Kathy James

For a lot of people, travel plans are the kind of things we plan for a summer holiday – at least, in any standard and non-pandemic situations. Whether you choose to relocate in the same country or to move abroad to live by your favourite beach, such as Milk beach in Sydney, you will find a lot of satisfaction and life improvement in the process. Ultimately, most people who move abroad get to practice foreign languages as part of their everyday routine. When foreign languages become second nature, you gain new insights into how different communities think, perceive the world, and address their responsibilities towards each other and the planet.

Countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam are some of the best places for getting great value for money. If there are a few of you or a couple of friends, it can be a fun way to travel, and as you don’t stay in many places for more than one night, it means you get to move around a lot. For people that travel, but want their home looked after, and things like pets and plants taken care of, house sitting is something that you could look into. As it won’t be the same home for the whole time, mix it with some other accommodation, and you’ll be able to reduce your costs in quite a big way.

But there are alternatives to flying — ways to get from here to there that might actually save you time and money, for example, catching an Alameda ferry with your vehicle across a body of water. It might be worth tackling some of these flying myths: Gosh, those budget airline prices are good and seem quite alluring for those travelling on a budget! In terms of actual time in the air, but start adding up the hours of how long it takes to travel to and from airports on both sides and you will be surprised. Also staring for long periods of time at luggage conveyor belts, while hoping with all your heart that your luggage also made it.

As a volunteer with Medical Volunteers International, an organisation working across three areas in Greece to help bring medical care to the refugees there, I have first hand experience of the problems faced by refugees. Some walk all day and night for 5 days at a time to cross borders, some walk for 30 days, it depends on which route they take. These people deserve medical treatment to treat their wounds regardless of their country and the legal or illegal activities of crossing borders. I have told stories about injuries caused by crossing borders such as burns from hanging on under buses and blisters from walking for weeks.