Insurance

Ok you dont wont to get stuck in a foriegn hospital for 8 weeks. Whats life without a bit of risk right? i started my independent travels bout 10 years ago , and in the first few years i choose to travel uninsured , Pretend for a moment that you don't have any travel insurance. How would you behave? Act as though you are uninsured! That what i did, you see its a bit of a gamble the old insurance thing , but what your gambling with in health terms can actually be your life in some cases.
This mind-set of acting like your uninsured is a good way to have no fun .
there travel insurance for every country of the world, unfortunately the small print of travel insurance inevitably contains exclusions that make easy generalisations about any sport or activity almost impossible.
For example my brother and i travelled around the east coast of australia 2008 for a few weeks,
He arrived from studying down in dunediun, opps cant spell forgive me.. and whilst on a clubcrawl in surfers paradise (gold coast) had a few tasty beverages and the next morning had a seizure , dont worry that wont happen to you i hope . he had suffered from a couple of these over the a period of a 3 years prior to our trip . so i rang the ambulance to get him to gold coast hospital and they told me kiwis were covered under a recipricol agreement between nz and aus
, "no worries mate" the lady at the emergency room said . now i was thinking of giving a fake name for my brother on his behalf because i didn't want him to be billed. mmmm i gave his real name . and a few weeks later he recieved a bill for $1300 odd nzd owed to queensland ambulance services , a private company. damn , luckily he had the bill paid by a genourous well off friend of the families , paid as a donation through a large company bla bla bla
Now in this case the small print read somthing to the effect of WILL NOT COVER PRE EXSISTING HEALTH CONDITIONS. or close to that i guess
now if your for example --- wildlife-watching in the extremes of Alaska and are attacked by a polar bear, are you covered? It depends. You see, if the bear attacks you while you were watching them as a part of a wildlife safari or trekking, then YES you could be (assuming the bear didn't eat you of course), but if you were chasing the bear having had a few tasty drinks the night before and you thought it would be a laugh... err... then no your up shit creek without a paddle as some aussies would discribe.
Or if you are skiing and you're caught in an avalanche, are you covered? It depends. Your level of cover varies based on your country of residence and your particular level of insanity. For example, if you leap out of a hovering helicopter while trying to pretend that you're in a Hollywood action movie, then NO, you aren't covered. but if its a pro bungy jump in new zealand, depending onyour level of cover . you might be.
Or, if you meet a 'friend', agree to engage in sexual activity and as a result wake up in the morning with no bag, passport and a headache, are you covered? It depends. YES, you are covered for unprovoked assault by a third party, and you would be covered for replacement of your personal belongings and passport, but NO, we wouldn't cover you if the "liaison" was illegal under local sex-tourism laws.
How do i know this stuff ? I READ THE FINE PRINT
I remember my mum mentioning once that if you cantafford to travel insurance then you cant afford to travel , and thats what i consider now before a planned trip .
Good old mums hah! ! good advise i reckon

Most people at least travel with a cheap digital camera these days you can get a very basic 1 for $40 usd that could see you through a trip for a few months , remember back up you photos on disk or to the net as a safety net incase you part with it forever.
USE THE CAMERA TO TAKE A FEW PICS OF ANY VALUBLES YOU WANT TO INSSURE
And keep copies of receipts for those items to , so you can claim replacments
Dont forget to make a police report wherever the lost or stolen item goes missing



Bottom line - GET FULL COVER INSURANCE
I believe health is quite often number 1 in quality of life
And as fun as those disaster stories of recue lost at sea are. or being caught in a war torn country are, while there happening there scary and in the end someone has to pay the bill

Remember im not an expert in the details
Happy Travels!!!

Craig M