Wednesday 29 July 2009

Travel Insurance

I have finally got around to sorting out my travel insurance. I went with a company I found through Money Supermarket http://www.moneysupermarket.com/ in the end as they had by far the cheapest options out there. Some I had tried were crazy prices, the Post Office topped the list at £60 for a single trip! In the end I paid £14.19 and looking through the policy it had good cover so I was happy. I can't understand why the Post Office and a few others were so expensive!? Who on earth buys these policies I want to know, when you can get them so much cheaper elsewhere.

Saturday 25 July 2009

The Jabs Cont ....

Well troops im getting there with all the jabs that I need for Nepal. So far i've had:

2 x rabies
2 x hep B
1 x hep A (and something else mixed in one injection but I forget what)
1 x tetnus / diptheria / polio

Left to have is:

1 x rabies
1 x hep B

plus I have to sort out my malaria tablets for which I have a docs appointment coming up. There has been some major confusion over the malaria tabs let me tell you! I thought that was going to be one of the more simplier things to sort out but our docs surgery seem to like to change their mind about malaria advise depending on who you are talking to.

The first nurse I saw said that she would sort out a doctors perscription for us, excellent I thought, job done. I then had a different nurse for the next set of jabs and when I reminded her about the perscription she said that we didn't need one and to just buy them over the counter at the chesmist. Ok I thought, will do - however my sis was then told by the original nurse that you have to have a docs perscription as there are many types of malaria tabs and things like being on the pill can effect which ones you need. At this point I thought I had better double check at the docs as I didn't want to buy some random pills and then have them not be effective or whatever when mixed with my pill. I saw the 2nd nurse again and this time she pretty much gave up and said just make a docs appointment and he will sort it. So that's where I am at the moment - totally confused about malaria pills lol.

Monday 20 July 2009

All The Info

It's surprising how much information the company we are going with needs. By the way the company is http://www.workandvolunteer.com/ yesterday we scanned our passports to email them along with the flight details which is understandable them wanting that as they pick us up from the airport etc but amoung some of the stranger requests was a selection of photos of ourselves lol I do wonder what they are going to do with those.

Sunday 19 July 2009

Jabs

Well I assumed I would have to have some jabs for Nepal but I was not prepared for how many! I thought it would be one trip, a few sticks in the arm and jobs a good un, oh how wrong I was. It turns out I need 5 appointments in all, 5! I need Rabies (taken in 3 seperate shots on day 0, day 7 and day 28), hepatitus B (again taken in 3 shots on day 0, day 7 and day 21), tetnus, typhoid and diptheria (which thankfully is all in one) and hepatitus A (only one shot), plus we will need to take malaria tablets before, during and after the trip.

The nurse frowned upon us a bit when we went in for the first round of shots, saying that we hadn't planned far enough in advance and that it would be tricky to get all the injections in now. Seems to me it's going to be fine though, my last shot is on the 14th Aug and we fly out on the 31st, plenty of time really. The only worry is that after having the 3 rabies jabs you are supposed to wait 2 weeks and then have a blood test to check whether it's worked. The nurse said well it looks like we won't be able to fit that in, but she didn't seem that concerned and reading up on it myself it seems that they don't automatically test everytime anyway, just when the doc thinks there is a specific need.

So with just over a month to go I have had my first rabies and my first hep B jabs. Tentus next on Wed.

Thursday 16 July 2009

Up Up and Away!

Hey All,

In Sept me, my bro and sis are planning a volunteering trip to Nepal and I thought I would start a blog about it as it might be of interest to others. I will document our adventures through the planning stage as well as the actual trip, you never know it might help others who are planning the same type of thing. Also feel free to comment if you have any tips / advice yourself, any info would be greatly received! :-) xx