Whistler Notes

   We started by going up the Village Gondola to the Mid Station and on the magic carpet and the Olympic Chair but quickly became bored. The Olympic Chair run is a decent run to iron out or learn to parallel ski but at this point too slow for just skiing. So we took the Gondola up to the Roundhouse. Took the Ego Bowl down but probably ended up on the Cougar and Jolly Green Giant because Meeta had a wipeout next to the fence line on the right. Ego bowl is steep and too bumpy and none of us[…]

Read more

Sick at sea

Sick at Sea: in the last few days we have seen the tricky side of boat travel. Sailing to Tunisia we had rocky seas. Actually, rocky was an understatement. Walking down the hallways people looked like pinball a bouncing around. Faces were green and everyone was miserable. We couldn’t wait to get off in Tunisia to be on stable ground. The morning we arrived at port there were wind gusts of 50 knots. Apparently our ship isn’t designed to sail in winds above 25 knots. The captain made a a judgement call to not stop at the port and turn[…]

Read more

Taxi Drivers are Funny People

In our experience, taxi drivers are generally not a breed to be trusted. We always make sure that if needed a fare is pre-negotiated or that the meter is used. We generally have a basic distrust of taxi drivers and it is built upon our experiences and misadventures. Nowhere have we had such a bad experience with taxis drivers than in Harbin, China. One taxi driver took on another passenger and took her to the airport first and then wanted us to pay the entire meter. It was 4 times what we should have been charged. Another took us to[…]

Read more

Modes of Transportation

Plane Car for one month in Italy Train from Italy to Paris, Mumbai to Varodara and Tokyo to Hakone Pony rides in Jarden du Luxemburg, Paris Car Ferry to Sardegnia and in Saigon 5 hour canoe ride in Madagascar On top of the Jeep on Safari Puddle skipper prop planes in Kenya Camel back in Pushkar Camel cart in Pushkar Elephant back in Jodhpur Cable car in Hong Kong, Great Wall and Hakone, Japan. Funicular in Croatia and Hakone Round woven fishing boat in Quy Nhon Cableway up to top of Great Wall of China and tabongan down. Pedicabs in[…]

Read more

Here’s Why I Will Never Book Through Hotels.com Again

Hotels.com and other travel sites have great websites that make finding a hotel to stay very easy. Having used it extensively I still use it to FIND hotels but I will NEVER use it to book another hotel stay. Here’s why: 1. You have very little recourse if something goes wrong. In our case, we has a few situations where we showed up at a hotel and did not stay because it was unacceptable. We tried to work with the hotel and tried to work it out with Hotels.com but they would not refund our money paid. So just dispute[…]

Read more

iPhone Turn-by-Turn Fail…In a Bad Way.

No sooner do I finish extolling the virtues of the iPhone for travelling that it fails us. We were making our way from Grosseto to Saturnia. All was well. We had been enjoying the turn-by-turn navigation on the iPhone and were talking about how it has made things so much easier. No more spending hours mapping routes. No more maps that you have to unfold and can never fold back up again correctly. It seemed perfect. So much so, that we never questioned the GPS lady on previous days when on two different trips to the same location, she took[…]

Read more

How the iPhone has changed the way we travel.

This is the first time we are really travelling with the iPhone.  Sure we’ve taken some trips where having the iPhone has come in handy for looking things up on Yelp, of finding quick directions.  But this time around, it is an indispensable part of travels. Siri may make it Our World of 4. It’s been a while since we have travelled internationally.  The last time we did was to Vietnam.  Communications was important, but it was not critical.  Today, communication is mandatory and necessary.  But it’s not what you think.  We sort of skipped over the need for international[…]

Read more

We’re getting hammered on foreign transaction fees!

So I checked our account today and saw that we were being charged a foreign transaction fee each time we make a withdrawal at the cash machine. Trying to see how to get around this but something you need to consider when traveling. We will need some Euros when we arrive in Italy, so I went out to find a place that will exchange Pounds for Euros. Found a place that sends Western Union payments so I thought they must be legit. I walk in and ask for Euros and the younger guy turns over to the older guy and[…]

Read more

Indian visas and Hamley’s

It was a mixed day. Most of our stay in London is intended to be used for getting stuff done like getting visas for India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Vietnam. Also more important stuff like the Apple store and Hamleys. Well, after much effort and lots of money spent on passport pictures, we found out today that we’re probably not going to get our visas for India in London. The Indian Embassy has outsourced all of the visa processing to a contracted company. Not to be trite, but the outsourced service is extremely inept, cumbersome, and lengthy. Much more difficult than[…]

Read more

Our Journey

16 flights Over 50,000 miles 6 continents 2 times around the world 12+ months And that is only getting us started! We’ve only loosely planned the major hub flights for our trip. From these hub cities we will make side trips to other destinations. What kind of ticket did we get? Well, there are various “round-the-world” type tickets and they are actually very reasonable when you consider what it would cost individually. Some tickets with 5 or 6 stops can be gotten for $2500-$3000. They usually have very strict rules and most require you to travel in only one direction[…]

Read more

Our Journey 2

16 flights Over 50,000 miles 6 continents 2 times around the world 12+ months And that is only getting us started! We’ve only loosely planned the major hub flights for our trip. From these hub cities we will make side trips to other destinations. What kind of ticket did we get? Well, there are various “round-the-world” type tickets and they are actually very reasonable when you consider what it would cost individually. Some tickets with 5 or 6 stops can be gotten for $2500-$3000. They usually have very strict rules and most require you to travel in only one direction[…]

Read more