Unravel Travel
Unravel Travel is a weekly British travel podcast featuring honest stories, practical advice and plenty of humour from lifelong travellers Malcolm and David. Expect independent travel, walking holidays, trekking adventures, city breaks, longer journeys and the realities of living overseas.
Malcolm and David met at school when they were 14 and, by some miracle, are still friends more than 40 years later. Their travels together began with an Interrail trip after university, but both have continued exploring the world throughout their working lives and into semi-retirement.
Malcolm has travelled extensively for work and pleasure, lived in Singapore and now divides his time between the UK and Czechia. He has also been an Airbnb host for several years. David combined a career in accounting and financial services with ambitious long-distance trips before retiring early and starting a business offering walking and group holidays. He now spends much of each winter travelling in warmer parts of the world.
Each episode draws on their own experiences—from famous cities and classic journeys to remote treks, cabin life and travel before smartphones. They are regularly joined by friends with remarkable travel stories of their own.
Unravel Travel
Questiontime
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode 26 we thought we would address the backlog of questions from listeners leading a to a diverse episode covering a range of topics, some on which we agree and some on which we don't.
How different is it to live overseas, rather than just to visit?
How often do you still travel together and what trips are you planning?
How to progress from snorkeling to scuba diving?
Tips on connectivity?
How do you handle medical issues?
If you have something you want to ask for the next questiontime, just contact us at contact.unraveltravel@gmail.com
Our theme music is Traveler's Blues by Jerzy Gorecki from Pixabay (with licence)
https://pixabay.com/users/jerzyg%C3%B3recki-2233926/
Welcome to Unravel Travel, where every journey has a story.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, go on. Jackie and Louth says, uh, David, you sound far more intelligent and beautiful than that Malcolm character. Is that true? That's your mum, isn't it? That's that's that that's my mum, so I just wanted to thank thank my mum for that question. That doesn't sound like your mum appraising you like that. I I might have put words in her mouth and she might not have actually phoned in that question at all.
SPEAKER_01Look and say, Revolute, we don't use the card specifically, we just use the app. So um, you know, it allows you to move the can if you don't know what it is, it allows you to transfer cash um at general midpoint banking rate without charge from currency to currency. So especially because we're living on the border, so we're we're in we might be in Austria or Slovakia, which uses the euro, um, and ten minutes later be in check, and you can just switch the currency that you've got in there from one to the other, um, and you get no charges and midpoint transfer rates if you transfer in during two hours.
SPEAKER_03The one of the main reasons I've not bothered with Revolute is I've got nationwide and nationwide are the same. If you make a card payment, they give you more or less the visa midpoint. Well, they they don't charge you, you'd get what Visa give you, which is the same as what Revolute would be giving you.
SPEAKER_01Don't flutter your lashes like a little girl and ask me why it's such a cruel, cruel world. No, don't ask any more stupid questions. You already know the answers to. And I know that you do.
SPEAKER_03Is that a reading that you're doing, or are you just telling me a little not to be a little girl and stop asking stupid questions that I already know the answer to?
SPEAKER_01Uh it's not really appropriate because we we do want people to ask questions, but Any questions. Any any qu is this any questions or is it question time? I don't know. Uh they say there's no such thing as a stupid question. Um yes, we don't think there are. It's just when it was the topic of questions, that was the tune that came to mind. New model army. Indeed.
SPEAKER_03My brother, if he ever listens to this, would have known it. So, there we go. So do you want to introduce this uh episode then? I think uh probably got a rough idea already, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_01I mean we've now well this will come out as episode twenty-six, I think, after twenty-five normal episodes. And we've been building up a list of questions from our various listeners, and we thought now was a good time to sort of knock them all off in an episode. If that makes sense.
SPEAKER_03Certainly does. And we're we're I noticed from the stats we're approaching something like a thousand listens to those uh twenty-five, twenty well, twenty-four episodes, I guess. Yeah, that's about right. So thank you very much for people that are and I know there are several uh listeners that are regular listeners, and thank you for anybody who just dips in and out. We we're happy to have anybody and everybody.
SPEAKER_01Yes, that's right. So I probably didn't come out how I meant it, but anyway, I meant it genuinely. So shall we get started on that note? Yeah, do you want to dive in with the first question you've got? Okay, so uh we know some of these people, and some of these people we don't know particularly well, but let's dive in anyway. So we've got Thomas from Pickering. Uh I've heard several mentions of living overseas. I've always found that living in a place rather than travelling to or through it changes how you feel about it. What do you think? David, what do you think?
SPEAKER_03What do I think? I I haven't technically lived in a place, but I did spend s uh five weeks out of a six-week period in New York. Uh and I've spent uh six weeks in Thailand, four of which were in one place pie, uh, and I did that again later. So I'm not quite living there, but I've stayed in a place for quite a long time, and I I totally agree with was it was it Thomas? Yeah, um, that it does change how you feel about it. I think I don't it changes how you feel about the place, but I think it changes how you experience the place because it you well for me it does, it becomes part of your normal routine uh um in terms of just sort of living there. I often say that but when I go away in the winter, I'm not really going on holiday, I'm just living somewhere different. Yeah. Uh and I and I kind of like I like a mixture. Uh so when I went to the Philippines, I was changing place every three days. When I was in Thailand, I I stayed pupped for three weeks in Pi. Um and I like going to the same place for breakfast. They they recognize you, they say hello, you have a chat with them. Um, but then it does bring other, I wouldn't say challenges, but you know, if you're going for a longer time or um if you're living in a place which I know you'll be able to talk to a lot more than me because I know you've done that in Singapore, uh, and I guess Czech as well. Uh you need things like um how do you access money. Uh so if you're going for a shorter time um out in Thailand, you you could get by with taking cash or use your own bank account, but in Thailand there's a a five pound local ATM fee for every every time you use the ATM. Uh so you know, you if you want to be a bit smarter about it, if you were living there, you'd get a Thai bank account.
SPEAKER_01Although that might prove difficult, I think, without a local ID, that's often difficult, I think, um, setting up bank accounts.
SPEAKER_03It it might be, although they do um without a residence. Yeah, I was actually thinking in Thailand there's a um uh a retirement visa, so anybody over fifty can get a visa for a year. Uh and to get that you need to have I think it's £20,000 sterling or equivalent uh in a Thai bank account. Uh so I haven't looked into well, I looked into it just out of interest, um, but that must mean that you're able to get the Thai bank account. Uh yeah. That you otherwise that visa just wouldn't work. Uh obviously it will take time, it's not going to be something that you happens immediately. Uh and I think a friend of mine looked into doing it, and it actually was quite onerous to be doing it from the well, I think he had to do it from the UK because they wouldn't let him in without that visa. So I think there are things when you're living that you know there's practical considerations as much as just changing that you're not doing touristy things every day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's true. I mean uh uh well I would say you I I you were in Belgium quite a lot regularly, repeatedly. I know it's not living there, but it it start changes changes the the way you feel and what you do, I think, when you're not just visiting as a one on the bigger.
SPEAKER_03It's probab probably very similar to you as a Czech. I was obviously married to Barbara who was Belgian. Uh so you end up doing a lot of family things rather than we were we were catching up with her family, and obviously she still had a Belgian bank account, so all of those things that uh her parents had a couple of houses so we could stay at the one on the coast or stay with the her parents. Um so yeah, you end up just again living in the place rather than visiting it, um even though you are a visitor.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, you know, when we go to check, obviously we have property there, so and Petra has a an ID, so we have a bank account. I uh with two cards on it, so you know I I don't have my own bank account, but I have a card that I can use. Um that brands. Although we we also use Revolut a lot actually, because it allows us uh I you you I know you you you've said about withdrawals rep through Revolute are a problem. They you can use some banks to withdraw without charges, but they've there's a very limited set of them. Depends.
SPEAKER_03I don't think Thailand has any because I think every bank in Thailand makes a charge. Right. If uh no, and Revolute we found uh banks in Philippines because Izzy's got a Revolute card as well. Yeah. Uh so we made a couple of withdrawal, not the Philippines, uh Indonesia. Uh we made a couple of, but it's specific banks, as you say. Um the the reason I've not bothered.
SPEAKER_01But I don't use um, sorry, carry on. No, no, you carry on. I can say Revolute, we don't use the card specifically, we just use the app. So um, you know, it allows you to move the can if you don't know what it is, it allows you to transfer cash um at general midpoint banking rate without charge from currency to currency. So for us especially, because we're living on the border, so we're we're in we might be in Austria or Slovakia, which uses the euro, um, and ten minutes later be in check, and yeah, you can just switch the currency that you've got in there from one to the other, um, and you get no charges and midpoint transfer rates if you transfer in during two hours.
SPEAKER_03The one of the main reasons I've not bothered with Revolute is I've got nationwide and nationwide are the same. If you make a card payment, they give you more or less the visa midpoint. Well, they they don't charge you, you'd get what Visa give you, which is the same as what Revolute would be giving you. Um but other banks do charge you, it's just that I like my nationwide, so saves me having to move.
SPEAKER_01And periodically we do transfer chunks of money and we use that to do it. Um as long as you do it during business off break business hours at both ends, um, you don't get any charges, which your bank would definitely charge you to transfer money to a f overseas bank account. So it's a it's a really useful tool, I find.
SPEAKER_03I think one of the before we get on to you living in Singapore, one of the other considerations is about do you buy or do you rent a place if you're gonna live there? Um and I guess it depends how long term you're gonna be. I should presume when you were in Singapore it was the business paid for your uh a accommodation.
SPEAKER_01It did. I started in a in a hotel with a sort because I was supposed to be there for six weeks, I started in a hotel, but but I ended up there for two years, of course. Yeah. And uh after about six months, you just get fed up with living in a hotel. I mean, you actually don't want people coming in and cleaning a room, you know, at all because after a while, um and uh keep it reasonably tidy yourself, yeah. And you've got to eat out all the time, um which is you know, which you don't really want either. So I after a while I moved to uh an apartment, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Similar with me in New York when I was there for the five weeks, I stayed in a an apartment. Um but to buy or to rent, my personal view, uh and some countries don't even allow you to buy it, I would never buy abroad in a jurisdiction that doesn't have a very robust rule of law. Uh in other words, that they can't just say, ah, we're gonna take all the assets back off foreigners at any moment. I and Thailand you can't even buy. Um I think it's you can't buy land if you're a foreigner or you can't have more than uh you have to have a minority share, so it's 49% or 49 point something.
SPEAKER_01There must be holding companies or companies that can assist you in doing that, because I do know somebody who I'm not gonna name who who owns a house in Thailand and they're not related in any way to anybody whose Thai.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Well they probably won't technically own it, as you say, it's maybe a holding company or unless the laws change, but uh it wasn't that long ago that I looked at it.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_03Um just out of it, just out of interest. Or maybe it's you can have it, you know, like in England you've got freehold and leasehold. There might be something around it that way. Because I think it's the land that you okay they don't let you own. That's right.
SPEAKER_01It might be an apartment on a leasehold, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I think the long and short of that is it doesn't matter whether we know what the exact rules are, but if you're thinking about doing it, make sure you get some very good legal advice.
SPEAKER_01And not only that, but it's but it's a nightmare. I mean I've bought and sold many houses in the UK and think I'm pretty good with things legal, but the the process in check it's totally different to the process in England, and of course all the paperwork is in check, which immediately makes it more challenging. You know, it it makes there's a whole level of difficulty there, which is very difficult to get around, to be honest. Even if you speak the language, if you're not used to the process because you've lived in a different country most of your life. And some countries are very bureaucratic, as we've talked about, and so things take longer than you would think they might, uh and though there is lots of paperwork to be done and boxes to be ticked in the way that you may not be used to. And you've got to be there. Often you've got to be there to do it. You can't do these things remotely.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly, exactly. I I would I would I would just never choose to buy something abroad, just because I just don't think it'd be a fun uh approach. I mean my approach, if I was doing that, if I was looking to I would rent something long term, because you get some good properties at good prices. And I'd rent my place out in the UK to cover it. And then you've still got a UK asset uh to come back to if you decide that you're coming back.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I do know quite a few people have bought overseas in places, you know, it there's quite a lot of value. I mean, this isn't a talk about investment, but in parts of Eastern Europe in particular, property it can go up at a as they are um gentrifying, you know, going up in in incomes, etc. Um properties are pretty good investment and and they and they increase quite a lot in value. And and there's quite a lot of relative and if you enjoy a project, especially a retirement doing something up type project, you can have much more fun doing that somewhere else than maybe you can in the UK.
SPEAKER_03But look at what happened with Brexit. People who had got properties in France or or wherever suddenly or check can't go to their property as freely as they thought they were going to be when they bought it. Yeah. So you know, it it doesn't necessarily have to be some sort of tin pot place that you're thinking, oh, I don't want to own there. You never know when the law law's gonna change, especially you know, at the moment, uh everything seems so unstable. I just wouldn't want assets that I couldn't have you know me anyway, I'm not very keen on having illiquid assets. I like cash. Yeah, uh, and I just wouldn't want them outside of my own country because you've got currency risk if nothing else. But anyway, as you say, we it seems to be turning more into an investment advice answer.
SPEAKER_01I think we might differ slightly in our opinions about that. There's something nice about having a place and doing it up and doing work on it, and and I like those sort of projects, and many people, you know, that's part of their travel, isn't it? They buy some dilapidated place and do it up, and um and you know, when you're renting, you can't really get you get what somebody else wants wants to offer, not what you want necessarily. I mean, there's swings and roundabouts in all of these things, and it's different for different people, but that's yeah, and you know, I've I've not lived abroad, so that's probably why I've got a different view on it.
SPEAKER_03If I were to live abroad, I'd probably like getting fed up with a hotel, you'd get fed up with rental of property. I mean, that's why I bought in the UK, you get fed up with rental of property. So I I totally take your point and I take the idea about it being fun and everything. But I think the answer, although we've gone all around the the houses, I think the answer to that is it's complicated if you do decide to buy a new not that you shouldn't do it, but it's complicated.
SPEAKER_01You touched on visas, and visas are a complicated issue.
SPEAKER_03Oh, actually, yeah, and I just wanted to add something to that. Actually, I've been because these are places I go regularly, Thailand at the moment, but soon to change, has uh uh a visa waiver that allows you 60 days, just turn up, 60 days as long as you can prove that you're leaving within that 60 day period, so you've got an onward journey ticket. Uh they're about to change that to 30 days. You can get visas for longer periods, but you have to go through the process, whereas at the moment the with the visa waiver just means you turn up, show your passport, right? And Bali is doing a similar clamp down. Indonesia. Uh sorry, yes, Indonesia. Sorry, quite right. And it's as far as I can tell, it's because of the rise of digital nomads uh and influers and all that sort of stuff, who are basically working on a tourist visa. Uh so they they are both those places of uh I've seen in the press of come and it's in the local press of clamping down.
SPEAKER_01I think we're gonna do an episode on digital nomads at some point. I know I know quite a few through my work, and I essentially operate a little bit like that sometimes. Not currently, but I have done in the past. And various countries are bringing out digital nomad visas.
SPEAKER_03Uh absolutely that you can't do it, it's just that the tourist visa doesn't allow it, and but most people do it on a tourist visa or a visa uh a visa waiver, but again, that's only for tourism. But you know, it's up to people how they choose to do it. So I think we've probably covered that one quite well.
SPEAKER_01Here we have you've been listening to Unravel Travel Question Time. Do you want to do the next one?
SPEAKER_03Yes, Editor, your uh sister-in-law, I believe.
SPEAKER_01Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I had to guess. So she says, Of course I've met you both on a Czech visit a few years ago. Uh most of your episodes, except the interrailing one, are on your travels separately. Do you have any recent travels together, other than Czech, I guess, or any plans soon? Uh I can answer that quickly. No.
SPEAKER_01Well, the last time we travelled together again. That's fair, that's a fair point. And mutual, we go to Czech together reasonably often, although we haven't been for a year, probably. And uh getting on for a year. Uh last time we went, we went with Merlin as well, and we had a day in Bratislava as well as our normal Czech cabin stuff.
SPEAKER_03Uh last no, last time I came out, it was just me, me and you.
SPEAKER_01That we didn't we did my patio, yeah, because that's what it's like when you've got your own place. Um but but the time before that we spent a day in Bratislava, didn't we? Which which was brilliant, yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Sort of wandering around just chilling, uh drinking beer, drinking in the old town. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I yeah, I came across a really lovely. You'll have to, when we do a beer or alcohol episode, you'll have to remind me which one that was. I really there was one one I really liked there. The roulette got got well tucked into that one. Yeah. Uh but no, we don't, other than check, we don't. Um I mean it's interesting because these days most of my travel is for a month long. So I mean you you could always come out and join me while I'm on one of my winter trips, but you know, that's quite a commitment to be going that far. So most people I know just you know uh don't want to do that, make the commitment or whatever. But you know, you're always welcome, Malcolm.
SPEAKER_01Oh, thank you, David. And and maybe I will do it. It's a while since I've made it out to Asia. Now my business travel doesn't take me out in that direction anymore. So yeah, it would be good to um to travel together again or to do something in the UK, even as well. I I keep thinking I'm gonna drive my car to Czech. We could do that together, that would be good quite good. Which car? My old car.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh you're not sounding very appealing about that. I I remember we we just managed to nurse it to Bista once, which is only up the round. Bamboo. Sorry, a bit further, Bamberry for that it blew up. Yeah, don't you worry.
SPEAKER_01Can't we take the lotus? So the the quick and short answer is to that is no. Sorry.
SPEAKER_03But watch this space because uh I think we we we like each other enough and don't piss each other off too much that we we could definitely uh happily spend uh uh a few hours together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we should we should sort out a trip somewhere. That'll be good.
SPEAKER_03We should. Happy to do that.
SPEAKER_01Um next question. Yeah, the next one I've got is Sarah in Lincolnshire. I've done lots of snorkeling but never scuba dived. How would you recommend I started? Well before David dives in and tells us all you see what I did there? Um we were thinking about it, Petra and I, when we went to Cuba. Um because we were we were sta going to stay at a diving place and we thought about whether we should do some sort of quick intro or course so that we could go scuba diving, um, and we looked into sort of test the courses, trial courses at local clubs in the UK in a swimming pool type thing, and then we decided it would be you know too much of a drag on our time and we just snorkeled in the end, so we didn't do that. But uh how would you think about that, Dave? Is it worth doing something like that just to try it out before you go overseas and waste your precious holiday time, you know, trying out something you don't like in the end?
SPEAKER_03I can't think of a worse place to be scuba diving than in a swimming pool in the UK. Uh so So you say yes. I I I say no, don't well I I uh if somebody wants to do it that way, it's not a bad idea if you've got the time. If you I know somebody who qualified in the UK recently, but it just doesn't appeal to me at all. Um I guess it depends. If you are wanting an island holiday anyway, and you're happy to snork all if the scuba diving doesn't work for you, I'd say go out to somewhere warm. I mean, the the good example here is that Izzy did a tri-dive uh while we were on the Guinea Islands. So what that entails is that you do the swimming pool for the morning, I think it was. Um she was there for two, three hours, you do a little bit of the uh the technical stuff, yeah. The technical stuff and the theory behind it, uh, and then you go into the ocean and you go down 12 metres. And I guess 12 I guess I should know this, but 12 metres must be the level that if there's an emergency, you can go straight up without causing any uh damage to your body. Because normally with a paddy you can go down to 18, but when you come up from 18, you generally do a safety stop. And of course, if it's somebody who's not dived or not done the course or whatever, there's a greater chance that they're gonna panic and just bounce straight back up to the surface. And I can't remember how much that cost, but it was in the ballpark of 50-60 quid. She tried it, decided it wasn't for her. We spent the rest of the holiday doing snorkeling instead. And the reasons and then if you decide you like it, you can then do your paddy while you're out on one of these places. Uh, and it takes three, four days, costs a fraction of what it does in the UK, uh, you're gonna get to see an awful lot more, and you're gonna be warmer. I mean, okay, I know you can wear thicker wetsuits and all that sort of stuff, but it just doesn't appeal to me this diving in the UK. But I think because you're going all that way to do it, you've got to have a plan B. If I do the tri-dive and it doesn't work out for me, what am I gonna do with the rest of the holiday?
SPEAKER_01Well, if you've booked a load of snorkeling trips uh uh uh scuba diving trips, that's a problem, isn't it?
SPEAKER_03But it but if you have- Well, you you don't you don't you don't have to book them. Um they they you can basically I when I'm there I usually just book it and then I go the next day so they're they they don't fill up or anything. You might have to um book a paddy in advance, but I I'm not even sure you'd have to do that. They've got so many uh dive masters in these places. So the places I would recommend are Ghilly Divers on Gilly Trolangan, and I don't know the diving, but Kotau is where I learned to dive. I met people recently that had been to Kotau in Thailand, and they they still say it's a very good, cheap place to learn. Uh Colanta would probably probably be good. I've dived there. Philippines, I can't remember the name of the place, but I can put some more diving uh schools that I used uh in the notes um and the place in the Philippines. Um, but I what I would say is have a plan B in case you don't like it. And that you know, it's not if you want to hit the ground running, then by all means do the course in the UK.
SPEAKER_01Y your travel where you go somewhere for three or four weeks gives you the time and flexibility to do that. Many people might just be rocking up for ten days somewhere and spending half of it in school might might not be the best use of their time. Um they could have done it in evenings or weekends before they went on holiday, so yeah, possible.
SPEAKER_03But it's you know it's quite nice. I mean, I as as you say, I didn't do it as part of a two-week holiday, so yeah. Yeah. But anyway, those are my thoughts. Okay, next next question. Okay, uh Tony uh Durham. Um it seems you have been to lots of places, where can't you get enough of and where would you never go back to? And what travel plans are you working on?
SPEAKER_01Okay, well uh I I guess what I've really been enjoying recently is just buzzing off to various places in Europe when we're there. We explored Austria previous summer, we're planning on going to Slovenia quite soon. Lots of people have been to Slovenia recently that we know, and it looks fantastic. I mean, really, a bit of everything.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I've I've heard that.
SPEAKER_01Stunning, and and it's like three hours in the car, and we have a car, so yeah, why not just why not just go? So so we're gonna go to Slovenia in the autumn, that's our plan. Uh so I I I'm really quite into that sort of thing. Not particular I mean from from where we are, it's not very far to lots of countries. I mean we could be in you can drive to Venice in about five hours. So, you know, anywhere, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia, you know, Hungary, Bulgaria, they're all not particularly far away, Poland. So, you know, th there's lots of lots of mileage there in in just getting the car out on the road and exploring. And I really quite like that. Um and with some time on the hands, I think that's that's probably something I shall want to do. In terms of places I I wouldn't go back to, I'm I'm not really sure. I'm a sort of positive person that likes to take positives from the things I do. I'm not sure there's anywhere I wouldn't particularly go back to. I mean I haven't been back to Singapore for a long time, apart from through the airport. Um and and I might have listed that, but it's probably changed so much in the la since I spent any time there that it would be quite interesting to just compare and contrast with what it was like before. Um so I probably would be interested in that. I I'm not sure there's anywhere like I say that I would would I would bar.
SPEAKER_03I know, I was trying to think as well. I mean maybe Izzy and I talked about Kuta on Bali, so that's a specific place on Bali. Well you said you definitely didn't enjoy it, so you definitely Yeah, so I wouldn't well we did go end up going back there just because we were flying from there. Probably Saudi Arabia. Uh not that I regret going there. Uh it was an experience, but I'd only have ever done it through work. Um, so it's probably a place I won't go back to, but not for maybe the negative reasons that people would think, although it's a different place now than it was then. Yeah, I mean the positive ones I think people can guess. I I've spent a lot of time in Thailand. I'm getting to really like going to the Ghilly Islands. These are just places where I feel I can relax for long periods of time and it's cost effective enough that you can go there for long periods of time. That that is the other factor as well. I mean you're talking about it.
SPEAKER_01The dynamic works well. The flight might be more, but it costs a lot less when you leave it. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03Once you're out there, you're talking 20 quid a day for food, 20 quid a day for accommodation, and you know, that and the scuba diving's cheap in uh Gidea Islands. Yeah, so I think that's probably uh uh travel plans working on. I'm going back to Thailand and Indonesia and possibly India in February, uh, as part of his half term. Uh she'll join me out there, so I'll have to figure out what I want to do, but I might go to the north of India for the first time. Right. Uh that's all based on whether we can get decent flights, because obviously flights are a bit more expensive at the moment, and because I've got a couple already booked in, I'd rather wait on the India one since it's further in the future and see if we can get better prices. Maybe this war will eventually end.
SPEAKER_01And we're starting to have a serious look at going to Brazil next year.
SPEAKER_03Ah, is that with Merlin?
SPEAKER_01Well, Merlin has a place there on the coast halfway between well, on the Sao Paulo, just on the Sao Paulo side of halfway between Sao Paulo and uh Rio. And uh it looks great. Every time I see it, it looks fantastic. I know, I've from what I've seen of it, it looks very good. And it's available except you know when they're there, and we're thinking, oh, we could use that as a base, and uh they've got a car as well, so we could use that as a base and and explore from there for you know do a good long six weeks or something. Yeah, so that's a plan for next year.
SPEAKER_03Do you want to do the next question?
SPEAKER_01Uh yes, okay. Emma in Hertfordshire. I'm planning a long-term trip over the winter and I wonder how you handle connectivity. Can you give some advice please?
SPEAKER_03Shall I start with that one? Gone. I I'm gonna nick your notes though, because I forget always forget about this. You if you have an unlocked phone, then you can get a local sim. Uh I always go for local SIMs. I've looked at eSIMs and they're a little bit more expensive. But the main problem with eSIMs is they don't actually give you telephone, you know, normal phone. You can obviously phone via WhatsApp. Uh you can on an eSIM. Not the ones I've looked at for the countries I'm going to. They're all data only. Obviously, there are others out there, I just haven't come across them then. So that's good to know though. Uh, but I just get a local sim, uh, usually at the airport. Um they're cheap, you can get them for something like 16 days or 30 days. Uh, but when I went to Indonesia, we didn't even bother getting a sim, we just used uh Wi-Fi. I I knew we were going on to Gilly Tea for most of the holiday. And I I was going to get a sim while we were in Ubbard, but we just never really had the time. And by the time we got round to when we could have done it, we were so close to the end and hadn't needed it. And I thought we won't need it on Giddy T because everywhere's got Wi-Fi, you can just walk along the beachfront, and as long as you've used the Wi-Fi in the past, you just keep keep jumping from Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi. Um, but yeah, my answer would be uh get get get a sim, uh whether it's an eSIM or a local one, uh, and because uh they usually come with lots of data. So I remember when I was in the Philippines, uh the Wi-Fi at the hotel wasn't very good, so I was actually using my phone as a hotspot so we could for my laptop so we could do one of these uh podcasts. Uh and it didn't use up an awful lot of data at all. I was a bit worried at the start, so I wasn't sure how much it would use, but it it actually I think I I think it turned out I'd got unlimited data, I just didn't realise it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, uh I would say the same sorts of things. An unlocked phone is definitely much easier. Um my uh my provider in the UK doesn't give me that much roaming data. There's a sort of fair use policy, so so I do I have a sim I use when I'm in check, and I've recently used ALO's sim, eSIMs. So when I went to the state, I've got all set up in advance. Um and they they cover loads of countries. No particular plug, there are other providers available. Um that works well. Uh I think the phone with a good long battery life is is obviously quite important because you're obviously not often not charging up quite as well.
SPEAKER_03I always take I take my battery pack with me when I'm going out usually.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, me too. If you're using for navigation, I tend to find that really hits the phone.
SPEAKER_03Because the screen's on the whole time. Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_01Something like that's useful. Or a solar charger also works well.
SPEAKER_03I've got another question. Can I? Yeah, go on. Jackie and Louth says, uh David, you sound far more intelligent and beautiful than that Malcolm character. Is that true? That's your mum, isn't it? That's that's that that's my mum, so I just wanted to thank thank my mum for that question. That doesn't sound like your mum appraising you like that. I I might have put words in her mouth and she might not have actually phoned in that question at all. Uh go on then. Next question. Uh this one's Miguel. Uh we didn't get the location on this one. Uh, have you had any medical problems on a trip and how did you handle them?
SPEAKER_01Um well, I obviously had malaria, as we've mentioned several times, and and I handled it very badly because I was I was totally totally gone. Luckily, the people I were with handled it for me and took me to doctors and hospitals and stuff like that. But had I been solo travelling without somebody looking out for me, that would have been an uh I'm not quite sure. I don't know what would have happened. Well, I think a nightmare.
SPEAKER_03I can probably sort of answer that as well, because I had in India, I think it was borderline pneumonia, it was virtually pneumonia. I just luckily got to a doctor's in time to start taking the uh antibiotics to to sort it out. And yeah, I was travelling on my own, but the people I was staying with, because I I wasn't in any fit state to make my way to the doctors, so they arranged a taxi for me and just well, it was a pharmacy rather than a doctor, I guess. But within 12 hours of taking the medicine, I started to feel better, but I was feeling rotten up until that point. So I think the answer there is even if you're travelling on your own, uh, as long as you can let people know that you've got an issue, then people are pretty friendly and would say.
SPEAKER_01Most people are going to help you out, aren't they? Exactly. And the other thing is when I was travelling in Czech a couple a couple of years ago without Petra, um, and my brother had an issue. I had to take him to the hospital. You think, you know, in England you go to the hospital and you look for A E and you follow the signs to A and E. You go to a big hospital overseas, it's not called A E. You know, you look it's called Fair Point H M or something, you know. Oh, so you went shopping. Yeah, exactly. You you you sort of turn at the hospital thinking, right, looking at the signs, oh god, I don't understand any of it. So it's a real pro uh that you know, just the simple things, but then you know, I'm holding up my um medical travel card, global health insurance card thing. Um that they just accepted that and treated him, and that was great. Um no problems at all. Um it's important to have that or have your um health insurance, travel insurance documents on you, even if it's just a picture of them, um, in case you need them at short notice.
SPEAKER_03My my uh illness was compounded by the fact that I'd let well it didn't really make any difference to the illness, but I'd actually left my passport in the previous place. So I was having to get well enough to go back and get my passport. Well, that's what I mean.
SPEAKER_01Having having at least ish images of these things or downloads of them on your phone so that you can show because if you break your legs skiing, they're not gonna take you back to your hotel first to collect your documents, are they?
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Yeah. Anyway, I think we're we're running. We do have a couple more questions, but I think we might have to save those for another question and answer because we're running a bit short on time now. But yeah, that was quite that was quite quite good. Enjoyed that. Okay, good. Hopefully, people got answers out of it that they were looking for. If not, then uh write to Malcolm and uh we'll give you a better answer.
SPEAKER_01Um and ask some more questions. Um we say it at the end of most episodes or in the notes, but just drop us an email um and we'll be happy to help.
SPEAKER_03Thank you very much, Evan. Thank you, David. Thank you, Malcolm. Speak to you all soon. Bye bye.