Preparing for a trip. Part I

Buddhist monk cleaning Lamai Temple. By Marina Nozyer

Being a freelancer means that technically you can work from anywhere you can find Internet. But a trip to a new country (or even a new neighborhood) could be a challenge! Here is the first part of a list of things you’d better do before you go on a journey.

Internet connection
Going to a remote isolated place on this planet might be a challenge. One of the first difficulties you’re going to face is slow internet connection. 1mb/s might be maximum download speed if you’re living in a bungalow on a tropical island. Sometimes 50 kb/s will be a nice speed. The upload speed is usually much lower.
So if you’re going to make photos for stock agencies you’d better upload ’em later, cause waiting up to half an hour for a file to upload can drive you insane.

Make sure your clients, employers, colleagues, etc can get in touch with you
Before you have left your office, set up voice mail, email auto-response, wright something in your Facebook to let everyone who’d like to contact you know you’re away and you won’t be available to reach for few days. Next thing you need to do is to get information about local mobile companies and internet providers situated in the place you’re going to. Gathering information about ’em after you have landed will consume more time and this can be critical in some cases.

Ways to retreat
Sometimes you can come to a place you’ve been thinking of as a wonderful one, but it turns out to be horrible and unsuitable. This is why you should think of ways to retreat – check out the flights and trains timetable, get some extra gas if you’re going on a safari – think for anything you might need to get you out of this hell quickly.

Get some background information about the place you’re going to
Going on a trip means that you’re changing your location to the one you’re not very familiar with. So it’s a good idea to google out that place’s history, traditions, people habits and so on. You’d better read about some shamanic rituals before you see them ;) Besides, lots of people like it when they feel you’re interested in their culture and probably they’d be friendlier and this would be a great help for you.

Get camouflage
Sure you’ll look like a stranger when your home is 1000 miles away. And there are always people who are afraid of or aggressive to foreigners. So you’d better mask yourself somehow: buy some casual clothes, remember not to stare at everything, pay attention to how people move and talk and try to copy that manner.

Check out:
Preparing for a trip. Part II and
Preparing for a trip. Part III

The photo above was taken by Marina Nozyer.

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