How Travel as A Couple Makes Life Easier

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There are many solo travel blogs out there that talk about how traveling is solo is great and we admire the people that travel alone.  It takes a strong person of a certain breed that can go out into the world solo and explore.

We are not those people.

Traveling as a couple is all we know.  Having been together since we were in college, Dave and I have only ever traveled together and we have made it work for each other.

Traveling as a couple has it's advantages!

Over the years we have developed a system and have found traveling as a couple provides a lot of benefits as opposed to going it alone.

Here are the things that we have found made our travels around the world easier as a couple.

1. Good cop bad cop – When traveling in a third world country everything involves bartering.  Hotel rooms, taxi’s, shopping, tours… everything involves working out a bargain.  Dave is great at playing hardball and if he were a solo traveler people might find him a little too hard and probably wouldn’t get his deals. But having a woman with him smiling as he works his magic helps to smooth the rough edges.  When they are stating a price and he is saying no, they look to me for support. I smile and laugh and they give in a bit while Dave gives in a bit and we all go home happy and having a good time.

2. TLC – Tender Loving Care.  It is inevitable. Everyone is bound to fall ill during travels.  It could be travelers diarrhea, the flu, headache or fatigue.  Having a person take care of you makes everything better.  Being sick while traveling is not fun, but being sick alone in your hotel room is even worse.  Having a person give you some sympathy, tell you everything will get better, give you a back rub or bring you some water makes being ill just a little easier to take.

3. Sounding Board- Bartering can be exhausting and sometimes we just don’t know how much to pay for something.  All we can do is discuss it with each other and see if it is a price that we are happy with.  We can sound off on each other to see if a person is ripping us off and we can slow each other down before buying too impulsively.  It helps out the budget a lot.

4. Strengths – We each have our strengths and can divide the workload.  I am very good at packing and organizing and Dave is very good at planning and researching.  If we had to rely on me to plan a trip, we wouldn’t see anything. If Dave were in charge of packing, we would have the entire house including the kitchen sink.  I don’t have the attention span to do research, but Dave is great at checking out what there is to do in a place.  It works out well.  I putter around the room organizing, washing the clothes and packing up the bags while Dave reads up on the place. He runs it by me after he has thoroughly explored what we should do and we are both happy.  Dave and I are a little anomaly, we like the same things, feel the same about places and situations and have the same interests. It can be annoying to other people, but it makes traveling very easy.

5.  Sharing the Experience – It is admirable that people are self-sufficient and fulfilled enough to enjoy a place on their own.  We however need someone to share it with.  There is nothing better than enjoying a beautiful sunrise, conquering a great peak or witnessing a rare site with the person that you love.  We have built memories together to talk about for years to come.

6. Inspiration – Traveling as a couple can open each other up to new opportunities.  We can inspire each other to try new things.   If one of us is a little wary of something, we can be each others cheerleaders.  We love telling each other just how great we are

7. Safety – Traveling together offers a little more safety than traveling solo.  Getting into a rickshaw or taxi feels a lot better when there are two of you as opposed to being alone.  Safety in numbers we always say.  We can watch each others backs and not feel threatened.  Many times I say to Dave, “I don’t know how people can do this alone.” But they can and do and they are a stronger person than me.

8. Care for our Gear -We can keep an eye on our packs and gear as well when one of us has to go to the bathroom or buy some tickets.  Someone can stay with the packs while another gets in line.  Our gear is never left alone on a train or bus or anywhere.  It helps a lot.  I can even give Dave my scarf, and bag when I have to go into a nasty toilet.  You don’t want to take the chance of anything falling in, so having someone to hold onto your things eliminates that problem.

9. Company – We see a lot of solo travelers at dinner. While I tend to be a chatty one and strike up a conversation with them, (most times they are happy to talk) I see many people just reading a book or sitting silently.   I know, I know, a lot of people like being alone.  We are not those people.  We love talking at dinner, playing travel scrabble or cribbage, we can talk about the days events and we just never seem to get bored.  Even on a long train ride, we have company.  We are a couple of people that love company.  When we hook up with other travelers or people on the road it is even better.  We are the more the merrier type.

10. Support - Travel can be exhausting.  People hassle you daily for rickshaw rides, tours and any other sale they can think of.  Sometimes you just don’t want to talk to anyone.  When one of us is having an off day, the other can take over.  They can field the questions and shelter the other person.  When one of us is feeling stronger than the other, we can take over the duties of inspecting hotel rooms to make sure they are livable, deciding on a price or simply answering the questions of a curious local.  The other person can sit and wallow for a couple of hours or for the day and not have to deal with a thing or talk to anyone.  It works out very well having a support system.  We also have each other to vent to so that we don’t have to take our frustrations out on the poor receptionist or vendor.  We couldn’t travel if we didn’t have each other for support.

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New India Visa Rules, Our Re-Entry

Welcome to part 3 of our update on the new India Tourist Visa rules.  Way back in December we heard about the new rule while reading the India Times.

The Recap

As you probably know by now, India has stopped issuing multi-entry tourist visa’s.  This is fairly straightforward, you are not allowed to re enter the country unless you have been out of India for at least 2 months.

You can read more about the rules in detail at our post New India Visa Rules.

The problem and confusion that it is causing, is to the people that have already been issued 6 month multi entry visa’s.  People that have bought flights to places like Sri Lanka or Nepal and have return flights back to their home countries from Delhi.

India has been inconsistent on who they let back in and who they don’t.

You would think that they would allow the people that bought their Visa’s prior to the change in January to be allowed back into India, but that is not the case.

To find out what has been happening to others you can read our updated post at India Visa Rules, an Update. It has details on where you can also find more information and articles about the new rules.

So now that the recap is over…

How did we do?

We had been out of India for 31 days while visiting Sri Lanka.  We knew all about the visa problems and were prepared to not be allowed back into India.  We extended our Sri Lankan Visa just to be safe, however, we wanted to fly back to Delhi to continue our journey through India and on to Nepal.

It was 3:00 am

Our flight was leaving Colombo in the middle of the night and we stood in line preparing to act surprised and confused once we were told about the changes.

Really, how are we supposed to know about changes to a law mid stream?  We bought our visas months ago and never had to think about it again.

As far as the customs official knew, we were just a couple of backpackers that haven’t read a paper or looked at the news in months.

The moment arrived.

We approached the counter and the attendant looked at our passports.

She said, “You have been to India already?”

We said. “Yes.”

She then said. “You cannot go back to India until the end of March.”

We looked at her with confused expressions and said nothing.

She repeated herself. “You cannot go back to India until the end of March.”

We then said, “I don’t understand.”

She then said, “India has changed their rules and we cannot go back until March.”

We shook our heads in confusion.

She Repeated again. “India has changed their rules, you cannot go back.” “It is a new rule.”

Dave did a great job looking completely dazed,

He said, “I don’t understand, we have a multi entry visa that doesn’t expire until April.”

I just stood there saying nothing. It is better if I don’t speak.

She just kept repeating that India has changed their rules and we just kept acting like we didn’t understand what she was saying.

That was when we were sent to another counter.

We were in line with the other foreigners that were freaking out about returning to India.  Many had to get back to catch their flights to Europe and home and were starting to panic.

We went through the same routine of acting surprised and confused when told about the new rules.

The man at the next counter explained what was going on and asked us if we had an onward ticket.

We said, no but we are planning on going to Nepal.  He told us that his hands were tied. If we had an onward ticket home, we would be allowed through, but because we are only flying back to India we could not go.

We looked shocked and confused and said that we didn’t know what to do because a flight from Sri Lanka is very expensive. “What if we buy an onward ticket right now to Nepal.”

“The ticket counter is closed and besides, your ticket must be back to your home country.” He said.

Yet another another change to the rules.

I guess if you have a ticket back to you own country they are allowing people back in to India. Tell that to the two Canadians that were denied a couple of weeks ago.  Read their comment on our post here.

Hmm, what could be do.

We stood there for a little bit, while he talked and dealt with the other foreigners that had return flights to their country’s.

He then told us to come and put our bags on the conveyor belt.

He said, if you get sent back, you will have to pay for the flight and the he is not to blame if we do.  If we are willing to risk being sent back at our point of entry in Chennai, he will let us go as long as we don’t raise a hassle.

We promised that we would be willing to come back to Sri Lanka and thanked him profusely.

We had made it through step one!

We now had to deal with immigration before leaving the country. We were prepared to answer the question on why we had extended our Visa and ended up leaving on time anyway.

Lucky for us, we booked our return flight 31 days later. One day longer than our 30 day visa. We were going to tell them that we didn’t want to cause a problem at 3:00 am and decided to extend our Visa prior to leaving the country, instead of paying the fine at the airport.

We never had to tell them.

He didn’t even look at us and stamped our passport.

We made it pass step 2!

Our final worry was in Chennai, India.  The last thing we wanted to do was have to get back on a flight to Sri Lanka.  We had read that many people have had that happen on India Mike’s forum and as we approached the immigration counter, we held our breath.

He greeted us with. “Hello welcome to India.”  “Are you going to the Taj Mahal?”

Our Reply “Oh yes, Taj Mahal is number 1”

He then looks at our exit stamp with confusion.  He stares at it for a while and then asks us something incoherent.

Dave answers yes.

I stand there smiling.

He looks at our passports again with a frown and then stamps them and tells us to have a nice trip.

As we walk away I ask Dave what the guy asked us, Dave says, “I don’t know, something about have you been to India before.”

Yes, must have been the right Answer because are back in India.

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India Couple’s Survival Guide, 10 Ways to Keep your Relationship on Track

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India is a difficult travel.  Relationships can suffer while experiencing this country.  While it helps being a couple because we have each other to rely on and to vent to, it can also take its toll on the relationship because both of your emotions are running high.

Here are some of the things that Dave and I have done to keep sane and enjoy each others company while traveling through India.

1. Splurge. It may stress you out more than the stress of India itself when you spend a weeks budget on one night of accommodation, but your relationship will thank you! Clean sheets, hot shower and the chance to snuggle up to one another in peace, quiet and comfort is just the key.  Most beds in guest houses in India are simply two single beds pushed together.  I always feel like I am sleeping alone because we have a space between us or it is just too uncomfortable to sleep on that crack in the centre of the bed.  A luxurious hotel room will help you reconnect to one another.

Look for hotels in India at Twenga

2. Go on a Date. India has a lot of movie theaters and chances are you will find one showing an English flick.  Make plans to go and see one and then go out for a romantic dinner.  Find the most expensive place that you can afford.  You will feel almost normal. It’s like date night, only it’s in India.

3. Communicate. It is important to talk about how you are feeling and to vent your frustrations.

Dave and I don’t hold back with one another at all.  We talk about everything.  (probably because we onl y have each other to talk to most of the time) However, we always discuss what is bothering us and we make plans to fix it.

4. Compromise. I use this one all the time, but it is the most important tip for any couple traveling anywhere in the world. Neither of you will want to do the same thing all the time, but it is important to let each other enjoy your travels.  If one of us has our hearts set on an adventure and the other isn’t into it we always reach a compromise.  “I’ll do this if you do that with me.” Or, “that bungee jump really terrifies me, how about you bungee jump and I will zip line instead?”  If you talk things over rationally, you will almost always come to an agreement.

5. Let go of anger. We have had some excellent arguments here in India.  It is easy to blame one another when things go wrong.  We fight, get out our frustrations and then let it go.  Afterwards we laugh about how ridiculous we were being.  But it was by having that fight that allowed us to get it all out and feel better about our situation.

6. Go for a walk on the beach. Get yourself to Goa and walk hand in hand on the beach.

Go for a walk on the Beach

Public displays of affection are frowned upon in India so holding hands or snuggling up in public is not proper etiquette.  Besides, in most of the country, it is virtually impossible to walk beside one another anyway.  You are stuck walking on the side of the road because of the lack of sidewalks.  All the while you are dodging speeding traffic, cows, dogs and garbage.  Walking is work and you have no time to hold hands or to even think about walking arm in arm.  Forget about it, you are on your own.  I believe in the power of touch and that couples should touch regularly.  Without it you start to feel distant from each other.  It is important to make time for it.

7. Find a sanctuary. How civilized is it to order a cappuccino in a cozy coffee shop listening to mellow jazz.  Split a piece of cake and read the complimentary English paper.  Now take notice of how lucky your are to have the privilege of being able to travel to this fascinating destination together.  In peace and quiet, you can actually enjoy conversation about world events and entertainment.  Your minds have bonded again and you will feel right back to your old self.

8. Be Grateful. Remember how lucky you are.  You are traveling the world with the one you love.  It is easy to get hung up on the little things and to be frustrated with each other.  But remember, you chose to come to india.  It was your dream and you are a lucky human being.  You not only get to travel, you get to travel with your loved one.  Many people only dream of this experience and many people would love to have someone to travel with and spend their life with.  Remember to be thankful for what you have.

10. Get out of the country. Ok, this is extreme. But between the cold, pollution, noise and filth, we couldn’t take it any longer.

Get away from it all!

After two months we needed a break to save our psyches.  India was taking its toll on our relationship.  We were short with each other, we were grumpy and not a lot of fun to be around.  We bought a ticket to paradise. Sri Lanka.  We have a month of from India and our relationship is thanking us.

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Travel Gear, Did We Need it All?

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It has only been three weeks into our trip, but we already have a good idea of what we are glad to have brought with us and what we should have left behind in Canada.

Here is a list of the stuff that we brought that we are very grateful to have along the way in India, plus a few of the items that we should have left at home.

Must Have Gear in India

Silk Liners – We already have had to use our silk liners to sleep in. At our place in Goa, we didn’t get any sheets, just a bare mattress. They did give us a blanket of some kind, but we have preferred to use our liners instead.

Headlamps - Needed all of the time. On the train at night, walking back to our rooms at night, in our rooms reading in bed and any other time it is dark. Headlamps are a must for India.

Combination Lock – This is imperative to lock your doors of your huts and bungalows and we don’t have to worry about carrying around a key.

PacSafe – We have never used a PacSafe before, but it is definitely needed in India. Some coco huts in Goa are not very secure. All we do is put all of our valuables into a daypack and lock that to our bed. It is brilliant. We have been able to enjoy our days stress free. Plus the PacSafe is a must for the train. You can sleep easily and not worry about someone walking off with your valuables in the middle of the night.

Long Johns and Fleece sweaters – Surprisingly, the nights have been quite chilly already. Luckily we have stayed toasty warm.

Two Computers – We thought that bringing two computers would be a little too much technology, however, it has been very useful. Dave can work on his photo’s while I work on blog posts and editing video. We don’t get in each others way at all, and we can get twice the work done when we happen upon a wifi Internet.

Belkin Mini Surge Protector – there are power outages all over India and this surge protector eases our minds when we are charging our valuable electronics. We can also charge several electronics at a time as well as our IPhone and IPods.

Power Bar – You would think that the surge protector would be enough, but the power bar has been needed to plug the Belkin into. The plugs on the side of walls are not very sturdy, so we plug our power bar into the wall and then plug the Belkin into the power bar as it lay on a solid surface.

This is just a short list of items that we have found invaluable. Sure there are others like toilet paper, soap, sunglasses and flip flops, but these are some of the larger items that we weren’t entirely sure that we would use.  As time goes on, we will come up with more, and I am sure that we will add a few on the list that we willl be scratching our heads and wondering why we brought them at all!

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The Art of Travel Blogging and Travel

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We haven’t been traveling for very long yet and we have many growing pains to work through. Both with travel, technical aspects and with the blog. Finding a story and keeping it interesting.

The Blog

We have never had to worry about how long we stayed at a place before or how often we need to get to the Internet, but now that we are working to become full time Travel Bloggers and professional travelers, we really have to look at our journey in a different way.

We have been sitting in Goa for over a week doing Yoga and relaxing on the beach, and we have realized that this doesn’t make for very interesting Blog Posts or newspaper articles. In the past, we wouldn’t have cared and we would have gone on with our days until we felt like moving on.

Now however, we have to take you, our readers into account.

It is time to move on.

Patnem Beach, we love you. Swami Jee, we love your classes, Ramnad, Dinnesh, Raj and Pauin, you are the best. But we must leave in search of an adventure.

As for the Blogging.

We have started to work on a system. Dave works on his photos, while I write before we visit the Internet. Unfortunately, it has been very hot and there aren’t many places where we can work during the day away from the sand and the heat, so we do some work laying on our bed in our very basic room here in Goa.

I try to write 3 or more posts ahead of time, Dave goes through his photos to match the post and then when we go to the internet where we schedule our posts a week in advance. We are hoping to keep this system going.

Dave has started up his photography site and you can view more photos besides the photos that we post here at PictureThePlanet.com

We try to tweet and stumble a bit and have been working at trying to network with other Bloggers, but this has been difficult. There are only so many hours in the day and we want to experience the travel to have something to write about. We don’t want to spend hours surfing other blogs and miss out on our own experience, but at the same time, we want to support our friends that are working hard at their fantastic sites!

Technical

We managed to unlock our iPhone once and for all and we can now use it in India. See our iPhone hell post to find out how that all worked out.

Did you know that you can get a prepaid Internet stick for our computer with unlimited bandwidth in India?

We were so excited about that prospect that we went to town when we heard about it to buy one. It should be easy right?

Nope.

Vodaphone will not do a prepaid wireless stick. You have to have an address in India that they can send a bill to.

Idea – (the other large Internet provider) does prepaid sticks, but according to the guys at the desk, it is not compatible with Mac. Even though it says right on the box that it is. He just crossed that out with his pen and said that it wasn’t. Hmm, I guess that we will have to try somewhere else.

Reliance does prepaid also. But nobody can tell us what the coverage is like. They don’t know if it is nation wide and they also don’t know if it is Mac Compatible. We can’t find out if it is Mac Compatible unless we buy it.

The cost is 3800 Rupees ($88) to buy the stick and 1 month of Internet. It is not cheap and we are on a budget, so we are not in the mood to throw away $88 just to see if the Internet stick works. Especially after all of our iPhone hassels.

We have one more option and that is Airtel. We just haven’t found an outlet for them yet.

Buying a SIM or Internet stick in India…tip

You can’t just walk into a store to buy a SIM Card here in India. You need to have some paper work with you.

Don’t waste a ricksaw trip like we did. Bring these items with you when you buy your SIM.

• Photocopy of Passport
• Photocopy of India Visa
• Two Copies of Visa photos
• Business Card of hotel, with full address and phone number of place that you are staying in India
• Money.
• Patience. It sounds like a silly point to make, but you when you try to ask questions regarding any information, you will receive many blank stares.

The Travel

We received some great advice early on in our trip and it has come true time and again. Always ask at least 3 different people the same question regarding anything. You will get three different answers, but one of them is bound to be right.

Even a simple question to do with food… “what comes with the chicken?” to which they will reply “chips.” You say “Oh, chips sounds nice, I haven’t had them in a while” When your chicken arrives… They bring your chicken with raw vegetables instead. You ask the same server about the chips and he says,”Oh No, chicken always comes with vegetables.“

The same goes for at the train Station,” Can We buy train tickets here?” “No, only in Margao.” Then you say “But you have a booth to book tickets with business hours? They happen to be right now, why do you have a booking office, if you can’t book tickets?” To which he says, “Nope, you cannot book here” as he looks past you to try to see the cricket match on the T.V.

Then you go back to town and try to book at an outlet and they tell you that you should book at the train station. You then say, “but they told me at the train that I cannot book there.” To which they reply “Oh no, you can book at the train station no problem. You then try to book online, it says that it takes credit cards from all nations. I guess Canada is not one of those nations because we try all of our cards and not one is accepted.

We must get out of Patnem, it is time for some adventure we owe it to you and ourselves! So we are chancing it tomorrow and are  going to try to hop on the 6:30 am train to Margao to hopefully catch the 8:00 am train to Hampi. But his is India and there are always wait lists. Getting on a train can be quite the ordeal. We will let you know if we make it!

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How to Travel the World

We have received a few emails lately asking us how we travel the world.  People want to know what we do in our day to day lives to save and budget and people want to know how we afford it.

We have actually talked about this subject in an earlier post in our advice/long term travel section called How to Live your Life to Travel the World but we thought that we would give you some other references as well.

Other Sites to Check Out

Travel Writers exchange has an excellent post written by Shannon O’Donnell called Learn How to Plan A Round the World Trip.  Shannon also has an excellent post at her site ALittleAdrift where she shares her budget in What I paid for my Round the World Trip.  Both of these posts are filled with very useful information.

If you are looking for a very comprehensive guide on how to travel the world and what you need to do in your life to make it happen, nobody goes into depth as much as Anil Polat of foXnoMad.  His book Overcoming The 7 Major Obstacles to Traveling the World is an excellent guide on how you too can travel the world.

What it’s About

He discussed the obstacles that people face and easy solutions to overcoming them.

World travel doesn’t have to be budget breaking.  There are many ways to save money on the road and at home.  The 7 Major Obstacles talks about easy lifestyle changes that you can do to be able to get out there and explore this great world.

In our opinion, this book is also godd solid advice for anyone looking for ways to reduce clutter, debt and stress.  You don’t necessarily have to become a world traveler, but even if you are looking for more freedom and a chance to break free from a negative cycle in your life, this book will inspire and show you how to get started.

People come up with excuses time and time again as to why they can’t live a better life.  Fear holds many people back from letting themselves enjoy a rich and beautiful life.

Many people are so afraid to take a chance to follow their dreams that they forget to live.

As travelers, we view life as living, not the amount of things that you have in your possession.  If you are feeling the same way, you just may want to check out the links that we have listed above.

Disclosure: We enjoyed Anil’s book so much that not only contributed we signed up as an affiliate.  The links to the ebook above, do make us some money, but like everything here at theplanetd, we would never recommend something if we didn’t believe it it’s value.)

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Write Right Online, New Book by Andy Hayes

Write Right Online

Last week I had the opportunity to read Andy Hayes new ebook “Write Right Online.“  It has some very useful information that I found invaluable.

I have been writing online for a couple of years now.  During my first year of writing I had never even thought about writing for the Internet and how to attract people to my blog.

These past few months I have been working very hard at key words and SEO (search engine optimization) but I have to admit, I still haven’t been writing properly for online marketing.

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What It Can Do For You

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“Write Right Online” teaches you in an easy to follow format how to catch your reader’s attention, how to tweak your article to make it stand out and how to target your audience.

Andy teaches you formatting tips, how to grab people’s attention with a great headline and how to avoid common mistakes that online writers make.

“He discusses many points that I had not thought about and I have already started implementing his advice into my latest posts.”




What I Like

What I love about this book is how Andy gets straight to the point. It is direct and talks about all of the things that you need to do to tweak your content to stand out and gain visitors.

Many of us spend hours working online, but “Write Right Online” teaches you how to work smarter, gain readers and make it to the top of your niche.

Who It’s For

“Write Right Online” is targeted to people that run a small business and use online marketing as a part of their strategy, but it is also very useful for people running a travel Blog or any online site for that matter.

It comes with a check list that you can print out and keep nearby for regular reference and Andy also offers an option to upgrade your purchase for two hours of one on one coaching.


When writing my next article, I am going to have this list handy to make sure that I am writing optimally for the web.

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(Disclosure: I loved Andy’s book so much that I signed up as an affiliate. The links above, do make us some money, but like everything here at theplanetd, we would never recommend something if we didn’t believe it it’s value.)

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