A couple who quit their jobs to go travel blogging have had their dream trip descend into a nightmare, after being detained in an Iranian jail. They are now facing up to ten years in prison after they flew a drone in Tehran without the correct license, but claim to have been unaware of the country’s strict drone operating policies.
Jolie King, a building designer, and her construction manager boyfriend Mark Firkin were caught operating the drone without permission back in July. Their families are speaking out to claim the entire situation is a "misunderstanding." The pair frequently post to their 21,000 Instagram followers after they quit their '9-5 grind' in order to travel the world together. They were traveling from their native Australia, heading across Asia and Europe before ending in London, all the while documenting their findings on the social media site.
Our biggest motivation behind the vlogs [video blogs] is to hopefully inspire anyone wanting to travel, and also try to break the stigma around travelling to countries which get a bad rap in the media.
It is reported they first arrived in Iran on June 30th, but a video they posted announcing they were there has since been removed.
The Times reports that the Iranian authorities informed King she was being detained in hope of a prisoner swap. They are currently awaiting trial in the Islamic Republic.
there are a lot of very envious people in the world. this is an absurd punishment for the crime - i hope for their speedy release. they will have learned enough of a lesson - hell - they would have learned enough of a lesson with the drone being confiscated and them being escorted out of the country.
To be honest, i cant feel sorry for them. I still hope they manage to get out of that situation somehow, but it still is just another case of so called influencers, instagrammers or whatever of not giving a shit about rules and laws of a country they visit....it just takes a few minutes to look up stuff on the net.
Even more open and liberal countries have some pretty harsh laws. Few years back i traveled southeast asia a lot.
First thing i did was always to ckeck on important rules and laws for travelers...
Example Thailand: do not talk shit about the king or you will end up in prison pretty fast and for some time.
Or Myanmar: do not take photos of millitary buildings or dont talk about Aung San Suu Kyi in public.
(she was still under arrest that time) but it was still a great trip, even with a huge millitary presence around the country.....And the list goes on.
I just dont get it why people just dont take the time, especially with the knowledge to go to a country with a 100% different mentality, law and gouvernment system.
But i get it...its just for the likes and clicks. This people should be actually a good example for their followers and use "the influence" to show how to travel responsible. But i guess thats not cool enough.....
People like that just give a bad reputation to other travelers.
i don't think it was 'for the likes and clicks' as they barely have a following and i would not consider them influencers. people were traveling long distances overland in a converted land rover for decades before this and they'll be doing it for decades after.
Well said, 100% right.