Comparing insurances is no fun, comparing travel insurances is even less fun. You start reading about all the terrible things that could happen to you while you are traveling somewhere where you don’t speak the language, don’t know anybody - and you are all by yourself… Well, I’m still going on my trip around the world, but just making sure to have a good travel insurance. After comparing various travel insurances, including oafa, sos international, World Nomads (lonely planet), and a few others, I think I’m going to go with oafa (oesterreichische Aerzteflugambulanz – Austrian Air Ambulance).
Posts Tagged ‘travel preparation
10
Oct
08
Travel insurance
In order to double check whether I have all the immunizations I need to travel around the world I went to the MA 15 (a service from the city of Vienna) in Vienna today. I found out that I got all vaccinations I need (including Yellow Fever, Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis), but the information I received here in Vienna regarding MALARIA was a little different from the recommendation I received in New York City: The question is whether it’s better to prevent malaria by taking malaria pills for a longer period of time or treat malaria once you get it by taking malaria pills for just a few days.
- At the Travel Health Center in New York City, I was told that PROPHYLAXIS is the way to go; the other option wasn’t even mentioned to me. So the question only was whether I can afford to take the very expensive, but very good Malarone or the cheaper Chloroquine (if I remember this correctly) which unfortunately can have some not so great side-effects
- At the MA 15 in Vienna on the other hand, the doctor suggested that it is not healthy or wise to take malaria pills over a long period of time (longer than 3 months), but it is better to simply take 2 x 12 Malarone pills with me and only take them (4 pills over a period of 3 days) once I am infected (high fever). THERAPY instead of PROPHYLAXIS. By doing this I then would probably develop some kind of partial resistance/immunity to malaria
Well, after thinking about the different suggestions, I think I will go with what seems to be the European approach of taking some good, but expensive Malarone pills with me, but only use them when I have to. Sounds better to me than having to deal with the side effects of the other one.
After spending a few days at the Attersee visiting friends, I am getting more and more used to living in Austria again and the advantages of just having returned to my hometown: catching up with old friends and family, enjoying the good food and that Austria is a beautiful and peaceful country. However, this small town I grew up in is surrounded by mountains (the Austrian Alps). And as lovely as it is, after a few days here, something usually happens that reminds me why I left many years ago: the limitations of this place.
1) Today I went to a travel agency to inquire about a plane ticket around the world. It turned out that not many people inquire about this kind of ticket; on average 1 TO 2 PEOPLE PER YEAR buy such a ticket at this travel agency.
2) When I tell people that I am planning to travel for a few months (possibly a year) by myself around the world, they look at me as if I was … insane, or maybe, JUST DIFFERENT. And here it seems that I am different compared to the rest, whereas in NYC there are so many different people, that it doesn’t matter. But then that’s also the nice thing about being back here: that I matter to my friends and family and that they care and worry. If only some worried a little less 
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