Everyone has been incredibly supportive of our decision to piss off and travel. Often, people have also noted the potential challenges of long-term travel, which we also have acknowledged.
What we weren’t prepared for was our first hiccup within hours of flying out of Toronto. We flew into Vancouver at 1 am Eastern time and by the time 1 am rolled around in the West (4 am home time), Kieran and I were happily sleeping on the floor of our gate, waiting for our 12.5 hour flight to Taiwan. Mid-siesta, a loud voice boomed over the loudspeaker calling me to the desk. I shook Kieran awake and as I did, his voice was called as well. They wanted to know when we would be leaving Indonesia and where we would be going next. Kieran explained that we didn’t know and we were just going to move around for the next 8 months as we felt like it. The airline staff told us that wasn’t possible and that we couldn’t have our boarding passes until we could prove that we would be leaving Indonesia within the 30 days allotted to tourists. Us: “We can’t book anything because we don’t know where we’re going!” Airline staff: silent stares.
So, with 40 minutes to boarding time, we dragged our half asleep selves to a couple of chairs and began looking at flights on our phones. We found the cheapest flight we could: One way to Singapore on November 21, for 58 dollars. We figured this was the best route, because even if we don’t use the flight, it’s not as big a cost to swallow.
Later, when we did some after the fact research, we realized that if Indonesia had refused us entry because we couldn’t prove when we were leaving, then the airline would have had to eat the cost to take us home again. Ironically, when we arrived in Indonesia and inquired about a 60 day Visa, they told us we couldn’t apply for a Visa because we were leaving within 30 days. We explained why we had booked that flight and also that we wanted to back in Bali on November 26 to meet up with Kieran’s dad. The response was that we could simply pay 25 US dollars for every day we stay that is longer. We will worry about that later, when we aren’t busy enjoying island time.
Kieran & Nichole Galavant the Globe 