Travel & Holidays Travel

lol. Much like 'No tengo dinero'.

 

I was learning Indonesian. When I was in Bali a saw a guy I had met a long time before. I meant to say "anda ingat saya." Which is Do you remember me? But I used the wrong word and said "Anda ingin saya." Which means Do you desire me? The shocked look on his face immediately showed I had bungled it. My driver quickly jumped in "no no ingat, ingat" Haha! Embarrassing!

 

Anyone going on cruises, or been down this road?

Its hugely popular at the moment, I think in part its because it is very cheap.

Its personally not for me, I think its a food feast, also I don't like the idea of stop overs at certain ports etc for a couple of hours that's not my idea of seeing the world.

I also have concerns that I may fall overboard, I know silly, but it has happened.

There was also a recent breakout of food poisoning on one of the major cruise liners and some had to be hospitalised.

No thanks

MTR

 

We first cruised on 2003 and loved it but couldn't imagine doing lots of cruises.
Times change. We love them. My hubby ONLY wants to do cruises (and the motorhome.
We have 3 this year- 11 days, 33 days and 12 days.

The 33 day one will be testing I think. The longest we have done is 14 days. We are cruising from Singapore to London. We were going to fly anyway so taking the airfare off it was not a lot dearer to cruise. Great ports too.

Yes you are restricted to 1-2 days but it gives you a good snapshot of places you might not visit otherwise. Eg we went to Estonia, Malta, Russia, Poland which were stunning. We wouldn't have flown to those places.
The ship life is very relaxing too. The thing I like about it is it doesn't take months of deciding where to stay, how to get from the airport etc etc. that's a lot of work. Tossing a cruise in eases the stress.
Some placews it's easier to cruise, eg Bahamas, Caribbean. And those cruises are so cheap. We did Back2Back cruises (so 14 days in total- Caribbean and Bahamas) and it cost $2,080AUD in TOTAL for the both of us. We couldn't even get accommodation for that in America for 12 days. And that's accom, food, entertainment. And most of the ports are easy to do yourself so no tour charges. I always try to organise my own tours as I don't like the big bus herding.
I think it's worth doing a short cruise to try it. But go on one of the better ships (not P&O) as they have better food, cabins, entertainment and more nice lounge areas and bars.

 

I've taken the overnight train journey from Beijing to Ulan Bator in Outer Mongolia, then a short flight to Outer Outer Mongolia, then a long trip in a mini van to Outer Outer Outer Mongolia, then a few day trip out in an old Russian 4WD through snow covered hills and plains to Outer Outer Outer Outer Mongolia. Was amazing, like surreal.
The train trip from Ulan Bator to Moscow is apparently pretty cool, but a week is a bit long for me.

 

I agree that they are super relaxing because you don't need to organise anything! I am a very enthusiastic person... Cruises force me to have proper down time! Most relaxing.. I also agree that they are a great way to see places that you wouldn't usually see! Oh.. and sooooo cheap!

 

I'm scared of cruises - of being stuck with heaps of people I don't like and not being able to escape as I'm stuck onboard
I'm also scared that the average age is 70+
Both are probably unfounded but ........
One of our favourite things when we travel is to walk out the hotel door and basically flip a coin and decide left or right then walk until we find a place we'd like to try for dinner. Spontaneity is something that we embrace when we are on holidays and I feel that a cruise would be a touch of ground hog day.
Having said that, I helped my parents 2 weeks ago book a cruise and it did sound pretty cool. 16 nights Southampton, Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona, Cannes, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Messina Strait, Corfu, Kotor, Trieste, Venice, Venice
Spain, Rome and Venice

 

You are not too far off actually in your thoughts. My hubby and I went on a 10 day cruise around the Greek islands on our honeymoon. I would never do it again! Here are 5 reasons why I would never cruise again.

1 - we were easily the youngest people on the ship by about 50 years
2 - the seas were rough and I spent at least half the cruise with my head over the side of the ship (my husband says he has fond memories of holding his new wife's hair back while she vomitted - lovely, it's amazing we are still married). I have never been seasick before or since.
3 - the food was over the top plentiful and in my opinion quite unhealthy
4 - a lot of very overly tanned Europeans on board (add this to point 1. Not pretty. May have caused some of point 2)
5 - I have disturbing memories of old men wearing swimmers that were a bit too brief. Some things should not be seen. Traumatizing.

My mother and my mother in law both go on cruises (not together unfortunately). That is enough reason for me not to go.

 

Doesn't sound like my cup of tea either.
Not sure how I'd go when out that far and not seeing land anywhere as well.

 

So....I've got 3 trips coming up:

1. January 2018 - 10 day road trip to GC via Byron Bay, Noosa, Brissy (to check on my IPs), then take off from there to Japan (skiing, Osaka/Kyoto/Nara) for 10 nights before returning home
2. April 2018 - 2 weeks in Phuket
3. July 2018 - not sure where yet but probably an island paradise - possibly Singapore/Tioman Island in Malaysia or Vietnam depending on cost. All I know is one leg's booked from Singapore to home so it will be somewhere in SEA

And still, I don't think that's enough!

How the hell can I do this full time, with kids...and not resort to home schooling and exy international schools???

Anyway, slow day at work today if anyone can tell. Just tackling my first world problems.

 

Off to USA, fly out tomorrow, going to San Fran

 

I'm sure I'll be a cruiser some day, but to me its what you do when regular travel becomes unfeasible due to too much stress, perception of safety, mobility issues, etc.

I snuck through a leave request way back in January this year to take the entire month of June off to go to Europe and visit some family. Miraculously it got approved as June is by far my employer's busiest time of year. As such, I'm not exactly in the good books at the moment, so I'm expecting to struggle to get much time off in the next 6-12 months other than the usual christmas shutdown, which leads to my question...

Has anyone been to Japan over Christmas? I'm looking for a destination that isn't going to be flooded with families on holidays and Japan is currently top of my list. I have nothing against kids, I was once one myself but being surrounded during them at a resort while paying exorbitant peak season rates isn't my idea of fun.

 

Off to Ecuador next month!

 

No idea about Christmas itself but Japan is fabulous in winter....or anytime really with the exception of perhaps summer. Christmas wouldn't stop me. I was in Bali during Christmas last year and that too was fine. Pretty low key depending on where you stay.

 

Closest I got to Christmas was flying in on NYE. I think everywhere will have kids but Japanese kids (in my experience) are one of the better behaved so it won't seem like you are trapped in an under 10s rugby match full of 1000 kids on sugar and tantrums.
Japan in winter is delightful and beautiful. I love cold weather though. I've done Osaka one year and Tokyo another year. Just watch out for NYE and day there are a lot of shopping (and coffee!!) shutdowns Visiting Japan during New Year

 

Singapore in 3 weeks or less - a week of doing nothing there.