Before you travel

[Justin]

Just a heads up when traveling.

- Don't use your credit card at the airport - We flew out of Cape Town International recently and we (highly) suspect that our card details were taken/copied (The Spur).
I think the fraudsters bank on you being in vacation mode and not checking your bank account whilst away.

- Additionally, don't expect your cell phone provider (Vodacom in this case) to provide International Roaming.

[Wes]

Vodacom offers a great service for sms roaming. You can still receive your sms' while overseas without any additional cost.

Which I guess is now becoming obsolete with watsapp around.

http://www.vodacom.co.za/personal/servi ... gsmsroamer

[Justin]

Vodacom offers a great service for sms roaming.

Wish I could say the same thing, been having trouble - even after contacting Vodacom for support).

Whattsapp works nicely, but you need data (on your cell) or an internet connection.

[Nic Le Maitre]

It's better just to buy a local SIM where ever you are going and then use whatsapp.

[Justin]

Vodacom offers a great service for sms roaming.

Wish I could say the same thing, been having trouble - even after contacting Vodacom for support).

Whattsapp works nicely, but you need data (on your cell) or an internet connection.

[Justin]

It's better just to buy a local SIM where ever you are going and then use whatsapp.

100% agree with you Nic, but in this case I wanted to be contactable on my SA number - please don't call me though - it costs me R6.00 per minute to
receive a call

As a matter of interest:
- R23.50 per minute for a call to an SA number.
- R2.75 per sms
- R6.00 per minute to receive an international call.
This is the clincher and many have been caught out with bills running into the thousands --> Data: R128.00 per MB (available only on Contract)

In Austria right now, €9.90 (R144.00) gets gets you:
- 1000 sms's
- 1000 Minutes of phone time
- 1GB of Data

[DeanVDM]

Continuing on the topic of travel (for mountaineering purposed) a couple of been there got the T-Shirt lessons:

• Give your medical aid notice that you are out of the country (most do not cover even the little bit that they do pay for if you do not give them notice)
• If you do use your credit card to buy airline tickets and your bank has the free travel cover option call them and get a policy number (very painful to do that after the fact). These policies does not cover much but without following the process and knowing what the policy includes you might have to pay for things that they would have covered
• If you are going to be in the mountains for a long time visit the dentist for a check-up
• Note that Watsapp will work (at lest at the current versions) if you use the same physical phone but change to a different SIM card and number (or just connect to WiFi and not GSM). I usually buy a local SIM with data on and plug that into a GSM mini WiFi router thingy to stay connected - requires two devices but gives you options
• The local travel insurance products cover very few mountaineering activities and in general is only useful for the travel to the mountains part of your trip. To get better insurance I (and many local mountaineers) have joined the International section of the Austrian Alpine club to get better medical and rescue insurance (I have seen something about BMC rescue insurance too but do not know what that entails)