Travel Talk: Why Camo is a No-Go in the Caribbean! Pt. 2

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:00

Pack your bags. Let's take a ride. 5 minutes flat and we'll explore the wide with Forrest Kelly, it's travel time. It's The Best 5 Minute Travel Podcast. Let's go.

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:14

And a lot of these places are quote unquote tourist destinations, but just going through your blog and just picking one out, why you should avoid wearing camo in the Caribbean. I don't like it when people wear camo. I just. Personally, I don't like it.

Bee Davis: 00:00:29

Me neither.

Forrest Kelly: 00:00:31

I think it's disrespectful on a level. But anyway, why should you avoid wearing camo in the Caribbean?

Bee Davis: 00:00:36

Because it's illegal. That's the number one thing.

A lot of people don't realize that a lot of the smaller Caribbean countries specifically don't really like for you to have other, you know, like they want to specify that that camo is for their army or their particular, you know, military personnel or whatever it might be.

So they feel like if you come in and you're wearing camo, then you're not necessarily, you know, A, it's disrespectful and B, you're also representing yourself in a different manner. So they don't like that. I've actually seen people who have come in with like, black and white camo shorts.

They've been in the airport in Jamaica and they've actually been turned around and told that they have to change before they can be permitted into the country. So a lot of that kind of thing is what made me decide that I needed to write that blog. Because not a lot of people know that. And it's.

It's pretty, you know, across the board. Everybody's kind of that way down there.

Forrest Kelly: 00:01:25

They're not putting you in handcuffs or anything. They're just kind of doing what they would do at school. Okay. You got to remove that clothing, go home or whatever, Right?

Bee Davis: 00:01:33

Yeah. I've not seen anybody arrested, but I mean, I guess. I guess it's a possibility.

Bee Davis: 00:01:37

Yeah. And it's just one thing because it's going to be chaotic when you get to an airport.

You're looking for your bags, all these things, and the last thing you want to do is be approached by somebody going, hey, idiot. Yeah, basically just looking at your blog here. I looked earlier and there was one I wanted to mention.

What was another great one that you've got on your blog? That people are really.

Bee Davis: 00:01:57

My three top ones are the Aruba verse Bermuda, the why you shouldn't wear camo in the Caribbean, and then the also Aruba verse Grand Cayman it seems to be that when I two destinations and I kind of compare each one of them to each other, that seems to be what most people are looking for when they come to my website.

Forrest Kelly: 00:02:16

And you encourage people to come to your website when they're thinking about traveling in what particular area?

Bee Davis: 00:02:22

Honestly, I prefer Caribbean and South America. That's kind of like my little niche, Central America, that area. But I am starting to expand my variety, my whole horizon.

So hopefully I will eventually make it over to Europe and all those places. So when it comes to actually, like planning somebody's trip, I won't plan it unless I've actually been to that place.

Just because I don't want to steer somebody in the wrong direction or promise them something that I've never even experienced myself. So I try to kind of limit it to where I've been. But when I'm going to these places, I'm doing a big deep dive, dive into them.

So I'm not just going in and really acting as a tourist person. I'm actually going in and living like a local. I'm meeting with locals, I'm talking to them.

You know, I'm eating at all the local diners and all those kind of places. So I'm really trying to get a deep dive into the culture.

But what it'll be like, what kind of things that you can do to give back to those environments and those communities. And I also do a lot of voluntourism as well.

So for instance, anytime we go somewhere, I usually try to spend, you know, four to eight hours or so of my time at like an animal shelter or visiting in a school or something like that so I can help out and give back.

Forrest Kelly: 00:03:31

I've never heard that term before, but that's awesome. Voluntourism, it's kind of a tongue twister.

But yeah, some people, you can, you can tell them that, hey, I can hook you up and you can volunteer at this particular place. How does that go over? When you suggest that I'm on vacation, I don't want to volunteer.

Bee Davis: 00:03:47

There are some people who are like, you're crazy for doing that.

But then there's also, there's there's actually, it's a bigger group of people that it's kind of surprising, but they all kind of want to do the same thing. Like, there's really this push nowadays for meaningful travel and purposeful travel.

So people are starting to kind of like dive deeper, doing these culture immersion trips and also kind of giving back to these communities that they're visiting. So believe it or not, it's catching on.

Forrest Kelly: 00:04:14

Yeah. I mean, I would do it in a heartbeat.

Bee Davis: 00:04:17

Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

Forrest Kelly: 00:04:19

Yeah. That's part of vacation, is to take you out of your normal and take you into a different world, you know?

You know, that's why we go to the movies or watch a movie or something, you know, take us into a different mindset. So have you ever had a bad experience doing volunteering?

Bee Davis: 00:04:33

Bad experience? No, not really. My husband did get bit by a cat the last time we were in Bermuda and we were playing with.

Because, you know, part of it is, you know, you clean up in cages and that sort of thing. And then you can also kind of socialize them a little bit, so you get to play with them and kind of interact with the animals. But, yeah, he got.

The cat's name was Karma. So now he's always like, karma bit me. She sure did. She bit your finger. So, yeah, that's. That's really been the only bad experience, so to say.

When we were in St. John, we actually found a cat that was very ill, and that's kind of what kind of sparked everything. So we found him, we called the local animal shelter, they came over, they trapped him. Unfortunately, he was unable to be saved.

But we did find out that he did have an upper respiratory illness that could have easily affected other cats. So we were able to remove him from, you know, the cat land Society or whatever that they were all living in.

So he actually, we ended up saving the other ones, so to speak, I guess. But that's kind of what sparked it. It was that I just felt like I had fulfilled some, you know, I was helpful.

So then it was just kind of like, well, hey, you know, what else can we do? And then that same trip, we had learned about if we were in St Thomas and St John visiting at the same time.

But St Thomas has this thing called pets with wings.

And basically, you know, you take a pet on your airplane with you and you take them to the new shelter, and then they come and grab them at airport, and then the next thing you know, they've got a new home. And so basically you're.

You're helping animals that, you know, are living on these islands that have kill shelters, come to the states that have no kill shelter. So they actually have a chance at, you know, living a longer, fulfilled life. So it's kind of rewarding and it's super easy to do.

It doesn't cost a thing. You basically just get to play with your. Your animal on on the trip. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Very rewarding.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:26

We've touched down and landed. The episode's done with five quick minutes of travel and fun.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:32

This is your captain speaking.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:34

We have touchdown. That completes this episode.

Forrest Kelly: 00:06:37

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