Tripping up a trip…Staying calm and cool…

Posted by worldwide-admin on June 4, 2016 with 0 Comment

An elaborate Hindu temple at the beach.

“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”

Yesterday’s walk on the beach.

A year ago while living in Trinity Beach, Australia we booked a Viking Mekong River Cruise for July 8th upcoming in a little over one month. Over these past years with 13 cruises behind us and with 10 more pending, we’ve had tremendous success and satisfaction with Vacations to Go.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go through our regular cruise rep when river cruises are handled by another department. The river rep we received didn’t seem as knowledgeable as our regular cruise rep, but we didn’t complain and forged ahead.

Tourists walk along the beach area to shop at the many reasonably priced shops.

Cruise documents from Viking are not sent by email whereby other cruise lines readily make all necessary documents available online. As we’ve mentioned in the past, we haven’t been bringing paper documents to check in on cruises for the past few years when we discovered that only our passports and the reservation number are required to check-in at the port.

When we discovered the river cruise rep has been out on medical leave off and on over these past few months, with nothing specific required until now, we hadn’t requested another rep. Now, only one month from the sail date, a new rep has taken over handling our booking.

Motorbikes line every road and highway, mostly owned by locals with some rented by tourists.

We’d asked many times via email and phone that the cruise documents NOT be snail-mailed to us to our mailing service in Nevada, USA. Alas, based on a Skype call we received from VTC during the night, the documents have been mailed to us in Nevada. What will we do with them? Pay to have them shipped overnight internationally for huge fees? That makes no sense.

Actually, the only reason we wanted the documents sent to us via email was for the confirmation for one flight included in the cruise fare. We’ll need proof of an airline ticket for the Vietnam flight when we apply for the visa in Singapore when we arrive in 24 days. Most immigration offices require proof that the visitor has a prepaid “way out of their country.”

These little umbrellas are often used in decorating worship areas. Here, they are, outside a little restaurant at the beach.

Today, with a new contact person at VTC, we hope we’re on track to receive a document we can use when applying for the Vietnam visa. Once we have this, we’ll rest easy. In the worst case, we can have the mailing service scan and email copies of the itinerary but there again, we’ll have to pay for the scans as required by the mailing service.

Yesterday, we completed the documents for the three visas for which we’ll apply in Singapore. Today, we’ll apply online for Cambodia which doesn’t require that we mail in our passports.

Hamburger night! Tom had homemade burgers with cheese, fries, veggies, coleslaw while I had everything minus the fries. We’ve noticed he coughs from acid reflux at night after eating fries. No fries? No cough. Humm…what does that tell him?

This may all seem very confusing and we apologize to our readers for the redundancy and perhaps unclear representation. If you find yourself in such a pickle, please feel free to email us with questions. We’ll do our best to answer them clearly based on our experience and/or point you in the right direction for assistance.

Dolphin statue at the beach.

A dear friend wrote to me a few days ago saying, “most people would give up with all of the challenges you often face n continuing to travel the world.” That may be true for some. But, for us and perhaps others, it’s better than mowing the lawn, raking leaves, or shoveling the snow in the winter.

The beach in Lovina.

Our attention, our interest, and our enthusiasm remain constant as long as we have each other, good health, and the love and support of those who follow us along the way. Thanks to all of you for that!

Photo from one year ago today, June 4, 2015:
“The International Date Line (IDL) explained:
The International Date Line (IDL) is an imaginary line of longitude on the Earth’s surface located at about 180 degrees east (or west) of the Greenwich Meridian.

Planning for the future…Back to work…

Posted by worldwide-admin on June 1, 2016 with 0 Comment

Houses along the river in the village of Malaya.

“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”

Low tide at the beach on a cloudy day.

Today, we need to get “back to work.” Enough of this lazy lifestyle we’ve had this past month in Bali. With all of our record keeping and expenses logged and up to date, including the cost of last night’s dinner, it’s now time to look toward the future.

With the necessity of getting three visas while in Singapore for Vietnam, Thailand and Bali’s second visit in September, we have some paperwork to prepare before we arrive. After all, our one week in Singapore begins in 27 days. We’d better get moving.

A small shop next door to the ATM we use in the nearest village.

Each of these country’s visa applications requires proof of airline or cruise tickets showing our departure dates. These countries want to ensure we high tail out as planned. No lingering illegals allowed.

Luckily, there’s an old printer here (soon running out of ink) that I’ve been able to use with my laptop. I can’t recall the last time we needed to print something other than the documents for last week’s visa extension, now completed.

Watermelon growing in a field, covered to protect it from the heat of the sun.

Travelers often perceive they need paper copies of tickets, boarding passes and cruise documents. We no longer keep any of these in our possession, instead keeping copies on my phone of online documents we’ve either scanned or photographed.

Ensuring the photos include clear and easy-to-read reservation numbers, we’ve never had a problem with this. On a few isolated occasions we’ve been asked for paper copies to which we shrug explaining we haven’t had access to a printer which in most cases, we haven’t. This is only the second vacation property where we’ve had access to a printer.

Muddy river we crossed in Malaya.

Isn’t printing becoming somewhat obsolete these days? Isn’t it mostly lawyers who continue to shuffle around hundreds of pages of documents in front of their clients? Oh, yes, and government agencies throughout the world always require paper as we’ve experienced thus far, many still using obsolete operating systems.

This is the reason we’ll need to bring printed papers with us to Singapore when we visit three embassies during our short stay. For each location for which we require a visa, we have an email with a list of the required documents. Ugh, this reminds me of my old working life, always bogged down with paperwork. We’ll be happy when we’re done.

As old as much of the architecture is in Bali, it maintains a style befitting its rich Hindu history.

Also, we need to begin looking for an RV to rent for next summer’s (2017) visit to the US. We’re hoping to pin down a suitable vehicle in Seattle, driving it across the northern part of the US to Minnesota.

Having an RV prevents us from imposing on family members during the extended visit to Minnesota. Our kid’s bedrooms are full in their homes and with all of our luggage it would be a huge inconvenience to stay with others for six weeks.

Tiny bananas for sale at a local farmers market.

Nor would we want to impose upon any of Tom’s siblings or our friends who may have available space. Six weeks is a long time. My way of eating, in itself, would be a gross inconvenience for which we’d never expect anyone to prepare.

Nor would I want to be shopping and cooking meals trying to figure out how to cook for everyone since as a house guest, I wouldn’t feel right cooking only for ourselves. (I’m an awful house guest, feeling as if I need to “earn my keep” by cooking and cleaning. As a result, its more work for me to be a house guest than one can imagine, all by my own design, of course).

We spotted these sardines in the early morning for sale at the local farmers market that most likely had been caught that morning. They weren’t on ice and could spoil quickly in the heat.

We’ll be eating lots of gluten-free cooked chickens from Costco, preparing basic meals in the RV and dining out a few times a week. We’d considered a vacation home or hotel in the metro area but prices were beyond the cost of an RV. With a small RV we’ll be mobile, can see everyone, go camping with the family and park wherever we can find a suitable spot.

We plan to keep the RV during the six weeks in Minnesota, dropping it off before flying to Nevada for the last two weeks of our US visit before heading to Costa Rica and then…back to our world journey.

Minnows for sale at the farmers market.

Yesterday afternoon and last night it rained for hours. Surprisingly, the flies aren’t as prevalent today as they’ve been after other periods of rain. I’m trying not to use the repellent as often as during this past month which doesn’t seem to keep the flies off of me anyway.

We’re feeling well, feeling grateful and ready to get to work. We hope you’re feeling well and grateful, too!

Photo from one year ago today, June 1, 2015:

This is the interior of a lifeboat which tendered us to the pier in Moorea, one year ago today. For more photos and details, please click here.

Part 3…Visas…Not a good day for Tom!…Visited Proyek Penyu Turtle Hatchery!…Check back tomorrow for my embarrassing cultural experience!

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 26, 2016 with 0 Comment

For more information and details on the Proyek Penyu Turtle Hatchery, please click here. The cost to visit the site was a donation of IDR $50,000, US $3.68 for both of us.

Stats were a little outdated, but the efforts of the staff appeared dedicated to the project from what we could observe.

“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”
It wasn’t Tom’s favorite day. As a matter of fact, it was his third less than a stellar day since we arrived in Bali almost one month ago. The first was the four-hour harrowing drive from the airport in Denpasar to the villa, with the remaining two to Lovina this week (four-hour round trips ) for our visa extensions.

We arrived at the Reef Seen Resort, the location for the Proyek Penyu Turtle Hatchery in Pemuteran Village, Gerokgak, Singaraja, North Bali.

As an aggressive driver, albeit a good driver, not being at the wheel for long road trips leaves him with a degree of angst only he and others like him can understand. Surely, many of our readers can relate to this.

This is the sandbox where the recovered turtle eggs are placed while they mature. There were 126 eggs maturing in this enclosed area. Once hatched, they’ll be moved to the pools and later released to the sea. Turtle meat is a delicacy in Bali. Fishermen are paid to bring the eggs and baby turtles to the hatchery, more than they’d be paid as “food.” This hatchery isn’t as natural an environment as we’d like to have seen, the intentions are good and the concept suitable for saving the lives and further preservation of many sea turtles.

With him in the back seat, upon his insistence, allowing me to take photos from the front, I can feel his discomfort especially when the cautious drivers we’ve had drive too slowly or someone darts in front of us, a common occurrence here in Bali. He doesn’t need to say much when the faintest of sounds escape his lips, perhaps only audible to me.

Looking closely at the sand, there was no indication or sign that turtle eggs are incubated here. Often, dogs, other predators, and humans dig up the eggs on the beaches for food. This is a good alternative for the turtle’s eventual survival. The optimum temperature as would be in a natural environment is between 30 and 32 degrees. If the temperature is predominantly 30 degrees, it’s like the eggs would all be male. At 32 degrees they’d be female.

Oddly, his angst doesn’t make me anxious although I do feel bad that he can’t relax and enjoy the drive, regardless of where we’re going. Of course, the purpose of yesterday’s second trip to Lovina in three days only added to his discomfort of visiting the immigration office for trip two in the three, five-day process.

There were over 100 baby turtles maturing for future release attracting tourists to the venue.

No doubt, it’s not a pleasant concept…spending an entire week, out of eight weeks, messing with this process. Then again, as we sat there with others who’d also chosen to abide by the country’s immigration laws, we both wondered why such a process isn’t observed and respected (by many) throughout the world, let alone in our own USA. Following the “law of the land” isn’t all that difficult.

Baby turtles that had hatched in the hatchery, not quite old enough for release. We’d hope to release a few but they weren’t quite ready.

For tomorrow’s third and final trip, we’re waiting to hear from Gede that a driver will go to Lovina to pick up the final documents with a letter from us in hand authorizing him to do so. The immigration officer explained this is acceptable for this third trip only.

There were three mature turtles on display (not the parents of the baby turtles) which we’d preferred were instead out to sea but were used as mascots to inspire donations for the baby turtle release program.

Luckily, we were photographed, fingerprinted, and out the door within about an hour before lunchtime began, after paying the required IDR 710,000, US $52.14 in fees for the two visas.

The other two confined turtles used as mascots to promote the hatchery.

We’d planned to visit two points of interest on the return drive but I was willing to forgo that idea if Tom would have preferred we immediately begin the drive back to the villa (considering another two hours on the road). He insisted we continue with our original plans to visit the Monkey Temple (shown in tomorrow’s post) and the Proyek Penyu Turtle Hatchery, both on the return drive to the villa.

The hatchery is located on the beautiful grounds of the Reef Seen resort, known for its scuba diving and snorkeling.

It was an hour’s drive from Lovina to both venues within minutes of each other. Over the next several days, we’ll continue to post the many photos we’ve taken this week, still leaving us with dozens more we’ve yet to share. There’s certainly been no shortage of photo ops in Bali.

Religious statues on display at the resort.

Today, we’re blissfully staying put. The weather isn’t as humid as usual, the sky is clear and the crystal clear pool awaits us. We have a bit of “work” to accomplish for future planning that we’ll tackle in the afternoon while sitting in the cabana after our exercise and fun in the pool.

There’s a variety of flowers blooming at the Reef Seen Resort.

We started our day as usual in the chaise lounges at 6:45 am savoring Tom’s perfectly brewed French press coffee, watching the activity on the beach and the sea including dogs howling and playing, passing boats and barges and who knows what else may come our way today?

The road we drove to the Reef Seen Turtle Hatchery,

Tomorrow, I’m sharing an embarrassing culturally motivated event that occurred to me yesterday, one I hesitate to mention but, let’s face it, life’s not always a “walk in the park.” Sharing such experiences are all a part of the reality of traveling the world which isn’t always pleasant.

May your day be pleasant wherever you may be in the world!

Photo from one year ago today, May 26, 2015:

One year ago today, we boarded Royal Caribbean Legend of the Seas in Honolulu on its way to Sydney, Australia with 1400 Australians on board for one of the most fun cruises we’d experienced. Here’s our balcony cabin before we messed it up with our stuff! For more photos, please click here.

Part 2…A cultural day…A mixed bag of pleasure and red tape..

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 25, 2016 with 0 Comment

While shopping at the Carrefour market, I couldn’t resist stopping to admire these colorful Dragon Fruit.

“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”

In yesterday’s post, we shared a photo of two buffalos wandering by during dinner and here are four buffalos on a hike from the river.

Upon returning to the immigration office for the second time in one day, again we took a number and waited our turn. We’d arrived about five minutes prior to the end of lunchtime at 1:00 pm hoping to have a short wait.

Alas, “island time” prevails as the various officers mulled around behind the service desk until they close to 1:30 pm, although the posted sign clearly stated they’d be open for business at 1:00 pm. Again, we waited patiently with nary a comment about the time. The next number up was 025. Our number was 027. Certainly, we wouldn’t have to wait too long.

A room was offered for rent at this property for IDR $150,000, US $10.97!

At 2 pm we were called to the desk. With our copies, passports, and documents in hand, we were fully prepared. Fifteen minutes later we were out the door with a receipt for our passports. We won’t get them back until Trip 3 on Friday.

And again this morning, we’re heading back to Lovina for Trip 2 (two hours each way) for fingerprinting and photos. We’re not looking forward to the four or more hours on the same road.

If time allows, we’ll stop for a few photos after we’re done at the immigration office. Again, we’ll wear long pants as required to enter government buildings bringing shorts along for any sightseeing stops we may make on the return drive.

As we drove past this decorative wall, I asked Gede to stop for a close-up photo as shown below.

On Monday, after the second visit to the immigration office, we stopped at the largest supermarket in Lovina. For the first time since our arrival in Bali, we found a few grocery items we hadn’t been able to locate during other outings. These included a ball of gouda cheese, cheddar cheese, and two little bottles of baking soda.

We’d hoped to find baking soda, an important ingredient in making homemade toothpaste since last night we’d run out of the organic nonfluoride toothpaste we’d purchased at the health food store in NZ.

So beautiful.

We’d already used the entire batch we’d made while in NZ. When we ran out of baking soda shortly before we left we purchased the organic toothpaste as a backup from the store. Unless kept cold, the toothpaste is runny and could make quite a mess in our luggage thus, it doesn’t travel well.

We’d never seen a flowers-only farmer’s market. Flowers are commonly used as offerings to the Hindu temples and at many of the resorts and villas.

Yesterday afternoon, I made the new batch of toothpaste, enough to last during our remaining weeks in Bali. Here’s the link with ingredients, photos, and instructions for making the toothpaste if you’re so inclined.

Simply lovely. I could smell them from across the street where I stood taking these few photos.

On Monday, we didn’t return to the villa until 5 pm. Gede stopped at a few worthwhile points of interest which greatly attributed to the 100 photos we took that day. Also, he asked if we could stop so he could eat his lunch.

Goofy us! We may not eat breakfast or lunch but most people do. We encouraged him to stop anywhere he’d like for as long as he’d like. As it turned out, he stopped at the beach where we were able to get out, walk and take photos, one of the highlights of the day.

When we entered the villa, two Ketuts were busy in the kitchen preparing dinner. By 5:45 we were seated at the big table for eight, facing the sea, both of us starving after the busy day with lots of walking and riding in the car.

We stopped at the curb on the outskirts of the village so I could take a photo of the flower market. Instantly, we were approached by a “traffic cop” asking for money for parking and two others asking for money, unrelated to the traffic.

Today, providing we’re done with time to spare before “rush hour” in Lovina we’ll make several stops hoping to see a few sights that Gede had suggested and particularly appeal to us.

We crossed a modern bridge in Lovina. Many bridges and overpasses are marked by Hindu statues although this newer bridge was not.

Again, our goal is to return to the villa around 5:00 pm so the “girls” (as they’re so-called by other staff) can get home to their families at a reasonable time. Most tourists dine at 6:00 pm but we’ve chosen to dine at 5:00 pm to allow them to be done with the cooking and cleanup and out the door by 6:00.

Tomorrow, we’ll be back with the update on today’s Trip 2 journey to immigration in Lovina, and we’ll see how plans for Trip 3 rollout for Friday.

We hope our US friends/readers have safe and meaningful plans for the upcoming long Memorial Day weekend. And also, safety and well-being for all of our friends/readers worldwide.

Photo from one year ago today, May 24, 2015:

When we were back in Honolulu, we took the Ala Moana bus to the mall to purchase a pair of white jeans for me. Before dark, we arrived at our favorite restaurant in Honolulu, Cheeseburger in Paradise, for another great meal; burger, fries, and onion rings for Tom and fabulous Cobb Salad for me. For more details from that enjoyable day before we sailed on the cruise to Australia, please click here.

Not a perfect day in Paradise…”Keeping it real”…

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 12, 2016 with 0 Comment

This bird appears to be a Blue Kingfisher. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

“Sightings on the Beach in Bali”

Yesterday, Tom took this distant photo when he spotted this peculiar boat which appears “sunken” in the middle. We had no idea what type of boat this is. Any comments from our Indonesian (or other) readers who may know?

As previously mentioned in other posts, most tourists traveling to Bali (and other countries we visit) are staying in a resort or hotel of some sort, not a private single family home. The conditions for comfort are very different.

Also, they may ony stay only one or two weeks and challengingconditions may not present themselves during the shorter period. Today, is aday, where weather and other conditions are challenging, to say the least.

The heat and humidity is as high as we ever experienced in Africa on the worst of days. On these hot and humid days and nights, especially after its rained there are lots of flies.

It’s too hot to shoot the wall of glass doors, but, with the many flies already in the house, even that would do little good. The only safe respite is in the master bedroom where we keep the door shut constantly, where’s there’s AC if we finally decide to hide away for an hour or two.

At the moment, I am sitting outdoors, unable to get online due to the poor signal and there are dozens of flies hovering around me. I am covered with 30% DEET, the only possible product I can use to keep me from getting many fly bites.

And yet they still find a way to attack any unreached spot on my back or behind my legs. None of the “natural” repellents (I’ve tried many) actually repel flies or mosquitoes from biting me. om, on the other hand, seldom gets bit.

With mountains in Java obstructing the final setting of the sun, we relish every sunset photo we see.

Since we couldn’t get online as I wrote this, I’m using “Live Writer,” a MS app that enables me to write and then, once able to attain a signal, I can upload it to the Internet. Thank goodness for this option. Otherwise, I could spend the entire day trying to get a decent signal. We’ll have only a few photos today due to the poor signal.

When the sun comes out, we’ll have a reprieve from the flies. They seem less bothersome on sunny days. We imagine the number of flies is certainly due to the rain we’ve experienced over these past several days.

We continue to spend time figuring out the visa situation for July’s upcoming cruise. It appears we can get a visa for Cambodia online. But, on Viking’s Mekong River cruise documents, it states we cannot get and use an
e-visa for this particular cruise. We must use a service to apply which requires snail mailing our passports which we will not do.

In the past 24 hours we’d been attempting to reach Viking but with the huge time difference and poor signal it had been difficult.There’s a 15-hour time difference. Finally, this morning, we got through on Skype before they closed for the day.

Explaining our situation they agreed we could apply for the Cambodia visa online. Only a few online services offer this option, one we’ve used in the past, VisaHQ.com which is located in Washington, DC and is safe to use.

I asked Viking to send us an email confirming they’ll accept the e-visa for Cambodia so we won’t experience any issues when we present the e-visa at the time of boarding in Hanoi. We’ve since received this confirmation email
Which, if necessary, we’ll present at boarding.

There are many visa companies out there in cyberspace that are scams. One could easily be giving their personal passport information to a scamming visa app company. Please beware in doing so and feel free to contact us for names of valid companies we’ve used.

The reflection on the sea is particularly appealing.

Today, we’ll apply for the Cambodia visa and once we arrive in Singapore we’ll only have to apply for the visa for Vietnam (not available as an e-visa), a plan we can easily accommodate. If we’d had to apply in person for
both visas while in Singapore it could have taken a significant amount of time during the one week stay. Most likely, in this case we won’t lose more than a single day.

Enough about flies and visas. We share these details not only to express that at times, traveling the world is not as easy as it may seem but also for those who may consider this lifestyle, to use a little of which we’ve learned in the process.

It’s easy to become stressed on hot, humid, fly infested days such as today when there are tasks we need to accomplish in the background that add to the frustration. Surprisingly, both of us remain calm and determined to figure out solutions.

Now, as the sun begins to peek out at almost noon, I’ve begun to feel confident that we may have comfortable day after all.

May your day be comfortable and relatively easy.

Photo from one year ago today, May 12, 2015:

Locomotive and coach formerly used for tours at the Kilauea Sugar Plantation, now closed for many years. For more sugar plantation photos, please click here.

A bit of a worrisome situation we had to figure out…It all “goes with the territory!”

Posted by worldwide-admin on May 11, 2016 with 0 Comment

We’re thrilled to be able to see sunsets from the veranda. The long stick to the right is actually the vine of a plant.

“Bali Sightings on the Beach”

With few tourists on the beaches here many interesting shells and mollusks remain on the beach which is nice to see.

We can only control so much in our lives. We try hard not to make errors when the consequences in planning our lives could result in added costs, time and undesired stress and frustration.

When we get into a “pickle” we reflect on what we could have, should have, done to prevent it. The lame excuse, “Well, I didn’t know,” doesn’t serve us well. We should have known every step of the way, especially as we become more experienced in traveling the world.

As we review the circumstances of our most current dilemma, in a quandary as to how to get a visa to Vietnam for the July 8th Viking Mekong River cruise, we can’t seem to embrace what we could have done differently.

The facts to accomplish this remain a hard reality: In order to apply for a visa for Vietnam with multiple entries in a 30-day period, one must send their actual passport to a visa service in the US or their home country or directly to the Vietnam Embassy.

As the sunset progresses, we’re in awe of its beauty.

How in the world would we allow ourselves to be in Indonesia without our passports in our possession, especially when in two weeks we have to drive two hours to another village to the Immigration office to extend the 30 day visas we have now, repeating this same action when we return in over three months?

Also, if we didn’t need to extend our Indonesian visas, we’d never allow ourselves to be without a passport in our possession while in a foreign country. What if one of us became ill and had to be airlifted out of the country or any of dozens of other possibilities? We’re never going to allow ourselves to be in such a position.

For citizens living in their home country, they can easily prepare the necessary documents, including their passports, mail them to a visa service and wait for the return of the packet with the new visa and their passport.

Not us. Not only will we never leave ourselves in a foreign country without a passport in our possession but, we’re in a remote area of Bali. Receiving the return packet would take weeks to arrive, most likely never in time for our departure.

Almost gone.

Nor would we have been willing to be without a passport while in New Zealand had we started this process earlier. Thus, we don’t blame ourselves for not starting this process sooner, two months generally is plenty of time to get a visa. In most situations, we’re easily able to acquire “visas on arrival” (VOA) at any given airport or cruise terminal.

Over the past several days we’ve made many phone calls on Skype: to Viking Cruise Line; to the river cruise representative at Vacations to Go; to the Vietnam Embassy in Vietnam; to the online visa company we’ve been using of late, CIBT.

There is a such a thing as a “visa on arrival” at the airport in Vietnam through any of the dozens of unknown vendors online that provide a visa letter but the problem with this is twofold:
1. Do we want to give such personal information online to what may be an unscrupulous company of which there are many? Of course not.
2. “Visa on arrival” only applies to single entry visas for arrival exclusively by air travel at the airport. Our second entry will occur while we’re on the ship and the first visa would be useless.

The US State Department has considerable warnings and information about the difficulty of getting a Vietnam visa. Click here for details.

Me in the pool waving at Tom when he insisted on a photo. We spend lots of time in the pool, especially on days like today, hot, humid and many flies after last night’s heavy rain.

After hours of research, we came to only two possibilities:
1. Take the risk on the “visa on arrival” single entry airport only arrival using what may prove to be an unscrupulous company and figure it out once we’re in Vietnam. Not an option.
2. Wait until we get to Singapore on June 28th (late in the day arrival) and head to the Vietnam Embassy (a 40 minute drive from our hotel) the following morning, documents in hand and apply in person. A rush order takes three business days. Luckily, we’ll be within this window.

The Singapore option provides us with peace of mind. No doubt it will have a bearing on our one week stay when we’ll certainly have a degree of concern over getting this accomplished. But, yesterday we called the Vietnam Embassy in Singapore and its sounds doable. They’re only open for visa applications from 9:00 am to noon weekdays.

We’re well aware of the fact that should we run into any unforeseen obstacles along the way, we could lose the IDR 92,989,424 (wow), US $6598, (plus the airfare we’ve already purchased) we prepaid at time of booking the cruise to take advantage of the “two for one/paid in full” promo at the time.

Yesterday afternoon, after we finally reached the Vietnam Embassy in Singapore, we sighed in relief knowing we had a plan in place. Once we arrive in Singapore we’ll stop at an ATM to get the appropriate amount of cash US $369, SGD 540 for both visas.

Tom at the edge of the infinity pool while I took the photo.

Adding the cost of two round trip taxi rides to complete the transactions (returning in three business days to pick up the visas) which we hope to double duty to visit a few sites of interest along the return, its a much more expensive and time consuming proposition than we’d expected.

As it turns out, Vietnam is one of few countries that makes it difficult for US citizens (and others) to obtain a visa which includes such countries as China, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and others. Click this link for more detailed information if you’re planning to travel or simply curious. It’s rather interesting.

The difficulty of acquiring certain country’s visa is totally predicated by reciprocal agreements between the two countries. As a result, Vietnam is on that “difficulty” list.

In the past few days, we also applied and received the renewal of our one year visas for Australia where we’ll be in and out of over the next year on many occasions (only can stay 90 days per visit).

The back of Tom while in the infinity pool at high tide.

Today, we’ll apply for yet another required visa for Cambodia (easy online application) again for the Mekong River Cruise and then we can put this out of our minds until we arrive in Singapore in 48 days, except of course, for the upcoming trip to the immigration office here in Bali within a few weeks.

Gede, our houseman and driver is out of town for a religious holiday returning late Friday. We’re scheduled to go sightseeing with him on Saturday morning at 10:00 am. We’ll prepare and upload the post before we depart and look forward to sharing new photos the following day.

We hope you aren’t faced with dilemmas today. But, if so, we hope you find solutions that put your mind at ease as well.

Photo from one year ago today, May 11, 2015:

Could this Yellow Candle flower we spotted in Kauai be more exquisite with its white blooms? For more photos, please click here.

We’re back in Singapore!…Cruise is ending….Disembarking the ship early tomorrow morning…

Posted by worldwide-admin on April 29, 2016 with 0 Comment

Sunset out to sea.

Today has been a busy day. We’ve packed and will place our bags outside our cabin door for a late evening pickup. Once we disembark early in the morning we’ll collect our bags and be on our way, looking for the prearranged driver for the ride to the Singapore International Airport.

We’ve left out clothing and toiletries for tonight and tomorrow morning and of course, all of our digital equipment, computers, and documents which we’ll keep in our possession.

Sunset moments later.

Also, today, we’ve prepared two posts, today’s and tomorrow’s, with all of our final expenses for the entire cruise, including the cruise fare, all ancillary cruise-related expenses and miscellaneous spending along the way.

The floor in the casino. We never played!

Time has moved quickly over these past two weeks. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single day aboard Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas, as we always do on all cruises. The social activities have been over-the-top as we’ve met hundreds of wonderful people, most Aussies, some Kiwis, and a handful of others from a variety of countries.

We still haven’t encountered the reported 15 other American passengers on board the ship, although we did meet a few Americans that have lived in Australia for decades, their American accents interspersed with the delightful Australian dialect.

The Promenade at night,

Of course, we welcome interaction with people from all over the world, especially after our growing worldwide travel experience. As time marches on, we’ve both become more adept at understanding thick accents from many countries and enjoy the varied perspective of many travelers whether they’re on their first or 25th cruise.

Cosmetics shop on the Promenade where I made a purchase.

Amid today’s tasks, we went to the movie in the La Scala Theatre at 2:30 for a much-enjoyed respite from the usual activities. Even there, while waiting for the movie to begin, we often meet yet more people, all making an effort to be quiet when the movie begins.

We’re anxious to be settled in Bali by tomorrow evening around 6 pm, providing all of our travel plans go smoothly. As for Singapore today, we’ll be back for a week in 60 days when we’ll see the sites and explore this amazing country.

A portion of the art gallery.

Hope your day will be productive, leaving you with a sense of accomplishment in whatever you decide to do. Happy day!

No photo from one year ago due to the poor wifi signal. Thanks for your patience!

Handling business matters from afar…Not always easy…

Posted by worldwide-admin on March 10, 2016 with 0 Comment

A single beautiful lily in the lily pad pot in the yard.

Today, we had to make several business calls and had set aside our early morning, during which we can only reach some of the companies due to time differences between the US and New Zealand.

Thank goodness for Skype. Otherwise, such calls would incur monstrous charges. With our Skype phone account any call we make to the US is only NZ $.03, US $.023 per minute plus data charges which add up quickly.

We’ve discovered using Skype with video for an approximate 30 minutes results in a cost of one gig. Of course, when we’re calling a phone number without the recipient using Skype on their end, there’s no possibility of video.

Beach on a cloudy evening.

A few of our readers and Facebook friends have suggested we use “What’s App” for making face-time calls. Doing so requires a phone with a capacity for making calls and using data. Using only Skype for phone calls with no data connection on our phones, using such an app isn’t possible.

If we needed to use the phone, we could swap out the SIM card, we have on the Spark hot spot from which both calls and data could be used. However, using that NZ SIM card would incur expensive charges when calling anywhere outside of New Zealand.

One of our business accounts requires a few signed documents in order to make changes requiring an original ink signed document. In today’s day and age, this concept of signing in ink is becoming obsolete with the availability of documents easily be signed online.

Lots of seagulls at the beach in New Plymouth on the Coastal Walkway.

When we have to send a signed document we run into the problem that we no longer have a portable printer when ours quit working over a year ago. It wasn’t worth replacing it when we seldom need to print anything.

We still have our portable Doxie scanner which continues to work quite well when we use it for saving tax-deductible receipts. Scanning the receipts prevents us from hauling paper receipts all over the world.

We’ve been unable to access one of our business accounts online since we arrived in New Zealand, one we easily accessed in Fiji and all other countries in the past. We’ve contacted the company by Skype and apparently, there’s nothing wrong on their end.

Similar to Australia, many of the beaches are uneven and rocky.

We can only assume there’s an issue with the Internet here in NZ blocking our ability to access that account for some reason or another. This is a unique situation we’ve never experienced in other countries.

With our good knowledge of the use of the Internet, we can’t find any other reason that particular account is blocked. We’ve spent considerable time working on a solution only to discover after calling, there’s nothing we can do.

These types of scenarios are a part of traveling the world over which on occasion, we have no control in creating a solution. But, we’ve found a “workaround” as is always the case…today’s phone call on Skype answered all of our questions.

We often stop at this favorite spot for photos of Mount Taranaki.

Another issue we had today, is regarding a new credit card we received over six months ago. It’s a card that provides “extra perks” for grocery shopping and fuel, a great adjunct to the cards we already use.

When the card arrived in one of our “mailed-from-the-US” shipments, we immediately attempted to use it only to discover it was declined. How embarrassing! Immediately upon returning home (we’d just arrived in Fiji and had picked up the shipment from customs at a local post office) we called the credit card company asking, “What’s the deal?”

They explained that the US-generated card had to be used in the US for six months before it would be released for use in other countries due to fraud guidelines when many credit card thefts transpire outside the US.

Frustrated by the inconvenience, I marked my online calendar to remind us to call in six months to “request that the card be made available for use outside the US” per their requirements. The only way to do this was to make the call as required this morning. In 24 hours, the card will be available for use outside the US.

These noisy pesky birds are magpies, which tend to keep other birds away.

We’re required to call back to list the countries in which we’ll be using the card again in another six months, after listing today each country where we may use it in the upcoming six months.

This company requires a phone call whereby our other cards are available by entering “travel notifications” online which we’ll be updating today, again noting on the calendar to do these again in another 60 days as required.

Often, many assume that handling one’s personal business can be relatively easy while traveling the world. For short periods, that may be the case. For us, traveling for the “long haul” we must stay in touch and in tune with changes, updates, and processes required for banking, investments, and other “paperwork” related transactions.

View of cattle from the highway.

At this time, we’re also working with our accountant in Nevada, US, to complete our 2015 tax filing, due by April 15th. We had all the necessary paperwork sent directly to her from our mailing service in Nevada. Once she received the docs she scanned everything sending us (by email) copies for our records. We’ve already sent her all of our calculations. Filing taxes is another one of those tasks that must be done from afar.

With both of us sharing in these tasks; Tom the investments; me the banking, payments, and taxes, we manage to get it all done in a timely fashion. Once we have these types of responsibilities behind us, we can return to our relatively carefree lifestyle of enjoying our world travels.

Today it’s very windy here in the Taranaki Region, not uncommon this time of year. After I’d hung one load of laundry this morning, I went outside to find that one of the clotheslines had broke in the wind and our laundry was lying on the ground. We brought everything inside to finish drying. With all these other tasks behind us today, that’s the extent of today’s concern. We love that!

Happy day!

Photo from one year ago today, March 11, 2015:

One year ago, we attending a senior event in Princeville, Kauai for food, fun, and bingo. We actually had a great time. For more details, please click here.

What are the benefits of our international health insurance?…

Posted by worldwide-admin on February 9, 2016 with 0 Comment

On a cloudy day, beachgoers still took advantage of local beaches.

We’ve written about international health insurance in past posts. As we acquire more worldwide readers including an increased number of ex-pats and baby boomers retiring and deciding to travel long term, we felt it was time to review this once again, especially in light of yesterday’s annual premium payment.

We paid NZ $5855, US $3745 for the upcoming 12 month period. This insurance doesn’t cover us while in the US. I’m not quite certain, why not, but with little time spent in the US during these past 40 months, with only a few months to be spent in the US upcoming in the summer of 2017, we aren’t worried about it at this juncture.

We drove to Wairau stream to check out the scenery.

Tom will continue to be covered by the health insurance from his prior work until he turns 65 in December 2017. In the interim, we’ve both been covered by this annual ex-pat policy with Healthcare International.

What happened to Medicare for me when I turned 65 almost three years ago? Every US citizen is entitled to Plan A which covers hospitalization in part. See here for details.

Why didn’t we just go with Part A for me? Simple answer: It doesn’t provide coverage outside the US in most instances. Plus, monthly payment for Plan B is required at NZ $158, US $105. See here for details.

Most beaches in this area are rocky, but this popular location is preferred by many surfers and sunbathers.

As a result of this monthly expense, useless in our case, while traveling the world long term, we opted out of Part B by signing a waiver document explaining why we weren’t willing to pay. There are penalties for opting out which will result in a higher premium should we decide to activate it at some point. There again, we aren’t concerned about penalties at this point.

Plus, most Medicare recipients add a “supplemental policy” to cover some deductibles and ancillary costs, here again, an unnecessary expense for us considering none of these would apply to our out-of-the US needs. Had we included these, we’d have been paying as much “out of pocket” annually as we’re currently paying for our annual policy with Healthcare International.

Surfing and kayaking are popular in both New Zealand and Australia.

These drastic measures would not make any sense for those living in the US or US territories where Medicare would pay. Such action is only beneficial for those with very good health who don’t visit doctors frequently, take a lot of medication, and often have medical tests and treatments, since none of these are covered by our current policy.

If we visit a doctor, regardless of the reason, we pay out of pocket as we do for my few prescriptions. Such payments have proven to be approximately 25% of the cost for the same services in the US in most countries as we experienced in our 2015 medical exams and tests in Australia.

This is a first for us, spotting a tractor hauling a boat along the beach.

Our situation is unique and does not apply to most travelers nor to most Medicare recipients in the US. Even those US citizens embarking on a one-year trip outside the US are best to keep their existing insurance (including Medicare Part B and supplement) in place, adding emergency travel insurance as an adjunct.

Our policy with Healthcare International includes coverage for both of us for hospitalization with NZ $3014, US $2000 deductible per hospital stay, emergency evacuation, and bereavement expenses for travel in the event of death of an immediate family member only (sibling, child, parent) covering up to NZ $7536, US $5000 in travel expenses.

We were intrigued by the stone roof on this oceanfront home.

This benefit is only available for those who are the physical relative of the deceased family member. In other words, if one of Tom’s family members passes away, the benefit would cover his costs to return to the US, not mine, and so on.

Our decision to choose this type of policy was wrought with considerable research and consideration over an extended period. Each year we’ve researched other options but, to date, this plan makes the most sense for our needs and appears to be the most cost-effective.

Many homes in New Zealand have metal roofs helping maintain warmth in the cooler winter season reducing heating costs. For the warmer sunny days, as we’ve experienced, it gets hot indoors requiring the opening of screen-less doors and windows.

Of course, when we soon file our taxes for 2015, we must provide “proof of insurance” to avoid paying penalties to the US government. I have a copy in our tax prep file which we’ll soon forward to our accountant along with other pertinent documents.

This can be confusing. Finally, we feel we have a handle on it although it took time to decipher the various options. If any of our readers have questions, most of the links we’ve provided here will assist you. If you have questions we can answer please post a comment at the bottom of this post and we’ll be happy to answer to the best of our ability and/or provide you with resources to aid in your decision.

Energy efficiency is exercised by most residents in New Zealand from what we’ve seen thus far.

We realize this topic is dry and relatively boring especially for those who aren’t living outside the US for the long term. For those in other countries, we can only suggest you contact your home insurance, your government-provided insurance, and Healthcare International or another such company. Most likely they’ll be able to assist you based on benefits you may currently have available.

We’re staying in today watching the political caucuses in New Hampshire, USA which is on TV during the day here based on the time difference, although it’s Wednesday here in lovely New Zealand.

Have a great day!

Photo from one year ago today, February 10, 2015:

One year ago, this albatross is sitting on an egg. Both the male and female sit on the nest, the other heading out to sea for food. For more details and map of our location while in Kauai, please click here.

We made it to Sydney!…What a city!…

Posted by worldwide-admin on January 4, 2016 with 8 Comments

He’s so happy. Gosh, we love this life! I took this photo in the rain when we found an overhang on the sidewalk on George St. in Sydney .

OK, my hat was lopsided, but it made it possible for me to take a few photos in the rain. Fashionable? No. Functional? Yep.

OK, here’s how it went. On Sunday afternoon, we checked in for our flight using a bad wifi signal, from Suva, Fiji to Sydney, Australia, a four-hour non-stop flight.

Our flight confirmation paper documents stated our flight on Monday, January 4th was at 11:15 am. We booked several flights in and around Fiji using a local travel agency while we were living in Trinity Beach, Australia last June to September.

It was the first time we’d used a travel agency to book any of our travels, other than Vacationstogo.com which we use to book cruises, mainly for their great prices and service.

The first four flights were fine. Yesterday’s fifth flight was “confirmed” in writing for the above date and time. As soon as we were online at Fiji Airway’s site to check in on Sunday, there was no flight listed at 11:15 am as stated in our documents, only one flight at 8:35 am with the same flight number as indicated on the documents.

We were able to check-in thus affirming that somewhere along the way either the agency gave us the wrong information or the flight was changed and we weren’t notified. They had a record of our email and phone numbers for both Fiji and the US.

Immediately, we hustled to change our shuttle to Suva, Nasouri Airport from a 7:45 am pickup to a 5:15 am pickup which for us, is a bit challenging. Although we get up early most days, getting up at 4:15 and out the door, an hour later is not our thing.

No problem on the shuttle. They’d arrived at our door at 5:15 for the 90-minute drive to the airport. Hoping to arrive by 6:45 am, we’d have time to go through customs and immigration and an expected huge queue at the international flights when we realized it was the first Monday after the holidays and the tiny airport would be swamped

If we didn’t get checked in and dump our checked baggage by 8:05 am they’d literally “close” check-in and we’d miss the flight.

Awakening at 3:45 am, I bolted out of bed without the alarm on my phone never going off, and jumped in the shower, bleary-eyed after only about four fitful hours of sleep. Minutes later, Tom was awake and we dashed around the house, tidying up, closing our bags moving everything back to where it was when we arrived.

When the driver appeared at 4:55 am we were ready to leave. Good timing. Arriving any later we’d have had a problem at the tiny airport, which was more packed than we expected with mostly Fijians heading back to their homes in Australia. Oddly, we spotted only one person that appeared to be Caucasian among the hundreds waiting in line. We were right at home.

Taxidermy croc for sale in a shop window. My lower legs and feet are also shown in this photo. In the rain, I wasn’t particular about getting good shots.

(For some odd reason, wherever we may be, we always feel as if we belong. What’s the deal with that? The acceptance and welcoming we’ve received worldwide have been astounding).

When our turn popped up, we were hardly surprised to discover our luggage load was severely overweight. We didn’t have to step on the huge old-fashioned scale this time, only the bags. We were presented with a bill over and above the already paid cost of the flight for FJD $936, USD $438! Even the rep winced when he told us how much it would be.

Yesterday, we took the elevator to the hotel’s rooftop for a few photos in the rain. This was not our ship which hadn’t arrived yet.

At this point, we’ve come to accept that this is “the nature of the beast.” That’s why we love cruising so much (among other reasons)…no baggage fees. Sure, our readers may cringe and say, “Oh, I could get that load lightened enough to avoid excess fees.”

Please, dear friends…walk in these shoes…these few pairs each, and see what you’d be willing to get dispose of. Not much. It’s bare-bones. I don’t own a bathrobe, a dress, or a bathing suit cover-up. Tom doesn’t own a suit coat, a pair of dress pants, or a robe either, which we both love wearing after a warm shower.

This is the Metcalfe Bond building.

We each have two pairs of jeans, several pairs of shorts, and a variety of tee shirts along with a few casual dressy shirts for dinner on cruises and otherwise. I have two lightweight casual skirts that I can dress up with one of two scarves and a belt. It’s truly bare-bones.

So…we pay the price, accepting the reality that we care enough that we look presentable in many situations with what we may have on hand. We’re not backpackers. We’ll never be backpackers.

Finally, we were seated and buckled in on the fully packed 737 jet. Sitting next to me at the window was a man who had to weigh at least 400 pounds, 182 kilos, tall and burly. His thighs were the size of two of Tom’s.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge. While taking this photo Tom suggested I zoom in for the people walking across the top of the bridge, as shown in today’s photos.

He occupied his seat and half of mine. I was in the middle, Tom on the aisle. Heavy breather. Poor guy was cramped. I did everything I could to contribute as much of my seat as possible to allow him to be somewhat comfortable. Instead, I was cramped and uncomfortable for the entire four hours sitting almost sideways on my seat. Tom offered to switch with me. I refused.

Instead of thinking about it, we played Gin. I wound up winning for Fiji. That helped. They served breakfast. I ate the scrambled eggs when they said were gluten-free but nothing else. It was fine. We were fine. There was no turbulence over the vast sea. A baby in the seat in front of us cried and fussed a lot.

Finally, we landed in Sydney. The plane had to wait 40 minutes for a gate. It was raining hard and we were glad there would be a “tube” instead of the usual steep metal steps outside the plane. It was worth the wait. We didn’t complain.

Brave souls, walking across the top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, known as the Bridge Climb. Please click here for details. This might be fun for those that don’t mind heights.

We breezed through immigration and customs after a long wait for the bags. Once out the door, we grabbed a van and made our way to the hotel, the Old Holiday Inn, a very nice hotel with mixed reviews. Very close to the port of Sydney, we were happy. Free WiFi with a strong signal.

Tom was chomping at the bit to watch the Vikings game which was live on Aussie TV. The TV wouldn’t work, nor would the phone in order to report it.

Mr. Overly Grumpy himself reappeared as I dashed off to the front desk to report the two issues. In no time at all, a maintenance guy appeared in our room, removing the bad phone replacing it with another, and got the TV working.

Tom was so worked up he had to take off his shirt. I never take my shirt off when I get worked up. It must be a guy thing.

Notice the cruise ship in the background. Our ship hadn’t arrived yet but is certainly there now. How exciting! This building only had the letters “ASN” listed on the building.

Soon, the game was on and he was happy again, with a bit of tail between his legs. I stayed unruffled but gloated a little over my (mostly) continuing “overly bubbly” demeanor, weird in its consistency. How could I not?

In essence, we balance each other. When I was fussing over the prospect of getting up so early after our oddly discovered flight time change, Tom was calm and cool, making every effort to ease my concern over the prospect of having a bad night’s sleep. When all was said and done, I was fine, certainly eased by his ongoing emotional support and reassurances. We each had about four hours of sleep.

We needed a number of preventive items for the cruise, just in case, and had to find a nearby chemist and an ATM. We needed hand sanitizer wipes, (we already have those for cleaning surfaces in the cabin and elsewhere), nasal spray (specifically for travelers to prevent infections which we’ll report back if that works), cough medicine with codeine like an ingredient legal in AU, Benedryl, a mascara (mine was empty), and a few other odds and ends.

Our ship has arrived! Tom took this photo a few minutes ago when he went back up on the roof. So close but so far away with our luggage.

After the chemist, a several-block walk in the pouring rain, with success in finding varying degrees of the list on my phone, we found an ATM. It wasn’t working. Tom was worried. I wasn’t. We went back to the room to call Wells Fargo to find out the problem with our debit cards. We’d already notified them where we’d be traveling over the next year.

Calling Wells Fargo on Skype, there was no problem with the card. We had to find another machine. Tom headed out on his own leaving me in the room while he dashed back out in the rain. Within 10 minutes he was back with a handful of Aussie dollars. He was happy now.

Sailboat entering the harbor.

Not wanting to go back out in the pouring rain, we dined in the hotel’s restaurant, a fixed price menu that proved perfect for me; Caesar salad minus croutons or dressing; salmon filet and steamed broccoli and spinach with butter. Tom had leek onion soup, steak, potatoes, veggie, and rolls. He especially liked the roll. His cruise dining habits have begun. Lips zipped here.

Soon, we’ll be off to the ship. Tom had hoped we could walk our bags using carts to the port but the hotel doesn’t have carts or porters, plus we’re way too far away and also the pouring rain continues and there’s no way that makes sense. We’ll get a taxi to take us the distance of four or five long blocks.

Thanks, dear readers, for following us to Sydney and now onto the Celebrity Solstice. We hear the seas are rough! Sounds exciting!

Photo from one year ago today, January 5, 2015:

Longs Drugs, permanently closed and boarded up due to pending lava flow on the Big Island, close to where we lived for six weeks. We’d shopped at this store the day they closed for some huge bargains but felt bad for the employees who’d be out of jobs. For more details, please click here.

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