Canadian Politics Today

Beyond Politics => General Discussion => Topic started by: JMT on February 02, 2017, 10:18:00 am


Title: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on February 02, 2017, 10:18:00 am
Where have you been, and where are you going. 

I was trying to figure out how to share my travel map, but I couldn't.


Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on February 02, 2017, 06:52:59 pm
So, my upcoming trip is to Hong Kong.  I'm really looking forward to it as it's one of my bucket list places.  Where would you most like to go if you could?
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on February 02, 2017, 09:52:50 pm
Going to breakup our trips this year.

Thinking of using our visa points for a week in Iceland.

But in November so the wife can see the northern lights.

Then in December will try Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Costa Rica (probably not all of those places but at least a couple). 

Only concern is getting there and back without stopping in the US and without using a US airline.

What I enjoy about going to Asia, instead of Central/South America, is Cathay Pacific/Singapore airlines.

United/Delta don't even rate in comparison.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on February 02, 2017, 10:04:04 pm
Have you ever flown LATAM?  I've heard that they're quite good.  I also hear very good things about Aeromexico.

I like to break up my trips, as you plan to do.  Mexico was in January, with Hong Kong in May (United through ORD - yuck).  This summer has a variety of possible adventures.  There will be at least one long weekend road trip - possibly to Waterton Lake.  There will also be a long weekend fly away trip.  I'm not sure where that trip will take us.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: cybercoma on February 02, 2017, 10:13:26 pm
I'm going to Boston. Does that count? I wouldn't if I could avoid it.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on February 02, 2017, 10:21:05 pm
I want to go to Boston, so it counts.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on February 02, 2017, 10:23:42 pm
Be careful!

A former PM of Norway has supposedly been detained for an hour because he travelled to Iran in 2014.

On a diplomatic passport.

http://wjla.com/news/local/former-norwegian-prime-minister-held-for-questioning-at-dulles-airport

My experience with customs agents around the world makes this story very plausible.

Canada isn't bad, American customs are on the stupid side, Vietnamese/Laotian/Thai/Cambodian/ try to be unpleasant but you can tell it's not in them, Hong Kong are efficient and full of common sense, Greeks like their submachine guns but intimidate no one, the Dutch/Swiss/Germans/French are reasonable, efficient-ish.

Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Blueblood on February 02, 2017, 10:55:14 pm
Went to Bahamas.  That was good.  One of the countries that has its act together and all the banks are Canadian there.  May try for Ireland later in the year, and if I'm lucky a snowmobile excursion to valemont as revelstoke is way to busy for that.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: kimmy on February 03, 2017, 12:34:09 am
My s.o. and I have been talking about going to Las Vegas because we want to see all the neat things.

 -k
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on February 03, 2017, 07:43:38 am
Las Vegas is a pretty cool place....as long as you're not really in to gambling.  I think if you were, it would be the worst imaginable place to go.

When we were in Puerto Vallarta, my girlfriend's grand parents spend the entire night in a casino until it closed at 6 a.m.  I think they might die in Vegas.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: guest4 on February 03, 2017, 08:01:24 am
Walking through a local casino and seeing scores of seniors sitting at slot machines, attached by a cord running between the machine and their bodies was quite unsettling.  I think these were cards with balances on them inserted into the machines, and the cords were attached to their belt loops or in their pockets so they wouldn't be lost, but it sill looked so spooky, and not nearly as glamorous as casino scenes on TV, that's for sure.  Whatever interest I'd had in casinos died that day.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on February 06, 2017, 10:51:59 pm
Went to Bahamas.  That was good.  One of the countries that has its act together and all the banks are Canadian there.

There is a bank in Cambodia called "Canadia" and it is an international bank so my bank card would work there so I tended to use it.

Not Canadian in any way but it was reliable.

Man, is it stressful when you try to take cash out and all you get is your bank card.

Not so bad in a city with many banks, but along a border with only one ATM in town, well I didn't want to be putting the wife's lipstick on if you know what I mean....

Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Blueblood on February 07, 2017, 12:49:06 am
Hats off to you for being able to get out of your comfort zone and checking that stuff out.  I like hearing the stories but like staying in my comfort zone lol. 
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on February 13, 2017, 10:33:25 pm
Not that I want this thread to become about Trump, but I find the story about the US citizen who works for NASA who had to give up his phone for inspection at the border to be interesting.

http://cnn.it/2lDPq57

If you are going there for a conference, how comfortable do you feel knowing that this administration is willing to use the laws to get any and all information from your phone?

I just have contacts and emails with my clients in my phone. But I'm not willing to risk it.

Guess we will find out what this means for travel to the US when it shows up in the stats in a few years....
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: ?Impact on February 14, 2017, 12:08:25 am
Not that I want this thread to become about Trump, but I find the story about the US citizen who works for NASA who had to give up his phone for inspection at the border to be interesting.

Yes, it is best to cross the border with zero technology. You phone (or iPad/laptop) will no doubt have access to your email, etc. as well. Perhaps it even signs into your 'secure' corporate systems automatically as well. Give up your phone and pin, you might as well give up everything.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Omni on February 21, 2017, 02:23:47 pm
Be careful!

A former PM of Norway has supposedly been detained for an hour because he travelled to Iran in 2014.

On a diplomatic passport.

My first trip working in Iran (Kish Island) I ended up chatting at breakfast one day to  American who was also working there but who was living in Canada. He warned me about crossing the border into the US with the Iranian visa showing. They glue a card that takes up a whole page showing the visa info. Of course I was scheduled to go to Dallas im a few weeks for training. I figured all I could do was just play dumb, but when it came to US Customs I sipped my boarding pass into my passport at the appropriate page and handed it to the mam. Them I said Oh I'm sorry I just keep all the paper work together amd luckily he said Oh that's OK, turned to another page, put the stamp im smd I was on my way. Phew!
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on March 06, 2017, 11:03:27 pm
I have read that the US may pass legislation allowing Canadians to stay for up to 8 months without having to file tax returns.

Also, it looks like many provinces are allowing us to be outside the country/province for up to 7 months.

This is awesome: while I will continue to avoid the US for the foreseeable future, but I am hoping to be able to spend 7 months each year bouncing around Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and, who knows, maybe even Myanmar.

Warm countries, great people, the best food, and cheap.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: guest4 on March 07, 2017, 08:24:51 am
My niece is planning a trip to Europe and Egypt next year.  I'm envious. 
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on March 07, 2017, 10:14:32 am
I've been hesitant about Egypt given the situation there.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: guest4 on March 07, 2017, 12:57:10 pm
Having family there helps.   



Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on March 07, 2017, 10:45:12 pm
My wife was at a dinner party with friends on Saturday (I am already too tired from tax season so stayed home) and found out that her girlfriend, who has a boyfriend who is now working in Egypt (Dutchman dredging the Nile), cannot get permission from her ex-husband to allow her 9 year old daughter to travel to Egypt with her for a visit.

Glad I didn't go because everyone was beating up the ex in absentia.

When my wife was telling me about this later, she said something like "they will all get picked up by private security ...."

I just looked at her in disbelief.

Um, if adults need private security then how comfortable would you be to see your child go with your ex spouse to a foreign country for a month?

Oh, I could see it click for her.

Man, if I was in on that conversation I would have felt like a Trump supporter at a feminist convention.

Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: guest4 on March 07, 2017, 11:32:25 pm
Private security or private driver?   When I visited prior to Mubarek's sacking, my brother-in-law arranged for pickup by his company's private service for pickup and delivery to Cairo airport.  Having an employer supplied driver readily available seems to be a kind of perk in some jobs.    Perhaps that has morphed into security for foreigners. 
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on March 07, 2017, 11:45:27 pm
Private security. 

They want us to go too but the timing doesn't work although I offered for my wife to go while I stay home and work.   ;D

Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: guest4 on March 08, 2017, 12:39:05 am
Private security. 

They want us to go too but the timing doesn't work although I offered for my wife to go while I stay home and work.   ;D

If you ever do go, I highly recommend a Nile cruise. 
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on March 16, 2017, 11:43:35 pm
Hmmm, I notice the ads on this site keeping popping up with Intrepid Travel's visit Costa Rica.

Like it knows that's where the wife and I are planning to go in December.

Think I should do a search for tranny Thai ladyboys and see what pops up!  ;D

And, no, that is not going to pop up, you pervs!
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on March 21, 2017, 09:16:29 am
Trump is trying his best to create jobs for US airlines.

Clearly targeting Arabian Peninsula based airlines with the latest ban on cameras, laptops, and tablets on flights: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheAtlantic/~3/S7pHKGSlnLs/

Also see this:  https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-08/u-s-shouldn-t-raise-barriers-to-middle-eastern-airlines

All we need now is for foreign countries to follow suit and place similar bans so we have to check cameras and laptops and subject them to theft from baggage handlers. 

I wonder what the next few years will bring for Canadian passport holders.  Sweden/Germany have strong passports, the US, for now, too. 

Hopefully this will not taint us. If anything, I hope Trudeau works harder to ease restrictions so maybe Canada can benefit from Trump's idiotic attempts at protecting US based airlines. 

With the revoking of visas to specialist nurses at Windsor/Detroit and the turning away of the "rapists and murderers" at the southern border, I hope the white nationalist agenda fails miserably as various labour markets feel the squeeze. 



Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: ?Impact on March 23, 2017, 06:00:11 pm
cameras and laptops and subject them to theft from baggage handlers.

Not baggage handlers, TSA agents. ABC did a test with iPads passing through security, and found one stolen by a TSA agent. They showed the security camera footage of the officer handling the iPad, but the TSA said there was no record. They had enabled the iPad tracking software, and traced it to the agents house. They showed up at the agents house and asked for it and he denied having it. They then sent the command to have it alarm, and they could hear it beeping from inside the house. The shytehead TSA agent finally admitted that his wife took it, yeah right. At least when they checked with the TSA a few days later the official response is the agent was no longer working there.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on April 23, 2017, 10:14:36 am
Travel plans for 2017 are now up in the air but for good reasons.

Friends from France are coming out in July and then friends from little England in September. 

The ones from France have lived on the Island before but from England - they have never been here so: Road Trip!

Going to see Hornby Island, Tofino, Ucluelet, Victoria, Osooyoos, Kelowna, Lilloet, Whistler, and Vancouver (yawn, the boring part of the trip). 

Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on May 09, 2017, 12:08:36 pm
22 minutes until I get on the plane to leave Chicago for Hong Kong.  It's pretty exciting.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on July 03, 2017, 09:40:11 am
Have had a lovely time in Victoria, Metchosin, and Port Renfrew this Canada Day long weekend.

Lovely Italian dinner (chicken liver, duck confit, chocolate tort) at Cafe Brio in Victoria. 

Then made it to the B&B in Metchosin which is a quiet rural farming/arty/hippie community 35 minutes away.

Went to Port Renfrew yesterday and had a great time at botanical beach. Tide pools full of mussels and sea urchins and stuffs.

Stuck the Go Pro into the pools to shoot some video and one of the park volunteers watched me closely.

She didn't know me but could probably see the mussel lust in my eyes as I would have loved to have harvested some instead of only getting video. 

Surprised as to how awesome the Pub is: craft beer, excellent food, awesome speakers - the only wrong with them was the country music.   

The drive out and back is on the slow side: windy highway on par with going out to Tofino but much slower.

The fog lifting up all morning made for many cool scenes. At one point we could see the shadows of wind swept fog clouds moving across the highway. 
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on August 06, 2017, 09:02:48 pm
The wife has booked our December vacation and the winner is...

India!

Things I have learned so far:

1) Air Canada has a direct flight from YVR to Delhi which is only 14 hours. Awesome.

2) We're going to two national parks so the chances of seeing a tiger and leopard are pretty good.

3) The Taj Mahal is being renovated and is surrounded by more garbage than I can find in the bush in redneckville next to where I live.

4) Wife wants to go to a Kama Sutra temple!  My wife is also a yoga instructor so ooh la la! Chakra checking time....

5) We will probably be eating too much vegetarian but that's ok because India has the best vegetarian food.

6) We will probably be dry at various times - I am concerned that the accumulated hangover may kill us...

7) We are going for 30 days which is a long long time to use squat toilets.

8 )In the south we visit: Kochi, Kalpetta, Mudumalai, Mysore, Mamallapuram, Puducherry, Madurai, Alleppey.

9) In the north we visit: Delhi, Varanasi, Khajuraho, Agra, Ranthambore, Jaipur, Rawla Jojawar, Udaipur.

Should be a grand adventure.







Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: BC_cheque on August 06, 2017, 09:15:13 pm
One day I got into a very extended conversation with a Microsoft call-centre technician stationed in India.  He said if I ever visit, he highly recommends this:

http://www.the-maharajas.com/

I checked it out while we were on the phone and he was so excited about it, I told him I definitely would check it out I ever make it to India (I would love the vegetarian foods, personally).   

So, msj, keep it in mind and if you end up on it, please come back and let me know so I can live vicariously through you.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on August 06, 2017, 09:37:28 pm
That looks awesome.

On two tours so will not have time to do that.

But will get a day time train ride while in the South.

Not as luxurious as that and, I'm hoping, will be closer to third class as that's the type of travel I prefer. I like getting close to the people, stink and all.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on August 07, 2017, 12:20:10 am
I'm jealous.  I bought a Sea-Doo, so I have to cut down a bit until I finish paying for it.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Michael Hardner on August 08, 2017, 08:27:14 am
I just travelled to the Ontario BurningMan event and am off tomorrow to camp in VT and stay at the seaside in Maine too.  :)
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on August 20, 2017, 11:04:43 pm
I love this time of year as my work load gets light and I have weekends off to do things.

Saturday was a day trip to Salt Spring Island to check out the market (found lion's mane mushrooms), get some craft beer (grumblers of IPA and Porter) and a drive up to Mt. Maxwell which was extremely fun (4 by 4ing - although easy does it since it is a car rather than a jeep).

Then today went to Mt Washington and spent a few hours hiking around paradise meadows, feeding the whisky jacks some suet, and keeping the squirrels at bay.

Tourists in our own backyard. 


Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Michael Hardner on August 21, 2017, 07:51:41 am
Whoa - msj - I was just there last week.  Visited 3 or 4 sites and drove up the mountain !  Where did you go specifically ?
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: msj on August 21, 2017, 09:30:10 am
just did the short trail to Battleship lake and then past Lake Helen Mackenzie.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Goddess on August 21, 2017, 10:14:35 am
(https://canadianpoliticalevents.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi909.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac296%2Fpalmtree67_bucket%2FFB_IMG_1503328498436_zps4wjnqsqz.jpg&hash=74ec19d51b0aaaa2eb24c70f500824a4ef36f160)

(https://canadianpoliticalevents.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi909.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac296%2Fpalmtree67_bucket%2FFB_IMG_1503328507578_zpskk9okunp.jpg&hash=95e794f6bd62338f2c3783275c17bd40939fd4a4)

I finally got around to a project I had been wanting to do.  I used some old barnboard to make signs of all the places I've travelled.  They are on 3 different trees around our big firepit out back.  I will be adding Greece to them next year  :)
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on December 06, 2017, 11:19:32 am
Well, Westjet was practically giving away Mexico City, so, I decided to take the dive. 

An 8 day trip at a budget hotel (well rated) in April came to $1200 for two people.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Michael Hardner on December 06, 2017, 06:20:27 pm
Package deals.  Wow.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on December 06, 2017, 07:13:33 pm
Package deals.  Wow.

I actually built it on Expedia, but yeah.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Michael Hardner on December 07, 2017, 05:33:49 am
Is msj still going to India ?
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on December 07, 2017, 07:18:04 am
Is msj still going to India ?

I’m not sure what happened to him - he hasn’t logged in here in months, and it worries me.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 05, 2018, 12:28:10 pm
So, I bought a 4 day trip to Vegas for Kayla's birthday, since she's 21.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner 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...
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT 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.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner 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.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT 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.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on January 05, 2018, 06:17:54 pm
You put the small in Smallc.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 05, 2018, 06:31:11 pm
You put the small in Smallc.

Averagec
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Queefer Sutherland on January 05, 2018, 07:00:07 pm
I'm 11 years old
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 05, 2018, 07:45:25 pm
I'm 11 years old

I’m 11 inches long.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on January 05, 2018, 07:59:40 pm
Averagec
I’m 11 inches long.
???
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 05, 2018, 08:04:38 pm
???

You’re not 11 inches long?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni 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.
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: Michael Hardner 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...
Title: Re: The Travel Thread
Post by: JMT on January 07, 2018, 11:57:56 am
msj spotted on another thread...

I see that - it brings joy to my tiny heart.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj 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.

[attach=1]

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? 😉


 







Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 13, 2018, 08:25:21 am
Thanks, that was a great read.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 13, 2018, 09:03:13 am
Found this link on my Twitter TL and thought that it gives a good overview of some of the sights in India (well, not the police/protest pictures):

https://in.reuters.com/news/picture/india-this-week-idINRTX48UBI?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter

I have tons of photos of the trip on FB but, alas, this is an anonymous forum and I make a terrible friend.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 13, 2018, 09:40:19 am
As I don't care to hide my identity, you can find some of my pictures here:

https://www.facebook.com/john.m.taylor.73/photos_albums?lst=642606069%3A642606069%3A1515857982

and here:

https://www.instagram.com/jmt18325/

BTW, I'm insanely jealous of your trip.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 13, 2018, 09:51:05 am
Handsome young John.... I am jealous of your youth...
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 13, 2018, 09:52:26 am
Handsome young John.... I am jealous of your youth...

Don't get all gay on me now. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 13, 2018, 09:53:48 am
Nope.  Straight as an arrow over here.  Some of my gay friends can't believe the lack of male contact I have had in my life.

But I WON'T be revealing my true identity.  I'm Batman.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 13, 2018, 09:55:55 am
Nope.  Straight as an arrow over here.

Most of us can't claim the same.  I'm straight as an arrow now (who wouldn't be with a beautiful gf like mine?), but wasn't always as sure of that - not that it matters anyway (although, living out here, in what might as well be Alabama, it would matter).
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 13, 2018, 09:56:49 am
BTW, anyone who wants to friend me is quite free to. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on January 13, 2018, 03:38:43 pm
As I don't care to hide my identity, you can find some of my pictures here:

https://www.facebook.com/john.m.taylor.73/photos_albums?lst=642606069%3A642606069%3A1515857982

and here:

https://www.instagram.com/jmt18325/

BTW, I'm insanely jealous of your trip.

Awww, it's so nice to see you J! 

I always wonder what the posters here look like, good on you for sharing.  I wouldn't be so brave.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest4 on January 14, 2018, 02:30:28 pm
Awww, it's so nice to see you J! 

I always wonder what the posters here look like, good on you for sharing.  I wouldn't be so brave.

Me neither.  Wouldn't want crackpots who disagree with me showing up on my page.   But here's a pic of me at work.

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 15, 2018, 12:11:13 pm
Me neither.  Wouldn't want crackpots who disagree with me showing up on my page.   But here's a pic of me at work.

Why did you say I was dumb to say anyone could friend me? Ha
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest4 on January 15, 2018, 12:27:46 pm
Why did you say I was dumb to say anyone could friend me? Ha

Mistake.  I post on my phone a lot and the "quote" and "dumb" buttons are very close.  Sometimes I miss.  Sorry about that and thanks for asking so I could clear that up.  I hadn't even noticed.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on January 15, 2018, 12:32:39 pm
Mistake.  I post on my phone a lot and the "quote" and "dumb" buttons are very close.  Sometimes I miss.  Sorry about that and thanks for asking so I could clear that up.  I hadn't even noticed.
You can click “undo rating”
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest4 on January 15, 2018, 12:43:32 pm
You can click “undo rating”

Doesn't seem to be there for me.  Maybe because I left the page after rating it?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 21, 2018, 07:45:23 pm
Now onto tour #2:

From Kochi in the south of India we flew to Dehli on December 24.

Ah the stench of the big city! With air quality readings into the high 300’s we were happy we brought masks. 

This tour was a National Geographic “comfort” tour: https://www.gadventures.com/trips/discover-india/4290/

I think it cost around $3,200. In return we had some of the best guides I have ever experienced on any tours.

Again, lets break it down by city:

Dehli: Arrive and are supposed to be picked up by a local taxi company that is run by batterred women (which, sadly, means almost any Indian woman could apply).

But wires are crossed or something so the wife emails the tour leader and we hop into a taxi for a fixed price ride to the hotel which costs, including tip, ~$12 for a 45 minute ride that takes us 15 km. Traffic is bad in Dehli.

Get to the hotel and go through security. Handbags through an x-ray machine and an unconvincing pat down.

Apparently this is a 4 star hotel and I just arrived from the south so used to 2ish star hotels and dressed like it too.

Check in and relax before meeting our new tour group who consisted of: a chinese man who was born in Calcutta and came to Toronto as a young man and now was bringing his daughter to see India (he is 78, she, a grade school teacher at a Roman Catholic school, probably late 30’s), a fiercely independent woman and self-employed engineer from Toronto area around 46, a scientist from New York who has given at least on TED talk and his wife who is a retired math teacher (public school system), a mother from Nashville and her daughter who now lives in DC, a woman from the UK, some aussies in their mid-30’s, a man from Holland and his wife from Turkey, and a young medical student from Australia but has Sri Lankan roots. By the end of the tour we will all become friends.

Leave the hotel for a short walk to find dinner at a local mall down the road. Go through security at the mall. This is getting weird!

Have a buffet experience where you fill up and then learn that that was just the appetizer round. Good food but not like the south.

Following day we get a bus ride to a “sh!thole” part of the city where we meet a 17 year old kid who tells us his story of being kidnapped at a very young age and finding this agency that helps get kids off the street.

Then we walk the streets of Dehli before going to a mosque.

Then a rickshaw to a sikh temple: nothing like “washing” your feet with common people water before entering a temple on barefoot to get the germaphobe senses going.

Finally go to the Qutub Minar to see some really cool ruins and some really hard iron.

Varanasi: we fly from Dehli to Varanasi which is a short flight. But with the hour it takes to get to the airport and getting to the airport early, we arrive later in the afternoon.

We have a nice lunch outside on the hotel lawn before climbing aboard one of the best tuk tuk rides of my life. We zoom through the streets to arrive near the Ganges river.

Then we snake through some laneways, dodging cows and... everything opens up at at one of the ghats.  I actually gasped as I was not expecting such a stunning scene: steps leading down to the rivers edge, boats, the river shrouded in thin fog, the other edge of the river across the way. 

Get on a boat for a bit of a ride.

[attach=1]

 Now, the river is no doubt filthy but it did not smell that bad.

Even when we arrived to the place where they wash the dead and then burn them by the rivers edge the smell was not bad (but we were up wind so...).

Seeing a dog hanging near this place was both amusing and disturbing. Give that dog a bone!

Anyway, the guide gave us an excellent lecture even if it was more religious based than science based (he seemed to think the river was just fine thank you very much - I’m no naturalist but I know what wildlife and plant-life look like in a clean river...)

Then we watch a religious concert being performed onshore from our boat before finding dinner and then another fabulous tuk tuk to the hotel.

The following morning we again go out for a boat ride to see the morning rituals and bathing. 

Then it was onto a bus to see the Sarnath ruins. This is supposedly the site of Buddha’s first sermon.   A very holy site for buddhists which is great because it was peaceful, serene, and quiet unlike visiting Hindu, Sikh, or Muslim sites. To be fair, Indians are on holidays at this time so the Hindu, Sikh, Muslim sites were busier than usual.  Also, to be fair, buddhists appreciate silence.

Then it was off to see the the silk houses. Within a 2km radius there are about 175 silk workshops clacking away.

Our group got the tour and then we invited in to sit down, have some chai, and buy some silk.

Being in a group helped as it took the pressure off. However, the silk was so beautiful that I ended up leaving the place with the group giving me the nickname “Mr. Silk.”.

The following day we would head out to the airport for a really short flight to Khajuraho but that will have to wait for another post....
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on January 22, 2018, 09:59:28 am
I like seeing you beautiful people.   :)

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest7 on January 22, 2018, 08:47:31 pm
Imagine if you see someone you work with!  You could have so much fun with them...
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 23, 2018, 05:13:08 am
I like seeing you beautiful people.   :)

Wow.  You are pretty !
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 23, 2018, 05:13:41 am
Me neither.  Wouldn't want crackpots who disagree with me showing up on my page.   But here's a pic of me at work.

:)  Smiley face !
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 23, 2018, 06:34:02 am
I love a cutie smile !
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on January 23, 2018, 03:39:25 pm
Goddess and dia, you brave souls!  I can't bring myself to post a pic (maybe one day) but it's very nice to put a face to your names. 

You're both beautiful.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 23, 2018, 11:38:24 pm
On with the tour.

We arrive at Khajuraho airport and we are the only plane there.  Probably about 150 people total so the airport is quiet as we pick up our bags and head to the bus.  Beautiful airport with art all around.

We are going to visit the western temples famed for their erotic sculptures featured in the Kama Sutra.  These Hindu temples are spread out over a wonderful landscape that felt more Buddhist than Hindu.  Saw the famous 69 sculpture and the ones with bestiality and everyone had a good laugh.

 The following day we leave by bus and then train for Agra. 

But, the bus gets a flat tire so the spare is put on and we drive down the road and find the nearest tire repair shop for a fix.

This part, between Khajuraho and Agra reminds me of Eastern France with the mustard seed in full bloom and the yellows and greens bright in the hills and fields.

Agra:  it is now December 30 and we are waiting in line outside the Gate to enter the Taj Mahal.  It is dark and foggy and cold (well, for the Aussies it was cold, for us Canadians it was warm - probably around 8 degrees or so).

Finally, the gates open and we rush forward. 

Then we stop, wait our turn to get patted down, women to the left and men to the right.

Once through security we explore this wondrous site.  The history, the glorious white marble, the ... fog so thick you can't see a thing.

Finally we find the temple but the fog is so think you cannot see the domes even when they should be right in front of you.

Fortunately, we manage to get inside before the crowds are too much.

Some of our group are disappointed.  I don't mind as it is a truly unique experience and, well, I did not go to India for the Taj.

Later, as the fog lifts, we go to the Agra Fort. This is more like it! Moats that held crocodiles (or is it alligators?) and pens for tigers.  Boiling oil could be spilled from there and huge boulders could roll down the slope crushing any attackers over here.  Sharp turns are used to prevent elephants from using their strength/speed to batter down gates since they cannot turn sharply. 

This Fort is awesome.

Then, we are off on a very long bus ride to Ranthambore National Park. 

Ranthambore National Park:  We arrive for a late dinner and head off to bed.

In the early morning we rise, have breakfast, and head out on a large open canopy bus.

We find a tiger "pug mark" and scan for tigers.  In the end we see a variety of wildlife but no tigers.  A very peaceful way to spend the morning.

Arrive back at our hotel for lunch and soon we head out again for the afternoon safari and a walk amongst some ruins.

We do not see a tiger this time either but we get very close. There are so many tourists here that vehicles are doing everything they can to not collide as they head off in various directions chasing the poor tiger(s) that has been sighted.  At one point I fear that a vehicle is going to hit ours at high speed as they are reversing so I brace myself for an impact that is averted at the last second.

It was quite exciting but my favourite part was watching the sambar deer sitting down chewing and not giving a f^ck in the world about us being 10 feet away.

Now it is nightfall so we head back to the hotel in preparation of dinner, some traditional Hindu music and dancing, and then the fireworks to celebrate a new year.  The fireworks are fired off right above our heads so debris is raining down upon us because India, like Ecuador for example, understands fun rather than safety.

Then the dance music comes on (as in EDM) so we can dance the night away since tomorrow is yet another long bus ride to Jaipur...

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 28, 2018, 10:37:35 am
On to Jaipur: we would spend two nights here in the “Pink City” (which was more of a salmon colour to me, but whatevs).

We got to see the “wind palace” which is this weird looking building ... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawa_Mahal

Also visited the city palace, Amber Fort, and the Jantar Mantar observatory which is a highlight: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jantar_Mantar,_Jaipur

I was getting cranky with the tour group by this time so I skipped a dinner with a local family. My wife is a little less introverted than me so she went along with the tour group.

They went to the local family’s house where they prepared a wonderful meal. The food was good (no surprise) and the family very interesting.  It was a nice experience to interac with the locals and see how they live and blah blah blah I was so tired of eating 3 meals a day with these people even though I really am fond of them....I had a lovely curry meal, alone, in the hotel restaurant while trying to pick out bits of conversation from a French couple who were speaking french at a table across from me. 

With my “me” time satiated I was willing to spend free time shopping with the group on the next day.

I wanted to replace my wedding band in India. My current one was purchased at the Comox First Nation back in my university days (so it is on the cheap side).

I also was feeling miffled towards the FN artist community for their usual bullshit complaining about appropriation of “their” art. 

So, in a fit of (racist?) rage I swore to my wife that I would replace my wedding band with, ha, isn’t this so ironically funny?, a plain gold band purchased in INDIA. 

Meh, by the time I got to a decent jewellery store months after my “post CBC radio rage moment” I no longer cared (although I am unlikely to purchase FN art going forward but this is a topic for another thread).

Anywho, almost bought the wife some nice earrings but at $1,200 US, and being large hoops, even the wife wasn’t interested.

Much of the jewellery was nice but very bling-y and too close to being like costume jewellery. We prefer minimalistic pieces so we passed and I promised to make it up to her next time we are in Greece (which is a clever way to convince her to go back to Greece, no?).   

Jojawar: after a long bus ride we arrived to this small town. The hotel was more like a luxury boutique Hacienda.

We arrived in the afternoon and soon headed out for a train ride.

First, getting to the train was an experience. We climbed aboard an old (1940’s?) Chevrolet pickup truck. 

Drove through town and then down some winding roads (past a cow carcass being enjoyed by some feral dogs) to arrive at the train station.  Very rural: this was not the train station from Mysore or Chennai we had experienced earlier in our trip.

It was like a scene from the old west but with “east Indians.” We got on the train for a bit of a joy ride.  The doors are left open so you get to hang out of the train as it moves slowly to the next towns/villages. A very relaxing ride involving numerous stops, monkeys climbing onto the train to get some food from the locals (the train is more for tourists but the locals still use it to get around), and beautiful vistas.

After a while we get off, climbed aboard the Chevrolet that has followed us, and headed back to the hotel to watch the sun set from the roof and then have drinks and dinner before heading off to our last stop the next morning.

Udaipur: before coming here we walked the small town of Jojawar in the morning. Came across a woman with bracelets up and down her arms and with her head loaded with kitchen utensils and pots and pans she was trying to sell.  I was already overweight for the flight back to Dehli so I passed buying any of the heavy frying pans and pots. 

Then it was a bus ride to Udaipur.  It was very interesting as we got closer as the roadside marble shops dotted the roadside. 

This place felt wealthy and probably is nearly as wealthy as Kerala in the south.

But instead of the sweet/pungent smell of spices, here it was the sweet white dust of marble.

Dump trucks were full of marble carrying marble stone, rock, chips, dust, every which way.

Udaipur is a lakeside town and it reminded me of Kelowna in BC’s Okanagan.

Relaxed, laid back, lakeside comfort.  It was warm during the day and not too bad at night.

We did the usual: lakeside boat cruise, city palace, Jagdish Temple tour.

Did some shopping and sat in restaurants near the lake enjoying drinks and Indian food.

After a couple of nights our long journey was about to come to an end as we flew back to Dehli before, eventually saying good bye to our new friends and taking the long flight home to Vancouver.

But man, showering at the hotel in Richmond was so nice. Clean water that you could brush your teeth with and clean your body with without feeling grimy!

 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 28, 2018, 11:24:01 am
Ha !  The feeling of my first shower in Reno, after coming back from BurningMan is always amazing.

I really like the look of the wind palace.  The trip sounds too adventuresome for me.  Do you get car sick / food sick much when there ?

Thanks for the shares.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 28, 2018, 12:28:31 pm
We had many opportunities to buy gravol at any number of pharmacies but never did.

Would have made the bus rides more enjoyable.

They treat the lines on the road as guidelines and the movement is constant and too much like Frogger if you ever played that videogame.

Constantly passing and being passed. Constantly dodging cows, goats, people. Speeding up and slowing down.

Avoiding head-on crashes on too many occasions. 

I could not read on the bus so listened to audible books and watched a couple of movies I had downloaded from Netflix.

My type of vacation because I could get reading in while travelling between places which is better than sitting on a beach. 

But my wife had an episode on one of the train rides: she passed out so I gave her CPR just in case (but only 18 reps while trying to get the timing right as I silently hummed “another one bites the dust” at 110 beats per minute), then she vomited all over the train seat, and then we were whisked away to the train emergency medical for some fluid and some other shot to her arm which left a nasty bruise for 2 weeks.

We saw a doctor when we got home but who knows if that was motion sickness/heat sickness or what....

We had hydration type stuff with us so I made her drink that and she got better.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 28, 2018, 05:27:40 pm
Crikey that's a scary one.  I hope I never have to do that.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on February 19, 2018, 03:39:00 pm
A few more things on India before I forget them:

The men are pigs.  In the South they were not too bad but in the North they are nothing less than sexist pigs.

I pointed out to my wife how strange it was to hardly see any women walking the streets. Even during the day time not too many.

At night, even less.

A few incidents:

1) Indian men would stare at the women in our tour group, sometimes the men would grab their junk, other times make a strange whistle/sucking/clicking sound. 

2) In Kochi (in the South) the wife needed her passport to get the sim card for her phone.  I decided to leave her in the store and walk to the hotel just down the road and bring it back.

While I was gone, the guy helping her stopped talking to her and everything froze until I got back. As soon as I was present they could continue doing business.  Who knows what they think of this strange Canadian who would leave his wife to fend for herself in a store full of men.  But, at least they left her alone.

3) Indians like to take selfies and pictures of tourists and the men especially like to do this of female tourists. Our tour guides explained that they will go onto FaceBook and claim to be the boyfriend of the woman in the picture. Probably harmless fun but still creepy.

A few women did this to me (one of the security guards at the hotel in New Delhi for example) so who knows what they did with the picture of a middle-aged accountant with women who could be his daughter.

4) Locks on the doors.  I thought it was strange that the hotel door would open with a pad lock. Strange because anyone with a padlock could lock you in your hotel room. 

Fine, but what is even stranger is to find locks on the inside AND outside of doors within the hotel (the bathroom for instance).

When we did some homestay/cooking classes in Indian homes my wife noticed this.  Our tour guide in the north is a woman so when asked about this it was explained that those locks could be used for many purposes. It was implied that one of the purposes would be to lock the wife in the bathroom or for the woman to lock herself in the bathroom for defense purposes. 

Either way, I found no reason to try out such a system on my wife and, thankfully, she did not try it on me.

5) There were a few times when we were visiting roadside bathrooms that my wife made sure I hung around (both for her benefit and some of the other women in the tour benefit). 

Not a surprise I guess given that many women in the Indian countryside risk UTI's as they try to only go to the bathroom in the privacy of the night. That is, they will try to hold it all day to avoid the male gaze during the day.

6) Upon returning home we had to wander the streets of Richmond looking for a meal due to renovations at the kitchen in the hotel (and after a long flight we were not happy about this - but first world problems). 

She mentioned how nice it was to not be "on edge" while walking around at night.

She always had to put on this tough/brave face and brace herself to deal with the stares/leering/whistling/junk grabbing pigs in India. 

In Canada she has dealt with piggy men - no doubt, most of us men are pigs.  But Indian men take it to a whole new level.

7) Did see some girls/women dressed in the full burka.  Even walked by one standing on the roadside waiting to get picked up. Fascinating how they have the makeup on to highlight whatever parts are showing (just the eyes in this case)

More often you could see their full face with just as much makeup as most Muslim women wore the hijab.

I often wonder if, in a few generations, there will be a scientific way to measure whether or not the faces of Muslim women changed over time (sort of as a Darwinian selection).

What I mean is - whether certain facial traits will be selected over certain others which will lead to a strong tendency in those traits.

8) In Varanasi when we toured the silk making facilities the men and women from the tour had to be segregated. The women got to go see some Muslim women at work. The men could not go because the women were working and wearing casual clothes to work in.  You would not want to be wearing a head scarf around any of the machinery as it would have been very dangerous.

I saw pictures that were taken by some on our tour and they looked like any other young women working but the rules are the rules.

9) When we left New Delhi we got the taxi ride with a women's group that has started a taxi company that has the purpose of providing jobs for battered/abused women.

The taxi has a sign on it so anyone going by essentially knows that the woman driving has been abused in some way.

The looks she/we were getting from some of the drivers were intense at times. 

I don't know: maybe it's bad enough that a woman is driving but even worse that a battered woman is driving and she is basically holding up a middle finger to the pigs around her? 

10) We jumped on a public bus a couple times in the south. The women go to the front and the men stay in the back. I thought this was unfair as I like to sit in the front but I was not about to protest.

Despite this, my wife still had a good time and still loves India. But no doubt it is much easier to navigate with a man and/or in a tour.


Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on February 25, 2018, 10:35:22 pm
Realized I forgot to tell this little story from the time my wife was sick.

As previously mentioned, we arrived in Chennai by train (about 7 hours) and she goes unconscious so I do the CPR thing, she pukes, we get whisked to the emergency medical at the train station. The tour group gets on the bus for the journey to Mamallapuram.

The tour guide is going to stay with us but is getting the group to the bus after dropping us at the medical room.

While in the room I explain what happened to what I assume are nurses (in training if not for real). They put her on IV for liquids and hook her up to the EKG machine etc. 

Not sure if they realized that I’m her husband as they shoo me out of the room to examine her in privacy.

So I wait outside amongst the crush of people. Even though it is 11pm the train station is still pretty busy.

Finally, allowed back in and this is when the doctor wants to talk to me.

So we talk and I explain to him what happened on the train.

He seemed to think talking to the nurses and me was good enough and didn’t need to examine my wife.

So, now my wife, weak and puke stained, wants to clean up before we get a cab with the tour guide.

We find the bathrooms and I pay 10 rupees. My wife just staggers into the bathroom so I quickly try to follow her in.

Not the thing to do in India.

A young man jumps in front of me to stop me from going into the wrong washroom.

He is looking psycho like I am a drag queen walking into the womens washroom at Mar-a-Lago during a Republican convention.

I try to explain “medical, medical” to no avail. The guide finally explains to the lady who took the money, in the local language, so she goes into the washroom and helps my wife.

The guy, now realizing I’m not some stupid, drunken tourist, was so apologetic to the point of being Canadian.

Finally, the wife comes out looking better-ish and we jump in the cab for the hour or so ride to our hotel (cost 1,200 rupees).

It was quite the night and although we had medical insurance and I tried to get them to take my medical nsurance card they simply passed us through.

It was a strange mix of culture and language that I would only want to repeat if it didn’t involve the medical emergency part.

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on February 27, 2018, 07:09:41 am
Augh.  This is about my worst nightmare.

Mrs. Hardner accidentally OD'd on weed once at BurningMan and I had to take care of her, take her to medical etc.  The worst.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on February 28, 2018, 11:16:14 am
I smoked 'legal' weed in Nevada this week.  It was good.  I pretty much consider it to be my first (and second, and third, and fourth) time.  It was a fun trip overall.  I think it allowed my girlfriend and I to work out some of our relationship issues.  I was happy with our life, but, she wasn't apparently.  She's going to move home with her family, and I'll see her on weekends.  We'll take things from there.  It's going to be a big change for someone like me who hates sleeping alone.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on February 28, 2018, 12:10:24 pm
I smoked 'legal' weed in Nevada this week.  It was good.  I pretty much consider it to be my first (and second, and third, and fourth) time.  It was a fun trip overall.  I think it allowed my girlfriend and I to work out some of our relationship issues.  I was happy with our life, but, she wasn't apparently.  She's going to move home with her family, and I'll see her on weekends.  We'll take things from there.  It's going to be a big change for someone like me who hates sleeping alone.

Where did you stay?  What did you do?  How was the weather?  I'm so homesick sometimes......
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest4 on February 28, 2018, 12:48:30 pm
I think it allowed my girlfriend and I to work out some of our relationship issues.  I was happy with our life, but, she wasn't apparently.  She's going to move home with her family, and I'll see her on weekends.  We'll take things from there.  It's going to be a big change for someone like me who hates sleeping alone.

I am sure this is not the outcome you hoped for or expected.   Relationships can be hard l know, and she has also has had some diffcult events very recently.  I wish the best for you and she going forward.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on February 28, 2018, 08:51:53 pm
I smoked 'legal' weed in Nevada this week.  It was good.  I pretty much consider it to be my first (and second, and third, and fourth) time.  It was a fun trip overall.  I think it allowed my girlfriend and I to work out some of our relationship issues.  I was happy with our life, but, she wasn't apparently.  She's going to move home with her family, and I'll see her on weekends.  We'll take things from there.  It's going to be a big change for someone like me who hates sleeping alone.

Sorry to hear J.  I know usually when relationships regress they rarely progress again but sometimes they do. Maybe it’s just everything she’s going through.

And for what it’s worth, I’m super jealous. I hate sharing a bed so much. If I could have my way we’d have separate rooms but we’re just not that rich. The snoring, the blanket stealing, the different wake times, I wish I could be in your shoes.

I also hate living with people and would’ve been happy forever living apart (but together) from my husband but he wouldn’t have it.

How’s that for a different perspective?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on February 28, 2018, 10:35:53 pm
Well now speaking of travel, I wonder if any of ye buggers have ever graced the shores of Newfoundland or Labrador. I have fond memories of my time living and working there. And I could tell ya' some stories my son, but I'd enjoy hearing yours. Now pass me the Screech and give 'er a go.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on March 01, 2018, 11:34:17 am
The only place in the Maritimes I've been was the Isles de la Madeleine.  A series of small islands, part of Quebec but off the coast of PEI.  It was one of the best holidays I've ever been on and I want to go back some day.

It was a bit expensive to get to, you have to fly into Montreal and then take a commuter flight over to the islands.  But I had an astrnomical amount of aeroplan points that enabled me to go.

I ate seal there. ;D
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on March 01, 2018, 12:51:21 pm
Speaking of French Islands off our eastern shores, I was once sent to Saint Pierre et Miquelon to pick up a heavy equipment mechanic and deliver him to a machine that needed repair on a power line project. Only time I have ever been there and upon arrival as I looked around at the buildings etc., I thought I had landed in France. In fact I had. And then with the man and his tool box collected we went back to Newfoundland. Never did see a customs officer. I had by that time been in Nfld.  long enough I had got my head pretty much wrapped around the accent, but with this fellows combination of Metropolitan French, Basque and "Newfanees" I was never quite sure so I did a lot of head nodding during the half hour or so trip to get him where he needed to go. Apparently the fishermen from either shore work the waters together and dock at either shore and nobody real worries about borders. I live on the west coast now but if I get back east some time I would like to go spend a couple of days getting to know the place a bit more. It's not an easy one to get to either. I should have got that mans phone number. I'm sure he has a friend with a boat that could pick us up.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on March 01, 2018, 05:10:59 pm
The only place in the Maritimes I've been was the Isles de la Madeleine.
...
It was a bit expensive to get to, you have to fly into Montreal and then take a commuter flight over to the islands.
...
I ate seal there.

It is one place I do want to visit some day. Interesting question, is it in the Maritimes or not? Technically it is part of Quebec, but its location does seem to suggest it is in the Maritimes. My hope is one day to have a sailboat to get there.

Never tried seal. Tell us what you think, I assumed it was very high in fat.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on March 01, 2018, 05:37:05 pm
It is one place I do want to visit some day. Interesting question, is it in the Maritimes or not? Technically it is part of Quebec, but its location does seem to suggest it is in the Maritimes. My hope is one day to have a sailboat to get there.

Never tried seal. Tell us what you think, I assumed it was very high in fat.

Not sure, good question.  It's very "Maritime-ish" that's for sure.  Absolutely gorgeous there.

The seal meat is very dark, a little oily and fishy tasting but it was okay.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on March 01, 2018, 08:10:48 pm
It is one place I do want to visit some day. Interesting question, is it in the Maritimes or not? Technically it is part of Quebec, but its location does seem to suggest it is in the Maritimes. My hope is one day to have a sailboat to get there.

Never tried seal. Tell us what you think, I assumed it was very high in fat.

I had seal flipper pie in a very popular St. John's restaurant one time. If you like a bit of gamey taste combined with a fish flavor then it would suit you. Imagine a combination of veal and duck. It's a very dark meat and is actually low in fat. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on March 15, 2018, 12:21:43 pm
I'm just back from an amazing week in Jamaica, mon. 

One of the best days we had was after meeting an entire family from Ontario who were there to spread the ashes of Jimmy - husband, brother, uncle, friend.  They invited us along.  Donna, Jimmy's widow, loved my man's long hair and wanted a picture of him before she left.  She said, "I feel like I'm partying with Fabio!"   :D  Apparently, Jimmy was quite crusty, but much loved and very missed.  The family rented a boat and driver and a party island.  On the way to the island, they had a little ceremony a couple people spoke and they played an old song from 1959 - Goodbye, Jimmy, Goodbye.  It was very touching. Lovely family.

Then out to the party island where we had WAAAAAY too much rum punch and grilled lobster lunch.  There was also a great dance party on the boat on the way back, the highlight was me and Donna dancing to Afroman's Because I Got High.  Jimmy would have been proud.

If you ever get asked to go to a funeral on your vacation, you should do it.

I'm attaching the pic of us with Donna.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on March 30, 2018, 12:47:34 am

Tonight, after a very long day and too much wine, it is time to talk about my local vacation in 2017.

The first time we went to SE Asia we met a woman from the UK who my wife became good friends with.

Facebook is useful for keeping in touch with such people and due to being “redundant” at her job she decided to take 6 weeks off and fly to Boston, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Vancouver Island to see various people she had met on her 9 month journey through Asia, Australia, and South America in 2014/2015.

So, our friend arrived in Vancouver and my wife went over to stay with her before I joined them the following day. As I grew up in Vancouver and despise the city as overhyped boredom I was happy to let the girls have some fun on their own.

Taking the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshooe Bay, they met me at the *$’s and we blew past dullsville on our way to Kelowna.  This is September 9th, I think, and we would spend a few days there drinking wine from Gray Monk to Ancient Hill, Mission Hills, Mt Boucherie, Quails Gate in Kelowna all the way to La Stella, Silversage, Stoneboat in Osoyoos/Oliver.

Then it was off to Whistler. On the way, stopped in Merritt which is a dusty cowboy town. A tumbleweed literally hit our car while coming into town.

Made it to Whistler for the usual: peak to peak tram, grizzly beer, Scandanav spa and massage.

Then it was time to go home to the Island where we would day trip to Tofino, Comox, surrounding areas....

Finally we ended in Victoria before she flew back home to London.

Had a great time with a nice Italian dinner at Il Terrazzo and a whale tour off the coast which eventually landed at Butchart Gardens for a tour and bus ride back to the city.

It was a good time and fun to play tourist in our own backyard even if Canada is boring AF.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on April 05, 2018, 09:01:18 pm
I went to Chichen Itza.  I only stayed a few minutes (that's the kind of guy I am), but it was breathtaking.  I had an interesting adventure - I forgot to take money with me for tolls (everywhere in Mexico).  They're in the middle of nowhere and don't take credit.  So, the toll attendant nicely lent me 200 pesos.  I drove 20 minutes to the nearest town (not a tourist zone) and took out enough for the rest of the trip.  I went back out of the way and gave him 300 for his trouble.  People are kind everywhere.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Boges on April 06, 2018, 10:01:52 am

Was recently on a Caribbean Island called Roatan (Honduran Bay Island). I really think people who travel to a country and a vast majority of their time on a resort or on planned excursions aren't really visiting the country.

Sure Roatan is a safe tourist site compared to the Honduran mainland (similar to the Mayan Riviera to other parts of Mexico) But you really need to spend time on your own off the resort. Sure safety is a concern, but don't visit a place you don't feel comfortable off the resort.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on April 06, 2018, 10:38:32 am
LOL at a travel thread becoming a relationship advice column. Who goes on vacations with their ex girlfriends? 

Was recently on a Caribbean Island called Roatan (Honduran Bay Island). I really think people who travel to a country and a vast majority of their time on a resort or on planned excursions aren't really visiting the country.

Sure Roatan is a safe tourist site compared to the Honduran mainland (similar to the Mayan Riviera to other parts of Mexico) But you really need to spend time on your own off the resort. Sure safety is a concern, but don't visit a place you don't feel comfortable off the resort.

On that note, I recall tying up with my sailboat in Nassau one time at a marina which was associated with a hotel. It was a Friday afternoon and not long after I docked I noticed a Sun Tours bus arrive from the airport and unload a bunch of pax. toting their Sun Tours bags and file into their rooms. I hailed a cab and went downtown and while I was roaming around down there I saw the Sun Tours bus, pax. aboard driving down the street. When I got back to the boat they were all by the pool (Sun Tours bags in hand), and between there and the hotel dining room  they spent the weekend. Point being is I'm sure they had a fun time but I can't imagine they returned home with much knowledge of life in the Bahamas. Why spend the money for a plane ticket to get you to a hotel with a pool that you probably already have down the street. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Boges on April 06, 2018, 10:44:13 am
I do think there's a value in R&R experiencing semi luxurious conditions and being allowed to drink and eat all you want, while you're at it.

But just don't pretend you've actually experienced that country.

And the other end of the spectrum where people travel extensively but stay live in hostels and rent rooms on Air BnB. How's that a relaxing experience?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on April 06, 2018, 11:26:12 am
I certainly enjoyed the sailboat approach; you have your living, eating, drinking quarters right under your feet. And then you can go ashore and get to know the place you're at, and if you decide you want a change of scenery, you just pull that big old chunk of steel out of the mud and ride the wind to the next place. And pass me that Appleton rum.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Boges on April 06, 2018, 11:48:40 am
I certainly enjoyed the sailboat approach; you have your living, eating, drinking quarters right under your feet. And then you can go ashore and get to know the place you're at, and if you decide you want a change of scenery, you just pull that big old chunk of steel out of the mud and ride the wind to the next place. And pass me that Appleton rum.

I think that's out of the price range and expertise for most normos.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on April 06, 2018, 12:18:14 pm
I think that's out of the price range and expertise for most normos.

I certainly wasn't a big money guy and it was not a large boat and I got a pretty good deal as a friend of mine was part owner of a yacht dealership on the east coast. And when I pulled out of Marblehead  harbor,(just norht of Boston) about all I knew about boats was that the pointy end was the front. Luckily the weather was mostly kind to us and while we had a few scares along the way, by the time we got to Florida we had a pretty good handle on it. Luckily from my "day job" I was pretty familiar with charts and navigation. But I did have to practice to be able to hit a bull Dolphin with a Hawaiian Sling.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on April 17, 2018, 08:07:36 pm
I’m on my way to Mexico City with my dad.  When I post pictures I’ll post links to my Facebook again.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on April 17, 2018, 08:39:23 pm
I’m on my way to Mexico City with my dad.  When I post pictures I’ll post links to my Facebook again.

Have a Margarita on me. Maybe dos.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on May 08, 2018, 10:18:47 pm
I forgot:

https://www.facebook.com/john.m.taylor.73/media_set?set=a.10156150605716070.1073741838.642606069&type=3
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: kimmy on May 21, 2018, 12:07:31 pm
Anybody have any experiences with these guys?
Rude officers, seized items and touchy pat downs top CATSA complaints list (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/catsa-complaints-most-common-1.4667623)


I don't fly a lot, but I feel like I've received unnecessary attention from the security types.   I don't think I get as much attention as bearded, brown-skinned guys do, but I feel like I do get more than my fair share.

 -k
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on May 21, 2018, 12:47:38 pm
Anybody have any experiences with these guys?
Rude officers, seized items and touchy pat downs top CATSA complaints list (http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/catsa-complaints-most-common-1.4667623)


I don't fly a lot, but I feel like I've received unnecessary attention from the security types.   I don't think I get as much attention as bearded, brown-skinned guys do, but I feel like I do get more than my fair share.

 -k

I don't fly domestically a lot, and wherever I do fly I don't get those overly touchy pat downs from security types, maybe because I'm the same gender as most of them. But last Xmas I decided to fly back to Ontario to visit some relatives I hadn't seen in awhile. I booked online and headed for the airport on the day. Checked a bag, received a boarding pass, through security, and had a coffee waiting for the boarding announcement. When that came it mentioned that two pieces of picture ID were required. Now I have a pouch in the bag I carry my laptop in which is reserved for travel docs., and so my passport was in there but it had just recently expired and I hadn't got around to getting it renewed yet. . My DL has dpicture ID also but the gal at the final checkpoint was initially not going to allow me on the flight due to the  I wasn't aware I needed a valid passport to travel within MY OWN COUNTRY. Had she have persisted I think I would have consulted my lawyer.   
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on May 21, 2018, 01:47:40 pm
You don’t need 2 pieces of picture ID...   you need one piece of picture ID.  A DL will do.

Quote
One piece of valid (not expired) government-issued1 photo ID that includes name, date of birth and gender.

https://www.westjet.com/en-ca/travel-info/check-in/id-requirements
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on May 21, 2018, 02:08:04 pm
You don’t need 2 pieces of picture ID...   you need one piece of picture ID.  A DL will do.

Oh I know what the government rules say. Apparently not all AC agents in YVR do though.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on May 21, 2018, 02:10:26 pm
Oh I know what the government rules say. Apparently not all AC agents in YVR do though.

I travel a lot within Canada and I’ve never traveled with more than 1 picture ID. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on May 21, 2018, 02:15:11 pm
I travel a lot within Canada and I’ve never traveled with more than 1 picture ID.

I travel outside Canada a lot and of course you need a valid passport for that. I used to have one issued by the UN and man those diplomatic lineups are a breeze to get through.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: kimmy on May 21, 2018, 02:17:37 pm
About 10 years ago I was doing the security screening at Lester B Pearson, for a flight back home. And I get flagged over so that they can give me the once-over with the magic wand and the guy tells me I have to take off my cardigan because it's too bulky.   There's ethnic women going through in tent-like cultural clothes, but apparently my cardigan is too bulky.  So I took off my cardigan and I'm standing there in just my tank top with my hands in the air and my chest sticking out while the guy waves the scanner all over me and a bunch of people watch. And not like a quick wave, but a slow deliberate up and down front and back thing. He's waving the wand thing over my breasts, even though he can pretty much see that I haven't got anything hidden in there because of the way he's got me posed.  It was just so over the top. It was ridiculous.

I felt so furious afterward, because I knew perfectly well that they were just **** around with me, and I felt powerless to do anything about it. I felt like if I objected I'd end up spending 3 hours in a room waiting for security officials to lecture me, or get thrown off the flight, or get tazered or something.

 -k
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on May 21, 2018, 02:46:29 pm
Yes and you can be heavil affected things totally out of your control. Some years a go an engineer buddy of mine I worked with in a lot of different places had completed his tour and was heading back to Canada for time off. His routing included an overnight in Madrid. Now just previous to his departure Canada Fisheries arrested a Spanish fishing boat for using illegal sized nets inside Canadian coastal waters. The vessel was escorted into St> Johns harbor and the crew was housed in a local hotel. Spain retaliated by immediately issuing a requirement for Canadians to have a visa to enter the country. There was nowhere for my buddy to get a visa that quick so he said I'll take my chances and he jumped on the plane. Arriving in Spain he explained the situation and showed the numerous stamps in his passport accrued from many travels through Madrid. The agent said he wouldn't allow him to leave the airport and he would have to stay there overnight until he could catch his ongoing flight to LHR and then home. They put him in a room that he said essentially resembled a jail cell. He was able to order food. Then in the middle of the night they woke him up and said there was an alternative route to get him home and he was being forced to take it. It involved a series of flights that took him to Santo Domingo, Miami, Toronto and finally YVR. He did say he racked up a lot of useless air miles.   
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on June 14, 2018, 08:57:24 am
In Michigan today :D on our way to BurningMan Michigan....
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on June 17, 2018, 08:36:00 pm
One thing that comes to mind is be careful if you are departing Tenerife by plane if it's foggy at all. I've only ever flown over but never needed to land. I bet the beaches are lovely.

Got that right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on July 10, 2018, 06:30:05 am
Staying in Gros Morne
 
Nfld is beautiful.

My morning started at 630 AM sitting here watching the calm Waters of the bay, mountains..
 Surfing the web, listening to birds with no one around.  Perfect.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on July 10, 2018, 09:27:32 am
Not too far from there is Big Falls in the Squires provincial park. If the salmon are running you will be able to walk right up to them.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on July 10, 2018, 04:15:10 pm
Yes we stayed there!
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on August 16, 2018, 01:04:22 pm
I booked a solo trip to Puerto Vallarta in October, so looking forward to that.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on August 16, 2018, 01:18:02 pm
Staying in Gros Morne
 
Nfld is beautiful.

My morning started at 630 AM sitting here watching the calm Waters of the bay, mountains..
 Surfing the web, listening to birds with no one around.  Perfect.

Gros Morne is beautiful. Such a variety of terrain, vegitation and climate. One of our greatest National Parks IMO.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on August 16, 2018, 02:02:00 pm
I lived/worked in Nfld. for a couple of years and I traveled pretty much the length and breadth of the place. I got "screeched in" in St. Johns and became a "cardinal" up in Goose Bay. And I got to play harp with Ron Heinz at a house party on Water Street and go fishing for Cod off the coast near Tors Cove. Many memories of that place, and especially the people.
Now about the weather, ah let's leave that to another day.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on August 16, 2018, 02:14:21 pm
became a "cardinal" up in Goose Bay

Ok, I'll bite. What the frig do you have to do to become a "cardinal". It can't be worse than being screeched in.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on August 16, 2018, 02:28:04 pm
Ok, I'll bite. What the frig do you have to do to become a "cardinal". It can't be worse than being screeched in.

Well I understand there are variations to it, but believe it or not it did involve Screech. In my case, I had to say, "I drink to the health of Cardinal Puff, for the first time" then tap the table once with one finger with both hands, then put my left palm to my right breast and vice versa one time, then stand up and sit down one time, then take one sip. The next time it was two taps, etc. and two sips, "for the second time" and on to number three. Of course if you f'ed up you had to start over. Get the picture?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on August 16, 2018, 04:54:15 pm
And speaking of Nfld. one of the things that endeared me to the place was the apparent lack of concern as to social strata. I at the time was connected with the Memorial University of Nfld., and during the time they opened what was called the Annex Gallery. This was an old house purchased by MUN that was converted into a gallery for budding visual artists that didn't yet have the credentials to display at the main gallery. I got to meet with a number of those folks and help them hang their works after they got the nod of the steering committee, while at the same time going out sailing with Chris Pratt or sipping (dare I say it again) Screech with Gerry Squires at his lighthouse home in Ferryland. It was what I would characterize as a "we're all in this together" attitude, in a very positive way. I hope it's still that way.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on December 08, 2018, 09:28:16 pm
Heading to Vancouver tomorrow to then leave for Lima on Monday morning.

Peru, Bolivia, Chile and finally a stop in Mexico for yoga purposes before coming home around mid January.

Too lazy for details so here is the tour in South America and looks like there will only be 12 of us:

https://www.gadventures.com/trips/southern-divide/5271/itinerary/

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: kimmy on December 08, 2018, 10:32:33 pm
You!  You're back! Where you been at, homeskillet?

 -k
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on December 08, 2018, 10:48:59 pm
I was thinking I'd maybe take a little winter trip south so I threw a dart at a map and hit Panama. Any advice out there?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest7 on December 08, 2018, 11:19:56 pm
I was thinking I'd maybe take a little winter trip south so I threw a dart at a map and hit Panama. Any advice out there?

Mind the canal!
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on December 08, 2018, 11:25:49 pm
Mind the canal!

I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll borrow a sailboat and sail through it.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on December 09, 2018, 02:12:59 pm
I'll keep that in mind. Maybe I'll borrow a sailboat and sail through it.

You can sail on the lake in the middle, but most of the canal is boring. You will need to hire a local pilot (generally 2, one for each set of locks), and most likely be rafted up with other small craft.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on December 09, 2018, 02:34:04 pm
You can sail on the lake in the middle, but most of the canal is boring. You will need to hire a local pilot (generally 2, one for each set of locks), and most likely be rafted up with other small craft.

In light of all that I think I'll give it a pass. I'll stick with the cheap rum and bbq fish.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on December 09, 2018, 02:49:22 pm
I’m in Rome.  I walked almost 25 km today.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on March 05, 2019, 10:58:38 pm
Heading to Vancouver tomorrow to then leave for Lima on Monday morning.

Peru, Bolivia, Chile and finally a stop in Mexico for yoga purposes before coming home around mid January.

Too lazy for details so here is the tour in South America and looks like there will only be 12 of us:

https://www.gadventures.com/trips/southern-divide/5271/itinerary/

Quick post:

This was my favourite tour even though not my favourite countries (Greece still wins). 

We also did the 2 day tour to Paracas and to see the Nazsca Lines: https://www.gadventures.com/trips/paracas-and-nazca-lines-independent-adventure/TSPNLN/

The plane ride was dry heaving inducing but in a good way. Those Nazsca Lines are cool and worth the gravol.

Seeing the desert meet the ocean was also very cool.

Lima is a foodie paradise and pisco sours were very tasty.

Cusco/Macchu Picchu is as good as they say it is.

Lake Tittikaka is huge and is the highest in the world for its size. Seeing the locals on a reed island was a highlight.

Bolivia was the best part of the trip: Xmas day spent biking down the old highway near La Paz is the best Xmas so far.  Hours gliding down a mountain road with a grin on my face all the way down.

Bolivian wine is pretty good. Better than Peruvian, not as good as Chilean.

Spent 3 days 4x4’ing in South Bolivia.  Beautiful! Geysers, lagoons with flamingos, deserts, mountain, snow, salt flats, salt block made accomodation powered with a honda generator for 2 hours etc.

Chile: the people are arrogant dicks (mostly the men). 

First time sand boarding in the Antacalma desert, and will do it again. May try snowboarding someday but sandboarding seems safer (it is slower going on sand and the sand is not as hard as you think). Exhausting though. Climbing up the dune in the heat, only did 4 runs.

Santiago is a very nice city. Comfortable, safe, excellent food everywhere.

Got to the coast to Vina Del Mar and Valparaiso.

Then it was on to Oaxaca, Mexico where I laid about a small town doing nothing while the wife did yoga

A good 5 weeks spent doing what I enjoy best. We had 7 Aussies, 1 Scot, 2 English and 1 Peruvian tour guide with the 2 of us and just a fantastic group of people.  Hoping to meet up with the UK peeps in September.

That’s it.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: kimmy on March 06, 2019, 02:24:06 am
I traveled to West Kim City on the weekend. It's about all I had room for in the budget.

 -k
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Pinus or Vid or...????? on March 06, 2019, 11:52:41 am
I traveled to West Kim City on the weekend. It's about all I had room for in the budget.

 -k



Where is West Kim City?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on March 06, 2019, 11:54:50 am
Where is West Kim City?

ah, just a little west of central Kim City. Sorry, couldn't resist.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on March 06, 2019, 12:07:35 pm
Where is West Kim City?

The other side of the water.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on March 06, 2019, 12:32:11 pm
I liked Chile, quite safe and the only place in South America where you don't dare try and bribe a cop. Vina del Mar reminded me of Waikiki. Old Valparaiso is wonderful. We spent three days there at a B&B with a fantastic view or the harbour. We did a walking tour there with a guy who calls himself the German Pirate. He is a German expat who moved there years ago for love. The love didn't last but he is still there. He takes a maximum of ten people (there were five on our group) picks you up at your hotel in the morning and drives up the hill where you start. He carries a satchel with photos of the city from different viewpoints he takes you before the 1906 quake.  It's walk walk all day, on and off busses and funiculars, he knows everyone and just walks into buildings, the oldest stock market in South America when it was closed, the German Club, which is like turning the clock back to 1914 with portraits of the Kaiser and Prussian generals, a small distillery for free samples, old hotels and other buildings, neat spots for lunch and a drink. Look this guy up if you go there.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on March 06, 2019, 12:34:35 pm
I’m in Rome.  I walked almost 25 km today.

Sounds like the first time I was in Paris. I used to walk for hours in London as well. Those cities do that to you.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on March 06, 2019, 12:50:06 pm
I liked Chile, quite safe and the only place in South America where you don't dare try and bribe a cop. Vina del Mar reminded me of Waikiki. Old Valparaiso is wonderful. We spent three days there at a B&B with a fantastic view or the harbour. We did a walking tour there with a guy who calls himself the German Pirate. He is a German expat who moved there years ago for love. The love didn't last but he is still there. He takes a maximum of ten people (there were five on our group) picks you up at your hotel in the morning and drives up the hill where you start. He carries a satchel with photos of the city from different viewpoints he takes you before the 1906 quake.  It's walk walk all day, on and off busses and funiculars, he knows everyone and just walks into buildings, the oldest stock market in South America when it was closed, the German Club, which is like turning the clock back to 1914 with portraits of the Kaiser and Prussian generals, a small distillery for free samples, old hotels and other buildings, neat spots for lunch and a drink. Look this guy up if you go there.

How did you find the flight over the Andes?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on March 06, 2019, 01:53:58 pm
How did you find the flight over the Andes?

Dark going down. We flew from Toronto to Santiago. We flew back from Buenos Aires and had inside seats so didn't see much.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on March 06, 2019, 01:59:25 pm
How did you find the flight over the Andes?

I flew across the Andes a number of times and like any mountain range it gets bouncy depending on what the winds aloft are up to. But I was on some extended time off in Quito once so I decided to go for a drive through them out to the Pacific. I had met and become friends with a local girl and I asked her to come along with me. We went out to Esmeralda, which is a big dirty city, and then south to Attacames, which was a lovely seaside town that focused mostly on fishing. We rented a fully furnished cottage right on the beach for the ungodly sum of $20 US/night. I love seafood so I was in my glory. A number of dining spots, some with live music, right on the beach, or we could purchase some fresh catch to take home and cook. A wonderful week and then back across the Andes to Quito. If you happen to get down that way I'd go for it.
One word of warning, don't be in a hurry driving across the Andes, there will be a truck load of Chiquita bananas around every corner. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on March 06, 2019, 02:14:10 pm
Dark going down. We flew from Toronto to Santiago. We flew back from Buenos Aires and had inside seats so didn't see much.

I was just wondering because my first flamenco teacher was married to a Chilean ("Chi Chi Chi! Le Le Le!  Vi-Va Chile!") and she said the only way she could fly over them was in a sleeping pills and alcohol coma.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on March 06, 2019, 03:52:09 pm
I was just wondering because my first flamenco teacher was married to a Chilean ("Chi Chi Chi! Le Le Le!  Vi-Va Chile!") and she said the only way she could fly over them was in a sleeping pills and alcohol coma.

Why, they are just mountains. It was calm when we went over them. The highest mountain is 22,000, most airliners will be 10,000 ft or more above that. You could get wave action during high winds but you also get that over the Rockies when there is a Chinook blowing.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on March 06, 2019, 05:22:00 pm
I traveled to West Kim City on the weekend.

I hope you didn't roll down the window while you were there.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on March 07, 2019, 07:45:39 am
Has anyone had any good experiences with an all-inclusive? I keep hearing horror stories from friends and colleagues, but Mrs. Bercoma is insistent on going to one. I'm skeptical about them....hell, about everything.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on March 07, 2019, 08:37:50 am
Has anyone had any good experiences with an all-inclusive? I keep hearing horror stories from friends and colleagues, but Mrs. Bercoma is insistent on going to one. I'm skeptical about them....hell, about everything.

We had a great time in both Cabo and Cancun with all inclusive.  It doesn't stop you from going out, and in areas where you'd rather not leave the resort, it gives you that sense of security.  Read the reviews, and make sure you're getting something you want.  On the other hand, in a place like Puerto Vallarta for example, I'd never go all inclusive, as I'd never be eating at the resort, and I don't like drinking all that much.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on March 07, 2019, 09:46:09 am
Has anyone had any good experiences with an all-inclusive? I keep hearing horror stories from friends and colleagues, but Mrs. Bercoma is insistent on going to one. I'm skeptical about them....hell, about everything.

I would never.  Ever.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on March 07, 2019, 04:59:33 pm
Has anyone had any good experiences with an all-inclusive? I keep hearing horror stories from friends and colleagues, but Mrs. Bercoma is insistent on going to one. I'm skeptical about them....hell, about everything.

A sibling and her husband go to one regularly in Dominican Republic.   They really like it.  I think it's a bit too insulating and isn't for me.  It sounds nice though...  food is good...  beautiful location...  nice rooms... 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on March 07, 2019, 05:01:32 pm
A sibling and her husband go to...

That sounds like the start of a joke. I assume you mean "My sister and her husband..."
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on March 07, 2019, 05:58:19 pm
That sounds like the start of a joke. I assume you mean "My sister and her husband..."

I don't know what I meant...   but yeah...  you're correct.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on March 10, 2019, 11:08:38 am
That’s it.

At the grocery store the other day and some Metallica song comes on (one of those from the ‘90’s so more pop than metal).

Reminds me of being at the Bolivian/Chilean border on New Year’s day:

After 4x4 ing through southern Bolivia for almost 3 days we get to the Bolivian outpost.

This little building with one guy who rotates in on 3 week shifts.

Passports get stamped, tell him how beautiful his country is, and go to wait in the Landcruiser.

Our Bolivian driver is chewing his coca leaves and we wait with our group (3 Landcruisers). 

And wait...and some more waiting.

Chile is hyper organized so they send a bus to us, we get on, they take us back to their border station to search our luggage, and then we get back on the bus to go to Antacalma.

But they are late.

And our tour guide is trying to talk our drivers to take us to the Chilean station but our driver can’t because he has a stash of coca leaves and Chile frowns on that (or, rather, frowns on Bolivians - there were a number of occassions where Chilean rascism towards Bolivians and Peruvians shone throw). 

Thankfully, the Chilean bus arrives (the excuse was the Chilean border agents had a late lunch) and we head off.

We get to the station but stop short.

Our Chilean guide explains that we need to behave calmly, do not be too loud, let them go through our luggage but we should declare certain items from the outset to stay out of trouble: fruit, vegetables, incense wood etc.

Our bus enters the station (literally drives inside) and we pull all our bags down and line them up.

There is no one else here probably within 50 km unless you count the Bolivian back at his outpost about 10km away.

We stand in line to get our stamps.

The agents look like bastards/criminals.

Then one of them turns on the boom box they have and some Metallica song comes on. Can’t remember which but pretty sure from the Master of Puppets album.

The mood suddenly changes as, first the young Aussies, then the older British, and finally the Scot and Canadians start moving to the music.

And just like that the scowls turn to smiles and when they went through our bags (thoroughly) it was almost a pleasant experience.

This memory will always be triggered whenever I hear Metallica from now on.

The thing is, I made a playlist for this trip as I was told that then when you hear that song it will bring you back to that trip. 

My playlist was heavy on Metric, and Dark Saturday in particular. 

Now whenever I hear that song I am reminded of being on the train from Ollantaytambo to Macchu Picchu.

So it works: music triggers memories whether intentionally or not.


Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on March 11, 2019, 12:47:57 pm
Quote
there were a number of occassions where Chilean rascism towards Bolivians and Peruvians shone throw)


Is "Bolivian" a race? 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on March 11, 2019, 01:46:30 pm

Is "Bolivian" a race?

Maybe wrong word but there is a history.

https://www.britannica.com/event/War-of-the-Pacific
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on March 11, 2019, 10:09:24 pm

Is "Bolivian" a race?

Google “ethnicity of Bolivia” and then do the same for Chile.

Then go there and see for yourself.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on October 25, 2019, 12:07:46 am
Had a good short trip in September:

Wife, SIL, and I visited the French friends in Alsace for a few days. Bought bread from a vending machine for 1 euro, drank excellent wine, helped one of their kids learn to roller blade/in-line skate.

Went to some Michelin star restaurant in the middle of butt-hump nowhere and had a wonderful time: the moon over the fields on the way home was beautiful.

Then it was the trains to Basel and then Florence.

First time on trains in Europe. Annoyed at the Basel train station as I forgot I was in Switzerland so when I paid for a pretzel in euros I got back change in francs. Have a lovely 10 franc note as a souvenir.

Once in Florence settled into the AirBnB by getting groceries at the central market (fresh pasta and gnocchi) and took it easy.

Did the wedding stuff: dinner at Frescobaldi’s the night before, the ceremony the day of, the reception and the disco dancing.

Then it was time for the museums and gardens. Three full days of it with mile after mile of walking. Had to eat boar and pigeon liver and gelato and pizza to maintain my strength.

A couple of thunderstorms at this time of year were fun for a west coaster who rarely sees that type of thing.

Got the selfie in front of that Venus picture - Botticelli or someone.

Took the train to Sienna which is a great little city with a cool Roman fort.

Fun was had by all.

Greece is still way better but how can anyplace compete with perfection?

Later this year will test Egypt and Jordan to see if they can beat out Greece....
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on October 25, 2019, 05:44:58 am
Enjoy!!
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on October 25, 2019, 08:43:17 am
I'm going to Andalusia in February - looking forward to it.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on October 25, 2019, 10:05:14 am
I'm going to Andalusia in February - looking forward to it.

The birthplace of flamenco.  Hope you take in a show at a tiny hole in the wall where the locals will dance.  :)
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on October 25, 2019, 12:43:21 pm
I'm going to Andalusia in February - looking forward to it.

I'm envious. I and two work mates traveled around Spain from north to south and went through Andalusia and eventually into Africa. On the way we did overnight a little north in Valencia and when it came to dinner time I said "hey c'mon guys, we don't need menus, we're in the home of Paella". I begin to drool just thinking about how good it was. I'm sure you can get a similar rendition in Sevlle or Malaga.

Buen viaje.   
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on November 16, 2019, 07:52:36 am
Article about ethnicity/race and politics in Bolivia: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/world/americas/morales-bolivia-Indigenous-racism.html

Bolivia was so awesome to visit and now it’s being torn apart.

While I was biking the death road on Xmas day my wife had a tour in La Paz and the tour guide talked about race/class issues.

The cable cars that can transport poor people across the city in minutes but angers richer and “whiter” folks (like nimby’s here but more Spanish than British) was a topic of discussion.  Rich folk hate subsidizing poor folk no matter where one lives, of course.  A matter exacerbated by race/ethnic tensions. 

No idea what the solution is but glad I could visit during a quiet peaceful time. 

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on November 16, 2019, 09:52:28 am
I like how you travel.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Super Colin Blow on November 17, 2019, 08:45:05 am
I like how you travel.

What's it like going cross Canada on passenger rail? How expensive?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on November 17, 2019, 09:25:01 am
What's it like going cross Canada on passenger rail? How expensive?

Good question.  I haven't done it but I do wonder.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on November 17, 2019, 12:23:35 pm
What's it like going cross Canada on passenger rail? How expensive?

The closest I've come to crossing Canada by rail was from Toronto to Vancouver and that was a few years ago. I think I paid about $400 and it took ~4 days. Of course unless you bring a pretty big lunch kit with you then you can easily spend at least half that again on eats,, and then of course there's the bar car. It was a nice ride through some beautiful landscapes and you can meet a lot of people who are sharing the same experience. I have also driven from St. Johns to Victoria so I can mimic a lot of accents starting with Newfaneses. I for one hope we have the good sense to hold this beautiful place together.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on November 18, 2019, 05:28:44 pm
The closest I've come to crossing Canada by rail was from Toronto to Vancouver and that was a few years ago.

I can cover [most of*] the rest of the country for you. Made many trips out east, on both the CN and CP lines. Not sure if VIA ever used the CP line, but I have taken VIA over the CN line as well.

*I spent an entire summer in Newfoundland while there was still a train, however we got there by air and around the rock by car. I spent several weeks with my aunt who lived by the tracks in a small remote village.

I have also driven from St. Johns to Victoria

Likewise, but not in one trip. Countless trips from Montreal east, and 4 from Toronto out west (all to BC, but only 2 to the island) by different routes (ok, 3.5 because one trip we returned through the states).

What's it like going cross Canada on passenger rail? How expensive?

Expensive is relative. Do you want to go coach, or get sleeper accommodation. It could run you well into the thousands, far more expensive than first class air, if you want to. I think Omni's several hundred must be many years ago, I think even coach is quite expensive now. I believe there are rail passes available if you want to spend some time and stop along the way, they used to be less expensive if you purchased them out of the country but I haven't checked into them recently. The carrier is called Via Rail (https://www.viarail.ca/).
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on November 18, 2019, 05:41:24 pm
I can cover [most of*] the rest of the country for you. Made many trips out east, on both the CN and CP lines. Not sure if VIA ever used the CP line, but I have taken VIA over the CN line as well.

*I spent an entire summer in Newfoundland while there was still a train, however we got there by air and around the rock by car. I spent several weeks with my aunt who lived by the tracks in a small remote village.

Likewise, but not in one trip. Countless trips from Montreal east, and 4 from Toronto out west (all to BC, but only 2 to the island) by different routes (ok, 3.5 because one trip we returned through the states).

Expensive is relative. Do you want to go coach, or get sleeper accommodation. It could run you well into the thousands, far more expensive than first class air, if you want to. I think Omni's several hundred must be many years ago, I think even coach is quite expensive now. I believe there are rail passes available if you want to spend some time and stop along the way, they used to be less expensive if you purchased them out of the country but I haven't checked into them recently. The carrier is called Via Rail (https://www.viarail.ca/).

Yes it was quite a while ago and so I'm not up so speed on the costs these days. One other trip I day that showed me a lot of the country was from Vancouver-Hall Beach-Churchill-Lac St. Jean and a few other places in PQ, and then eventually to Goose Bay Lab. It truly was a sea to sea to sea.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: ?Impact on November 18, 2019, 05:57:24 pm
Hall Beach

That was obviously not by rail, or even road.

I've only been north of the arctic circle in Europe.

Drifting the thread into sailing, hopefully JMT doesn't suspend me here, my lotto winning dream is a Garcia 45. That will get me at least close to Hall Beach.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on November 18, 2019, 08:45:47 pm
That was obviously not by rail, or even road.

I've only been north of the arctic circle in Europe.

Drifting the thread into sailing, hopefully JMT doesn't suspend me here, my lotto winning dream is a Garcia 45. That will get me at least close to Hall Beach.

Yes, not by rail or road but by sky. And I did a bit of that boating thing, bought a C+C in Marblehead Mass. and sailed it all along the east coast to the Keys and then the Bahamas. Somehow that area appeals to me more than Hall Beach. I no longer have that boat but a good friend of mine out here on the west coast has a Tayana 37 so I get a chance to keep in practice from time to time.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on November 19, 2019, 10:10:49 am
Article about ethnicity/race and politics in Bolivia: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/15/world/americas/morales-bolivia-Indigenous-racism.html

Bolivia was so awesome to visit and now it’s being torn apart.


People think it's only white folks who have prejudices, but it's not.  My sister is married to a Chilean and they say most South Americans hate the Mexicans - they're like the black people/ Natives of S. America.  It's the Spanish heritage that makes them feel superior to the indigenous tribes of S. America.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on November 19, 2019, 11:07:41 am
People think it's only white folks who have prejudices
Literally no one thinks that.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on November 19, 2019, 12:12:54 pm
Literally no one thinks that.

Yes, they do.  There are several between these boards that insist it is Canada that is the most prejudice country in the world, despite studies that show the opposite, while denying that other cultures are far, far worse.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on November 19, 2019, 12:15:58 pm
Literally no one thinks that.

Certainly anyone who has done any serious travel in their day would have learned better. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on November 19, 2019, 12:19:53 pm
Yes, they do.  There are several between these boards that insist it is Canada that is the most prejudice country in the world, despite studies that show the opposite, while denying that other cultures are far, far worse.
Canada certainly doesn't have a reputation of being the "most prejudiced country in the world."
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on November 19, 2019, 01:10:28 pm
Canada certainly doesn't have a reputation of being the "most prejudiced country in the world."

I agree.  Which is why I don't buy their whole "Canada is full of far-right, white supremacist, Muslim haters" rhetoric.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on November 19, 2019, 01:36:56 pm
I agree.  Which is why I don't buy their whole "Canada is full of far-right, white supremacist, Muslim haters" rhetoric.

Unfortunately, there are far too many of us with that mindset, though.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on November 19, 2019, 01:52:01 pm
Unfortunately, there are far too many of us with that mindset, though.

I guess, if you label anyone who doesn't think like you do as a white supremacist. 

*"you" here does not mean JMT, it's the generic "you", the Don Cherry "you"

I think back to the big fracas on the Fort Mac community facebook page where dozens of Muslims attacked a Jewish girl, detailing all the ways they wanted to kill her and abuse her corpse and all those of her family.  Honestly, nothing I've seen a Canadian do compares to what I witnessed that day.  Even when they show those videos of people on the news telling others to "Go Home!, Go back your country!" - it doesn't come close to the pure unadulterated hatred I saw that day.



Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on November 19, 2019, 02:05:14 pm
I agree.  Which is why I don't buy their whole "Canada is full of far-right, white supremacist, Muslim haters" rhetoric.
Just because we're not "the most prejudiced country in the world" doesn't mean those voices don't exist. They do. And they should be appropriately criticized for their knuckle-dragging idiocy.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on November 19, 2019, 02:08:24 pm
I guess, if you label anyone who doesn't think like you do as a white supremacist.
This bullsh!t?

Put the Koolaid down, Goddess. There isn't a single person in the world who thinks it's racist to have a "difference of opinion."

When a$$holes like Don Cherry thinks he can recognize foreigners by the way they look and criticizes them for not wearing poppies, meanwhile the pics of the Wexit convention on Nov 10 shows a bunch of Boomers without poppies, yeah....he's racist. What he said was racist. How he thinks is racist. He's trash with a trash worldview and should summarily dismissed as such.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Goddess on November 19, 2019, 03:04:30 pm
Just because we're not "the most prejudiced country in the world" doesn't mean those voices don't exist. They do. And they should be appropriately criticized for their knuckle-dragging idiocy.

I agree.  I just think it should be called out whoever it is.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on November 23, 2019, 12:05:24 pm
At the grocery store the other day and some Metallica song comes on (one of those from the ‘90’s so more pop than metal).....

So it works: music triggers memories whether intentionally or not.

While inside a large room filled with tapestries at the Pitti Palace in Florence an older French woman’s cell phone rings out.

Saxophone.

Da dun. Da dun. Da dun da dun da dun da dun daaaa duuuuuunnnnn da dun da da dun.

Pink Panther theme!

Even the Italian lady standing at the door smiles.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palazzo_Pitti
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 19, 2020, 07:27:46 pm
So, for our Xmas/New Years' 2019/2020 trip we went to Egypt and Jordan with Intrepid Travel:  https://www.intrepidtravel.com/ca/egypt/explore-egypt-jordan-127167

It was a comfort tour and 19 days long.

We left a few days early to Cairo so we booked a few mini-tours too using Intrepid.

They are just like G Adventures who we have used in the past and will continue to use both G and Intrepid in the future.

Egypt:

Left Vancouver Island on the 6AM ferry on a Saturday morning and took the blue bus to down town Vancouver and then the sky train to the airport.

Carried 3 bags - mine was about 13 kg, wife's was about 11kg, and our carry on which included my laptop which was about 7kg. Packing was a challenge as we were expecting mostly cool weather, including freezing in a camp in Jordan, with some nice warm weather in southern Egypt. 

Flight left on time at 1:25pm and we arrived in Frankfurt at 8am or so.  Brushed our teeth and then found a beer and our gate to our connecting flight.

Arrived in Cairo around 7pm Sunday night, was met at the airport as arranged and taken to our hotel.

Problem is that our hotel had changed.

By the time we figured this out and we got to our proper hotel it was around 10pm and we were tired and hungry. Also tired of going through baggage x-ray machines and pat downs as we entered each hotel. Paranoid police state where the terrorist have clearly won. 

Next day we went on a tour of Cairo - Muhammed Ali Mosque, some other Mosque, etc. 

Our hotel situation got sorted and we were moved to our proper room with a view of the Giza pyramids which could be seen off and on through the smog/fog/dust of the late afternoon.

Next day was a tour to Saqqara which is a really old step pyramid going back to the 2nd dynasty. Went in one tomb and saw some RCOP (really cool old poop).

On Wednesday we went to the Coptic part of town which is under lock and key: need to pass by the police prior to entering.

Saw the cavern where baby Jesus, Joe, and Mary took refuge, saw a Greek Orthodox Church (St. George) which had a cool circular design, and rode the subway to find some kushari (a carb heavy dish of rice/pasta/lentils mixed with tomato paste and hot sauce on the side). 

That night we met the rest of our group for the big tour of Egypt: us (2 Canadians), 3 Americans - one guy from San Fran, two guys from Wisconsin but living together in London, a young lady of Indian heritage from Melbourne, Australia, and 2 Pakistani-Americans - an aunt who has lived in LA for far too long and her niece who behaved like a princess. 

The following day we finally crossed the street to go see the Giza pyramids and Spinx - RCOP!

Seeing the Sphinx in its entirety is neat because you get to see the work on the back side. It has a tail which has been more protected than the damaged head which we all have seen.

In the afternoon we went to the Egyptian Museum which has about 130,000 different RCOP things to see including King Tut's (could have won a grammy) mask, and burial boxes (gold leaf all around) etc etc...

Then we settled in for the night as the next day we were going to go to Alexandria!



Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 19, 2020, 09:11:39 pm
Very cool travels.

"Saw the cavern where baby Jesus, Joe, and Mary took refuge"

So... what ?  How do they say they know this ?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 20, 2020, 10:15:21 pm

"Saw the cavern where baby Jesus, Joe, and Mary took refuge"

So... what ?  How do they say they know this ?

The whole time my wife called it the alleged refuge cavern.

I dunno: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Sergius_and_Bacchus_Church_(Abu_Serga)

Say a lie long enough and people will believe it I guess. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 20, 2020, 10:45:37 pm
It was a Friday that we left Giza for Alexandria. Like Saturday at home but with call to pray 5 times during the day and men on their prayer rugs outside of overflowing mosques.

The plan was to hit the catacombs, stroll along the Mediterranean, and check out the library.

But first we had to get there and when there is fog the highway is shut down because between how they drive and how thick the fog is it is too dangerous.

A couple of hours later we we moving again and saw the catacombs (cool), experienced the refreshing sea air (a relief after being in stinky Cairo for 5 nights), and visited the modern library which has several galleries/museums in it.

Then off to a Syrian restaurant for the first really good food experience on the trip.

The hotel was waterfront and it was awesome to listen to the waves on the patio.

The next day, after a quick garden tour of Al Montazah, we headed back to Cairo to catch the night train to Aswan.

The bus ride was frustrated by the PAP’s.

The Pakistani American Princesses were sharing headphones and singing along to their songs.

Sometimes singing in English, other times in Pakistani/Hindi, and other times in Arabic.

Linguistically talented no doubt. Also attention seeking vampires.

I put on my noise cancelling headphones and cranked up some Tool.  A little “Forty six & 2” and “The Grudge” can drown out any princess.

Apparently, however, not everyone had headphones and finally one of the American's living in London broke: I think you should stop singing.

Oh, okay we’ll finish this song, cried the PP’s.

No, you should stop NOW.

———————-

We arrived at the train station early so we walked around. Before I knew it my wife was ahead of me hugging some young man.

I see it was an Aussie that I had biked the Death Road in Bolivia on Xmas day the previous year.

We knew he was doing Egypt/Jordan as we tried to do the same tour with him but he ended up doing the G Adventure tour instead.

So we took the night train to Aswan.  The food was terrible but that didn’t matter as I had a big bag of peanuts and some fruit.

We settled in and actually slept reasonably well (better than Thailand and Vietnam). 

In the morning we woke up and watched the country go by. 

Saw what we thought was a fox but turns out to be a “golden wolf.”

I prefer fox because it had a bushy tail and was trotting along.

But we finally made it all the way South to Aswan!


Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 20, 2020, 11:05:35 pm
I have just been chatting with an old friend who was my driver/translator/go to guy during a number of work trips to Sudan. He drove me up to the north of Sudan where the real pyramids are. He also knew how to purchase a case of beer for a decent price and without getting busted. There was no South Sudan in those days but I happened to be near Juba when the south made a comment by firing 15 80 mm mortars at us. I have a few pieces of the shrapnel stashed up on the mantle above my fireplace. My friend is very happy to see Bashir gone from power. I miss the street food from there. I've tried hard but can't quite get it exactly right in my own kitchen. Maybe I'll just have to take another spin by.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 21, 2020, 12:08:52 am
An Aussie I met on the Jordan part of our tour went to Sudan using Lupine: https://lupinetravel.co.uk/sudan-holidays-and-tours/

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 21, 2020, 12:36:31 pm
An Aussie I met on the Jordan part of our tour went to Sudan using Lupine: https://lupinetravel.co.uk/sudan-holidays-and-tours/

I clicked on the link you provided and immediately I recognized those old pyramids. My friend in Khartoum took us for a drive up there and I was certainly impressed especially as you dig into the history of the place. Leaving the country I got to travel south through the desert and eventually to Kampala. Unfortunately there was a mortar attack in Juba that slowed the progress by a few hours. Eventually got a look at Kilimanjaro and out to the coast at Mombasa and then down the coast to Capetown. A lot of varied landscapes to absorb on that run. My index finger needed a rest after snapping all those pics.   
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 21, 2020, 05:12:31 pm
Among a stack of expired Canadian passports I also have one I bet not a lot of others here will have. It was issued by: JAMHUURIYADDA DIMOQRAADIGA SOOMAALIYA. It is a BAASABOOR SHAQO type passport which means it is a Service Passport. It has a stamp which says I am "Direcing Consular Affairs".  And it cost me US$10.00 from a guy on a street in Mogadishu.

Henceforth I shall expect the appropriate respect commensurate to my lofty position.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 21, 2020, 06:44:43 pm
I leave  for Seville in a couple of weeks. 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 21, 2020, 07:56:51 pm
Finally we arrived in Aswan and some nice warm weather.

We visited Philae Island which, due to the creation of Nasser Lake from the building of the dam, the government moved temples and artifacts from a now sunken  island to here.

We then checked into our hotel on another Island, freshened up, and then were off for a home cooked meal to experience Nubian culture.

The family was lovely and the food excellent. Got the recipe for the lentil soup and have made it at home since.

The next day a few of us (as in 3) agreed to go with our guide (who I should point out is practically an Egyptologist) to see the High Dam and the Unfinished Obelisk which was amazing - because it **** twice they just left it and it has helped us to understand how they built them.

Then we moved from our hotel to the Nile river cruise boat - probably holds about 150 people plus many crew. 

We went for a felluca ride in the late afternoon/early evening and then headed out for a night on the town. Visited the local markets and a spice shop before finding some booze to sneak onto the ship.

The next morning we got up early and bused to Aswan's airport for a short flight to Abu Simbel. We flew over Lake Nasser and landed at a very small airport and got on another bus to see Ramses II and his favourite wife's temples.

These also were moved due to the High Dam and they are really cool old poop!

But didn't have much time so back to the bus, back to the airport, and back to the cruise ship. Greta Thunberg would hate us and our carbon footprint ways.

Got on the boat for lunch and we set sail towards Luxor.

On the way we stopped to see Kom Ombo Temple - a mirror image designed temple from the 2nd century BC. Half of the temple is dedicated to the crocodile god (Temple of Sobek) and the other to Horus, the falcon god.

 Then back on the boat ....

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: kimmy on February 02, 2020, 11:56:02 pm
Las Vegas TRIP REPORT


We had a wonderful time!

We stayed at the Excalibur, which we chose because it's the cheapest hotel on the strip.  In some ways it shows.  But we didn't go there to hang out in our room.

We lost about $2.96 gambling.

We went to two shows. We saw Cirque du Soleil "Zumanity", which was quite racy.  During parts of the show when they're changing the set, some of the performers (the host, a drag queen, and a bawdy middle-aged couple who did comedy) brought members of the audience up on stage to participate in some skits and stuff.  We were quite terrified of being called up on stage.  The show had amazing acrobatics and sensual dancing.   We also saw "Vegas: The Show!" which sort of told the history of Las Vegas through song and dance and skits. It was very good. Some of the cast members performed in skits as notable Vegas stars of yesteryear, like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Elvis, and more.  The girl who performed as Gladys Knight (and Lena Horne, and Tina Turner) had an astounding voice. She was really really good.

Before we went, we'd agreed that having a threesome with a Vegas showgirl was on our list of things to do.  At Vegas: the Show! we did bump into someone who just had the look of a showgirl, though she wasn't dressed up for it.  Linz went to work chatting her up: "Hi! Are you in the show?"  "Well, not this show. I used to be in this show, though! One of my friends is in the show! I'm here for his birthday!"  "Oh, that's great, maybe we'll see you later!"   We did see her later, but her tongue was so deep in Frank Sinatra's tonsils that we realized there was no hope for us.

We rented a car. We went around town for some shopping and to get to some of the places off the strip.  We spent a day hiking at Red Rock Canyon, which was a nice change from all the glitz and glamour.  We also went to Chinatown to see the Golden Tiki bar, and we went to the Neon Museum, but there was a Tim Burton book signing going on there so we didn't get to see it. I don't know if the car was worth it in terms of money saved on taxi fares, but the convenience was worth it, and being able to go out to Red Rock was very nice as well.

Fremont Street was amazing!  The light and sound show was pretty cool, but the amount of unusual characters and strange activities going on was what was really interesting.  There were two different concerts going on in different parts of Fremont St.  We accidentally crashed a party. The "Stage Magicians Society of America" or some **** like that was having a party in the lounge on the 2nd floor of the Gold Nugget casino on Fremont, and we went up there to have drinks and watch one of the concerts from the balcony.  It was great watching the street from up there. Also, I had no idea stage magicians were so lame. I think we made their lame party about 2000% cooler when we arrived.

The Bellagio fountain show was really wonderful. We saw that 4 different times, and were delighted each time.  Seeing videos of it just doesn't do justice.

Some of the downsides...  there was a lot of smoke.  People smoke cigarettes while they're gambling, and the gambling floor at Excalibur had crappy ventilation, and you have to go through the gambling floor to get anywhere in the building. So I did quite a bit of coughing.   There was also a lot of hustlers. Everybody coming at you trying to sell something.  Hi pressure time share sales masquerading as discount show tickets.  Yuck. Go anywhere on the strip and people are trying to thrust something into your hand.   Often little flyers for escorts.  We passed a group of young women who were laughing as they traded escort flyers back and forth as if they were trading hockey cards. And everything was quite expensive. 

One of the other things that made me a little sad is that it felt like some of the character and history is being lost.  Instead of "The Sands" and "The Dunes" new buildings have names like "Aria" and "Encore".  "Stardust" was torn down in 2006, and construction of a replacement was delayed for years by the economic downturn of 2008.  Now that the new property is finally being built, it's going to be called... "Resort World".  How bland and depressing.  On the bright side, The Sahara was rebranded as SLS in the early 2000's... but about 5 years ago it was re-rebranded to The Sahara again. 

Also we spent too much time having sex.  I know this sounds like first-world problems, but spending 2 hours having sex each morning really eats into how much time you have to get out and around town.  We were often not out of our room until 10am.  Of course by the time we got back to our room at night, we were too exhausted to do anything except sleep.

Overall we had a great trip.  My favorite part of the trip was the amazing spectacle of everything. So many amazing things to see and do. I really loved it.


 -k
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on February 03, 2020, 08:21:32 am
Well great...

And the sex thing (besides being an obvious set-up to a joke in there that I will NOT go for) is beyond first-world problems.  You are blessed that you are still at that point and I am happier for you than I am jealous Kimmy
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on April 19, 2020, 12:14:37 pm
Ok, so now that we may not be able to travel ever again let’s go on with the Egypt/Jordan tour:

Back on the boat and steaming towards Luxor.

Hit Edfu in the morning but not allowed to take the horse and buggy as there is controversy over the care for the horses (they looked undernourished for sure). 

Edfu is another Horus Temple and it’s pretty cool. One section of stairs spirals up like a falcon (Horus) while another section of stairs goes straight down like a falcon diving for the kill.  Sound ludicrous but it actually is like that.  Except there is Egyptian art all over the walls.
This was Xmas so we headed back to the boat for a nice Xmas lunch and then a leisurely cruise through the locks to Luxor.

On the way various small boats approach ours to offer their wares (beach towels/clothing/etc).

They display it and throw the items up to the decks. Another bag is thrown so money can be exchanged.

Seemed dangerous compared to the reward especially when they followed us through the locks.

But obviously skilled at sailing and selling as numerous people bought their goods.

And then we arrived in Luxor...

(ugh photo is sideways)
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on April 24, 2020, 12:06:13 am
Ah Luxor.

Warm even in December.

Home to Karnak, the Avenue of the Spinxes, and the Valley of the Kings.

Today is Karnak which is massive. Built and unfinished over 200 years.

Columns and obelisks.

They would build columns, fill in with sand, build higher, fill with sand, repeat.

Then paint. Then remove sand and paint, remove and paint, until you have painted all the columns and removed all the sand.

No aliens here as you can tell at the unfinished wall in the picture. 

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on April 29, 2020, 12:28:15 am
The reason to go to Luxor is to visit the Valley of the Kings which we could see from our hotel room as we looked west (the sun sets over the west bank hence where the dead poeple get buried). 

[attach=1]

But before heading over there lets talk shopping: papyrus art and jewelry. We went to a jewelry store to get the wife some scarab pendants and lo and behold, that buddy from our 2018 Bolivia trip, who we bumped into at the train station in Cairo several posts back, enters the store with some people from his tour group.

This is Dec 26, 2019 whereas on Dec 25, 2018 he and I were biking the “Death Road” in Bolivia....

[attach=2]

Anyway, it was nice to catch up with him again. His G adventure tour was not as comfortable as our Intrepid tour.

He’s Aussie so he was cold as he slept on a felucca while we were on a decent river cruise liner and toasty warm.

For now lets consider two more things:

1] The Avenue of the Sphinx’s.

[attach=3]

Several kilometres long and now only one church stands in the way of its path from Karnak to Luxor.

2) A look back towards Luxor from the Temple of Hatshepsut.

[attach=4]

Lots of green near the river but very dry once away from it....



 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on April 29, 2020, 02:29:48 pm
Looking forward to Travel: Kitchen to Living Room  :D
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on April 29, 2020, 05:11:08 pm
New Airport Codes

LVG                              OFC
Living Room                  Office

MBR                              BKY
Master Bedroom             Back Yard

DNG                             PAT
Dining Room                  Patio

OFC                              WNC
Office                            Wine Cellar

BTH                              MNC
Bathroom                      Man Cave

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on April 29, 2020, 05:26:36 pm
Clever. ;D
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on April 29, 2020, 06:34:06 pm
Clever. ;D

Not mine but I thought it was cute.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on May 02, 2020, 07:21:10 am
Valley of the Kings: poor mans pyramids? Or Egypt in a time of budget cuts?

Who knows, but on the western side (again, sun sets over there so associated with the dead -we get it) in the hills/mountains is a hidden valley with a ton of tombs carved deep into the mountain.

Really can’t do this place justice:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_of_the_Kings

We went into several several tombs. Skipped King Tut’s as it is small and costly (guide recommended against it).

This is one of those experiences where you can’t believe what you are seeing while realizing that your presence is helping to destroy what everyone comes to see.  Now that I have seen it time to close it down! No more human perspiration and humidity to destroy these ancient wonders!

J/k: can’t wait to go back. 





Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on May 02, 2020, 08:02:41 am
I have forgone the travel bug out of necessity on several levels: Covid, Cool kid, and $

It will come back someday.  I am very happy you have found edification in seeing the world's great works.  :)
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Boges on June 03, 2020, 01:42:20 pm
Home Renovation and Contracting will be the boon to Travel's demise.

If I have the time or money, I may travel out east late in the summer. Or visit someplace in this country.

I don't see how travel recovers from this 100%. The travel industry is built on scale. If you can't guarantee regular full flights to Cancun or Cuba, then the price will climb and be unaffordable to most.

Ditto with Hotels.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on June 03, 2020, 02:25:34 pm
I loved being able to travel in my day but I'm also happy not to be having to sit in a triple 7 for 17 hours anymore these days.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on December 09, 2020, 06:59:33 pm
Any of you West coasters ever been to the Queen Charlottes?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on December 09, 2020, 07:13:39 pm
Any of you West coasters ever been to the Queen Charlottes?

Yes indeed. I was based various times working out of Sandspit, Massett, and Langara airports. It truly is a beautiful place and it was fulfilling engaging with the local people.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on December 09, 2020, 07:38:41 pm
Any of you West coasters ever been to the Queen Charlottes?
I've been within sight of Cape St James a few times when fishing but I've yet to step ashore anywhere. I'd like to someday.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on December 09, 2020, 08:17:25 pm
Yes indeed. I was based various times working out of Sandspit, Massett, and Langara airports. It truly is a beautiful place and it was fulfilling engaging with the local people.

The Pandemic has made me comfortable financially. I want to spend some of that in Canada Later. I have some places in mind I haven't been. Niagara On the Lake, Kingston, Gaspe, Lunenburg, Fogo, Charlottetown, Haida, Tuktoyuktuk, Dawson City..and I'm taking suggestions.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on December 09, 2020, 09:00:33 pm
Oh yeah - also the Eastern Township and the Gatineau Hills.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on December 09, 2020, 09:01:15 pm
Any of you West coasters ever been to the Queen Charlottes?

It's Haida Gwaii now but some of us still call it the Charlottes. Looked down at it  but never set foot. We were planning a road trip that would take us to Victoria then up the Island to Port Hardy. Then we were going to take the ferry to Prince Rupert and over to Skidegate. After returning to Rupert we would head back via Prince George and Whistler. Then Covid got in the way. We still hope to do it in 22. Looking forward to getting poked so we can travel again.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on December 09, 2020, 09:07:44 pm
It's Haida Gwaii now but some of us still call it the Charlottes. Looked down at it  but never set foot. We were planning a road trip that would take us to Victoria then up the Island to Port Hardy. Then we were going to take the ferry to Prince Rupert and over to Skidegate. After returning to Rupert we would head back via Prince George and Whistler. Then Covid got in the way. We still hope to do it in 22. Looking forward to getting poked so we can travel again.

Thanks - I wasn't sure what the actual name was now.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Queefer Sutherland on December 09, 2020, 09:43:44 pm
The Pandemic has made me comfortable financially. I want to spend some of that in Canada Later. I have some places in mind I haven't been. Niagara On the Lake, Kingston, Gaspe, Lunenburg, Fogo, Charlottetown, Haida, Tuktoyuktuk, Dawson City..and I'm taking suggestions.

Highly recommend Niagara on the Lake.  If you go I can give you the name of a very affordable but historic bed-and-breakfast with the best breakfast you've ever had in your life that will blow your mind I guarantee.

I love saying "Tuktoyuktuk".

I recommend Quebec City too and Montreal too if you've never been.  I've wanted to head to Queen Charlotte Islands.  Incredible fishing on the pacific I hear.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Queefer Sutherland on December 09, 2020, 09:48:09 pm
You could also visit Vancouver Island and smack a b!tch.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on December 09, 2020, 10:04:23 pm
The Pandemic has made me comfortable financially. I want to spend some of that in Canada Later. I have some places in mind I haven't been. Niagara On the Lake, Kingston, Gaspe, Lunenburg, Fogo, Charlottetown, Haida, Tuktoyuktuk, Dawson City..and I'm taking suggestions.

If you get up to Tuktoyaktuk make sure you pick up a T-shirt from the university there. Big letters on the front TUK-U
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on December 10, 2020, 11:10:49 am
Never been to Haida Gwaii, but anyone I’ve ever talked to who has been there has enjoyed it very much.  Prepare for a rustic experience.   

Definitely get a tour of Gwaii Haanas National Park.  Supposed to be pretty spectacular, especially historically with the old village sites.

Also prepare for rain.  Lots of it, regardless of when you go.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on December 10, 2020, 12:20:53 pm
If you get up to Tuktoyaktuk make sure you pick up a T-shirt from the university there. Big letters on the front TUK-U


Imperial Oil had an Electra that they used to run from YEG up to their arctic operations. I remember some of their guys having those shirts.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: msj on January 24, 2021, 11:16:44 pm
Turkey.

Booking Turkey for late 2021.

Worst case scenario: get covid or caught in a coup or shot down and die.

Realistic worst case: out of pocket a few thousand bucks and don’t travel.

Best case: finally get my a$$ off this Island. It has been over a year since I came back from Jordan which was shortly after Trump killed that Iranian dude. I swear the plane flew so fast from Amman to the Mediterranean sea but who could tell as they purposely turned off that little map thingy on the screen until we were near Greece.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 24, 2021, 11:26:22 pm
Imperial Oil had an Electra that they used to run from YEG up to their arctic operations. I remember some of their guys having those shirts.

I was glying a flingwing up there back in the day moving those folks to/fro their offshore oil rigs. Now there's a test of ones cold wx capability.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: cybercoma on January 26, 2021, 09:33:41 am
The Pandemic has made me comfortable financially. I want to spend some of that in Canada Later. I have some places in mind I haven't been. Niagara On the Lake, Kingston, Gaspe, Lunenburg, Fogo, Charlottetown, Haida, Tuktoyuktuk, Dawson City..and I'm taking suggestions.
I strongly recommend the Cape Breton Highlands if you're coming out East at some point.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 12:44:48 pm
The Pandemic has made me comfortable financially. I want to spend some of that in Canada Later. I have some places in mind I haven't been. Niagara On the Lake, Kingston, Gaspe, Lunenburg, Fogo, Charlottetown, Haida, Tuktoyuktuk, Dawson City..and I'm taking suggestions.
The Broken Group of Islands if you're into boating or kayaking.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on January 26, 2021, 01:38:56 pm
The Broken Group of Islands if you're into boating or kayaking.

I’ll be taking my sister out there post-COVID.  So maybe this September......?   But, more realistically, next summer.  She’s an avid kayaker.   I’m not.   I’ll be driving the “escort boat”.      :)

The Broken Group are absolutely amazing. 

(https://highwaybandits.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/brokenislands.jpg)



Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 01:46:57 pm
I drive one of the 'escort' boats from time to time so see you there perhaps.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 26, 2021, 01:55:00 pm
Wow.

I think I was HERE once:

https://goo.gl/maps/QFv1iRyCZ9ZXFQ4o8
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on January 26, 2021, 02:07:04 pm
Wow.

I think I was HERE once:

https://goo.gl/maps/QFv1iRyCZ9ZXFQ4o8

I’m guessing Eyeball brings people there all the time....

Neat spot! 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 26, 2021, 02:32:52 pm
I’m guessing Eyeball brings people there all the time....

Neat spot!

Do you know it ???

I felt like I was in another world... like a dream when I was there.

I was on my honeymoon and was taken there by a young friend and a gal he was courting.   
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on January 26, 2021, 02:43:22 pm
Do you know it ???

I felt like I was in another world... like a dream when I was there.

I was on my honeymoon and was taken there by a young friend and a gal he was courting.

It’s an hour boat ride from Tofino.    I’ve been all around there in a boat a few times, but I’ve never actually stopped in there!  Weird, eh?  Usually, we have places to be and things to do if we’re out there and don’t have time to check it out.

An hour might not seem far, but there’s not much in between....    very remote.

The boat ride to get there is pretty phenomenal too.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on January 26, 2021, 02:59:18 pm
The Pandemic has made me comfortable financially. I want to spend some of that in Canada Later. I have some places in mind I haven't been. Niagara On the Lake, Kingston, Gaspe, Lunenburg, Fogo, Charlottetown, Haida, Tuktoyuktuk, Dawson City..and I'm taking suggestions.

Kingston is quite interesting, Ft Henry, RMC and all. We took a slow drive from Kingston to Montreal visiting some of the 1812 sites, Cryslers Farm, Martello towers etc. Cape Breton, Cabot Trail, Baddeck, Louisburg etc. Lunenburg is what you think it would be. Peggy's cove and all that. I quite like Halifax as a city, too bad they have such ugly weather in that part of the country. Charlottetown is a very pretty little city. Victoria Row is a pedestrian street lined with pubs and restaurants across from Province House. You can sit outside in the sun and have a beer and your lunch while listening to the band playing in the band stand across the street.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 03:52:36 pm
I’m guessing Eyeball brings people there all the time....
I've lost count.

Quote
Neat spot!
It is. The springs are shut down at the moment and pretty oversubscribed most days when it's open. I used to go there when commercial fishing and sometimes have the whole place to myself.  Nowadays I just eat a can of beans jump in the hot tub and its almost like I'm there.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 04:05:12 pm
It’s an hour boat ride from Tofino.    I’ve been all around there in a boat a few times, but I’ve never actually stopped in there!  Weird, eh?  Usually, we have places to be and things to do if we’re out there and don’t have time to check it out.

An hour might not seem far, but there’s not much in between....    very remote.

The boat ride to get there is pretty phenomenal too.
It's an hour at 30 knots but its got to be pretty calm out to keep up that pace the whole way.  There's usually a couple whales plus a bunch of sealions and sea-otters to look at in between which usually adds a half hour and depending on the weather it can take a couple hours.  There's nothing quite like getting around Sharp Pt on an ebb tide on top of a 3-4 m swell and a bit of wind for good measure.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on January 26, 2021, 04:16:21 pm
It's an hour at 30 knots but its got to be pretty calm out to keep up that pace the whole way.  There's usually a couple whales plus a bunch of sealions and sea-otters to look at in between which usually adds a half hour and depending on the weather it can take a couple hours.  There's nothing quite like getting around Sharp Pt on an ebb tide on top of a 3-4 m swell and a bit of wind for good measure.

Need tourists with strong stomachs for that ride! 

I love around Sulfur Pass, Shelter Inlet area.  Absolutely gorgeous around there! 

Too bad they allow fish farms there.  Seems to me that there are some places worth keeping as pristine as possible...   that’s one of them!
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 05:40:25 pm
Need tourists with strong stomachs for that ride!
They don't seem to make them like they used too.

Quote
I love around Sulfur Pass, Shelter Inlet area.  Absolutely gorgeous around there! 

Too bad they allow fish farms there.  Seems to me that there are some places worth keeping as pristine as possible...   that’s one of them!

I fished for dogfish years and years ago further up Sidney Inlet from the west end of Shelter Inlet, if they were there they came aboard like grapes, usually big ones. Fish farms, aka lice hatcheries, probably have something to do with the lack of salmon returns in Clayoquot Sound's more pristine sections.  The biggest loss was the sockeye run in Kennedy Lake. Apparently they used to tow gillnetters up the Kennedy River to catch the ones that made it past the cannery and there was a lot more logging in much of that eastern part of Clayoquot Sound too.  Can't blame farms for these but it's no surprise they have the same mentality.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 26, 2021, 06:59:21 pm
Need tourists with strong stomachs for that ride! 

I love around Sulfur Pass, Shelter Inlet area.  Absolutely gorgeous around there! 

Too bad they allow fish farms there.  Seems to me that there are some places worth keeping as pristine as possible...   that’s one of them!

I ... remember that.  It was crazy bumpy and the kid driving the boat out of Tofino looked and drove like Dale Earnhardt Jr.

So... he says to us "Don't worry if you fall out, I'll just swing around and get you"  My 3-week bride almost did. 

The island was unbelievable.  There were people living on it maybe ?  A naked native fellow... I don't remember much else from that weekend.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 26, 2021, 06:59:39 pm
This was 2005 btw
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on January 26, 2021, 07:51:32 pm
They don't seem to make them like they used too.

I fished for dogfish years and years ago further up Sidney Inlet from the west end of Shelter Inlet, if they were there they came aboard like grapes, usually big ones. Fish farms, aka lice hatcheries, probably have something to do with the lack of salmon returns in Clayoquot Sound's more pristine sections.  The biggest loss was the sockeye run in Kennedy Lake. Apparently they used to tow gillnetters up the Kennedy River to catch the ones that made it past the cannery and there was a lot more logging in much of that eastern part of Clayoquot Sound too.  Can't blame farms for these but it's no surprise they have the same mentality.

I lived in Steveston for a while when I was a kid in the late 50's. At that time there were three operating canneries. Now there is a museum.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 08:15:18 pm
I ... remember that.  It was crazy bumpy and the kid driving the boat out of Tofino looked and drove like Dale Earnhardt Jr.
They do have old skippers for old fogey's. Pays to shop around a bit.  I'll never forgot the bear-watching hotshot who blasted around the Sound before finally declaring they'd seen some 25 bears.

Of course it's called watching for a reason.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 08:18:07 pm
I lived in Steveston for a while when I was a kid in the late 50's. At that time there were three operating canneries. Now there is a museum.
Yep, and speaking of tourism there's a few rotting old fish-plants around here that look like the leaning Tower of Pisa.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on January 26, 2021, 08:58:12 pm
Yep, and speaking of tourism there's a few rotting old fish-plants around here that look like the leaning Tower of Pisa.

Most of the kids I went to school with had parents who were involved in the industry, a lot of them were Japanese.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 26, 2021, 09:51:04 pm
Most of the kids I went to school with had parents who were involved in the industry, a lot of them were Japanese.
I entered the scene at the tail end of the real old-timers. Sure a different era alright.  It's sad to see so many of the old boats rotting away beside the fish-plants. They seem to draw in a few tourists who take pictures of them and of course there's still the odd hopeless dreamer who buys one...to live the dream I guess. Not many of those left, old boats or old-timers.  No shortage of dreamers.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 27, 2021, 04:08:58 am
They do have old skippers for old fogey's. Pays to shop around a bit.  I'll never forgot the bear-watching hotshot who blasted around the Sound before finally declaring they'd seen some 25 bears.

Of course it's called watching for a reason.

Explain?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 27, 2021, 10:46:34 am
Explain?
There are companies who offer slower generally larger boats that are better suited for people who can't or don't want to bang and crash around in a smaller faster boat. I don't mind running a fast open boat on a nice day now and then but there's a lot to be said for a warm dry wheelhouse where your coffee cup stays put (usually).
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 27, 2021, 12:08:38 pm
Speaking of boats and travel, I had those two things merge interestingly for me a number of years ago. It's a bit of a long story but I'll shorten it up. First of all I was on a work assignment which took me up the Labrador coast. Bad weather forced myself and a number of other people to get storm stayed in the little village of Makkovik. At the time there was but one guest house and so that place was fairly full that night. I happened to meet a young lady who was also doing some photography work in the area. She and I hit it off pretty well so we kept in touch. She lived on the island of Nfld. and I in Ontario. She called me at one point and asked me if I wanted to accompany her on a trip to get to hell out of this winter weather and that friends of hers had parked their sailboat in Nassau and we could go visit. I was on a plane next day. I had never been on a sailboat before but I immediately felt damn lucky to be on this one. It was a 47 foot one design wooden sloop, designed and built for racing and was owned by the owner of a large yacht dealership based in Marblehead Mass. It was a great visit and I got to take the helm of that lovely vessel as well as to dive off the stern into that lovely clear/warm water while anchored out on the Bahama Banks and spear some lobsters for supper. Well we ended up visiting Marblehead and I got a pretty good deal on a C+C and we headed south as I was determined to revisit the Bahamas. All I really knew about sailboats was that the pointy end went out of the harbor first. I was familiar with navigation that lady with me loved the challenge as much as did I. Well we did finally make it to Nassau, after having to park various places on the east coast while we went back to work. Kept that boat for 5 years and the experiences gained are certainly memorable. And I was able to sell it for 1k more than I paid.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on January 29, 2021, 01:36:19 pm
There are companies who offer slower generally larger boats that are better suited for people who can't or don't want to bang and crash around in a smaller faster boat. I don't mind running a fast open boat on a nice day now and then but there's a lot to be said for a warm dry wheelhouse where your coffee cup stays put (usually).

Hard to "watch" something when you are banging past it at 30 Kts.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 29, 2021, 06:24:51 pm
Hard to "watch" something when you are banging past it at 30 Kts.
Pretty comparable to flying over a whale at 130kts.  We work with the odd pilot on occasion and they ask us if we've seen anything as much as we ask them. I've seen the occasional one from the air.  It's more like the high speed bear watcher I mentioned though, you can fly around and cover a bigger area and see a bunch of whales but the difference between watching and seeing should be obvious.  Finding a big group in either case is pretty impressive.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 29, 2021, 07:58:23 pm
Way back in the day I was involved in a project where we worked out of Churchill MB. where we flew around looking for POLAR Bears and when we found one we would chase it/dart it and then wait untill it went to sleep and then land beside it and scrape off some skin cells, take a blood sample and then staqnd back until he/she started to wake up. It was a precious experience to be able to cradle the head of one of those big boys for a few minutes.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on January 29, 2021, 08:46:53 pm
Pretty comparable to flying over a whale at 130kts.  We work with the odd pilot on occasion and they ask us if we've seen anything as much as we ask them. I've seen the occasional one from the air.  It's more like the high speed bear watcher I mentioned though, you can fly around and cover a bigger area and see a bunch of whales but the difference between watching and seeing should be obvious.  Finding a big group in either case is pretty impressive.

Way back when the kids were smaller we had an airplane. We flew over to Tofino a few times and walked down to the beach for the day. Once there was a school of Gray Whales feeding offshore and I circled them as slow as I could. The family got a pretty good look but I didn't.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 29, 2021, 10:44:06 pm
Way back when the kids were smaller we had an airplane. We flew over to Tofino a few times and walked down to the beach for the day. Once there was a school of Gray Whales feeding offshore and I circled them as slow as I could. The family got a pretty good look but I didn't.

Way back when I first got hooked into aviation I was lucky enough to get a job flying out of YQA and got checked out on a C185 on amphibs. Flying rich guys into their cottages on the Muskoka Lakes provided me with such a lovely view of the great area I was luckily enough to live in.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 30, 2021, 09:43:24 am
Something I could never figure out about that hot spring island. I could swear that I looked out over the water at night and saw a street light across the way. Not a light on a house but a street light on a pole like there was a street over there or a road. Is that possible?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: JMT on January 30, 2021, 11:09:42 am
I strongly recommend the Cape Breton Highlands if you're coming out East at some point.

I was there about 10 years ago. It would be nice to go back.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Omni on January 30, 2021, 11:48:50 am
I used to travel on airlines to and from work. Glad not to be doing that nowadays with the Covid crisis. 17 hours from YVR-Dubai for instance would be a looooong time to have to wear a mask.  I wouldn't have had enough pockets to stash all  that free booze they give you in business class. ;D
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on January 30, 2021, 12:34:46 pm
Something I could never figure out about that hot spring island. I could swear that I looked out over the water at night and saw a street light across the way. Not a light on a house but a street light on a pole like there was a street over there or a road. Is that possible?
That is a Hesquiat 1st Nation's village. It used to be up at the far end of the cove on lower ground but they moved it after a tsunami hit and flooded everything. No one was hurt but a couple houses went out with the tide.  There's a road from there to another Hesquiat village further west of Hot Springs. Cougar Annies' Gardens are up there as well. She was an early pioneer who was well known the area.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on January 30, 2021, 01:23:26 pm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesquiaht_First_Nation
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on January 30, 2021, 10:08:21 pm
They don't seem to make them like they used too.

I fished for dogfish years and years ago further up Sidney Inlet from the west end of Shelter Inlet, if they were there they came aboard like grapes, usually big ones. Fish farms, aka lice hatcheries, probably have something to do with the lack of salmon returns in Clayoquot Sound's more pristine sections.  The biggest loss was the sockeye run in Kennedy Lake. Apparently they used to tow gillnetters up the Kennedy River to catch the ones that made it past the cannery and there was a lot more logging in much of that eastern part of Clayoquot Sound too.  Can't blame farms for these but it's no surprise they have the same mentality.


The diet part of that wiki article is crap.  Lingonberries are not found in the south coast.  They’re a northern species.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on June 28, 2021, 06:47:59 pm
Haha, I got the "Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days." digging this thread up.  Thanks COVID.

I'm not even sure road trips can count as 'travel' but I just wanted to say holy poop, Kim City hotels are going for 500K/night for a four star hotel.  I'd rather stay at the Empress Hotel for less than that.

Looks like I'll be going to the island.  Sorry islanders....
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on June 29, 2021, 12:15:32 am
Haha, I got the "Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days." digging this thread up.  Thanks COVID.

I'm not even sure road trips can count as 'travel' but I just wanted to say holy poop, Kim City hotels are going for 500K/night for a four star hotel.  I'd rather stay at the Empress Hotel for less than that.

Looks like I'll be going to the island.  Sorry islanders....

We know you…. You’re welcome anytime! 

Are those hotels trying to make up for lost time on a single summer??? 
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on June 29, 2021, 05:04:31 am
500K?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: wilber on June 29, 2021, 08:09:31 am
Haha, I got the "Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days." digging this thread up.  Thanks COVID.

I'm not even sure road trips can count as 'travel' but I just wanted to say holy poop, Kim City hotels are going for 500K/night for a four star hotel.  I'd rather stay at the Empress Hotel for less than that.

Looks like I'll be going to the island.  Sorry islanders....

People without AC going to a hotel to cool off.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on June 29, 2021, 10:47:32 am
500K?

I assumed she meant $500

Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on June 29, 2021, 12:16:23 pm
I assumed she meant $500

Ok.  AFAIK things ARE more expensive out west.

Also - this heat is so high that people in Toronto are mentioning it.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on June 29, 2021, 02:01:30 pm
Ok.  AFAIK things ARE more expensive out west.

$500 is a ripoff for any hotel in that town.  That’s expensive hotel in Vancouver kind of prices.

Quote
Also - this heat is so high that people in Toronto are mentioning it.

Ooooo….   I guess we finally made it then…. 

 Did ya hear that Cuzzin Cootis?  They’s talkin’ ‘bout us in Tee-Ron-Tow!!!   
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on June 29, 2021, 02:03:55 pm

 Did ya hear that Cuzzin Cootis?  They’s talkin’ ‘bout us in Tee-Ron-Tow!!!


Um... is your cousin on here ?
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on June 29, 2021, 07:21:15 pm
500K?

Haha, that was a perfect storm of posting while sleep-deprived, over-heated, and after putting together a cash forecast.  No, $500... but still highway robbery.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on June 30, 2021, 06:38:51 am
 : Yes, it's still super expensive
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Michael Hardner on October 17, 2021, 03:31:19 pm
Turkmenistan seems... uh....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nSoQt9LAGg
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on May 27, 2022, 10:44:57 pm
$500 is a ripoff for any hotel in that town.  That’s expensive hotel in Vancouver kind of prices.

I'm planning my staycation for August and pretty much everywhere in BC is around 500/night now. It's 400 if I buy with no cancellation clause. I mean for a decent place, not even 5 star or anything.

I just came back from Whistler and even there everything is pretty close to 500 too. I stayed at the Pan Pacific at least I got a free parking (EV) and breakfast included. Hilton is 400 plus parking so it made sense. The location of the Pan Pacific is pretty central in the village.

This is nuts, cheaper to buy an RV and pay to park it somewhere most of the year.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on May 27, 2022, 11:03:04 pm
Turkmenistan seems... uh....

That wasn't as bad as I was expecting. The lack of people in daytime and all the white cars ok, but the rest of it meh... everywhere is strange in its own way when you step outside of eurocentric countries.

Plus, I bet it's cheaper than fricking BC.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on May 28, 2022, 07:49:45 pm
I'm planning my staycation for August and pretty much everywhere in BC is around 500/night now. It's 400 if I buy with no cancellation clause. I mean for a decent place, not even 5 star or anything.

This is nuts, cheaper to buy an RV and pay to park it somewhere most of the year.
We still only jack our place up to $300 in the summer and we don't need a cancellation clause.  Anything that cancels in the morning is usually booked by nightfall or the following day.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Squidward von Squidderson on May 29, 2022, 12:40:59 am
We still only jack our place up to $300 in the summer and we don't need a cancellation clause.  Anything that cancels in the morning is usually booked by nightfall or the following day.

BC Cheque should get a forum discount too…. 🤷‍♂️
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: guest18 on May 29, 2022, 09:43:31 am
Everyone knows you need to be BC_cash to get a discount. ...I'll see myself out.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on May 29, 2022, 01:25:36 pm
JFC downtown Vancouver condos are 600+, I think I need to get into the AirBnB business. Many are $1000/night!!
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on May 29, 2022, 01:36:19 pm
We still only jack our place up to $300 in the summer and we don't need a cancellation clause.  Anything that cancels in the morning is usually booked by nightfall or the following day.

Air BnB’s aren’t as ridiculous, I know. I was trying to find a hotel with a pool because my kids are different ages with different interests but they both love the pool. Apparently this is how things are looking everywhere now:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-25/us-hotel-prices-rise-as-labor-market-upends-hospitality-industry

I think I’ll have to rethink the Air BnB
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: Boges on June 01, 2022, 09:53:03 am
I'm planning my staycation for August and pretty much everywhere in BC is around 500/night now. It's 400 if I buy with no cancellation clause. I mean for a decent place, not even 5 star or anything.

I just came back from Whistler and even there everything is pretty close to 500 too. I stayed at the Pan Pacific at least I got a free parking (EV) and breakfast included. Hilton is 400 plus parking so it made sense. The location of the Pan Pacific is pretty central in the village.

This is nuts, cheaper to buy an RV and pay to park it somewhere most of the year.

Looking just at hotels in the core of a big city or are you looking at VRBO or Air BnB? Places that are worth going to are expensive, especially in the Summer.

That being said. . .
https://www.vrbo.com/en-ca/cottage-rental/p9666511?adultsCount=2&arrival=2022-08-07&departure=2022-08-14&uni_id=8748795
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: BC_cheque on June 01, 2022, 12:03:43 pm
Looking just at hotels in the core of a big city or are you looking at VRBO or Air BnB? Places that are worth going to are expensive, especially in the Summer.

That being said. . .
https://www.vrbo.com/en-ca/cottage-rental/p9666511?adultsCount=2&arrival=2022-08-07&departure=2022-08-14&uni_id=8748795

I'd love a quiet peaceful cottage myself but I'm going with my kids who are different ages with different interests. I was looking for a hotel with a pool, something we used to be able to do for ~$300-$400/night every summer until 2019.

I've decided to have a true 'staycation' though. I'm going to take time off, put the work laptop away, and tourist in my own town with water slides, playland, Stanley park, canoeing, pools.

I'm not going to spend 5K to go to the island or the okanagan. That's nuts.
Title: Re: Travel Culture
Post by: eyeball on June 05, 2022, 09:06:58 pm
JFC downtown Vancouver condos are 600+, I think I need to get into the AirBnB business. Many are $1000/night!!
So...the place that sold next door was put up on Airbnb two months before the closing date 4 days ago. The house was fully booked all summer long weeks ago at $486 a night.

There's no operating permit, no caretaker will be on site, the septic system is on a single 60" x 130" lot that was designed for a 2 bedroom house. The old house is still in there but it had another house tacked up around it. I think there's 5 bedrooms now.

I doubt the septic system will last a month before it collapses under the load, assuming the Regional District hasn't shut it down or the neighbourhood hasn't burned the place to the ground.

I mean I guess I get the math...$800 K for the house and lot...$486 a night in revenue...so what could go wrong?