After 10 years of travel, I want to share my top ten travel tips on how to make your time abroad outstanding.
I can’t believe it has been 10 years since we sold our home and set sail on our 45-foot yacht, Thorfinn. In 2006, we created a five-year plan allowing us to retire and travel the world on our boat. It took us 7 years, but we eventually set sail on the 4th of May, 2014. Two and a half years later, we came out of retirement and started a boat delivery business working part-time. The best thing about our job is that it creates even more opportunities to travel. Our boat deliveries have taken us to the Philippines, China (Hainan), Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam, Croatia, Greece, Albania, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
In the last ten years…
Countries visited – 30 (not including brief stops and drive-throughs).
Travelled by sea – 34,563 NM
Travelled by land – 25,735 KM
Travelled by air – 297,427 KM
It’s not always smooth sailing!
It has been an extraordinary experience, but it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. We have experienced terrifying situations as well as exhilarating times. Being shot at in Indonesia and Dwayne being under house arrest on a boat in Oman were two of the worst times. Being hit by a storm and the vessel disabled for two days in the Timor Sea and a brutal four-day sail across the South China Sea in a boat without a working motor were exhausting.
Incredible animal encounters!
On the flip side, we have had some incredible animal encounters. Spending three days with the orangutan in Borneo was sensational. Visiting the Komodo Dragons in Indonesia, swimming with a wild dugong, rescuing a turtle and spending an hour watching a couple of blue whales are also at the top of our animal encounter list.
Experiencing other cultures!
Another fabulous aspect of travelling to foreign shores is the insight into differing cultures. In addition to being encouraged to visit small villages and schools on remote Indonesian Islands, we have had the privilege of being invited to an Indonesian fishing boat for a breakfast of chilli fish and lunch with a Burmese family in Myanmar.
10 tips on how to get the most from your travels!
1. Learn the local language
Apart from hello, thank you and other basic niceties, we always learn to say that the food is delicious. People absolutely love it if you appreciate their cooking, and it can often start other conversations.
Makanan di sini enak sekali – the food here is very delicious (Indonesian)
Aroy muk muk – very delicious (Thailand)
Ukusno – delicious (Croatia)
thơm ngon – delicious (Vietnamese)
Esto es delicioso – this is delicious -(Spanish)
2. Immerse yourself in the culture
Make an effort to talk to the local people, visit tiny villages, attend cultural dances, eat food at local restaurants or food carts, shop in the local markets, take a cooking class or learn their language, and visit important landmarks or historical locations, museums, and galleries.
Learning about cultural differences can make travelling a whole lot easier. For example, in many cultures, it is disrespectful not to have clothing covering your shoulders and knees, especially (but not only) when visiting temples.
3. Learn new things
For example, the smile is universal, and we should never take anything for granted. On the practical side, I am now confident with scooters and small motorbikes. Dwayne and I both do cooking classes and love going to local markets and experimenting with unknown (to us) ingredients. We have had a few disasters, especially with the curry paste in Thailand (it is much stronger than what you can buy in a packet). Have a look at my recipes inspired by our travels.
4. Step out of your comfort zone
I feel terrible when someone talks to me and can’t understand. When we first left Australia on our boat and sailed to Indonesia, I had a little Indonesian travel phrase book and began to teach myself Indonesian. At every anchorage in Indonesia, many adults and children would come to our boat to say hello. Most could not speak English. I found it a little stressful the first few times it happened and threw myself into learning the language. Since those first experiences, I have learned to enjoy chatting using the local language, some English, Google Translate and charades. The conversations are filled with the biggest smiles and a lot of laughter.
When we travel, we use Tourradar, CheapOair, Booking.com, GetRentaCar, Viator and EKTA
5. Make new friends
We always make an effort to meet other travellers. Strike up a conversation with other travellers; they often have tips on places to see and things to do. Dwayne’s go-to conversation starter is, “Oh, you’re an Aussie. Where are you from?” Or “I don’t know that accent; where are you guys from?” We have met many fabulous people just by conversing with a stranger.
Furthermore, we have since crossed paths with many of them again. For example, someone we met in 2017 in Hong Kong, we have since been to their home in Penang, Malaysia, and had dinner with them in Adelaide, Australia. We met a guy in Bali in 2015, and later, we were invited to his home to meet the family in Kuala Lumpur. We had them on our boat in Thailand in 2015 and 2016 and visited them in Zurich in 2019.
Facebook is not all bad!
Stay in touch with Facebook. Seriously, Facebook has made staying in contact super easy. Just the other day, we had lunch with a friend, his wife, and their son on a beach in Thailand. We met him in Bali in 2015 and sailed with him and his girlfriend to Croatia in 2019. Recently, we caught up on the beach in Nai Yang after he saw on our Facebook page that we were in Phuket. I have so many similar stories.
6. Meet the local people
Meeting and chatting with locals is a must, in my opinion. Is it the best way to learn about the local lifestyles and culture? A few memorable moments are the little boy in Vietnam who sat with us when we stopped for coffee and the Cambodian women cooking a BBQ. Both could not speak English, and we only knew a few local words. Yet we had a good time and a laugh with both. We also befriended a table of local men at a seaside restaurant in Quy Nhơn, and they asked us to go to karaoke with them. We had a fabulous time. These are the type of memories that last forever.
7. Enjoy experiences rather than things
Living on a boat, I have limited space for knickknacks. Therefore, we rarely buy much (apart from clothes and practical needs) on our visits to other countries. That is not to say I don’t, but I have learned that experiences and photos are better mementos. Our interactions with local people are far more meaningful, and we have friends in many countries we have visited.
8. Embrace spontaneity
Sometimes, it is better to travel without a full itinerary. We do a lot of spontaneous travel. Often, we book accommodation for the first night or two and then decide where to go next, such as when we travelled from Thailand to Laos. We took a slow boat up the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, then just travelled through Laos on buses, tuk tuks and motorbikes at our own speed. Another example is buying a motorbike and riding through Cambodia and Vietnam. I tried to research buying a motorbike in Cambodia, but in 2015, I couldn’t find any helpful information. So we decided we would simply travel by bus. Instead of organising our entire time in Cambodia, we flew into Siem Reap with no other plans but to see Angkor Wat. Once there, we met Dallas, a Kiwi guy, and he told us that it was easy to buy a motorbike, but if we wanted to take it to Vietnam, we would need a blue card. So, that is what we did. And it was an absolutely fabulous 6 weeks!
9. Don’t sweat the small stuff
Whether it is missing a flight, booking a shitty hotel, ending up in the hospital in Borneo, losing your luggage, transport breakdowns, boat breakdowns, torn sails, or horrific storms, we have learned to deal with it and chalk it up to experience. Just take the bad with the good and be patient. If you travel on an aircraft, you will undoubtedly spend time in long queues. Remain patient, and you will have a better time. One thing I definitely do differently now, after 10 years of travel, is to allow more time when catching a flight, train, or bus. It is much nicer not to be rushed and stressed. When things go wrong, it is nice to have travel insurance.
10. Travel roads less travelled
By that, I don’t mean the cliche. I mean travel away from the touristy areas and seek out the locals. In Myanmar, we went for a walk and ended up on roads that very few tourists go down. We know this from the looks we got and the fact there was nothing tourist-orientated on these streets. We always enjoy trying different food, and we saw a lady making a mango salad, so we stopped to look. Shyly, she gave us a taste, and with big smiles, we told her, in her own language, that it was delicious. Her smile lit up her entire face, leaving us happy all day.
And a bonus tip!
Take a chance
We sold our house, furniture and most belongings to live on a boat and sail the world. I thought I would love living on SV Thorfinn, but I wasn’t entirely sure. I was uncertain I could cope with my daily seasickness. I was not a confident night sailor and hated night-watch. I wasn’t sure I could cross a sea, let alone an ocean. About four months into our trip, having dealt with five-metre swell and sea sickness (for most of that time), I thought, “OMG, I don’t think I can do this.” Then we reached Queensland, and the swell abated. I met a fellow sailor who put me onto some good seasickness meds, and I was well and truly hooked. Now, I have since sailed nearly 35,000 NM, and feel confident. I have faced terrifying situations (to me), stayed calm in emergencies, and gone back for more, even after saying, “Never again!”
So, ten years on, we plan to live on SV Thorfinn and sail for at least another ten years – hopefully more.
Could you sell up and hit the road or the high seas without knowing when you would return? Please let me know in the comments below; thank you.
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