Why you should take out travel insurance!

When we were at the Central markets in Siem Reap last week, we ran into an Australian couple who were visiting for a week.  They told us a story about a colleague who was travelling with them who had an accident the night before.  They’d been at some function and cos it was raining, this woman slipped over.  When she slipped, she fell and grabbed hold of an oil lantern that had just been stuck into the ground for the event.  But when she grabbed it, she’s accidentally poured the oil from it all over herself and set herself alight with the torch.  She basically caught on fire.  So they had to medi-evacuate her from Siem Reap to Bangkok for emergency treatment and then get her back to Sydney for further treatment at the specialist burns unit at Royal North Shore.  But as we found out, the woman didn’t have travel insurance.  Now don’t get me wrong, I feel terrible about what happened to her, it’s tragic.  But she’s an idiot.  Just the medical evacuation to Bangkok from Siem Reap cost US$100k, let alone the emergency treatment in Bangkok and the additional repatriation to Australia.  And that’s going to have to get paid out of her own pocket.  She could have bought a week’s travel insurance with basic cover for AU$35.  Now she’s going to be in MASSIVE debt to cover her evacuation and medical expenses.  This ladies and gentlemen is precisely the reason you should take out travel insurance.  Let it be a lesson that shit can go wrong when you least expect it.