2 Weeks and Counting

From unexpected visa costs to vaccinations, my travel prep has been somewhat painful by way of expenses. Here is everything I have learnt from organising my trip to China!

I GO TO CHINA IN 2 WEEKS!

This is cause for a big inhale. I am so excited but at the same time, super scared. The closer it gets, the more real it gets and with all the prep I feel like I haven't had time to actualise the reality of leaving.

The preparations for this month long trip have been tough, and I am beyond relieve that almost everything is sorted - but it did begin to take from the excitement having so much on my plate. In light of this, as hindsight would have it, I have compiled a list of things I have learnt from these stressful preparations; hopefully giving you some indication of the things you should organise when travelling, and a clearer idea of how much goes into a month long trip.

The questions:

Once I had breezed through the booking with STA travel on a tour with The Dragon Trip,

some sense kicked in about the practical side of organisation and I started asking all sorts of questions. How much money do I take for a month? How many outfits? How do I get my visa? Where do I get my flight tickets? The travel agent, I realised, was more of a middle-man with the booking than a place for info on what I should be doing, so I had to dig a little deeper to find the answers I needed. The packing side of things (weirdly the first thing I thought about) comes down to the individual's sense of what is and isn't necessary. I signed up to a travel blog, Packsmith by Tortuga, for travel tips which got me thinking about things I didn't even know I needed.

It took me a little while to fill out the application form for the visa, (because damn is that a long form!) but once I had triple checked every minor detail on it - including the start date of my parent's jobs - I was sure to be on to the next step of travel prep.

That brought me to the unexpected costs:

Now, if you read my previous post (My Trip to the Chinese Embassy) you'll know I had a tough experience at the Chinese Visa Application Centre. My main piece of advice would be to get a second pair of eyes on the list of documents you need, and the documents you actually have. I know that STA offers to check your Visa Documents for around £20 - I didn't think I needed it if I just checked off the list from the Embassy site, but looking back, it may have saved me some time come the day of my appointment.

On top of that was my most recent encounter with Boots Pharmacy Travel Vaccinations. The service was excellent, and the pharmacist made me feel at ease, despite stabbing me with 4 different needles... however the cost was mighty high. Having looked into vaccinations and realising that things I could catch specifically in China could not be vaccinated against, (most bug related diseases), I wasn't entirely sure I needed any vaccinations. Whilst they may have been over-sold, the pharmacist did a good job at convincing me to get some based on a questionnaire about my whereabouts during the trip.

The recommended vaccines for the trip were: Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Japanese Encephalitis, Tick-borne Encephalitis and Rabies. I had all of the above, excluding rabies - which protects you for only a year. The rest were painful, and as painfully expensive. Initially it would have cost £303, but I received a Hep A and B combined jab instead of paying for 2 separately. This brought the cost down to £274, but I have to pay each time I return for a follow-up dose - some of which I receive AFTER my trip.

This seems a little pointless as I won't be fully protected when I go (my own fault for leaving it so late), but when I get the next dose I'll be protected for 25 years. I decided I'd rather just get it done now as I was there already. Admittedly the price was a bit of a kick in the face, but only because I'd left it so late and bought everything else first. (It just means I'll have to travel loads in the next 25 years to make it worth it, which I'm cool with.)

Finally, the spends:

I returned to feeling excited for my trip when I sorted the spending money. Having accepted the unexpected costs for everything else, I moved on to finding the right travel card for my spending. I received and STA ISIC Cashcard (£12, included in the price of my trip), only to realise that it charges you £2.55 per cash withdrawal overseas. Whilst this is applicable to a lot of travel cards (I had the same issue with my Post Office card in America, and Santander is an absolute killer for abroad fees), it was my uncle who advised I turn to Starling Bank.

They have a no fees policy for cash withdrawals - it is only specific to the country's ATMs, (China being one that charges £3 something each time!) Other than that, it was quite possibly the easiest part of my prep to set up. I downloaded the Starling Bank App, created an account and transferred my spending money into it straight away through online banking. My card arrived within 3 days so I now have one card for mainland China money, another for Hong Kong Dollars and some shiny Chinese Yuan to take in cash just for fun. The exchange rate was good too; I gave £150 to Eurochange who offered me 1,200 Yuan on the spot, in comparison to Debenhams where I would have had to collect it a week later.

Finally, the prep is done!

I am so relieved having sorted everything over the last couple of weeks. It's all been running round in my head since I booked the trip in April and has been a bit of a stressful experience. However, that's not to say that I'm not excited. Two weeks away, and I'm beginning to envision myself on that plane, jetting off on an exciting new adventure.

My advice? Whilst impulsive trips are so exciting, it does take a little forward planning to get everything sorted on time and with minimal stress. Use your contacts and get advise from people you know who have done similar things - experience speaks for itself.

Whilst my experience has been a bit of a roller-coaster so far, it's definitely been something to learn from, which is all just part of the journey.

---