Planning for the Unknown

It is impossible to plan for the unknown. Over a long enough period of time spent traveling and the more elements of a trip that you have, the more likely it is that things will go wrong. You really just need to accept that no amount of planning is ever going to change this. To give you a sense of some of our bigger mishaps during our year of traveling, here are a few examples of when things went wrong.

First, admittedly we took a little bit of a risk in heading to Hue and Hoi A during the flooding season in Vietnam. A few weeks before our arrival the streets in Hoi An were severely flooded and a few weeks after the same thing happened. Fortunately, the weather was good for the most part during our stay here, aside from one day where we had to wade through ankle deep storm water. However, flooding during our trip there caused the cancellation of our planned sleeper train from Hanoi to Hue. No notice of cancellation was provided by our third party booking agent and we were only informed upon arrival at the station. We were left scrambling for a last minute hotel until late in the night at the train station with two young children, the ticket brokers fees were non-refundable, and we’d already needlessly spent the day walking around Hanoi with ALL OF our luggage unnecessarily. But ultimately we persevered, found a hotel, and upon arrival at the hotel managed to find a flight down to Hue the next day, which worked out great. The incremental cost was a few hundred USD and a whole lot of extra hassle.

Second, Virgin Australia cancelled our flight going from Brisbane to Queenstown. The flight was cancelled after we had already boarded the plane, but ultimately (and with very poor communication) the airline sorted us with a hotel and some meal vouchers. This meant that we missed out on a day in Queenstown that we’d paid for, which was unfortunate, but not the worst thing ever. It also meant a whole lot of wasted time at airports instead of exploring. Incremental cost to us was zero, though, so not the worst.

Third, one of the most irritating problems that came up on our trip happened at the Dublin Airport where the Europcar agents demanded that we produce an insurance coverage letter that explicitly stated that we had coverage in Ireland. Our coverage letter indicated that we had “global coverage”, which apparently does not include Ireland in the minds of Europcar employees. They wanted to charge us ~1200€ for a month of insurance on a rental that cost us 400€. Fortunately, the people at Thrifty were more reasonable and they hooked us up, but the attitude of the Europcar employees was off the charts rude and flippant: if you don’t like it, tough. All the agencies are sold out right now. Rental car companies are often places where your plans can go sideways, whether it is that they don’t have your car, are trying to upsell you, or trying to get you to pay for “damage” that you did not cause. They can often be pushed into giving you what you want with a firm polite approach, but sometimes (as in this situation) you may feel compelled to yell.

Things happen despite the best laid plans. Some things are acts of god, which we tended to just roll with. Shit happens. Other things happen which are caused by greedy and irrational individuals, which can be infinitely more annoying. We suggest simply (trying to) keep your cool and to evaluate all possible solutions. Often, the situation is not as dire as you think and there is a solution.