How to stay safe when travelling the world as a family

To: anybody@needingachange.com

Subject: How to stay safe and recover from a hectic three months on the move

It was definitely a good decision to stay in one spot for an entire month after the craziness of the previous three months in Europe.

We already had a ticket booked from Oslo to Seoul so we looked for the best deals out of the city and came across some $40 return flights to Jeju.

Jeju? It's known as Korea's Hawaii, and like the American state it attracts a lot of mainland visitors, is famous for all kinds of volcanic features and is closer to the equator than the rest of the country.

We booked a place on the beach for a whole month and managed to get a nice discount for doing so.

The buses here are good value so we've been using them to get around.

We explored underground lava tubes, climbed volcanic cones, took long walks along the beaches, visited art galleries and I even walked around an (adults-only) erotic sculpture park.

Not many people here speak English, so I've been relying on a translation app to communicate with locals.

After downloading the Korean dictionary I'm able to use the app offline — our phones have been in airplane mode since we landed in Korea.

Navigating cultural tension

Because of renewed anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea, Junko's family had genuine concerns about us staying there for a whole month.

On Japanese television it's not unusual to see stories from Korea with vision of people throwing things through the front windows of Japanese businesses.

In my experience people are generally kind to each other if they have an opportunity to connect one-on-one, even if their respective countries are involved in some kind of conflict.

But this is not always the case, as we found after chatting with a Korean traveller we met in the common area of our hostel in Mexico. As soon as he heard Junko was Japanese, he arced up, confronting her over the territorial dispute involving the Dokdo/Takeshima islands.

Riding the train from Incheon Airport, there were videos playing which laid out the case for Korea's claim for the islands.

Knowing that an already sensitive subject had been further inflamed, we thought it best to take precautions.

Although we live bilingually, we decided that we'd speak English when out in the streets and tell people we were "a family from Australia" if ever asked — and we were often asked.

One day I started speaking with a guy who had just come out of the Buddhist temple near our accommodation.

He told me he was a public servant, and invited us to lunch. Because Junko was already some way down the road, I asked for a rain check.

The public servant handed me his business card. I flipped it over to the English side and saw that he worked at the local "Anti-Japanese Movement Memorial Hall" — hold that rain check.

Junko, like me, loves chatting with local people whenever we travel, but because we were taking precautions, she felt she couldn't truly enjoy her time on Jeju while she hid her nationality — usually, she's always making origami for kids and writing out names for people in Japanese script.

Insurance, always

A lot of staying safe on the road all comes back to basic common sense.

For instance, we don't flash wads of cash around in public, we ask local people if there are any areas we should avoid, we keep an eye on our bags in cafes and on trains, we keep our passports strapped to our bodies under clothes.

It sounds like a cliche — or a marketing line — but I really live by the motto, "If you can't afford travel insurance, you can't afford to travel."

Years ago, way before we had kids, Junko had to be medevaced from Vanuatu after a dangerous blood infection. Fortunately we had good travel insurance, and everything, including a hotel for me near the hospital, was covered.

Given our experience, there's never a question of whether or not to have insurance. It's more about which is the best type for us. We make sure we choose a policy with unlimited medical cover so we're not left stranded.

Take my card

We've had serious talks with the kids about how important it is to stay together when we're walking through crowded and unfamiliar areas.

Junko and I each take responsibility for one of the kids and we make sure that we communicate this really clearly with each other so there's never any confusion about who's watching which child.

I read a tip once from somebody who had written their phone number on their kids' arms when they visited Disneyland.

We did this a few times, but then I had another idea — I started putting my business card in the kids' shoes, under the inner soles.

I've coached them to show the business card to somebody in the event they get lost.

The cards need to be replaced every month or so due to wear and tear, and thankfully they haven't been used yet.

Speaking of cards, there have been a few times that I've been really worried about using our credit cards — either websites that don't look quite right or dodgy-looking street vendors — so it's been really handy to have a gift card issued by one of the major credit card companies that functions like one of their cards.

We only have a few hundred dollars on that card, so even if it gets used maliciously, we're not going to be too out of pocket.

I try to keep my family updated in regards to our movements — generally this is in the form of a simple Facebook message with details of our basic itinerary over the following week or so.

We're just about to leave Korea and head somewhere more familiar, so I'd better send one of those messages right now.

— David