With easy access to the internet, in just a few clicks you can plan and book your travel dreams to the other side of the world. It’s easy, simple and all in the comfort of your own home. Once you fill out all the forms, dates, prices and credit card details, do you ever ignore the voice in your head that screams “don’t forget travel insurance”?!3 Things You Didn’t Know About Travel Insurance
A True Story
I would like to share with you a true personal story of mine. In my twenties, I travelled around the world, working as a scuba-diving instructor with my boyfriend. We were in Thailand on a small island, celebrating our next stop on the journey, the glorious Maldives. One night, my boyfriend got up to go to the toilet, and on his way back he said “Don’t get mad, but by accident, while I was walking to the bathroom my sunnies slipped off my forehead down onto my eyes. Being blind I stepped on something soft.”
I looked down at his flip-flops and saw that his big toe was bleeding pretty badly. Horrified I asked, “What did you step on?” his reply “A rat dying in the corner of the toilets…he wasn’t too happy so he bit me right back!”
There wasn’t a real hospital on the island, only a medical centre. The nurse first gave him the wrong shot for tetanus and on the other shoulder, a shot for rabies. Normally if you get bitten by a wild animal, you need 3 shots of rabies vaccination every 2 weeks.
Three days after when we were in the hospital of Male, Maldives, I explained the Thailand accident to the doctors. The doctors confirmed that my boyfriend needed 2 more shots of vaccinations every 2 weeks to be in the clear, however to our horror explained “Yes, rabies is very bad but in Maldives don’t have rabies vaccination because we don’t have rabies!”
Great, I was already imagining my boyfriend attacking me in the middle of the night like a vampire!
The situation looked pretty dire. We didn’t have travel insurance and were stuck in the middle of nowhere in the Indian Ocean on a working visa, with the possibility of my boyfriend dying from rabies!
This is why, now when I book a trip online I always make sure I’m covered with travel insurance. When travelling, you never know what lies ahead.
Maldives
3 Things You Didn’t Know About Travel Insurance
You can have travel insurance for a single or multi-trip for individuals and families.
1. Unlimited cover for medical and evacuation
Southern Cross Travel Insurance will cover all your medical expenses, wherever you are in the World, with an excess of only $100.
2. Changes to your journey
If your travel is interrupted for more than 12 hours they will reimburse you for each equivalent expense type (including transport, accommodation, meals and communication).
3. Baggage and personal items
You will be covered for the amount of $25,000 if, during an unexpected event, your personal items are lost, stolen or damaged. Pretty good!
To avoid bad surprises, I recommend you read your respective travel insurance terms and conditions.
Back to my story, fortunately, the boyfriend didn’t die. One of my boss’s friends, a surgeon from Paris, was heading to the Maldives the following week for holidays. He brought us, in a small medical esky, the two precious syringes with the rabies vaccination. The vaccinations, phone calls between Maldives and France, boat trips, and an expensive meal to thank the surgeon cost us a real fortune. But at least my boyfriend didn’t turn into a vampire and I learnt how to shoot someone in the bottom with a syringe!
Get your travel insurance and enjoy your trip!
Image Credit: Deposit Photos
