13 is a Lucky Number for the Globetrotting Gourmets

1. Scan and email yourself a copy of your passport.  Then if you loose it, you can easily access details to show your overseas consulate or embassy that you are dinky-di.

2. Double check your passport expires no earlier than 6 months from the date you are entering another country. If not, renew immediately, as you are quite likely to be refused entry.

3. Dress nice for flying.  While free upgrades are rare as hen's teeth these days, when the flight is overbooked they will choose a well dressed customer to sit next to a full-paying businessman at the pointy end, over someone in tracksuit or jeans.

4. Pack cash, travellers cheques and arrange ATM cash outs overseas.  Not just one.  Many countries do not have credit card facilities, or banks that can access an overseas account, so you may be left in the lurch if you rely on just one money source. Ditto if the magnetic stripe on your card is scratched.

5. We buy a local telephone sim card for one of our two mobiles, and use a local number when overseas for extended periods.  The second phone remains with its Australian sim, but diverted to Skype. Ditto, sign up for telephone Global Roaming, but even cheaper, divert your home phone to Skype while overseas. 

6. Arrange your clothes a week in advance, then pare back savagely the day before actual travel.  We typically pack 3 changes — one smart casual, another nice, a third casual, plus what to wear on the plane.  But double that for underwear, especially in the tropics when you are prone to sweat.I  love a light cashmere for flights, and when Asian interiors are over air-conditioned

7. Sign up for loyalty programs.  Some, such as Bangkok Air, automatically give you an extra 10 kg weight allowance.

8. It's worth paying for the upgraded gold or platinum credit card, especially when it avails you to free travel insurance.

9. Not all airlines are the same. Southeast Asian and Gulf full- service carriers are generally the best.  They still recognise the importance of service, while North American carriers (and sadly European ones) are now run by MBA graduates with no appreciation of the industry, nor the travel experience.  They are hired merely to squeeze costs, while Asian and Gulf carriers appreciate branding and label prestige.

10. Don't choose the cheapest flight available.  You get what you pay for!  It's worth upgrading  from a cheap economy class to a more expensive economy class fare basis if there's a possibility you will change return dates.  And with discount carriers, you are likely to be saddled with surcharges that make your final price similar to a full service carrier anyhow.  (In Cambodia once, we were even charged for checking in at the counter instead of pre-check in on line. And discount carriers are notorious for charging for baggage.)

11. Minimise your carry on, to make your travel comfortable.  That being said, buy a wheeled trolley for even easier boarding, such as when you stock up on mags, books and your laptop before long flights. (Or when you want to cache the overweight purchases.)

12. Choose an airline that puts crying babies in the back section of the plane, and not in the front of the fuselage.  Families are notoriously slow to disembark when you need a quick connection.

13. Turn off home spigots and water mains when away — even for short trips.  We returned home from overseas recently greeted by a burst hose to the washing machine.

To book a once in a lifetime trip or to find out more about traveling in delightful company with these two very knowledgable gentlement, please visit their website The Globtrotting Gourmet 

Robert Carmack & Morrison Polkinghorne organize and host culinary tours to Southeast Asia. Robert is author of five cookbooks, a television food stylist, and writes widely about Southeast Asia. He has a long pedigree in the culinary world, having worked for both James Beard in New York and Anne Willan in Paris, and is classically trained with grand diplomas from two French culinary institutions. He now specializes in Asian cookery. Morrison is a textile designer, importer, director of Passementeries in Sydney, and an authority on Asian silks. They divide their time between Australia, Asia and America.