Travel & Holidays Travel

A mate came to Moscow a few years back for a visit and we decided to go to Sochi by train for an adventure. It was a 24 hr trip and we were in "platskart" which is true cattle class which doesn't have walls for privacy and has bunks down the aisle.

It was in the middle of a very hot summer and
the carriage didn't have air con, and it really really stank badly of body odour, chicken, salted cucumbers,sweat and beer. We ended up spending most of the trip, and a fortune in the air conditioned restaurant, having vodka shots with our new friends.

We calculated the money we spent, we could have got tickets in the first class carriage with all the luxuries. However, we wouldn't have a "Russian train story" to tell..

Also the same friend traveled with me around Ukraine. There werent many tickets left so we were in neighboring cabins. I still remember at 3am in the morning , yellow submarine being sung by 4 drunken guys. Apparently he was sharing with 3 elderly Ukrainans and were drinking vodka all night. My friend couldn't speak Russian and they couldn't speak English but were united by the Beatles and vodka!!

And folks, that is why I love travelling so much. The collection of thousands of anecdotes and memories which are priceless.

 

Ahh yes. Its amazing how well vodka works as a translator.

 

We go on average once every year overseas. We also have multiple interstate long weekends.

 

Why is that? Nothing to see there?

 

I'm sure there is, just not for me.

I have travelled to Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore (briefly), & Hong Kong... none of them really held any great appeal, plus the temperatures were out of my comfort range (I HATE heat and humidity). I wouldn't want to go back to any of them, apart from a brief stopover maybe.

In Asia, North Asia is of more interest - Japan, the Koreas, China.

 

hobo, Netflix and chill with Kim Jong-un?

 

If this is your thing also check out Taiwan too - its pretty cheap for Australians, I spent 10 days there and loved it. Hot Springs, mountains, excellent night markets...AMAZING ICE DESSERTS.. eg. Mango shaved ice with everything... it will set you back about $2... not $10.... but also go out to Lü Dao (Green Island...) go Snorkelling, diving... Excellent, clean and inexpensive trains (go the length of the country in about 90 minutes), slightly Japanese influenced... nice people, good technology, clean country... 7-11's absolutely everywhere! Oh, Taiwan rarely makes the news here but now they have a female president. Very cool and progressive!

Highly recommended!

 

Thanks to investing, We travel minimum once a year.
Now that the GF qualifies for free flights with Jetstar we goto hawaii twice a year
Even thou our dollar is rubbish it works out good enough

 

I can't get my head around not being interested in travel. You have no interest in history, different cultures, different lifestyles and religions, architecture, scenery? What's left?

My son went to Rome and put on Facebook "OMG there are more antiques in the streets than we have in our museums". He was hooked right then. He loves history.

Yes I went in April last year. Just for a 2 week land based tour. Loved the people, the scenery, architecture.
I'm looking at doing more places that are a bit different. I'm over Asian countries now. The northern Hemisphere is where I want to be.

 

Hmm some place/regions I still want to go to in no particular order

Peninsular Antarctica, Patagonia/Torre del Paine , Bhutan, Ladakh, Leh, Garwhal, Kamchatsky, Bugaboos, Yosemite, Heard Island, Galapagos, Greenland, Hokkaido, Berlin , Gridenwald, Norway, Bora Bora, Cuba, Rwenzoris, Pyonyang...and so on and so on...

 

Ha, it would be crazy to bump into him, but obviously unlikely, to the extreme! And I'll pass on the Netflix and chill....

 

If you mean Grindelwald in Switzerland, I highly recommend it. Spent 3 days there doing day hikes after Tour De Blanc in 2014.

A few of the other destinations you mention are on my Bucket List too.

 

Yeah I really want to check out the Eiger and at least have a crack at the Mitelleggi ridge

 

Is that something to do with Datto's lawnmowers?

 

A Datto lawnmower would be really cool.

 

I have 5 kids. Safe to say overseas travel is a bit of a pipedream at this point. We'd be looking at 10-15k just in airfares depending on where we were travelling. That's a fair bit of dosh. Maybe one day when they are older or have left home.

In the meantime Australia is a pretty amazing country, and a 4WD and a tent can take you a lot of places.

 

@Rugrat there will be a right time for the right adventure one day. We've "only" got 3 but we are counted as 3 adults 2 kids so 2 hotel rooms etc etc. we have learnt who has the best kids policies though but it does add up.
Funnily enough when we only had one child we didn't travel as we were doing the hard yards and didn't have enough money. Luckily we made money after #2 #3 so we can all go travelling.
Today we are flying to Japan and I'm super excited!!!

 

My wife and I are also fans of Japan. I've been there five times, the first time back in the early '90s backpacking by myself for two months (and I went with Garuda on that occasion: Sydney, Melbourne, Bali, Jakarta, Tokyo - around 24 hours all up). Haven't been much north of Tokyo (only to Nikko), but heaps of places the other way right down to the Yaeyama islands near Taiwan. We both love the food, and my wife has a love affair with the Daiso 100 yen shops. She can spend hours in them.

Most of the other trips there were with Jetstar, though the last was with Korean Airlines, as we were mainly going to Korea then.

Have also used Air Asia quite a few times (to other places), but all their extras for luggage, picking seats, and paying by credit card really add up now, so they're not always that cheap. The first time we used them was from the Gold Coast (they weren't flying to Sydney back then) to London, which worked out about $1,000 return each, including connecting Jetstar flights from Sydney.

GP

 

Hey hobo, serious question. Is it even possible for regular Westerners to enter North Korea?

 

@Mombius Hibachi

It's definitely not as easy as many countries, but yes it is, as long as you are not on an American passport (it has still been possible in the past for journalists etc but for generic tourists it's much harder if not impossible).

The rules do change depending on recent events/incidents, but there are several tour companies that operate out of China that you can go through. It's been a while since I was up on this but I believe the only option is to fly in and out via Beijing... there used to be a train option but I believe that was closed down a number of years ago.

It's definitely not for everyone, especially in terms of what most people think of as a "holiday". For one, do not expect much freedom of movement - most, if not all, of your visit will be scheduled and pre-approved. There will a range of "tour options" that you can choose from, but you will not be able to just have "free days". This (Axis of Evil World Tour 2002) is an older article, and relates to an American journalist so he would have been under extra precautions, but the "jogging between the light posts only" gives you an insight into the level of control that will be enforced. Stepping outside the rules could result in serious repercussions.