I made it to the airport! As I start this blog post, I’m sitting near Gate 78 at Terminal 2 of the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport (Mumbai). Looking around me, it dawns on me that for the next 10 hours, I’m going to be cruising through the skies with all these people: young and old, friends and strangers, tired and wide awake. I must say that the airport is BEAUTIFUL. I’m not sure I can ever get bored of roaming around it. I bet it’s even more fun when you’re here with family and friends. As if to prove this very point, a couple in front of me are joined by a group of their friends and their warm greetings and cheerful laughter fills the air for a moment. Before I can dwell anymore on the present, let’s get down to the real talk... how did I get to this moment and what you can do to be here someday too! 1. Purpose for travel: Do you need a purpose? Not really but most people do. My reason to travel is to experience something new on my gap year. What better than to visit the place I’ve always wanted to go to? People travel for various reasons: business, medical treatment, education and of course, tourism.
4. Budget: Ah, the big question! And possibly the most important one. To help make this as simple as possible, I’ve put together this table: I’m sure you’ve noticed that I planned for a lot more than I ended up spending. This is not because I held on too tightly to my purse strings during my trip but because of something my dad likes to call “leave a margin”. Now, what is a margin and why should you leave it? It is basically keeping money on hand for unforeseen expenses such as impulsive treats, sudden wanderlust, an irresistible sale or something bad like an accident. It is always good to have spare money reserved for something like this. Saving in one area also helps make up for unexpected increases in other areas. For example, when I was planning my budget, the exchange rate and price for accommodation and flights was lower than when I actually booked them and hence, I ended up spending more than I had planned. Remember: When planning a budget, it is always better to overestimate rather than underestimate and end up broke or penniless. It’s also nicer to return home and see how much you’ve saved rather than overspent! 5. Accommodation: For the entirety of my trip, I stayed with the Premier Inn chain of hotels. It was a perfect balance of safety, comfort and cost. There were cheaper options such as hostels and more luxurious options such as boutique hotels but the former lacked the safety I wanted and the latter did not fit my student budget. Looking back on my experience at the Premier Inns, it could not have been better. The beds are so cosy that there is a real danger of not waking up in the morning! Their staff is always on hand and eager to help in any way they can. All appliances were in working condition. The rooms were spotless and neat. They kept my post for me, they called taxis for me, they gave me an iron and an ironing board, they provided tea/coffee and hairdryers, they taught me how to use a vending machine without being patronising and they even let me leave my luggage with them after checking out- honestly, what more could I possibly ask for? 6. Transport: I shall review these modes of transport in greater detail in subsequent posts but here’s an overview. I flew with British Airways in Economy Class and booked a return ticket as my trip dates were fixed. Booking a return is cheaper and flight ticket prices tend to increase closer to the date of departure. I chose to fly with BA simply because the airline represents the country I’m going to, it was a direct flight to London and it had decent reviews and flying history. There were minor problems (I’ll go into the details in another post) but they swiftly made up for it. For long journeys within the UK, I travelled by train. The British Railway is fast, smooth, convenient and comfortable. It is also affordable if booked as early as possible. Criss-crossing the country by train was quite an enjoyable experience. For shorter journeys within cities, I walked- it truly is the best way to explore a place. However, I did use the Tube quite a bit in London which definitely makes it easier to get around but it’s a compromise between travelling faster and actually seeing where you’re going as the Tube is underground. I’ll soon share with you how you can make the most of your travel in London!
8. Travel and medical insurance: I got mine from Thomas Cook and it cost me about Rs.4,000. Thankfully, I did not need to use it but it was good to know that I was covered. 9. I bought a UK SIM card from the company Three. The SIM card was free of cost and I paid 20 pounds for a top-up which gave me more than enough minutes, messages and mobile data. I probably could have got the 10 pound top-up instead and that too would have been enough but it was nice not to have to worry about running out of data. 10. Forex: I purchased GBP from Thomas Cook before leaving India. I carried 500 GBP in cash (1 note of 50 GBP, 14 notes of 20 GBP, 16 notes of 10 GBP and 10 one-pound coins) and 1000 GBP in an international debit card which is a joint venture by MasterCard and Thomas Cook. The card was particularly helpful in a developed nation like Britain where I could make most payments online or at the point of sale. So I carried a lot of extra money as you can see as compared to my budget and this took care of the “margin” I mentioned earlier. 11. I bought an all-in-one travel adaptor from Amazon before leaving home. It is definitely a must-carry item.
12. Weather: I visited the UK between mid-January and mid-February so it was certainly wintertime and I did witness some snow and minus temperatures. Hence, logically, my suitcase was packed with warm, woollen clothes. 13. Jet lag: Since I was on a gap year, I was able to change my sleeping time more than a month before I left. I found this exceptionally helpful as I did not experience any jet lag whatsoever. However, on my return home, I was still following UK time and so I did end up feeling tired and dazed and sleepy for a week. To make matters worse, I stepped into the plane in a 5-degree London and stepped out to a sweltering 38-degree Mumbai! So, there you go...now you know what I did and you might find it helpful to compare this with my previous post “Ready or not?” This was a brief overview of my trip and in my following posts, I’ll go into more detail about certain aspects of my trip. Please like, comment and share this with your friends! Do let me know below if you’ve found this helpful or if there is something I’ve missed. Also, I’d love to hear if there are any particular things related to my trip that you like to know more about!
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AuthorNikita is currently a prospective medical student on a gap year before starting university. She has experience mentoring students for IGCSE and A Level exams. Her current area of interest is neuroscience. Acknowledgement and Gratitude
A heartfelt thank you to the following people for their encouragement, help and support: Mum & Dad Martin, Tina & Roshni Timms Preeti Bhatt Anjana Rathore Sanshriti Mehta Eeshani Juthani Indraja Polubothu Abhishek Ghoshal Vibhavari Desai Ananya Singh Tanishqa Naithani Vineeth Lekkala Archives
August 2017
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