This is important: your family are going to worry, believe me, and the only way to keep them smiling is to continually remind them what a great time you're having, and what a lousy rat race they're stuck in. There are plenty of ways to do this:
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Telephone
Nothing beats a telephone call home to keep your family happy. Just make sure you check the price: ringing home can be a frighteningly expensive experience, and don't be afraid to shop around in countries where telephones aren't in booths but in offices. In westernised countries you can often get cheap international calls by buying pre-paid calling cards; they'll be available in newsagents and supermarkets.Just don't get involved in the charge card deal. Getting a card that charges your calls back to your family's phone bill might sound like a nifty idea, but it can cost you a fortune. I speak from experience.
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Email
Internet cafés are cropping up just about everywhere, and with a Hotmail account you can send and receive mail from anywhere in the world. If you're a real die-hard email freak (like me) then you can set up a system like the one I used, but for modest communication, internet cafés are good and don't cost too much (though it certainly pays to shop around). -
Snail mail
The old favourite, and the only option if you want to send souvenirs home. It is, however, not as reliable as it could be, and sending valuables is a worrying experience; and if you're a cheapskate like me and only send things by sea mail, it can be three or four months before your mail gets delivered.But receiving mail is bliss when you're out on the lonely road, so unless you're staying with a sugar daddy with a postal address, you're going to have to get involved in poste restante. This cool system enables you to have mail sent to an address like this:
Mark Moxon
Poste Restante
General Post Office
Yogyakarta
Java
Indonesiaand miraculously, your post will arrive, be filed and you can pick it up with suitable ID. On the other hand, your post may not miraculously arrive, and you'll have to leave for your next destination without ever reading that letter from your beloved. Poste restante requires planning, but it's cheaper than FedEx.
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Flying visits
Nothing beats popping home en route to somewhere else for keeping the family in touch. Unfortunately this is an option seldom available to the budget traveller; it is, however, the only sure-fire way of getting rid of the real ale/Marmite/home cooking blues (or, indeed, the good music blues). -
Coming home
The best way to keep in touch, but also potentially the most depressing. Coming home is just one of those things...
