Lesson Learned

There are multiple ways to get what you want. In the process of camping out on Smith Island a few days ago, I learned an important lesson:

Stick to one method.

For example, there were multiple ways to get to Smith Island:

1. (The legit way) Pay 500 rupees per day, take a fisherman and have him bring you back at sunset.

2. (Bending the Rules) Get a student permit, wave it in front of the chief wildlife officer's face, and get him to bend the rules slightly, allowing you to visit every day for free (only paying for the boat)

3. (Breaking the rules) Wake up at 5AM, take a fisherman over to Smith before the wildlife officer shows up to work, camp out for a week, and then pay a fisherman to sneak you back to the mainland.

All of these techniques work...

The key thing, is to know ahead of time which one you're goin to do - and transitioning from one to the other is the mistake to avoid.

Simply put: Bending the rules can be fun, and open many doors for you - however, it also makes you quite visible... if you've just gotten a policeman to waive certain ruels for you, its not wise to later break the rules in a blatent way... The fact is that if you get caught, he'll remember you, and you won't be able to claim ignorance.

In the end, everything worked out fine... My friends got to camp for a week, i got to camp for a night, and we didn't get properly caught.

And Smith was oh so worth it.

It was a cheap lesson to learn....