Documents
Everywhere you go in the world, you are going to need all or some of the following: vaccination records, passport, business contacts, itinerary, and plane tickets. Without these documents, you won’t be going very far. Aside from the hard copies of this information, that you should be caring with you. Set up two email or cloud accounts with different companies such as Google Drive and Hotmail One Drive. I say two, because certain governments will monitor your email as a condition for entering their country. As a result, some companies have refused this intrusion so you cannot access your accounts in those countries.
If you need to travel to North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba, Ethiopia, Venezuela, or some other country that stymies free speech and internet privacy by blocking access to particular websites, you can get around their blocks on your computer or cell phone by downloading circumventing programs called virtual private networks (VPN).
Companies like Google and Hotmail don’t allow those governments to access your personal information, so the governments have banned access to their servers as a form of censorship, so I had to use my Yahoo account to communicate with my world in some of these countries. You can also download VPN software such as Psiphon for your smartphone, tablet, or computer. That VPN software allows you to circumvent this type of security and check your email or other internet sites that might be blocked. Just in case, it is a good idea to have two accounts since sometimes company servers can be down for periods of time, and you don't have to risk not being able to check your email or access important travel documents.
Make digital copies by either taking clear photos or scanning vaccination records, passports, business contacts, phonebook contacts, plane tickets, and all other pertinent documents, and store them in your two email or cloud accounts. Think if you get robbed or lose your luggage, how will you get out of or across countries without your documents? This method will allow you to print up copies that are often accepted in most travel outlets and government bodies. It will also give you a good story to tell in the long run.
While in South Africa, my car was broken into three separate times, and all my documents were stolen. Fortunately, I had my documents backed up, so I was able to use my digital copies to complete my trip.
Some countries are really strict about you having your vaccination records and will not allow you into the country if you don't bring the records with you. This allows them to protect themselves and you from public health problems pertinent to that area. In tropical latitudes, such as South America and Africa, or other places where yellow fever is a problem, they will not allow you in if you don't have proof of yellow fever vaccinations for fear that you will add to the ongoing problem or spread the disease to other places, making it harder to contain.
As for your passport, many places will accept printouts if you explain the circumstances. Otherwise, you can go to your embassy with your copies and buy a new passport. A list of medications and copies of prescriptions for medications you are taking are helpful in case you need a refill while on the road.
E-tickets save money and help you lower the importance of your cargo. in case you get robbed or you lose your luggage, you have your travel info stored in your online email accounts. As for phone contacts, I recommend keeping both a file and a copy-and-paste of your contacts in your email accounts and/or in a cloud account. Sometimes, if you have to use a foreign computer, it may not allow you to open files. If you don't want copies of your documents saved on shared computers, copying and pasting your info into an email allows you to view your info as you normally would.
Time after time, while on vacation, when you least expect it, someone will call you for something important and their contact info will be on a card or on your home computer locked away. You then have to scramble to remember where it is and ask someone at home—if you even have someone to do this for you at home—to look around and find the info you so badly need. This can be a real stressor, so put all your contacts in online files that you can access anywhere.
USB sticks can also be used as long as you have them password protected so other people can’t access your info if you lose them. Using a cloud account is your best option as you do not have to carry anything extra with you; however, it does require you to have an internet connection which you won’t always have in developing countries. In this scenario, a USB stick would be another way to cover yourself.
Passport
Make sure you have at least six months left before your passport expires, or immigration agents in most countries won't accept it. You also have to have some empty pages. It’s best to order a business passport when you get your passport or renew it. Business passports have more pages for stamps.
While on a trip to South Africa, I had a one-day layover in Frankfurt, Germany. After a day of sightseeing, I tried to board the plane to continue on my journey. However, the staff wouldn't allow me to board the plane because, according to them, I had several pages in my passport that only had one stamp and none that were completely empty. The South African immigration wouldn't allow me to enter without having a clean page in my passport. I proceeded to the restroom where I used nail polish remover that I had purchased at the airport to remove some of the stamps.
When I went back to try to board, the staff were onto me and didn't allow me to board. I had to spend an extra night in Frankfurt so I could go to the U.S. Consulate General in the morning and pay to have them staple and glue extra pages to my passport for a fee of $50. This allowed me to continue on my trip, and after some haggling with the staff, they excused the extra fees resulting from my missing my original flight.
Bills and Financial Information
Just imagine you go on a trip, something changes in your life, and you all of a sudden have a lot of time to burn. You now have three months instead of three weeks to travel. My boss once did me the favor of notifying me the day before I was scheduled to return to work, after being off for three weeks, that the state had never mailed them proof that my license had been renewed. Apparently, the check I mailed to the state was cashed, but something happened, and my license was not renewed. Therefore, the process would now take three months to complete.
Meanwhile, I would be disallowed from returning to work (unpaid of course) until I received my new license. Well, I wasn't going to let a travel opportunity like this pass me by. But wait, I had all this mail at home, and I needed to go through it all and pay my bills; otherwise, my credit would be ruined and my finances would be put into disarray.
As a result, I would recommend that you enroll all of your bills in auto-pay and make all of your accounts paperless so you can access your information from anywhere in the world. Same with your paychecks, retirement payments, or pensions. Have them all pay directly into your bank accounts and store the passwords in your two email or cloud accounts. Don't allow bills and mail to dictate your travel schedule.
For those that do come unexpectedly, have a friend collect your mail, review, and send you a picture of the contents every couple of weeks. Or you can get a P.O. Box and sign up for USPS Informed Delivery service. Your mail is scanned, and you receive an email summarizing the mail you received. There are also several mail scanning services available such as www.travelingmailbox.com. They will open your mail and scan it with your permission, forward it, hold it, and some will also respond for you as well.
Before every trip, make sure you contact your credit card companies and let them know you’re on vacation and for how long so they don't block your cards. This has happened to me, and oftentimes the banks won't reinstate your cards until you call them from your home phone. Essentially, your card will be useless until you get back home from your trip. It’s also best to leave the cash advance option on travel credit cards to zero in case you get robbed.
My brother Bobby had an economist friend who traveled to Mexico City for an economics conference. One night he walked out of his luxury hotel to the sidewalk to grab a taxi and a VW van pulled up close to him as if they were dropping someone off. Instead, one guy pulled a fabric bag over his head while two other guys grabbed him and pulled him into the van and they drove off. He said they scared him into going to an ATM and pulling the maximum amount allowed to be withdrawn from each credit card. After they got all of the money they could out of him, they took his clothes and left him naked at the side of the road. The same incident happened to a chiropractor friend of mine who was traveling with his partner to Mexico City. Except they made my friend’s family in Los Angeles wire ten thousand dollars to a bank account in order to release them from the house they were being held.
One year during the holidays, I was in Italy and my cards were all blocked just as I ran out of hard cash. The banks wouldn't bail me out, and the ones that might have were closed for the holidays. I had to hustle and use what little I had as collateral to get cash from a girl I met at my youth hostel. Fortunately, she had a crush on me and was willing to trust me. If you lose your wallet and have no money, head to your local embassy or consulate. They will provide you with temporary travel documents so you can have money wired to you.
I talk more in-depth of travel issues in my Amazon Book. Check it out here.