The Adventures of Jim & Rhonda

We went to the travel clinic yesterday and had high hopes for not having to get too many shots since we’re already up to date on quite a few things. Boy were we wrong!

We knew we both needed yellow fever and that Jim also needed the typhoid injection since the pills didn’t work for him. The Doctor at the travel clinic, however, had other ideas in mind. She said we also needed japanese enchepilitis, rabies, and meningitis. Even though I am still questioning in my mind whether we truly need a couple of these we decided to go ahead with the recommendations since many are good for several years and we’ll be  covered next time we take off. I also needed to have blood drawn to see if the rabies vaccinations I’d had as a kid were still good or if I needed a booster. All in all a very painful (5 shots for me, 6 for Jim) AND expensive day. Our total yesterday came to $1181.00 and we still each have 2 more JE shots each and 2 more rabies for Jim (plus the possible rabies booster for myself) Yikes!! $2300 for shots was NOT what we’d expected but , the price you pay for traveling for so long I guess.

I’d seen plenty of forums on the web with people questioning whether or not you really need some of these vaccines.For many budget travelers it really is a question of money and the true odds of whether a rabid animal is going to bite you. There is no right answer, of course, and everyone has a different outlook on the subject. I, personally, felt that the doctor we saw was pretty paranoid about the subject  so I am STILL (even after the first go round) not sure if I really need them all.

We also had to discuss the malaria pill question that weighs heavily on every travelers mind when they go to developing nations. Because so many areas have mosquitos that are resistant to one type or another of malaria preventatives it can become really difficult to determine what to use and when to use them. Because of the length of our trip, the many countries we’re covering ,and the fact that the information changes so rapidly the clinic said they felt the best thing for us to do was not use any malaria preventative medication (but, obviously use bug spray freely, cover up at dawn/dusk, etc etc!) but take along malarone tablets and if we believe we have malaria then to do the postemptive treatment. I am still doing some research on this option and how easy it would be to get malaria pills en-route if we decide to do that. However, considering how almost fanatical she was about getting us vaccinated for every possible thing this may be the best route to go.

We did get a couple of more elements of our trip taken care of. I got our travel insurance for the first 6 mths booked through a company Bootsnall boys recommend called World Nomads. They have reasonable pricing and great coverage. We also booked our flight from Christchurch, New Zealand to Sydney, Australia for 5 Oct. We hadn’t originally planned on booking this prior to our arrival in New Zealand however it appears immigration is getting tighter these days and they want proof of an on-ward ticket before they’ll let you into the country. This is an issue in some areas of SE Asia and Africa too but there they seem content to just verify you have enough funds to complete your travels and probably are just more interested in a small bribe.
Only 1 more week of work for me and I am having a tough time being very motivated to actually work! I’m sure by this time next week I’ll be in agony while watching the clock SLOWLY move along.

37 days to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2007 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.