We knew as time marched on that, we needed to begin booking some of the gaps in our most recent itinerary, first posted on Christmas Day here.

After  nine years and the number of times we’ve been asked, “What are your favorite places in the world?’ to which I always answer, “Marloth Park, South Africa,”  Tom always answers, “Penguin, Tasmania.”

And yet, after nine years, we are finally returning to Penguin from March 1 to April 13, 2026. We would stay longer, but we are boarding a cruise in Brisbane, Australia, on April 14, 2026, and it just worked out this way. Besides, we will have been in Australia on cruises, and their strict visa requirements make it essential that we leave the continent around that time.

Thus, yesterday, we contacted the owner, Terry, who was happy to hear from us and excited for us to book his lovely house in Penguin, across the street from the ocean, the Bass Strait. It”s comforting to know we’re returning to a home we found to meet our criteria easily.

Since we contacted Terry directly, we didn’t have to go through any booking company, incurring added fees for each of us. But the tricky part was getting the funds to Terry for the deposit and eventually the balance on our 43-night stay.

We decided we wouldn’t do bank transfers to foreign countries when we first began traveling. We’d encountered many stories about lost funds, errors, and the inability to receive funds if something went wrong. Over these past 12+ years, we’ve used vacation homes/holiday homes booking services or PayPal to transfer funds. It’s been easy in the past

But, nowadays, with so much fraud, it’s not so easy to send funds internationally without using a bank transfer, which many use freely, without giving it a thought.

However, in this case, booking directly through Terry, who doesn’t use credit card services for his bookings, prompted me to explain PayPal to him and send the deposit to him, which, after processing, he’d received in an email that would prompt him to enter his banking information securely and efficiently.

Using PayPal for this type of international transaction isn’t as easy as a few years ago. After researching details, we discovered it would take 21 days for the recipient, Terry, in this case, to receive the funds. That isn’t acceptable when he may have been able to book it with other people during those 21 days. We understood and respected that asking him to wait three weeks wasn’t appropriate. We didn’t ask. Instead, we looked for other options.

Many of us use various apps, such as Venmo, PayPal, Cashapp, etc., when we purchase products and services that may not directly accept a credit card or prefer to be paid via these apps. When researching these other options, the fees and restrictions made it costly and inconvenient to process the payments for the deposit and future payments.

Plus, using any of these apps using a credit card as opposed to cash, which we didn’t want to do (we get lots of points using credit cards), results in a credit card payment referred to as a “cash advance” with many fees incurred by the credit card company. I called a few of our cards to determine the best route, and it proved that using Western Union and a credit card was our least costly and easiest route.

Terry will have the funds in his bank in 2 to 4 business days. No problem with that. We all saved hundreds of dollars, and it worked out fine. I sent him the confirmation I received today that the transaction was completed. Who knew that old-fashioned Western Union would be a good option?

If we’d booked through an agency, none of this would have been relevant since apps like VRBO and AirBnB have their own payment processing services. But, there can be hefty fees to use these services, and if we can avoid them, all the better. We were able to use PayPal to pay our rent here in Lake Las Vegas since the transaction occurred in the US. When it’s an international transaction, it gets tricky.

That’s our news from today. Tomorrow, we’ll share photos from our delightful dinner at the Speakeasy. We’ve decided to go to The Pub again tonight instead of the long walk to the hotel.

Be well.

Photo from ten years ago today, January 11, 2015: