” our way out of a tight spot

- we have never heard of before but other backpackers have recommended it

So, here we are buying items, some of these we have never purchased or used before. However, if it was a lifesaver for a certain backpacker, who says it was the best thing they brought, what do we have to lose? If we discover we don’t need something, and we don’t feel like carrying it anymore, we can always throw it out or give it away to someone we meet. Who knows what people we may meet? They might really need some duct tape.

This is a picture of some of these items, but not all of the things that will be in our backpacks.

What do you think? Is their any items in the picture above that you would leave behind? Why? What is something, you think we should remember to bring, that is not on our packing list?

Let us know what you think. With a lack of experience in the laxative department, perhaps we purchased the wrong brand. Maybe you have advice for us?

Or perhaps you are an athlete, and you know a product that works better than Bengay? Has anyone ever used something called Tiger Balm…we have heard about this…

Over the next few months until we leave, I would like to focus on: W.W.Y.B.

What Would You Bring?

You are spending your days blissfully content on the beautiful Indonesian island of North Sulawesi near the city of Manado. You stroll into the a local Internet cafe, intent on writing a message to your friends and family explaining the events that lead to you spending the last week scuba diving with the local dive master. Checking your email creates a cold water reality shower as you learn that not only have you been called for jury duty, but your tax forms are ready to be signed. You have a problem.

It came to my attention recently that a person does not have to be in the United States to have legal problems with the local, state, and federal government. Although this seems absurd, I fear it is true. Luckily the lawyers got together with the law makers and figured out a legal way to get around the many pesky issues that can occur when someone is outside of the country for an extended time. Or in a comma. Or both.  This concept is referred to as Power of Attorney.

Creating a Power of Attorney allows me to assign an individual (a.k.a agent) to act legally on my behalf. I like to think of this as my Legal Clone. Now, Legal Clones fall into two categories. The Fully Empowered Legal Clone and the Slightly Restricted Legal Clone. Basically, Fully Empowered Legal Clones can perform any legal duties in the name of their real life, flesh and blood counter parts. These duties include, signing tax forms, taking out loans, opening bank accounts, initiating law suites etc. Slightly Restricted Legal Clones are given specific authority by the principle (read: the person who needs the clone). This authority can be far reaching or limited as desired by the principle.

What makes creating a custom Power of Attorney form truly exciting is the ability to create co-agents. For some people (myself included) one Legal Clone feels a bit limiting. I mean seriously, why would I want one Legal Clone when I can have two? Creating two legal Clones creates a system of checks and balances that insures that even if one of my Legal Clones decides to go AWOL, I am still in businesses.

Finding a free, generic Power of Attorney form online is a straight forward affair. However, finding a fully customizable Power of Attorney form is a bit more difficult. I was able to create forms for both Natalie and myself at http://www.rocketlawyer.com after signing up for a free trial account. The trial account currently lasts for 7 days, and I found that this was plenty of time to create the necessary forms, save the pdf files to my local computer and cancel my account. Although the account does take a valid credit card to set up, canceling the account was a no hassle affair.

Natalie and I now have the forms necessary to create multiple legal clones of ourselves. I bet you wish you had a Legal Clone or two.

From everything I can find on Power of Attorney forms, only the principle is required to sign the form. (The principle must have the form notarized and signed in front of two witnesses.) I cannot find any reference that the agent is required to sign the form. That seems a bit odd as it means that I can appoint anyone my Legal Clone without their say. Does anyone know whether or not the agent is required to sign the Power of Attorney form?

Happy Legal Cloning