I remember the time when I got stranded in Singapore and my flight with Jetstar got delayed because of the weather. Of course the airplane wouldn't risk flying in such bad weather. Unfortunately they didn't inform us about the delay properly. At first they only said it would be a 2 hour delay. I was waiting at the airport with my good friend, Nevertity. Then they said it would be another 6 hours which made us walk around Singapore for a bit and even made it into the Trick Art Museum in Sentosa.

1. Travel insurance

There wasn't any happy ending and it wasn't until the last hour that Jetstar sent a txt message that said our plane will not fly until the following morning. I was so emotionally distressed due to the waiting game. I saw a long queue of angry customers in front of Jetstar's service desk. It was when I was queued up that I saw an older man waving a document in his hand: Travel Insurance paperwork!

I reached into my bag to find the printed copy of my World Nomads Travel Insurance. I bought this travel insurance after some extensive research and it was really recommended by a lot of digital nomads and travel bloggers around the world too. I checked my policy and it says that if my plane got delayed due to severe weather then expenses can be reimbursed by World Nomads. I stayed overnight at my friend's house and the claim that I made was only for a dress I bought from H & M and a couple pairs of underwear ($45 in total).

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2. Itineraries

Travelling is a bit like weddings, there was always something that happened outside of my meticulous planning... (#selfproclaim heheh). When Hubby and I stayed in Singapore for a long weekend, we asked the hotel for a late check-out and they happily complied. The receptionist asked about my flight schedule and I told him confidently that it was 7 PM Singapore time.

The next day we woke up late and spent some time walking around Bugis Junction. We took a taxi to the airport and arrived there before 5 PM. Hubby was checking the the flight board to see which gate we should drop our luggage at and he told me that the only flight to Perth that he could see was at 5:15 PM. I checked the itinerary on my phone and must have misread the time.

My heart sank. Right away. It was the worst feeling of combined disappointment, anger and sadness. I went to the Tiger Air help desk straight away and asked if they could hold the plane... just for us. I even tried to convince them that I could run to the gate within the last 5-10 minutes. I was so teary as well but they still wouldn't allow me.

via GIPHY

That was a lesson learnt to double check the flight time and these days I make it a habit to print out my itineraries. That way I will have my itinerary on hand and Hubby or other people that I travel with can easily access it too. The upside, we only had to pay an extra AUD $70 per person to fly on another date and got to experience two more days in Singapore.

3. Passport

Passport as well as photocopies of the front page and visa page will be really useful during your travel. You also need to remember that your passport expiry date can't be less than 6 months before your travel dates! The easy way is to create a reminder to renew your passport 8 months before the expiry date.

4. Driver Licence

Driver Licence serves as another form of ID which is really easy to carry around. Due to the size it doesn't take up much room in your pocket. Many countries accept your driver licence as a proof of identity and valid travel documents. It can be a handy item to be left as another layer of security if you need to rent an audio guide or to check luggage at the train station or museum.

5. Bank Card / Credit Card

I always travel with two different cards. One is the Bankwest Platinum Credit Card that doesn't charge any fee for any overseas purchase. The other one is the Citibank Plus card with 0% fee to take out money from any overseas ATM. We used both a lot of times during our travel to Japan, Indonesia and South Korea.

My last tip is to scan all of your documents and have it handy in your photo folders on your phone. If you lose one of the documents, you can still procure a printable version out of the scanned docs.

5 Essential Documents to Bring