We (Nora Dunn & Kelly Bedford) were never the sort of
people who do things in small measures.
We don’t just bungee jump; Kelly is an instructor and I have
jumped all around the world (including the world’s highest bungee jump in South
Africa – three times).
Kelly doesn’t just have a history fighting forest fires; he
abseiled out of helicopters to fight them.
I don’t just skydive; I have over 300 jumps. I don’t just
ride a motorcycle; I take it on the track.
And together we don’t just travel; we sell everything to
travel the world long-term, sustainably, and in style.
And so it happened that on the cusp of becoming World Nomads
Ambassadors, we somehow felt the need to embrace the true meaning of being
Ambassadors. What better way to shout the word of World Nomads from the top of
every building, whisper it through every tunnel, and generally spread the World
Nomads message, than to have the privilege of seeing what World Nomads can
really do?
So we did.
Kelly got Dengue Fever, and we were in the hospital for a
week in Thailand
on our way to Australia.
Like I said, we don’t do things in small measures.
But luckily, as World Nomads travel insurance customers, we
were not lost when we found our trip being tragically interrupted by this
“experiment in ambassadorship”. Phone calls were made to the right people, and
when Kelly recovered, the hospital the bill was paid in full on our behalf.
We had to cancel many pre-arranged travel plans and scramble
to Singapore in
time to catch our flight to Australia,
which we barely managed to do. With the guidance of the friendly folks at World
Nomads (and their Canadian counterpart World Access), we will be submitting
these out-of-pocket expenses along with some initial medical expenditures that
weren’t part of the hospital bill for reimbursement. Normally we would have our
fingers crossed and anticipate the worst (it’s an insurance company after all,
right?), but we are confident that we will be reimbursed as quickly and easily
as our hospital bill was paid.
So as we embark on a six-week Australian adventure in the
World Nomads Ambassador van, we know full well what being a World Nomads
Ambassador means. We just hope that from here on in we can keep the
Ambassador-ship to a more innocuous level of adventure, discovery, fun, and
overall well-being.
We welcome you to our adventure! Stay tuned….we are
currently pouring over the maps and figuring out exactly where to go next. (And
no, it’s not going to be to a hospital).
