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International Living
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Dear International Living Reader,

Buy your medicine in Argentina, glasses in Singapore, plane tickets in London, and cameras and computers in the United States. Buy French wine in France, Spanish wine in Spain, and Argentine wine in Argentina. Don’t buy any wine at all in Thailand, where the government taxes the stuff at 400% or so.

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We perpetual travelers learn pretty quickly to take advantage of a deal here…of an opportunity there. Buying in the wrong country could cost you money–or worse. Years ago I was going to Koh Chang, Thailand, near the Cambodian border. Because of the malaria problem in Cambodia, before leaving the United States I got a prescription for 30 malaria pills. But at the last minute I decided to spend 40 days in Koh Chang, instead of 30. So, when I went to the pharmacist in the U.S. to get the pills, I asked for 40. He said, “You can’t have 40.” Not, “I can’t give you 40” or, “The prescription calls for 30,” but, “You can’t have 40.” I’ve done something wrong, I’m being punished, I can’t have the medicine I need. I tried explaining the circumstances, but I might as well have been talking to a cow for all the good it did me. The system had spoken: better I should get malaria than work around a minor glitch in the paperwork. What a health-hostile attitude.

Eventually, I told the pharmacist to forget the whole thing. Upon arrival in Bangkok, I went to a pharmacy and bought all 40 pills, quickly and easily, for a fraction of the cost in the U.S. I was new to the game back then. Now I buy the medicine I need when and where I need it. In fact, I tend to buy everything when and where I need it; why haul a lot of stuff around the world?

Many U.S. companies are using the Internet to find cheaper products and workers to carry out tasks overseas. We perpetual travelers have been there, done that. We do our outsourcing in person, in the host country, rather than online. And we get the same results: better, cheaper, faster, prettier, lighter…and more fun.

Paul Terhorst
Roving “Retire Early” Editor, International Living