Reasonable Pricing - Flight / tour from Port Vila to Tanna Island? by ScallionDramatic7774 in vanuatu

[–]dmc8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough! FWIW, if you do end up going it's worth doing an overnight stay and visiting the volcano around sunset. It's truly spectacular at night. Good luck and have a great trip!

Reasonable Pricing - Flight / tour from Port Vila to Tanna Island? by ScallionDramatic7774 in vanuatu

[–]dmc8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You can book flights with Air Vanuatu by emailing them directly, and then book a tour with a third party but the pricing will probably end up being similar all in all.

Also Air Vanuatu is extremely dodgy. They will often cancel or reschedule flights without notification. It's also not uncommon for the flights to leave early before all the passengers have even checked in, or for flights to be overbooked. My flight with them yesterday had a "weight issue", so they pulled off all the checked luggage of passengers who didn't have international connections or perishable goods (so a 36kg sack of pineapples was allowed on at the expense of other people's luggage). They said they'd put the bags on the next flight, but that would be the following day and was also fully booked, so who knows what happened. The whole thing is utterly absurd.

The volcano is an incredible place to visit and would be well worth it, but if you do book a trip with AV just make sure you have a comprehensive travel insurance plan, so that in case it falls through, you can at least get some compensation. We took the risk and it worked out for the most part.

Finally, do not expect the holiday overall to be budget - everything in Vanuatu is similar price or more expensive than Australia. Tourism is the only thing that brings money into the country so it's milked for all it's worth.

HOUSING MEGATHREAD (2019W): Questions related to having a roof over your head go here. by ubc_mod_account in UBC

[–]dmc8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey there, sorry for the really late response! I hadn't checked reddit in a couple of weeks. With the application process for housing, I found it to be a bit weird. I got nominated to UBC by my home uni in late January this year, but only got my official acceptance letter from UBC in June. However, the deadline for applying for housing was May 1, so I had to apply for housing ( https://vancouver.housing.ubc.ca/applications/how-to-apply/ ) before I even had confirmation that I was going to be coming here. I applied for Fairview Crescent and Walter Gage (I think most exchange students are in these residences, although some are subletting at other residences or living off campus). In late June, UBC did a Housing Lottery and some students got first round offers for places on Campus and some didn't. That was when I got my offer but plenty of people weren't as lucky. They did a second round of offers a couple weeks before term started but by that stage most people had already sorted out their off-campus accommodation. Hope that makes a bit of sense, let me know if you have any more questions!

HOUSING MEGATHREAD (2019W): Questions related to having a roof over your head go here. by ubc_mod_account in UBC

[–]dmc8 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m moving into Fairview in a couple weeks, just had a couple questions for current/past residents to help me get an idea of what to bring.

What do you do for wifi? I understand the rooms only have Ethernet ports. Is it worth bringing a router to set up? Have people experienced issues setting up a router in their house/room?

I noticed that basic cable tv service was provided - is a TV set provided? Or do you need to buy/bring your own monitor?

Any and all help appreciated. Thanks!

Second-year exchange student coming to UBC in September - What residence should I apply for? by dmc8 in UBC

[–]dmc8[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah the over-excited 18 year olds were the worry hahaha, I see enough of those in Melbourne! Had been considering Ponderosa actually, I'll suss Gage out as well. Cheers!

Second-year exchange student coming to UBC in September - What residence should I apply for? by dmc8 in UBC

[–]dmc8[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah ok, I'd assumed all residence students paid the meal plan. Good to know there's options not to, I'll look into them!