Author Topic: Travel Culture  (Read 6410 times)

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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #45 on: January 05, 2018, 02:55:54 pm »
On the one hand I am floored with the idea of buying my kid a ticket to 'sin city' but on the other I am jealous at your confidence in your offspring.  I assume that she is awesome.  Also I assume this IS your daughter and not girlfriend or somesuch...

Offline JMT

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #46 on: January 05, 2018, 02:58:09 pm »
On the one hand I am floored with the idea of buying my kid a ticket to 'sin city' but on the other I am jealous at your confidence in your offspring.  I assume that she is awesome.  Also I assume this IS your daughter and not girlfriend or somesuch...

LOL - Girlfriend.  I'm 28, she's 21.  We're going together.

Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #47 on: January 05, 2018, 03:10:10 pm »
Blargh.  You are a tiny wee fucker.  I assumed everybody on here was old and in decay except Kim Young-Un.

Offline JMT

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #48 on: January 05, 2018, 04:02:15 pm »
Blargh.  You are a tiny wee fucker.  I assumed everybody on here was old and in decay except Kim Young-Un.

I'm young - but not tiny.

Offline cybercoma

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #49 on: January 05, 2018, 06:17:54 pm »
You put the small in Smallc.

Offline JMT

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #50 on: January 05, 2018, 06:31:11 pm »
You put the small in Smallc.

Averagec

Offline Queefer Sutherland

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #51 on: January 05, 2018, 07:00:07 pm »
I'm 11 years old
"Nipples is one of the great minds of our time!" - Bubbermiley

Offline JMT

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #52 on: January 05, 2018, 07:45:25 pm »

Offline cybercoma

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Offline JMT

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #54 on: January 05, 2018, 08:04:38 pm »

Offline Omni

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #55 on: January 05, 2018, 08:18:50 pm »
I just came back from a family visit to Ontario. The only way I could have been colder is if I was bigger. Luckily the left coast is providing some warmth to thaw me out.

Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: The Travel Thread
« Reply #56 on: January 07, 2018, 09:18:47 am »
I’m not sure what happened to him - he hasn’t logged in here in months, and it worries me.

msj spotted on another thread...
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Offline JMT

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Re: The Travel Thread
« Reply #57 on: January 07, 2018, 11:57:56 am »
msj spotted on another thread...

I see that - it brings joy to my tiny heart.
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Offline msj

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #58 on: January 13, 2018, 07:46:37 am »
Ok, break time is over. I will not promise how much I will post in these forums as my life is so much more enjoyable when I avoid reading some (a minority) of the people who post in forums such as these.

Lets talk about India; a country of contradictions: a backwater, overcrowded and under toileted, a place where the locals shake their heads meaning “yes,” “no!” or “maybe.”

In a word a “sh!thole.”

We did two tours in India and today I will talk about tour #1 where we started in the South:

https://www.gadventures.com/trips/best-of-southern-india/AHBS/

We got this tour on sale for about $1,300 each and paid for our airfare with points from our credit card. The tour included transport to all the cities listed below, budget hotels, various entrances to palaces and museums, a full time travel guide, a nearly full time bus driver, and a few meals. So very good value.

The tour group consisted of two women from Switzerland, a mother and son from Scotland,a young man from England, an older woman from England, and us two Canadians being led by a man from southern India who spoke 6 languages.

Air Canada now has direct flights from Vancouver to Dehli which is 14 hours. Then took Air India to Kochi in the South for another 3 hours. Add in wait times, and time getting off Vancouver Island, and total travel time, excluding the layover on the 7th, is about 24 hours.

Left Vancouver on December 8 and arrived, with time zone change late in the evening on the 9th. So it is like a day and a half of travel/time zone warp but you get the time zone warp back when you return.

As to the trip, I think I will break it down by the places we visited:

Kochi: a lovely city on the South west coast. Warm and laid back. Lots of Christians here (18% in this region) and a few Muslims so it was neat seeing them share a park with Xmas decorations while rock ‘n roll Xmas tunes were being played (although that was when we returned to Kochi towards the end of the tour on Dec 23).

Wife got a sim card for her phone giving her 1gb of data per day for a month for a cost of $10. This was handy as the wifi is not that great in India.

Anyway, saw the chinese fishing nets, the Dutch Palace, the Jewish Synagogue, St. Francis church (oldest in India), a spice market, and a Kathakli dance.

Kalpetta: after a 4 hour train ride and 2 hours by bus we arrived in Kalpetta for a nature hike that took us to the prehistoric Eddakal caves with their ancient petrogylphs.  Also visited a farm area where I had my first taste of India pepper off the vine (spicier than Cambodia). Saw coffee and rice being harvested and many different fauna/flora. Honestly, this was awesome.

Finished the day with a meter long pour of chai.

Mudumalai: a 4 hour bus ride to this wildlife sanctuary.

We went out by jeep for a safari in the late afternoon.  No tigers but saw a bear (sloth bear I think), bison, wild elephants, sambar deer, boars,  and various birds so I was happy.

Mysore: after a bus ride we were back in a big city again with a visit to the Palace and Chamundi temple.

Mamallapuram: after an 8 hour evening train ride to Chennai and a 1 hour bus ride we arrived in this oceanside town on the east coast.

Had a day of free time to explore the sights, shopping, beach, and restaurants.

Then spent some time at The Shore Temple and other various ruins including Krishna’s “butterball” which is a large rock that is “stuck” (by butter - get it?) in a really wierd position. It looks like it should fall down and yet it just sort of hangs on.

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Puducherry: about 2 hours by bus and we are in this French influenced city.  At this point we needed a break from all the curry we were eating and welcomed a French meal.

Madurai: about 6 hours from Puducherry we arrived by bus to one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.

Finally found some brandy on the menu so indulged in about 6 doubles at about $4 per round.

Visited a Ghandi museum, had a rickshaw tour of the city to see various markets and people at work and play, and saw the Mernakshi Temple which was amazing.

Thekkady: stopped here on the way to Periyar. Stopped at a spice garden and a tea factory/plantation. This is my kind of tour. Bought some fresh spices and a little bit of tea before moving on.

Periyar Sanctuary: took a boat cruise on a lake. Saw some more wildlife and generally had a laidback good time. Also ended up at a cooking class and made our own India dinner at a local house.

Alleppey/Kerala Backwaters:  this was perhaps the best part of the trip. The backwaters is not some sort of Alabama deliverance with banjo music.

No, more like a warm Netherlands where we rode some boats and went for a long hike exploring the countryside. Fruit bats and various birds were everywhere.

Prior to arriving here by bus, we stopped at a roadside cattle market and saw literally tons of cows as they were being auctioned off. The cows may have been sacred but in these parts they were also being used (probably milk and work cows moreso than meat).


Kochi: back here before moving on to the north for our second tour.  It is now December 23/24 and soon we will leave the heat and comfort of the south for the cool and polluted north but that is for another post.

A few extra notes: had some Indian wine. The Sula syrah was disgusting. The Sula chenin blanc was drinkable but poor value. That is, not good enough even though it was only $25 a bottle in a restaurant. Hopefully their wine industry will develop to its full potential in coming years. 

Toilets: not an issue other than carry your own paper and wet wipes.  Do not look to see where the flow is going.

Smells/pollution: yes people tend to throw their garbage in the street and there is the smell of humanity and the various dogs/cows/pigs roaming streets. Not as bad as the north which itself was not bad at all.

The pollution in the south is lower than the north and only bothered my wife a little.  I was fine but she is borderline asthmatic and since she picked India, well, that’s her problem, isn’t it? 😉


 







« Last Edit: May 01, 2020, 11:56:02 pm by msj »
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Offline Michael Hardner

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Re: Travel Culture
« Reply #59 on: January 13, 2018, 08:25:21 am »
Thanks, that was a great read.