Kuta, Bali, Indonesia
Here is an important bit of travelers’ etiquette that you should become aware of:
When you join a long-term traveler, you need to be ready to pay the tax.
Tiffany’s sister Tami is not the first member of our family to join our adventure. We are actually very blessed in that we have been able to share a different piece of our global wanderings with every member of both our immediate families.
And when they joined us, each one paid the tax. Just like you will very likely be asked to do should you leave your home country to join the adventures of a long-term traveler.
This is especially true if you are signing up as a volunteer crewman.
But don’t worry, it isn’t payable in money.
It’s in volume.
As in baggage space – your baggage space to be specific.
We need you to bring us stuff from home.
While we, along with most long-term travelers, carry pretty much everything we need on our back and have learned by far and large to simply do without, going from the tropics of Tahiti to the snow fields of Australia to the beaches of Bali require the acquisition and disposal of regional-specific essential equipment. Many of those pieces of equipment are either logistically difficult or prohibitively expensive to acquire outside of the United States.
(Snow gear in Australia, for example, was so expensive it was almost cheaper to fly back to the States to outfit for the trip. As in the money we saved buying the same gear in the States vice Australia would almost offset the round trip ticket.)
International shipping can also be brutal.
All of this is especially true of specialty boat gear…assuming they even deliver to your remote island in the middle of nowhere.
So it is considered a huge favor for you to “donate” some of your luggage space to your traveler friend in order to enable them to get some essentials in and send some disposables home.
That being said, we appreciate that our family members were so willing to help us out and we showed our appreciation by providing them with memorable experiences –
So it all balances out in the end.
And thus Tami joins us for Indonesian explorations.
Tiffany’s sister Tami is not the first member of our family to join us on our adventure:
- Tiffany’s mom taught us the hazards of bicycling in Bora Bora,
- Greg’s mom was the impetus of our great adventure to find and conquer Castle Kiwi
- Greg’s Sister Veronica and her husband Daniel hosted us during the London Olympics
- and Tiffany’s brother Chris was with us from the snow of Australia to the Great Barrier reef.
Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures. If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out atwww.CoastGuardCouple.com
