UnbrokenEvaHIGH ON THE WIREBUT I WON'T TRIP ITRegistered Userregular
my father's going to get me the plane tickets to Seattle with his frequent flier points if I'm able to get a pass. I jokingly mentioned PAX Australia as a backup plan, and he was okay with that too. Kinda tempted to "accidentally" miss the window on the Prime pass because I would love to go to Melbourne again
Dulles is shockingly badly laid out, but I can't recall if that was the home of my most absurd gate transfer experience ever.
I've been through so many US airports for such brief periods that they've all blurred together now. Anyway whichever airport it was - no I can't even talk about it it was so stupid. Charles de Gaulle is ok if you're not connecting no that's a lie, it's terrible. La Guardia was absolutely bonkers last time I was there but then I think the entire place was under construction. Been through frankfurt so many times it's like home away from home, ditto Dusseldorf, so I can't view them objectively. My memory is that Singapore used to be better than it is now, but I can't rightly say why - maybe I just used ot have longer layovers and could use more of the facilities.
Oh @Bé Chuille - you're right, I remembered that Schipol is actually good before security. I usually don't like it because I'm transferring and have to go for miles and miles between gates with no time to get food because all the non-shit places are sit-down only (and bloody expensive besides). But outside security it's pretty ok.
LuvTheMonkeyHigh Sierra SerenadeRegistered Userregular
edited December 2013
I didn't mind the very brief time I spent in Schipol, which was constrained to leaving my plane and then going to the train to Amsterdam Centraal.
Oslo Gardermoen is pretty alright. The entire thing appears to be made out of wood.
Heathrow is a deathmarch if you have to change terminals. The terminals themselves are pretty nice though.
I think Europe does train stations better. Gare du Nord and St Pancras are nice. Amsterdam Centraal is a little dingy but servicable. All the random city stations in Norway are pretty neat. I'll have to find the picture of a really cool fountain outside Drammen's station I found.
Dulles is awful due to layout, no way to fix it really (HEY, LETS JUST HAVE MAGIC BUSES THAT DRIVE THROUGH TAXIWAYS)
Seattle is nice but long walking wise
Chicago - O'Hare is actually nice IMO (though the busy part makes any flight leaving after 3PM delayed by default)
Philly and Newark are awful
Boston is OK, used to be much worse, still not great.
SFO is ok if going Jetblue (international terminal), a shitshow otherwise. Sidenote - you can go through security in international (almost always light) and take walkway to the normal terminals - best way to do it.
Manchester NH is awesome if you can get a good flight in/out that isn't expensive
SLC is nice and easy, albeit far from SLC proper
Charlotte is a shitshow due to it being a USAir hub
Hilariously small airports - Portland, ME and Jackson Hole, WY - both great
SLC has the worst Chinese fast-food place ever. Probably the worst food I've ever had in my life. I was starving after a long flight and it was the first place I came across and NEVER AGAIN.
Kahului (Maui) is a pain in the ass. Never enough lanes open for security-- I've had to wait for over an hour and a half before (granted, this was the 27th of December, but yeah; four lanes only).
I've lived in the Philippines, USA, Japan and Spain and done a fair bit of traveling in each of those countries. In no particular order, I've visited the UK, France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Tanzania, Cambodia, Thailand, Canada, Mexico, Vietnam, and Singapore. I have quite a long list of places where I'd like to spend time.
I would love to get citizenship/passport from the philippines and Italy to open up more travel/living opportunities but I haven't really looked into it yet.
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LuvTheMonkeyHigh Sierra SerenadeRegistered Userregular
Dulles is awful due to layout, no way to fix it really (HEY, LETS JUST HAVE MAGIC BUSES THAT DRIVE THROUGH TAXIWAYS)
Seattle is nice but long walking wise
Chicago - O'Hare is actually nice IMO (though the busy part makes any flight leaving after 3PM delayed by default)
Philly and Newark are awful
Boston is OK, used to be much worse, still not great.
SFO is ok if going Jetblue (international terminal), a shitshow otherwise. Sidenote - you can go through security in international (almost always light) and take walkway to the normal terminals - best way to do it.
Manchester NH is awesome if you can get a good flight in/out that isn't expensive
SLC is nice and easy, albeit far from SLC proper
Charlotte is a shitshow due to it being a USAir hub
Hilariously small airports - Portland, ME and Jackson Hole, WY - both great
Tampa is how an airport should be laid out. Although it has the advantage of being quite small
And yeah Newark is beyond bad. Like wow. But I think it depends on which terminal you are in. My first trip there I landed in a fantastic albeit crowded terminal. The next two times was a joke.
Personally I think the worst one is Dallas.
I enjoyed O'Hare quite a bit
And New Orleans airport smells like 70's shag carpet
It's a pretty involved process, but I don't think you can get triple citizenship, so you'll have to pick either Italy or the Philippines.
Lame! Philippines it is.
Italy might be more useful. Not just for airport queues; if you have EU citizenship you can work anywhere in the EU without a visa or any immigration hassle.
I actually despise O Hare, every time I've flown through there it has been an absolute disaster. I am never clearing immigration there, unless it is absolutely necessary. I spent four hours queuing to get to the immigration desk alone. All my delays have been at least 3 hours.
It's a pretty involved process, but I don't think you can get triple citizenship, so you'll have to pick either Italy or the Philippines.
Lame! Philippines it is.
Italy might be more useful. Not just for airport queues; if you have EU citizenship you can work anywhere in the EU without a visa or any immigration hassle.
It's true, but I identify with being Filipino a lot more than being Italian!
Worst airport I've been to was the charles de gaulle airport in Paris.
Had a two hour layover there on my way to berlin, and while I don't usually get nauseous while I'm flying, I could taste the puke rising just from sitting at the terminal.
The place stunk. Badly.
CDG is def one of the worst airports i've ever been in, both times i flew through it
It's a pretty involved process, but I don't think you can get triple citizenship, so you'll have to pick either Italy or the Philippines.
Lame! Philippines it is.
Italy might be more useful. Not just for airport queues; if you have EU citizenship you can work anywhere in the EU without a visa or any immigration hassle.
yeah i'm jeal of my friend and how easy it was for him to get dual italian citizenship
i've seen some sweet jobs in europe that were like european candidates only and i was all boo
So far thanks to Thailand being cheap and airline credit card miles, i've spent like $235, which includes all my international airfare, 3 domestic flights, and 5 nights of lodging. then still need to figure out a few more nights of lodging but also have a friend to crash with, and the rest of the money is for getting around, scuba diving, and funnnnn
mileage credit cards are the best if you wanna travel lots
Dulles as an airport is awful, but it has a Chipotle in the gates that serves breakfast burritos! So I try to fly there in the morning when I can. My favorite airport is in japan, narita I think. So clean!
So far thanks to Thailand being cheap and airline credit card miles, i've spent like $235, which includes all my international airfare, 3 domestic flights, and 5 nights of lodging. then still need to figure out a few more nights of lodging but also have a friend to crash with, and the rest of the money is for getting around, scuba diving, and funnnnn
mileage credit cards are the best if you wanna travel lots
Stay out of Bangkok. It's a big business city that is a pain to get around to anywhere and everyone there doesn't hide the fact that they are there to rip you off.
Phuket is nice I guess if you want to drink an inordinate amount of booze, hang out with other white people and be harrassed by strippers.
I've only spent the day in krabi so I can't comment. It's apparently similarish to Phuket but it's more laid back.
Just around the point however is railay which is a gorgeous climbing destination which at the very least you should visit if not stay as it's probably the closest you can find of a sleepy place in Thailand.
Local expats who are doing the things you enjoy are the people you need to talk to to find out where to eat. Do the activity. Then at the end of the day open up your map (have a map) and ask them where to eat and do other things and have them mark up your map.
If you get lost, look for a dive shop. There will probably be one around. It will be full of white people who speak English.
So far thanks to Thailand being cheap and airline credit card miles, i've spent like $235, which includes all my international airfare, 3 domestic flights, and 5 nights of lodging. then still need to figure out a few more nights of lodging but also have a friend to crash with, and the rest of the money is for getting around, scuba diving, and funnnnn
mileage credit cards are the best if you wanna travel lots
Stay out of Bangkok. It's a big business city that is a pain to get around to anywhere and everyone there doesn't hide the fact that they are there to rip you off.
Phuket is nice I guess if you want to drink an inordinate amount of booze, hang out with other white people and be harrassed by strippers.
I've only spent the day in krabi so I can't comment. It's apparently similarish to Phuket but it's more laid back.
Just around the point however is railay which is a gorgeous climbing destination which at the very least you should visit if not stay as it's probably the closest you can find of a sleepy place in Thailand.
Local expats who are doing the things you enjoy are the people you need to talk to to find out where to eat. Do the activity. Then at the end of the day open up your map (have a map) and ask them where to eat and do other things and have them mark up your map.
If you get lost, look for a dive shop. There will probably be one around. It will be full of white people who speak English.
We're only planning on doing like, 1.5 days in Bangkok as we are flying out of there so may as well be there briefly (arrive mid-day Friday, fly out early Sunday AM)
Railay seems great, I want to try some beginner level climbing there - we booked a place at a guesthouse in Krabi with some english speaking owners that sounds pretty great, but maybe we should try and spend a night in Railay - but it seems easy enough to get from Krabi to Railay hmm... recommendations for Railay and or climbing for novices would be cool!
Already have been e-mailing the dive shop near my guest house that has good reviews - trying to decide if I want to get my Advanced Open Water cert or just do a two dive thingy
The interesting part / scary part will be doing Songkran in Chiang Mai and then making it out of there during the festival, but my friend who lives there has done it before so hopefully we will survive
poo
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Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Do a two dive trip rather than advanced open water.
You want to see the stuff down there rather than running drills and there is plenty of stuff to see at 15m
Honestly, depending on what you want, I'd say book your first night of accomadation then find better priced accomadation there. You can usually get a way better price in person than you can online.
I can't recommend a climbing guide as we didn't use one, but the oldest climbing group there is king's climbs which is situated in railay.
There are climbing of all grades there that you can do on lead and top rope. And they will take anyone. But be aware of what is really going on there. It's a weird paradox where all your guides will give you a 100% safe system to use. But I saw more than one person incorrectly use the system am make it extremely unsafe so like, be careful.
Do a two dive trip rather than advanced open water.
You want to see the stuff down there rather than running drills and there is plenty of stuff to see at 15m
Honestly, depending on what you want, I'd say book your first night of accomadation then find better priced accomadation there. You can usually get a way better price in person than you can online.
I can't recommend a climbing guide as we didn't use one, but the oldest climbing group there is king's climbs which is situated in railay.
There are climbing of all grades there that you can do on lead and top rope. And they will take anyone. But be aware of what is really going on there. It's a weird paradox where all your guides will give you a 100% safe system to use. But I saw more than one person incorrectly use the system am make it extremely unsafe so like, be careful.
Cool, gracias. The accomodation we found was like... 13 bucks per person a night so dunno if I need to go lots cheaper.
And I only have ever done top rope at a gym, but at least I know how to do that correctly.
poo
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facetiousa wit so dryit shits sandRegistered Userregular
I know it's not exactly correct etiquette but one time I had a flight where the lady sitting next to me struck up a conversation and we ended up sharing like our entire life stories. And she gave me encouragement to go after what ended up becoming my amazing summer job. It was pretty cool.
"I am not young enough to know everything." - Oscar Wilde
Blake TDo you have enemies then?Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.Registered Userregular
Ok that is pretty cheap, if you want, you could probably push it to like, 20 bucks a night for a room with two queens (I'm not sure what your accomodation is like) for one with aircon
And I only have ever done top rope at a gym, but at least I know how to do that correctly.
I saw a thirteen year old kid, climbing to the top unclipping the draws as he went (as you are supposed to) except he got to the top of the climb and started undoing the quickdraws.
He didn't speak english so I couldn't tell him to stop and I went to his parents, "You tell him to stop right fucking now or he's going to hurt himself."
Posts
Been wanting to see Australia and the UK and Peru and a whole bunch of other places, and now I know people that live there I can go harass them
I've been through so many US airports for such brief periods that they've all blurred together now. Anyway whichever airport it was - no I can't even talk about it it was so stupid. Charles de Gaulle is ok if you're not connecting no that's a lie, it's terrible. La Guardia was absolutely bonkers last time I was there but then I think the entire place was under construction. Been through frankfurt so many times it's like home away from home, ditto Dusseldorf, so I can't view them objectively. My memory is that Singapore used to be better than it is now, but I can't rightly say why - maybe I just used ot have longer layovers and could use more of the facilities.
Oh @Bé Chuille - you're right, I remembered that Schipol is actually good before security. I usually don't like it because I'm transferring and have to go for miles and miles between gates with no time to get food because all the non-shit places are sit-down only (and bloody expensive besides). But outside security it's pretty ok.
Oslo Gardermoen is pretty alright. The entire thing appears to be made out of wood.
Heathrow is a deathmarch if you have to change terminals. The terminals themselves are pretty nice though.
I think Europe does train stations better. Gare du Nord and St Pancras are nice. Amsterdam Centraal is a little dingy but servicable. All the random city stations in Norway are pretty neat. I'll have to find the picture of a really cool fountain outside Drammen's station I found.
Seattle is nice but long walking wise
Chicago - O'Hare is actually nice IMO (though the busy part makes any flight leaving after 3PM delayed by default)
Philly and Newark are awful
Boston is OK, used to be much worse, still not great.
SFO is ok if going Jetblue (international terminal), a shitshow otherwise. Sidenote - you can go through security in international (almost always light) and take walkway to the normal terminals - best way to do it.
Manchester NH is awesome if you can get a good flight in/out that isn't expensive
SLC is nice and easy, albeit far from SLC proper
Charlotte is a shitshow due to it being a USAir hub
Hilariously small airports - Portland, ME and Jackson Hole, WY - both great
It's a branch of Max which is the Swedish McDonalds equivalent. It is pretty good, but I worry about other airport restaurants.
See: the bagels in Las Vegas
SLC has the worst Chinese fast-food place ever. Probably the worst food I've ever had in my life. I was starving after a long flight and it was the first place I came across and NEVER AGAIN.
Probably to live for the rest of my life.
Pretty psyched.
Where the hell did you even FIND bagels in McCarran??
I was 100% fine with this
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Lame! Philippines it is.
Tampa is how an airport should be laid out. Although it has the advantage of being quite small
And yeah Newark is beyond bad. Like wow. But I think it depends on which terminal you are in. My first trip there I landed in a fantastic albeit crowded terminal. The next two times was a joke.
Personally I think the worst one is Dallas.
I enjoyed O'Hare quite a bit
And New Orleans airport smells like 70's shag carpet
Italy might be more useful. Not just for airport queues; if you have EU citizenship you can work anywhere in the EU without a visa or any immigration hassle.
I legit don't know at this point
To be fair, I was kind of hungover at the time
Really? I never thought much of it. Could just be a US/EU difference?
I think that's a given when departing from that airport anytime ever.
It's true, but I identify with being Filipino a lot more than being Italian!
CDG is def one of the worst airports i've ever been in, both times i flew through it
i had to travel so far just to transfer flights
yeah i'm jeal of my friend and how easy it was for him to get dual italian citizenship
i've seen some sweet jobs in europe that were like european candidates only and i was all boo
Also, did some planning
So far thanks to Thailand being cheap and airline credit card miles, i've spent like $235, which includes all my international airfare, 3 domestic flights, and 5 nights of lodging. then still need to figure out a few more nights of lodging but also have a friend to crash with, and the rest of the money is for getting around, scuba diving, and funnnnn
mileage credit cards are the best if you wanna travel lots
Stay out of Bangkok. It's a big business city that is a pain to get around to anywhere and everyone there doesn't hide the fact that they are there to rip you off.
Phuket is nice I guess if you want to drink an inordinate amount of booze, hang out with other white people and be harrassed by strippers.
I've only spent the day in krabi so I can't comment. It's apparently similarish to Phuket but it's more laid back.
Just around the point however is railay which is a gorgeous climbing destination which at the very least you should visit if not stay as it's probably the closest you can find of a sleepy place in Thailand.
Local expats who are doing the things you enjoy are the people you need to talk to to find out where to eat. Do the activity. Then at the end of the day open up your map (have a map) and ask them where to eat and do other things and have them mark up your map.
If you get lost, look for a dive shop. There will probably be one around. It will be full of white people who speak English.
Satans..... hints.....
Lighting my bat signal for ya though
"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
Thanks @Blake T sir
We're only planning on doing like, 1.5 days in Bangkok as we are flying out of there so may as well be there briefly (arrive mid-day Friday, fly out early Sunday AM)
Railay seems great, I want to try some beginner level climbing there - we booked a place at a guesthouse in Krabi with some english speaking owners that sounds pretty great, but maybe we should try and spend a night in Railay - but it seems easy enough to get from Krabi to Railay hmm... recommendations for Railay and or climbing for novices would be cool!
Already have been e-mailing the dive shop near my guest house that has good reviews - trying to decide if I want to get my Advanced Open Water cert or just do a two dive thingy
The interesting part / scary part will be doing Songkran in Chiang Mai and then making it out of there during the festival, but my friend who lives there has done it before so hopefully we will survive
You want to see the stuff down there rather than running drills and there is plenty of stuff to see at 15m
Honestly, depending on what you want, I'd say book your first night of accomadation then find better priced accomadation there. You can usually get a way better price in person than you can online.
I can't recommend a climbing guide as we didn't use one, but the oldest climbing group there is king's climbs which is situated in railay.
There are climbing of all grades there that you can do on lead and top rope. And they will take anyone. But be aware of what is really going on there. It's a weird paradox where all your guides will give you a 100% safe system to use. But I saw more than one person incorrectly use the system am make it extremely unsafe so like, be careful.
Satans..... hints.....
Having lovely airport chats with people
An older british lady was ten cents short for a hot choco so i gave her my change
Last flight i traded with like five different people so they could all sit next to their partner
Cmon heathrow
Dont make me stand in security for three hours again
Cool, gracias. The accomodation we found was like... 13 bucks per person a night so dunno if I need to go lots cheaper.
Steam: Chagrin LoL: Bonhomie
Satans..... hints.....
I saw a thirteen year old kid, climbing to the top unclipping the draws as he went (as you are supposed to) except he got to the top of the climb and started undoing the quickdraws.
He didn't speak english so I couldn't tell him to stop and I went to his parents, "You tell him to stop right fucking now or he's going to hurt himself."
Satans..... hints.....