Photography. Travel. Technology. Blog.
This is the sequel of my previous post. I intentionally separate the post so that one is showing only the cars, and another is showing only the models (or simply the babes). I always wonder why exhibitors hiring models standing beside their cars? It wouldn’t be just because of attracting guys (typical car buyer) in some way, but I’m sure you wouldn’t have considered purchasing a car just because there’s a pretty lady promoting that car?!
This time of the year marks the anniversary of my website. I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas with lots of blessing! As usual, I went out to took some Christmas decorative and try out different angle and composition. This time around was at Mid Valley Shopping Mall. With my favourite 50mm Prime Lens taken handheld, that’s not much of an issue. Most of my shots are taken fairly close to the subject, or it has been cropped during post-processing.
This is the first time I went to a motor show, thought it would be very exciting to see a lot of futuristic automobiles, conceptual vehicles, hybrid cars, etc. Not forget the beautiful models posing around exhibit cars by various manufacturers. Nevertheless, I think the main highlight of the show was none other than the renowned “Bumblebee” character from Transformer! …and of course it’s real form, the Chevrolet Camaro. However, the “Batmobile” was a lame junk, ended up I didn’t took any photos of it. Enjoy the show…
A quick studies on travel insurance offered in the market, you would notice that the average spending on travel insurance costing around 2% – 15% of your total out-of-country spending. Depends on the nature of your trip, the percentage can be less, if you are on a luxurious tour to Paris; or it can be more, if you are backpacking in Cambodia; or you do not bother at all, because you think your company already pay for that as part of your business trip?
If you are a frequent traveler, you know that travel insurance is essential and not something you will sort out at the last minute. Unless you have already been buying from this travel insurance provider all the time (or long term), and you already familiar with the content of the policy, including all the small print. If not, let me share with you these key terms that would normally appear (not limit to) in a travel insurance policy, which is also the key consideration to the subject of this post.
 Lost of valuables: |
The amount you will be getting back in case you lose your money or personal belongings. Usually, there will be a limit on your claim and probably for any one item. A police report is require to file a claim. My personal experience was my camera got stolen on a metro in Rome. I made a police report there, and when I got back, I send in the claim together with the police report and the original receipt of where I bought my camera (luckily I still keep it). Within a month, I got a cheque from my insurance company, and to my surprise they pay me the full amount of my camera! As far as I know, some insurance will only pay you back half the amount of your lost or stolen items, but I think I got lucky. |
| Personal Liability: |
Anything that have to do with legal and lawsuit, in case you are sued for accidental injury caused to someone or damage to someone’s property during the trip. You will be insured up to certain amount. Example if you accidentally spilled hot coffee on somebody’s Gucci bag, and he/she wanted to bring this to a court case. Why not? Everything could happen. |
| Medical Expenditure: |
The money use to pay for medical emergency in overseas. This includes necessary expenses for ambulance and hospital; and could prove very expensive. Either you (as a traveler) need to arrange for ready cash; else credit card will do, but might not be working in every part of the world. In short, this is to ensure minimal medical expenditure for you (as a policyholder). Example if you accidentally being knocked down by a car coming from the opposite direction? |
| Cancellation Costs: |
Understand what kind of cancellation is cover. It can be before you depart, example if your tour agent ran away with your paid holiday package? or during your trip, example if your flight has been cancelled and you are left stranded at the airport, you probably need a hotel and new tickets, etc. |
| Repatriation Costs: |
Expenses incurred in bringing you and your belongings back home. I will not give example for this one as to let your imagination flows. Think about the worst case scenario. |
| Exclusion: |
One of the important point, this clause eliminates coverage for certain acts, property, types of damage or even locations. Example if you involved in dangerous sports? |
| Policy Excess: |
This is the amount you have to pay for each claim you made. Most travel insurance policy have this and normally they will deduct the amount of the policy excess from the settlement of your claim. |
| The Underwriter: |
Look for international investment body or well-known, established institution. They are the one (behind the scene) who will pay you eventually. |
| Travel Assistance: |
This is the only thing that means important to you during an emergency, the 24 hours hotline contact number! You would want to test calling the number first? :) |
These are the more important points to consider when you want to purchase a travel insurance. At least from my experience, after I sorted out my travel insurance, I get to enjoy the “Peace of Mind” while I’m travelling.
As I have been a regular customer with World Nomads Travel Insurance, they are kind enough to give me this discount to share with everyone. You just need to complete the poll above to reveal a 5% discount code on World Nomads. Hope this can help you to save a bit on travel insurance.
Well you might think why I recommend this to you. With World Nomads, you can buy, extend and claim online from anywhere, even after you’ve already left home! They are recommended by Lonely Planet (and me of course!), best suited for backpackers and frequent travelers!
This post will be the last part of my Europe Itinerary blog series. A quick recap on my previous post, if you have noticed the way I planned the time in Paris, it’s different than in Switzerland. It was planned to be more flexible, allowing each planned item to move earlier or later, depending on the actual day itself. In fact, the frequency of metro service is quite high, I do not need to specifically plan the departure/arrival time of each metro service.
Proceeding from my arrival to London St. Pancras, I have arranged with my friend to pick me up from the train station. That should be the end of my Day 6 plan. Next morning (Day 7) I’ve planned to revisit a few usual attractions in Central London. I listed down where I want to go, then I plotted the route to these destinations.
First of all, you need a London Underground Map or a London Tourist Map. Alternately, you can try Google Map online. A sample of my plotted map below.
On Day 8 (last day) early morning, I will be heading to Waterloo Station, crossing over to visit London Eye. I’ve also arranged to meet up with some of my friends in London for lunch. After lunch, I should be heading to London Stansted Airport for check in. Tips: Allow at least 2 hours check in time for international flight. If at London Heathrow Airport, allow at least 3 hours instead!
That’s basically my whole Europe itinerary. However, when there’s vacation plan, there’s budget! Budget is about money. We need to estimate how much money we need to bring along for spending. Of course you can use credit card, but it’s always safer to keep some cash in hand. Below is my Europe Trip budget for 2 persons, excluding return airfares and travel insurance.
The above budget was planned based on exchange rate in 2009. You may want to reference the latest exchange rate if you are reading this in the future.
