There’s an old Hebrew saying that goes something like “How do you make God laugh? Tell him your plans.” I love this saying, because it points out how little control we often have over how our lives play out. When traveling we are ceding even more control of our loves to the random, chaotic, and sometimes serendipitous nature of the universe. Life still throws you curveballs when you work the same job and live in the same house for your whole life, it throws you a full compliment of curveballs, sliders, knuckeballs and fastballs up and in when you are traveling from place to place not knowing the language experiencing new things all the time (lots of American specific baseball metaphors there.
Sorry. Somebody put in the appropriate cricket analogy in the comments section.) I have been contemplating a trip to Australia for a while and my favorite part of travel is when some option completely new comes up, some serious detour off the schedule, or maybe a whole new adventure that requires you to jettison any understanding of what the future holds. However, sometimes the spontaneity of travel is not always a good thing. Those are the times when you really need to be able to roll with the punches. No less of a philosopher than Mike Tyson once said, “everybody has a plan. Until they get hit in the mouth.”
Letting go of control and being calm in the midst of chaos is a great, and educational, part of travel. That being said, it’s important to have some sort of safety net underneath all those chances and risks you’re taking. I can’t recommend travel insurance enough. You never know where you’re going to be, and you never know what kind of healthcare system you might find yourself governed by in the event of an accident.
Or just what your options are if you are mugged and left penniless somewhere. There are lots of options for travel insurance, some covering specific dates while you travel, or specific areas that you travel to. These aren’t the best, because like I’ve been hinting at, the best adventures are ones that lead you off preconceived maps. You don’t want to worry about going somewhere because your travel insurance doesn’t cover it. That’s why its always worth it to buy Down Under insurance
when traveling abroad, especially Australia. And for the love of God, if you’re traveling with your family, get everybody covered with Australia travel insurance
so you don’t have to worry about wild kangaroos.