2001

Questions and Answers

We love receiving questions from people -- whether they are armchair travelers or world explorers. We’ve even had questions from our own parents!

Please be aware that these questions and responses were from the year 2001. In some cases, we have changed the way we do things.

If you have questions of us, please send them to mail@TwoGypsies.com.

Q: You seem to have mixed feeling about Indonesia. Do you recommend it as an adventure travel destination? What about for a vacation?

Q: I know I read somewhere, sometime, that you used a Kodak digital camera. What model and have you been pleased with it? Pros and cons perhaps?

Q: How do you two handle your general medical matters, such as medical insurance, ongoing health maintenance, dental check ups and so forth, when you're always in a different place with different doctors? (D.A., Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. October 2000)

Q: Hi, love your site. I wanted to ask you, what is the best way to go about finding rental housing? I know you used a real estate agent in La Penita, but how do you find someone you can trust? D.D. (location unknown)

Q: We know that Don worked as a Republican in the Senate for 18 years. Is that why he dislikes Barbara Streisand? (K.O. in New York)

Q: You seem to like everything about Thailand. Isn't there something that drives you crazy? (WJ, Darwin, Australia)

Q: Hi, Gypsies. We want to do exactly what you're doing, and wondered what it costs. What expenses could we expect with full-time world travel, rather than living in a regular house like we do now? (A. and C.M. in Cody, WY)

Q: You mentioned the difficulty of planning a trip out of the country for a year or more. What are some of the key considerations? (D.A. Kansas)

Q: Where will you go in the next five years? (M.M. in Omaha, NE)

The Answers

Q: You seem to have mixed feeling about Indonesia. Do you recommend it as an adventure travel destination? What about for a vacation?

A: Yes, No, and It Depends

Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, is incredibly diverse. It consists of 13,700 islands spread over an area 3,200 miles wide, wider than the continental United States, and 1,200 miles north to south. It has 34,000 miles of coastline, a total equal to one and a half times around the world at the Equator, which it straddles.

Indonesia is the world's largest Islamic country. Various forms of Islam make up 87% of the population. Muslim-Christian conflicts continue to take lives in many areas, and in recent years people have died in such conflicts in the two major towns in which we have stayed east of Bali, even though these areas are considered more stable due to the concentration of Christians.

There are more than 100 ethnic groups which speak more than 350 languages and dialects, and a majority of it's people live on one island, Java. There are 400 volcanos, 130 of which are active and 70 have erupted in historic times. The most famous volcanic eruption occurred in 1883 when Krakatau exploded and killed thousands of people on Java and Sumatra.

Indonesia is subject to earthquakes. The town where this response is being drafted -- Maumere, on Flores Island -- was hit by an earthquake in December, 1992. The quake and immediate tidal wave killed nearly 3,000 people.

The topography ranges from swampy jungles to semi-arid areas. There are 40,000 species of flowering plants here, more than the tropical regions of Africa and the Americas.

We believe your decision whether travel here should be governed by the political climate at the time, your tolerance for discomfort, unwelcome interest by locals, and your budget.

Since the new president was sworn in earlier this year (2001) the world has held its collective breath, questioning whether political struggles internally or intense separatist movements in several parts of the country (which desire to follow East Timor) would throw the nation into chaos. Instead, there appears at this writing a quiet tension that will build if the new president fails to address widespread citizen concerns.

Your level of discomfort will be governed by how much money you have to spend and where you go. If you hole up in a Bali resort, you'll be perfectly safe, very comfortable, and isolated from the public at large. If you head to the outer islands, you will find your travel options limited, information hard to obtain and conditions generally uncomfortable. Although the exchange rate is favorable for travel here, the Rupiah is volatile, strengthing against the dollar more than 20% in the eight weeks before we got here. If you travel to remote islands, take plenty of cash (and forget credit cards and ATMs), and be prepared for a beating if you change US dollars. Some banks, when you can find one willing to change money, will offer a stunning 34% reduction from the official rate, and you'll have no other options.

In the eastern islands, you will be subjected to intense scrutiny by people in every walk of life. Although we have traveled in more than 60 countries, collectively, we found most of the attention highly irritating -- not because we mind being noticed, but because people here have no notion of "personal space" or privacy. You will find yourself being yelled, whistled, hooted, hissed and shouted at wherever you go. Children will be friendly, as they are everywhere, but knowingly or not, many adults tend to be rude in the extreme -- sitting inches away and staring expressionless for long periods, and, if they speak English, asking an endless series of personal questions (often intended to determine what they can sell you). There is nothing you can do to stop any of this, and much of it is not at all friendly. In addition, hang onto your possessions, determine prices in advance, and try to pay with exact change.

Indonesia is a fascinating country with terrific potential, but we have difficulty recommending it to visitors who want to travel in remote areas because of the inter-personal and logistical problems noted. They are considerably more challenging than in most third world countries. If you do come here, you should avoid areas where Muslim extremists are known to exist. Their view of Americans and Caucasians in general will range from quietly unfriendly to extremely dangerous.

In summary, were are not sorry we came here. We have met many interesting people and have stayed in one great hotel (Sao Flores Resort near Maumere, Flores, about 500 miles east of Bali). But the problems note above, which we feel may be exacerbated in the wake of the terrorist attacks on America, have caused us to abbreviate our time here. For us, Indonesia may someday be the fascinating destination we hoped it would be, but between now and then considerable political, social and infrastructure reform will be required.

Q: I know I read somewhere, sometime, that you used a Kodak digital camera. What model and have you been pleased with it? Pros and cons perhaps?

A: Yes, we've been using a Kodak 280 digital w/24MB memory chip. The camera malfunctioned 22 months into its life, even though we have taken very care of it. The problem was mechanical (extension of the lens jammed something, shutting down the electronics). Kodak offers a 12 month warranty, but we had purchased it with our American Express card, and Amexco paid to replace it through their one-year warranty extension program.....or will have replaced it once they receive the broken camera and issue a card credit. We mailed it from Thailand about 5 weeks ago.

We bought the original camera in late 1999 on the Internet. It had a list price of $800 and we paid $600.

The Kodak DC 280 is a 2 megapixel camera, and while it is fragile, Kodak makes the 5000 model which is the same camera with a big rubber case around it, making it very durable. If you are planning to use it under a variety of conditions, you should consider a model designed for rough use.

To replace our camera, we found the same model (on close out) in Bangkok. But while it can now be purchased in America for only $450, buying it in Thailand cost just over $600, because of customs duty. We were sorry to have to do that because in the USA $600 will now buy a 4 megapixel camera. But in Thailand the better camera was $900 so we decided to replace the broken one with the same model that we had, and we're hoping for the best.

In terms of daily usage, the Kodak is good because it uses rechargable AA batteries, and goes a long time between charges. High capacity batteries (1600) have really come down in price, and are widely available.

The memory chip can be a problem. Be sure to get at least 24MB. Ours came with that, but the replacement camera only came with 8mb. We bought a 48MB chip in Bangkok, but it is defective and only the first 15MB actually work. Anyway, a 24MB chip will record about 32 pictures at highest quality, 82 standard and 232 basic (which is fine for the Internet). In native size, the highest quality will produce a print about 5 inches wide. Standard quality is a little less than 4 inches. Any photo editing program can adjust the size, but increasing the size decreases printing quality. In terms of the Internet, the best thing is to take a higher quality photo, in case you want to print it later, and reduce the quality for the Internet for faster up/downloading At highest setting, the quality of print on photo paper using a reasonably new (but not necessarily expensive printer) is outstanding. Still, I wish we had the 4 megapixel camera so we could print outstanding 8X12 prints.

(Later Update: We have now purchased a Minolta 5mp camera capable of taking uncompressed 14 MB photos and making prints up to 25 inches wide).

A: To be honest, if either of us suffered from a serious, ongoing medical problem, we may not have felt confident about attempting these travels at all. In fact, one important reason we pressed to undertake the expedition at this time, was because we are both healthy and completely mobile, and this may not always be the case.

Perhaps this thinking is a bit fatalistic, however, we know several friends and acquaintances who developed life-altering health problems or who died unexpectedly, and this was a serious consideration for us. We could always have traditional lives and jobs again if we really wanted, but we might never again have the ability, desire, good health, and wherewithal for an adventure like this. If we were to wait too long to start, the choice might have been made for us.

In preparation during the months before we left our jobs and excellent health insurance coverage in 1999, we had every possible procedure done. Teeth worked on, expensive tests, anything we could think of. Now we're on Blue Cross, which we chose only because it has the most extensive overseas coverage of any of the big American carriers available to us. So far in 2000, we have had not a single submission toward any medical insurance claim, and we hope we won't. We have seen certain medical and dental professionals, but in foreign countries it's easier to just pay the low price in full up front, especially if we don't intend to meet our deductible anyway.

Now that we don't exactly have primary care doctors anymore, we are personally responsible for our medical records and histories. We carry with us our own medical records which we collected from our doctors and dentists before we left Washington, DC. If we should contract a strange medical problem, we will give our records to a local doctor for analysis and comparison. We have our old x-rays and other technical information in storage in the US, which could be accessed if necessary. Also, we carry copies of our eyeglass prescriptions and Rebecca's contact lens prescription, so we can replace things we may lose or damage. (When traveling in the more spacious Gypsy Camper, we carried pairs of our old glasses for backups.) And, in the hope-we-never-need-it category, we carry with us copies of our wills, living wills, and organ donor information.

Here in Thailand, we have easy access to very good and inexpensive medical services. We will likely have more maintenance check-ups done while we're here. We've already had dental check ups and teeth cleaning -- with foot massages, which happened to be offered in the same medical office.

A: In La Penita, Mexico, a real estate office had a sign in the window that was written in English. We just walked in and described what we're looking for (furnished rental, by the month), and an agent spent the day driving us around town until we picked the one we liked. In Sintra, Portugal we rented the apartment in the house from a guy who was listed at the local Tourismo office.

In Thailand, we went to the local government tourist office, TAT, in Kanchanaburi and again got lucky in making friends with a guy who worked there. Furnished apartments are extremely unusual in Thailand (they don't sleep on beds regularly, so they're comfortable with few furnishings), but this guy took us on our as special 'project.' On his own time, he drove us around the various neighborhoods, and asked around about houses for rent. He found a house, owned by the owners of the local furniture store. As our friend interpreted, we made a deal with the landlord and signed a contract.

Later, as we sought to volunteer at a mission hospital near the Burma border, the director offered an apartment in the complex, because of the facilities' remote isolation.

Q: We know that Don worked as a Republican in the Senate for 18 years. Is that why he dislikes Barbara Streisand? (K.O. in New York)

A: Boy am I glad you asked! No, it's because she has turned into a nut. The following is quoted directly from the April 6, 2001 edition of the Wall Street Journal. Reach this and see if you think the woman is rational.

"Barbra Streisand has sent a scorching 15-page memo to top leaders at the Pentagon accusing them of being 'putzes' for sending electronic surveillance aircraft near the Chinese coastline.

"'Are we at war with China? I didn't hear anything about that. What do we care what they're up to, anyway? They're nice people, the Chinese, and their military donated generously to President Clinton's re-election campaign in 1995 or 1996. Whatever. The real threat to America is George Bush. Him we should force to land on an island somewhere.'

"Barbara Streisand has sent a withering 18-page memo to top leaders at the State Department blasting them for 'not bringing about peace in the Middle East. I've had it with you. Two and a half months you've been in charge and has anything changed? Every time I look at the TV, another suicide bomb. This cannot go on. Maybe if you spent less time kvetching about Marc Rich, a true Middle East peacemaker, and more helping Israel, we would not be in this situation. Am I getting through to you? PS: This is nothing personal against Colin Powell, whom I personally think is wonderful. Such eyes. That skin, I would die for. In fact, have him call me about this. Him I can talk to.'

"Barbara Streisand has sent a blistering 22-page memo to British Conservative leader William Hague accusing him of 'infecting thousands or however many cows with bovine spongiform encephalopathy in order to make my friend Tony Blair -- I could squeeze him -- look like a schmuk.' She said she was 'sick and tired of seeing piles of dead cows being burned.'

"Barbara Streisand has sent a withering 28-page memo to NASA accusing the space agency of 'dragging feet. Why haven't we landed on Mars yet? Is this 2001 or 1901? Is there a problem?'

"Ms. Streisand says that if 'Bill Clinton -- such strength, such charisma, don't get me started -- were still in charge, we'd be on Pluto by now.'

"Barbara Streisand has sent a fulminating 35-page memo to the National Institutes of Health demanding to know 'why you haven't cured AIDS yet. I've had it up to here with excuses, excuses, excuses,' and says that if the disease is not eradicated by June at the latest, you'll be hearing from my close personal friend David Geffen.'

"Barbara Streisand has sent an incendiary 42-page memo to the head of Nasdaq accusing him of 'losing more of my money in this Republican stock market than my last five movies combined. When Bill Clinton was president -- and whose bright idea was it that you only have two terms as president? Republicans! Every day I made money. Some days, God made less money than me. Now look. Cisco, down. Amazon, I can't look. CMGI, the Titanic. Thank God for Phillip Morris is all I can say, and I don't even smoke. With a voice like mine, you'd be crazy to.'

"Barbara Streisand has sent a livid 55-page memo to the Commerce Department complaining that the upholstery in her 'brand new' Mercedes 'smells funny. I paid good money for this car. Don't you inspect them after they arrive here from Germany? When Bill Clinton was president they didn't let in cars that smelled. And why are we trading with Germany anyway? Haven't you seen Saving Private Ryan? Are you anti-Semitic?"

(end article)

Nothing we can say could make the point any better than her own words. Some people should stick to what they do best.

Q: You seem to like everything about Thailand. Isn't there something that drives you crazy? (WJ, Darwin, Australia)

A: While we do enjoy much about the country, our nerves are frazzled daily by the ear splitting volume and invariably horrible quality of music in public places -- both recorded and live. It is FAR off key and seems loud enough to offend neighboring nations.

Wherever people gather, huge banks of speakers are there to swiftly deafen them. Were it not for the enthusiasm, pleasant demeanor, and total cuteness of most performers, the sounds they generate would justify imprisoning amateur karoake singers a minimum of five years and tossing professional musicians into solitary confinement at the National Asylum for the Criminally Tone Deaf. Thanks for asking!

February 2001 Update: We are having trouble sleeping before 3 A.M. because of music and movies being played at a village festival in the jungle more than two MILES away!

Q: Hi, Gypsies. We want to do exactly what you're doing, and wondered what it costs. What expenses could we expect with fulltime world travel, rather than living in a regular house like we do now? (A. and C.M. in Cody, WY)

A: It costs whatever you can and wish to spend. Really, this isn't a wiseguy answer, but the truth. It could be done with far more or far less money than we are spending, and we know people doing it each way. (Interestingly, the people spending lots of money and staying in resorts have had to cut their travels short and go back to work!)

Compared to how much money you spend in the US on regular household and going-to-work expenses, it's hard to spend much money in Thailand. Here in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, our apartment costs about $190 per month including all utilities and fees. There are apartments and houses here that cost 1/4th as much, but we really wanted our home to be already furnished and have air conditioning, hot water, and extra security so we could leave our house for weeks at a time and know that our possessions would be safe.

We have no private vehicle here and take only public transportation that is very inexpensive - around $1 total per day, including our longer excursions. When we rent a motorcycle, the cost is about $3.50 per day.

Food in Thailand is very reasonable, and because of that, we usually dine out at least two meals a day. We like to eat a light breakfast at home, so we keep a few groceries on hand in the kitchen. The total of all these meals cost around $4 - $10 per day for the two of us, depending on how schmancy we are feeling and if we are taking friends out for dinner. Internet service is probably our next biggest expense, at around $25-30 per month. Internet cafes are cheap, but the connections are slow, so we spend lots of time there.

Entertainment costs are quite low, although the Kingdom has dramatically raised the prices of entrance into nearby National Parks from 20 Baht to 200 Baht (about $4.60) for foreigners. We buy a few cd-rom movies to watch on our laptop (one movie per two CD's; DVD movies are not popular here), which cost less than $5 each.

We're ordinary folk who are living very frugally, and we're not trying very hard at all. Of course, expenditures could be much higher in the metropolis of Bangkok, as well as for a person who is an avid shopper of fake antiques and gems, or who really enjoys purchasing drugs and prostitutes.

These expenses are offset, of course, by the expensive international airfare required to get here. Even then there are options, as we are willing to pay a bit more to have fewer connections and upgraded service. But you have the option of flying Bangladeshi Airlines, and you'll save some money but may not arrive when/where you planned.

Our monthly average expenses are about to increase by several hundred dollars per month, as we begin to plan some excursions beyond our area of Thailand. Flights to Nepal are around $320 per person on Thai Airlines (but only $260 on Bangladeshi!) and the first class sleeper train to southern Thailand is around $50 per person r/t.

Our major regular expenses back in the US are much lower now that we have our vehicle insurance on suspension (our Gypsy Camper and Gypsy Wagon are in storage in the Arizona desert at Becky's aunt's place). But we still have ongoing expenses like health insurance and other coverage and vehicle aging and devaluation.

Now that we are free from monthly mortgage payments and related financial burdens, our expenses mostly depend on the economy of the region in which we are living. Portugal, Canada and Alaska were more expensive destinations, and we were spending around $3,000 per month. In Canada and Alaska, we drove our own vehicle at a time when gas prices were very high, and this soaked up a lot of that money. In Latin America, we lived very well on $800 per month, plus another $200 for ongoing insurance expenses and vehicle wear and tear.

Many well-heeled travelers exceed our monthly costs in a few days of resort living. The difference for us, of course, is that we are not simply on a vacation, but are living our real lives. Thus, we never suffer from the rushed panic for fun and hedonism experienced by vacationing tourists. We have the luxury of spending our money more carefully than most people, since we have plenty of time to explore and research available options. Further, we truly are not seeking the same kinds of experiences that are valued by most visiting vacationers, and seek daily lifestyles and expenses that are in closer alignment with those of local residents wherever we are.

Q: You mentioned the difficulty of planning a trip out of the country for a year or more. What are some of the key considerations? (D.A. Kansas)

A: Long-term travel outside the USA is more difficult than one might imagine -- so difficult, in fact, that it's hard to explain.

Legal documents come first: passports (making sure they are valid a full year AFTER the projected period of the trip. Some countries won't let you in, otherwise). Some countries require visitors to obtain visas in advance. That can be done at that country's embassy or consulates in the USA or in other countries you may be visiting, but don't overlook this obligation. We know Australians who were summarily thrown out of Indonesia for showing up without visas.

Be sure to photocopy your passports and visas. A couple should carry each other's copies, and a set should be left at home. If traveling in remote areas, it's a good idea to register your plans with the American Embassy in the country you are visiting. For some countries, you can download and print a form to mail in.

We carry notarized copies of our wills, living wills, medical and property insurance coverage -- even copies of the power of attorney we formalized before departing. That way, an individual "back home" can pay bills from your bank accounts, sign your tax returns, and legally represent you in an emergency situation. That person can also make off with everything you own!

We carry our address books in printed and electronic form, password protecting critical personal information in our computer, in case it is stolen.

We have also scanned documents such as birth certificates, driver's licenses, vehicle titles, shot records and a host of other vital information and have e-mailed them to ourselves -- to an Internet e-mail account that we won't access except in emergency. Then if everything we own is stolen in a foreign country, we can go to any Internet cafe and download copies of our passports, airline tickets, credit cards, traveler's checks and other vital information.

The most difficult part of being out of the country this long is anticipating routine things that must be done months later. For example: if using credit or debit cards to obtain foreign currency, arrangements should be made for the charge to be automatically paid by your banking institution -- with no interest or withdrawal fee. Cards that would expire while you are gone should be replaced before you leave. Otherwise, even if you can somehow get them sent to you, you'll have no way other than an expensive phone call home to activate them.

Arrangements must be made to have your tax return prepared and filed, and for absentee voting forms to be mailed to wherever you think you'll be by then. You'll need to know how to renew your vehicle license plates from afar, if you want to drive your car the moment you get home.

Packing is a real challenge -- especially when lugging still and motion picture cameras and enough equipment to maintain a website, and back up all of that data, just in case. Clothing must be appropriate for a range of climates. Medicines and their prescriptions must cover the duration of your travels.

We're right in the middle of this process right now. When we're fully organized, we'll post a more comprehensive review. The key is: take only those things you absolutely need -- don't overlook anything you may need, especially in an emergency -- and boil it all down to whatever you can pick up and carry in one load.

Q: Where will you go in the next five years? (M.M. in Omaha, NE)

A: Well, our plan changes all the time, which is the joy of being gypsies. After Mexico and Alaska, we spontaneously chose to spend nearly two months in Portugal (which we view as Europe's most underrated country), before heading to Southeast Asia for six months.

In the summer of 2001, we generally plan to be in Ireland, Colorado for a family reunion, followed by southern Africa. After that, we'd like to spend a lot of time in South America, Australia and New Zealand, and possibly far northern Europe. However, we increasingly find our minds wandering toward moving aboard a cruising sailboat in 2001 or 2002, which would change our timing and destinations considerably.

UPDATE summer 2001: Readers of this site know that our schedule changed due to health problems in Don's family. However, we are just about to depart for Asia again, and will travel throughout that area and as far as Australia and New Zealand during the coming year.

Another update, November 9, 2004: We are about to depart Hampton, VA in our sailboat named Pioneer, heading nonstop 1,700 miles to the eastern Caribbean. We hope to be there about six months.

Go To Q&A 2002