Yeah, the Lennon Wall without that was no different than things I pass in NYC every day. Hopefully my post doesn't sound too negative because I had a great time. Just so many nights where it was 10pm and half my boat was staying in and the three girls were running off (or a comparable in the hostels) and I had to psych myself up to be the life of the party alone.
You could also do the Green Cave/Blue Cave tour... I thought that was p fun. We had a group of like 14 from the hostel that all did it together. Hula Hula for day drinking is also an option.
I agree with you, ohhaithur about Madhouse. The guys were cool, but I definitely felt that they were pushing us places for kickbacks. Most hostels do it, but it seemed more prevalent with the Madhouse. (Actually, the San Jordi hostels in Barcelona kind of did the same thing, and since they have so many people at those hostels it makes an otherwise dead bar feel packed). Did you pregame with your boatmates? It sounds like they were terrible, and that's a bummer. I just don't understand the point of doing yacht week without being completely open to new people and trying new things and shit. That said, the girls on my boat got a little catty when girls (they all later became friends) from another boat boarded and were essentially stuck for a while. I'm so pumped though, setting sail on Aug 22!
I wasn't sure about the kickbacks until one of the bartenders came back to our hostel to fuck a host. So whether it was money or tail or both, she was getting paid. Whatever, I had fun. I drank with them but here's the breakdown of my boat: Three Texas girls: fun, cool, will probably visit them eventually, had some fun times with two of them, but they very much enjoyed being alone at bars. Even once told me "we appreciate that you are social enough to not be a fourth wheel with us" so... Two Canadian girls: fun but seemed to do their own thing. Would disappear for hours or go to a non-yacht week bar Married couple: yeah Two Canadian guys: One literally never went out. Got roped into it and had no idea what TYW was. The other was awesome but went home early because he was too much fun and had a gf back home he would've cheated on if he hung out more. Again, I had a blast but I would 100% do it with someone I know next time.
I couldn't go 30 feet without passing an ATM in Split. Don't do it at the airport or at an exchange. And don't do it in Kuna, do it in USD and let your bank convert. The rates offered were atrocious.
forgive me for my ignorance but you can just go to an ATM and get croatian krona out? think my bank charges a 3% fee
I always use ATMs abroad, just take out a lot of money at once. And make sure to let your bank know which countries you'll be in.
A lot of credit cards have no fees to charge, but there is a hefty fee for a cash advance from an ATM. If you need cash, sign up for a Charles Schwab checking account. I keep one just for traveling. No fees, and they reimburse you all atm fees, so it costs nothing to pull out of foreign atms, so I can grab a couple bucks here and there instead of having to pull out in large amounts. Regular banks usually range from 1-3% plus fees to pull out of foreign atms.
Checked out Dover Castle/Cliffs today. Freaking gorgeous. And I could just barely make out France on the other side.
ohhaithur How much vetting did you do of your crew? Did you already sorta have an idea that some of them would be lame going in?
I added them all on Facebook and talked to them a bit. We had a group chat that had decent convos. One of the three Texas girls I talked to every day for months. We clicked really well. All of them are social, have plenty of pictures at bars, they all travel a lot and they all are nice. Just very cliquey and that is hard to read. Outside of the one who doesn't drink I would've been fine with any of them alone (especially the two girls whose company I enjoyed ). In fact, I did a bunch of day trips with individuals and they were all great. Just when it came time to go out it was Noah's arc and I was a lonely unicorn
Already discussed on this page... Am I best off just using the ATM to get cash in chunks or taking cash with me? I'll be in Italy/Spain... basically only big cities.
I bet I lost so much money cause I took out money drunk from the ATM and had no idea whatever to with or without the conversion.
Kind of cool. Would be nice to have for traveling IMO https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/597538543/the-worlds-best-travel-jacket-with-15-features-bau
I stayed in Shinjuku and id probably stay there again. Its in the middle of everything, has a lot of bars, restaurants, and stores. It's also where Kabukicho and Golden Gai are, just know that a lot of the places there are very ethnocentric and might turn you away if you don't speak Japanese. I got more of a local feel staying there which is great if thats what youre into. Most importantly I thought it had the best staging area to get to other parts of Tokyo. It has the second largest train station in Tokyo and you can take the Yamanote train line around to the majority of areas. Roppongi is pretty much the place to go for nightlife. Just be sure to bring a lot of cash because prices there rival high end American spots like the meatpacking district in NYC. If you do plan on partying there a lot, just know that subways close really early and that after a certain time (11 or 12, i forget), you'd have to take a taxi to wherever you're staying and that can get steep, so thats something to consider. If you do plan on partying in Roppongi, I definitely recommend doing the Tokyo Pub Crawl. Great time to meet other travelers/locals, get into places with cover charges for free and get drink specials. I admit though I haven't been to Roppongi during the day, so I wouldnt be able to tell you how it is. Just know its very touristy compared to Shinjuku and Shibuya. In terms of places to stay in Roppongi, im not really sure the choices you'd have there. In terms of accessibility, it's kind of off the way from the main train line in Tokyo (youll notice the main train line travels in one big circle around the city). Cant really comment on Shibuya other than seeing the crossing with all the people was pretty cool. I was expecting a lot more people but then again maybe I went during less busy hours.
Usually even with fees getting cash out of atms is a better deal. Just check w your bank first to see what it will cost you each time. There will be no shortage of atms. Any place that exchanges currency does so at a rate that usually does not work out in your favor, especially ones at airports. Its usually a 5-10% cut they take and your atm fees are probably less than that
Work is sending me to Hyderabad, India, for a couple weeks from Mid August till the end of August. Anyone have any experience there? Secondly, I'll be flying out of India on Friday night and want to stop somewhere (pretty much anywhere) from Saturday morning - Sunday night on the way home. Any suggestions? EDIT: Flying back to Atlanta
So brother's fiance is from Poland and our family is going to meet her family over Xmas. I'm not 100% sure on the dates but I know everyone is coming back to the states a few days before NYE, and I'm going to hang back. ohhaithur said Hvar is pretty awesome and Berlin is in my head as well. If you had 4-6 days and you started in Krakow, what would be your route? Where would you want to be on NYE? I'll revise this as I get the dates locked in but I wanted to start getting suggestions and such.
Krakow is supposed to be amazing, per most ITT. With such a short timeframe, I'd say Krakow, then to either Budapest or Prague. I'd only want to do 2 cities, you don't want to be traveling for most of your time over there.
Okay so I would be in Krakow from 20th of December until the 28th. I would probably need to be back in NYC by the 4th or 5th of January. Very open to suggestions. NYE is the main jam but I don't need some kind of epic party, just a cool place to be that is convenient enough to move to new areas after.
I love Berlin and even though I've only been in the summer, I heard Germany is very cool around xmas time. Lost of festivals. That sounds like the best plan to me. Plus you wouldn't get bored in that amount of time since there's so much to do and its close to Poland.
Where in the US are you flying out of? I would think depending on where you leave from, it affects if you fly west or east and what your possible stop options are.
Are there a lot of pick pockets in Europe? Fiance's boss has her freaking out about us getting our shit stolen.
So a brief write up on our trip Chiang Mai Chiang Mai was awesome. We stayed at deejai backpacker, which was awesome. They have a kitchen in the common area in the mainhouse, as well as right down the street like a block they have a pool, kitchen, bar, pool table, tree house, etc. People were great. Bought tickets to a Muay Thai fight through them on a discount and had the best seats in the house, because as the man working at the arena said "Oh, deejai. they pay good, you get good seat." That was fucking fantastic. We were sitting with a bunch of people from the hostel, getting lit, and gambling on the fights with the locals. The arena was down some sketchy ass alley in the back of some building, it was great. Really enjoyed the Chiang Mai night bizarre as well. Real good time walking around in there, and had a lot of fun listening to these thai dudes jam out some american tunes. They sounded a shit load better than a lot of bands I hear in bars around here, even with their asian accent. If you haven't seen how they make ice cream, watch this youtube video. It's the ultimate cold stone/marble slab. Spoiler We also rented bikes and hit the Samoeng Loop: Spoiler That was great, the views are fantastic and better than the ride to Pai (which I'll get to). Definitely recommend doing that. We were gone about 5 hours or so. Could've done it quicker or slower depending on personal preference. Would like to spend a couple more days in Chiang Mai, beautiful place. Pai The ride up to Pai wast just kind of whatever. Did enjoy stopping and swimming in one of the big national park waterfalls. Was ready to get the fuck off the bike by the time we got up there though. We stayed at Purple Monkey Backpacker. Can't recommend this place enough if you are looking for a good time and can deal with shitty beds (though I only know what ours was like, not the rest of the ones they had) for a couple of days. It's owned and run by a 26 year old Canadian chick and her friends, which at the time was a 28 year old canuck and a 25-26 year old british chick. We got there on Canada day and everyone was partying. They have a slip n slide, basketball court, the bar and kitchen is outside and they just blare music and encourage you to shotgun beers, play beer pong, etc. They have a pet eagle too which was fucking badass. There is a deck up on top of one of the dorms with a big projector and hammocks where they'll show movies for those that are interested at night. It's also right in town which was real convenient, could walk everywhere. Had a bunch of good food in Pai, including an Indian feast from a place called BeBe Spice that was fucking awesome. We rode up and hiked the Pai canyon, hit a couple of view points, went fishing in this stocked pond place. Again, would've liked to have had a couple more days, Pai was a lot of fun. The ride home was a lot better than the ride there, we were flying and probably made the trip in a little under 2:30 time on bikes. Pretty much every other white person we met seemed to have laid the bikes down at least once, which is hilarious. People just all fucked up everywhere. We owned those things though, 62-65 mph on a moped is awesome. Bangkok I know a lot of people recommend skipping/not spending a lot of time here, but maybe I'm still young enough for it or something, because Bangkok is fucking awesome. Khaosan Road is a non stop, balls to the wall party. The bars pretty much battle each other in the street for who can be the craziest. You can also find anything you want on this street, legal or illegal. We saw three fights in the first like hour we were there on a Sunday night and the cops just broke it up and no one got arrested or anything, kinda blew my mind at first. We went and had some beers on Soi Cowboy which was a hilarious experience, great people watching. Soi 11 in Sukhumvit was a solid place to hang out as well. We went to this place for dinner one night: http://www.cabbagesandcondoms.co.th/ it was hilarious. We didn't get to do it, but we really wanted to do this: http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/bangkoks-ghost-tower-the-sathorn-unqiue Thailand has a real strong hustle game in general, but the Bangkok hustle is absurd. We just end up fucking with everyone and yelling at shady tuk tuk drivers Phuket We weren't here very long. Got in Sunday night, went and got a fresh grouper dinner which was delicious, then hit the strip of bars on patong beach. Ended up just listening to these couple of cover bands which were pretty great, I have some videos I'll post later. The next day we did the John Gray Seacanoe tour. The weather was kind of shitty but it was fucking awesome, feel like you're in jurrasic park the whole time. Will post some pictures/videos of this later as well, highly recommend. We were supposed to leave from here and go to Phi Phi, but as I noted while we were gone they had a storm so we audibled to Koh Samui. Koh Samui We didn't have anywhere to stay so we just got them to drop us off in the middle of chaweng beach and we'd figure it out from there. Walked up to the first hostel, was a little more than we wanted to spend. Turn around to walk off and some guy at the hotel right next door wanted us to come check his place out, so we do. Big room, two beds, AC, Hot water, right next to the beach. Was like 10 bucks a night per person so we were all over that. Really enjoyed the beach here, water was great, scenery was top notch. Drank a shit load of cocktails at a rastafarian bar on the beach called lipsmackers. They loaded them up with booze to cut the sweetness that is real prevalent. They also had mushroom shakes we took advantage of and tripped our faces off on the beach at night. This whole island just goes hard as fuck every night. Ark bar is right on the beach and every night its a dj, fire dancers, multiple bars, pool party, etc etc until 2 AM. Then at 2, everyone walks down the street to this bar called the Green Mango that doesnt open until 2, and the party just rages all night. We didnt do a whole lot besides get hammered and lay around on the beach, and walk around the street. We were having such a good time doing that we were cool with it. Had some great fresh lobster and mussels dinner, some other fresh fish one night. About 2 am we had one of the best things i've ever put in my mouth, which was this pork with some spicy chili sauce from this street cart. holy fuck that was good. Trip was awesome, enjoyed every moment of it. The airways over there are great. At one point our flights were delayed and they knew we really needed to get to Bangkok, so Bangkok Air literally held a plane full of people on the tarmac for us, ran us through some back doors to get to the front of customs and security lines. Their customer service is top notch. Had a ton of good food. It probably ruined like 95% of american thai food for me but whatever. southside feel free to addendum as I'm sure I glossed over a ton of shit
Re: everyone laying their bike down, it literally seemed like 75% of the people in Pai were either on crutches or bandaged up. I noticed that too, was hilarious. I laid mine down once while it was raining, but I was wearing pants and got lucky, just a little scraped up. And no shit, I ate at Cabbages and Condoms while in Bangkok as well. It was awesome. Agreed, Chiang Mai night market is incredible. Also agree that arguably the best part of the country is the genuine food.
koh samui was the same way. you'd see a guy and his girl both all bandaged up on the same side of their body where he laid the bike down people just fucked up all over the place
lol yeah as soon as we pulled in to Pai I went to the ATM which promptly at my fucking debit card after giving me cash. Thankfully the officer was coming up from Chiang Mai the next day to empty it.... I went to the bank to pick mine up and they had a stack of what must have been 15 cards that thing had eaten in the last week. I'm just glad we weren't leaving before I could get it back he went to the hospital for a tetanus shot after getting barely hooked when we were fishing, where they tried to cut his whole hand wide open and tell him to come back every day for a week also saw some poor little white girl there with a shattered shoulder from a moped accident. fucking white people and mopeds
We were based around Bangkok. Met in Houston on Friday June 26, left Houston 1 am of the 27th for Beijing to connect to Bangkok, landed in Bangkok the 28th. Flew to chiang Mai the 29th, biked to pai on the 1st, biked back on the 3rd, flew to bangkok Flew Bangkok to phuket on the 5th. Flew to samui on the 7th, flew back to Bangkok on the 11th and then Beijing and home. Got home early morning the 13th All those in country flights are like an hour and the airports are surprisingly quick, didn't really waste much time at all traveling
We spent our time being hungover in the morning on an airplane instead of a shitty hostel bed. No loss there imo.
Also...no one in this hospital in Pai spoke any English. They were just laughing at me in the ER then wanted to cut me open to clean it and stitch it back up. Just give me. The fucking. Tetanus shot.
We both spent about 2000 for the two weeks including flights (including the unscheduled travel to Ko Samui we didn't plan for). Flight from Houston to Bangkok was 850.
He told them his name and it just turned into a running joke as they just walked around saying it to each other and giggling