The Travelers Thread

[Coaxial]

I've spent so much of my time travelling over the years, ever since I was a child (first took a plane at age 5 months) and my parents have always encouraged, even forced me to travel as much as possible. As such I sometimes lose track of the fact that not everyone is as lucky.

So I was wondering if there were any specific places you people have been to that blew your mind away. Any favourite holiday spots, especially those that might not be major touristic areas?

Any fun anecdotes as well of fun, strange, frightening or just plain ****'d up experiences? I was once held at an airport in Quebec for 7 hours under the suspicion of being a terrorist... when I was 14 years old. Another fun moment was getting lost in Hanoi and being shown around by some street kids for several hours, got to see a whole new side to Vietnam and have loved it ever since.

So speak to me guys... and ladies. Even if you haven't had the oportunity to travel where would you like to go?

[Angelic Layer]

I have started an installment of Tokyo Kaidashi Kikou on my blog.
http://weichew.blogs.friendster.com/a_dolphins_dream/
Its mainly about shopping in Tokyo.
Favourite place, I've been to would be Paris, Kyoto, Austin Texas and Tokyo.

[burnout]

i've been to a few places so far including

Grand Bahamas Island-Bahamas,
Puerto Valacarta-Mexico,
Sydney and Cairns- Australia
Beijin, Macau, HK, and scattered cities in China


best memories I have was being stop and searched when I arrived to Sydney, from Sydney going to Cairns, from Sydney going into China, from China into Macu, from HK back to the States. i was singled out from among the masses. at first i though it was racial profiling in Australia but it was the same thing in China. a definite WTF of my life.

[w w]

You're a hitchhiker I take it? Either that or one loaded mofo.
I'm doing a 2 month bid through to Eastern Europe and into Russia this summer...if we pass through Switz you should show us around...and feed/house us ;)


Anecdotes, too many to tell. I don't even know where to begin. *flips through journal*

All travellers have at least one airport story, I see yours revolved around a hostage alarm...mine involved lapsing into shock due to an OD right smack in the middle of the central hub of Roissy in Paris. Yeah, that was pleasant. I still have a very vivid memory of being all excited about riding in an ambulence without any awareness of why I was in one.
Significantly less glamorous/pathetic was two nights spent in Indianapolis airport during massive snowstorms. I raced wheelchairs through the parking lots with the nightshift janitors and then one of them drove me out to show me about a dozen pot fields all within ten minutes of the airport.


-One time an Estonian woman took us to her home, cooked for us, did our laundry and then patched up our socks and clothes while we were sleeping. It's not uncommon for people to put you up for the night, especially in EE, but that was really an unparalleled display of hospitality.

-In France I got wasted with an old American WW2 veteran who had ended up marrying a French woman he met after the war. Guy had some great stories, many of which involved prostitutes in one way or another.


-In Romania we got picked up by a Russian trucker heading down south. Somewhere along the way he told us he needed to stop and see an old 'mafia friend' of his, which, while strange, sounded reasonably innocent. So we pull up to this outdoor restaurant, and he's greeted by not one but four guys standing by this sleek black sedan. We just want to sit in the cabin at this point, but he motions us over and all 7 of us go sit at the restaurant and order - at which time the guys suddenly bust out a TON of money and start counting it out right there in the open on the table. It was like out of a movie.
I just remember nervously sitting there trying to remain as motionless as possible so as not to call attention to myself. Apparently they thought we were harmless vagrants, which of course we effectively were.


-In Spain I stayed a week with these 2 ultra-hippie Japanese exchange students, in return for doing their grocery shopping and other chores for them. Seriously these kids would put even the most diehard American Phishers to shame.

-Driving through Bulgaria this guy told us he was a smuggler, which we didn't particularly believe until he had my friend lift up the backseat to reveal dozens of hash bricks. Needless to say we bailed before he hit the border.


-A friend and I got effectively abandoned in Japan for close to 10 days with no money, no knowledge of Japanese, and only the clothes on our back.
Fortunately it's basically the best country for that to happen in; if the Japanese see you hitchhiking they automatically assume your car has broken down and gladly take you anywhere you want to go, even if it's like an hour out of their way.

-I boosted with a few homeless guys in Calcutta. I think I actually told this story on here before.

-One guy, I think it was in the Ukraine, kept trying to get me to marry his daughter, and when I turned him down he forced me to come back to his home with him to meet her. I had to literally, and I mean literally, run and hide from him to get away.

[w w]

The best stuff happens stateside though, amazingly enough. In Europe you get picked up by normal people, as it's a pretty common thing, but in the US only the whackjobs or at best the eccentric will give you a lift since there's such a fear of hitchhiking.

-One guy told us he fought in Desert Storm and had stumbled across Israeli technology that allowed for near-infinite energy, but explained that it was being suppressed by the oil industry.
-Another guy rambled literally for 3 straight hours about how dentists secretly ruled the world from behind the scenes by spiking toothpaste with mind-control substances.
-Another guy explained to us that he had founded Burger King and was now retired with a multimillion dollar estate and multiple wives. Despite the fact that he had picked us up in a junked 80s Skylark.


Then you have the personal disclosures stories, which Americans love. Hitching presents you with a strange dynamic in that you're both 1. with this person in very intimate circumstances and 2. virtually guaranteed to never see them again. Thus many people seem to treat the situation almost as a confessional booth and begin telling you things they probably don't tell even to people they're close with.

-This Indian guy got all emotional when explaining that he had married his wife only for the sex and was now unhappily stuck with her since she was pregnant.
-We had to pull over once when a woman broke down in hysterics talking about her daughter that had died in the last year.
-Another woman told us all about her fight with cancer, once again with the crying.
-An old man, at least in his 80s, got choked up telling us about how his wife of 50+ years had left him.

Needless to say it gives you good practice with the 'awkward moments' of everyday life.



When I was much younger I was making my way through the Western US, somewhere around Flagstaff, and got picked up by this young couple who were running away to Vegas to get married. They told me I was the only one who knew what they were doing and so wanted me to be their best man, which I ended up going through with. First wedding I ever attended.


In a Seattle suburb one time I got a little too buzzed and somehow decided it would be a good idea to sleep out in this open field in my sleeping bag. Next thing I know I'm getting poked with a stick by a bunch of high school girls who were using the field for lacrosse practice. Did I mention I always sleep in my boxers? That was a little humiliating.
Similarly I once crashed at the foot of a trail in a park in New Mexico. I won't get into the backstory on that one. Anyway I wake up and I'm literally in the middle of a line of families waiting to buy tickets for something or other. They had just formed the line around me without waking me up or anything. So once again I have to groggily get dressed, this time in front of laughing children and their glaring parents.

I've spent too much time typing this, so I'm going to end it here.

[Angelic Layer]

Was hitchhiking unsafe?

[eMKa]

Place I visited abroad so far:
France(Cannes,Nicea,and then Monte Carlo;I lost about 200 Euro in a casino,but that was fun time which I spend with my friends from High School,that trip was a prize from our parents for passing exams for studies)
Czech Republic(I must say Praque is really beutifull city,especially at night time;))
Italy(Rome,really loved that city,especially Italian food)
Greece(great place for lazy poeple,I was laying two weeks mostly on beach,only last few days were rather boring)
Germany(I only visited some cities like Munich and Stuggart)
Austria(Vien,but only 1 day visit)
Mostly of all my voyages I got good memories,but one bad experience I had in Greece it was about 3 years ago.
After climbing with my friends mount Olimp,we divided into small groups,and I was to lazy to get back on my feet and I hitchhike some car,I though that was a taxi,and tried to communicate with the driver in english;when we got near the end of the trace,I wanted to pay him something for helping me,I must say I was stupid in that moment cause that guy when he saw I got money(that was about 300 euros)he threaten me with a knife,and I just given him all money,and stepped outside the car,at least he left me my documents,in the end with help of my cell phone I communicated with my friends,and of course after reporting this case with a help of translator guy at the police,they said that's nearly impossible to get my money back,cause I didn't remember car numbers,in the end my friends lended me some money,and I could live these few last days there in comfort;)
I learned an important lesson,never show stranger that you got money with you:p

[Dreamerdgh]

I lived in Brazil, been to argentina, uraguay, paraguay, chile, mexico, japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, bahamas. Currently in good ole USA.
My favorite place was Japan, of course, good I love that country. My worse experience was living in Brazil for 2years, might be a fun place to visit if your careful, lets leave it at that. Of all the places I've been, the only place I say you must visit is Japan, and of course if you're not from USA, then USA also.

Of course I meet my wife in Brazil, so it can't be all bad, right??

[Coaxial]

So here I am, in Switzerland at the moment but having visited a little over fifty countries (not sure, but I do remember having hit fifty two years ago), and desperate to leave the country again. Will be in Amsterdam later this month and Copenhagen at the end of it. For the end of the year will be in Mexico and then leave for Cuba for about a year... which should be fun.

Regardless, I remember all the travelling and what always amazes me is that even with all the stupid things I do I'm still around to talk about them... or to be more exact, all the embarassing things I do. What is it with travelling and losing one's sense of reality, like being asked by a nice woman who was giving you a lift to help her smuggle some cocaine over the border into Finland... and then waiting for ten minutes for one's brain to catch up and realise that it's probably not a good idea. And although it's always nice to be hit one, especially by well dressed obviously rich people, it's a tad off putting when its an Italian... ummm... Guy.

Though I have to ask, has anyone gone to a club, seen beautiful women and only realise once you've started to dance with them that they're all part of the Barcelona Basketball team and are at least thirty if not forty centimetres taller than you. 'Cos it happened to me and it can be akward to dance with a beautiful and well endowed Spanish girl when your head is level with their breasts. Fun perhaps... but embarassing.

Though being kicked out of a hostel because you were exchanging looks with the owners daughter remains high on my list.

And I have to ask W W... where do you hang out because your trips sound a hell of a lot to me like... ummm... TRIIIIIIIIIIPS. (Okay, crap play on words there).

[Kinotto]

Airport trouble....lol....
I can remember 5 years ago when i went to England...
At the time of return to Italy i was stopped at Heithrow Airport when they checked my passport....why? You have to know that my real name is Andrea....and you have to know that in Italy it's a male name; well, in england and other english-speaking countries ( like USA ) it's a female name: it take half of an hour to tell the police i was that Andrea and that i wasn't a girl X

[Chaotic Heavens]

So I was in my backyard when all of a suddenly, a tiger came out! This tiger was huge! In great fear and distress of what to do, I wet my pants... then I learned it was my older brother in a tiger suit. Go figure. :(

Seriously though, I haven't really been out of the United States besides in Canada; however, I have traveled to nearly every state of the US. My favorite city that I visited would be Chicago. Nothing really amazing happened, but I liked the view of the beach and the weather was perfect. Found some nice Asian stores too. :D

Also, I hate airplanes. That's the main reason I don't leave the country. Don't like the idea of having no control of the situation I'm in. It just feels so unsafe. :/

[w w]

Was hitchhiking unsafe?

Nah. If you stay aware and use some common sense then there's no problem.
I mean I wouldn't recommend a teenage girl doing it by herself for the first time in the US, but otherwise it's safe.



What is it with travelling and losing one's sense of reality, like being asked by a nice woman who was giving you a lift to help her smuggle some cocaine over the border into Finland
Haha, yeah I hear that. Never was asked to do coke, but as I'm sure you know in EE you get harassed by people near the borders to carry over even the most insignificant items.


And although it's always nice to be hit one, especially by well dressed obviously rich people, it's a tad off putting when its an Italian... ummm... Guy.
Getting hit on by gays pretty much goes with the territory if you hitchhike, there's a type that goes cruising for vagrants on the highways in hopes of a cheap BJ. You learn to spot them about a mile away...as I'm sure once again you already know ;)


Though I have to ask, has anyone gone to a club, seen beautiful women and only realise once you've started to dance with them that they're all part of the Barcelona Basketball team and are at least thirty if not forty centimetres taller than you. 'Cos it happened to me and it can be akward to dance with a beautiful and well endowed Spanish girl when your head is level with their breasts. Fun perhaps... but embarassing.
Yeah I'm sure that's happened to plenty of people. ;)
In St. Pete it seems like all the female clubbers are at least 5'10, if not 6' even. Fortunately I've got the height to cope.



And I have to ask W W... where do you hang out because your trips sound a hell of a lot to me like... ummm... TRIIIIIIIIIIPS. (Okay, crap play on words there).
I don't follow. Trips? What do you mean where do I hang out?

So, you didn't answer; do you hitchhike, or what? How do you get around?
Are you going to be in Switz this summer? Put us up for a bit, I'm sure we'd have fun exchanging stories.

[S&T Kawaii Love]

So speak to me guys... and ladies. Even if you haven't had the oportunity to travel where would you like to go?

You must have alot of money to just go travelling everywhere. Well sorry but I don't. I did have traveled but not as much as you. Everywhere I have been I have liked it very much.

[aemether]

[QUOTE=burnout]i've been to a few places so far including

Puerto Valacarta-Mexico
QUOTE]


the real name is Puerto vallarta-- (vallarta harbor)

[Coaxial]

All of my travels must follow one simple rule... keep it cheap. Usually they are a mixture of low cost travels (airlines like EasyJet in Europe, low cost train tickets, etc) and hitch hiking. Since I love to walk that always ends up consuming a large part of my time. Sometimes it's just fun to just "see where I end up" and just start travelling anywhere in a particular country. Some of the greatest experiences I've had have been like that. I just head out (like I did once in Denmark... and ended up In Dresden, Germany five days later) and start hitch hiking and asking people I meet where they think is an interesting place to visit in the region. Sometimes you can end up in some beautiful and mostly inaccesible regions that only the locals know. In Peru once thanks to this I ended up spending the night on top of a volcano next to an ancient Inca burial site full of skulls. The view was absolutely amazing and I would never have found it unless the local indigenous population had pointed it out to me. Admittedly it was cold as hell one the sun set and I nearly killed myself falling down into the crater (not to mention the paranoia of sleeping next to graves)... but it was nevertheless a great place and time.

Once you start to travel a bit, and meet up with other travelers (or just mostly hang out with the international community wherever you live) you end up making friends from dozens (if not more) different countries who are always more than happy to "show you around" if you ever happen to drop by where they live. So I tend to organise my vacations around where I know people, which ensures that I have a place to sleep, some food, and a guide who can show me around, and all that for no cost. Keeping costs low is always important when you are one a tight budget, and most of the time if you have plenty of cash and hang out in five star hotels you don't get to have as much fun. You inevitably get ripped off, only see the very turistic areas and never really get to meet anyone from the region. So it tends to pay off by travelling cheap.

Oh, and I find that fun traveling is a mixture of good organisation (reading up on where you are going, find out who has been there before and talk to them, etc... and some pure inspiration. Too much planning can take away some of the great fun of facing the unexpected (which is where the really strange sh!t happens), but not enough planning can get you into all sorts of trouble.

And I also tend to travel quite a bit with my family, thanks to my parents I've gotten to go to places in Cuba, Vietnam, or Egypt (I was given a tour of the Pyramids by the head archaeologist of the site... something I would NEVER have gotten if I'd gone on my own... it's fun having a mother who is a journalist :D ) that I would never have been lucky enough... or rich enough... to go to myself. Some of my friends have always hated travelling with their family "cos it's boring" but it sure has some great perks... like getting to eat in good restaurants, something that is nearly impossible when you travel cheaply.

Though ultimately keeping an open mind tends to be the single most important element that keeps travelling fun. One should never judge people or places by our own narrow cultural values or morals, or you never end up leaving the hotel. And having a strong stomach also helps, some of the food I've eaten over the years (and the impressive indigestions that have come with them :( ) have been real eye openers.

Oh and W W... the trip reference was to your travels sounding "trippy", as in they seem to be like drug enduced hazes... "where am I now maaan?" I know, my plays on words tend to suck... it's part of what I'm famous for amongst the people who know me... what can I say, it's fun to play around with words and multiple meanings, hell the Japanese do it all the time in Manga's and Anime... so why can't we?

Oh and one last thing... I really recommend that nobody ever travels with a girlfriend who is (as Harry would put in in "When Harry met Sally") "high maintenance" when you are trying to rough it out... can lead to some very embarassing not to mention outright crazy problems.

Cheers.

[S&T Kawaii Love]

it's fun having a mother who is a journalist
That sound like fun. But don't you ever get tired and just like to stay in one place ones a while. And I bet you need to have alot of shots against foreign deceises.



Oh and one last thing... I really recommend that nobody ever travels with a girlfriend who is (as Harry would put in in "When Harry met Sally") "high maintenance" when you are trying to rough it out... can lead to some very embarassing not to mention outright crazy problems.
Well I don't care if you are in love that's all what matters. Not all people have alot of experience in traveling..


Do you work and then go on vacation or something. Where do you pay your trips from. From a part-time job maybe?

[jiyeow]

places i've been:

1)Hatyai (thailand) =age 7 and 13=
2)Singapore =many many times -.- (i live in malaysia)=
3)Hong Kong =1 year old... imagine the coldness i have to endure! evil parents...=
4)China (jiu zai gou) =last year=
5)China (beijing) =age 12 (my fav)=
6)China (huang long) =on a 20 day trip package with beijing= < Scenery is just breath taking>
7)China (he mei) =same as above=
8)China (hai nan tao) =same= <nice food ^^>

i guess tats all the places i traveled... didn't have time thought... cuz of exams/ works/ and stuffz...T____T (i wanna travel more)

[Coaxial]

When I was younger I tended to travel mostly with my family. Then as I entered high school and then University I tended to work part time and then travel during the vacation periods (as an Archaeology student I had soooooooooooo much vacation time). Nowadays, being as how it's hard to find a job in Cinema here in Europe I tend to have to travel to get work, part time jobs all over the world, even when I was a student studying film in Paris it was easier to work in a publicity shoot in Mexico or even in Spain than it was in France (the French like most countries, but perhaps more than most, tend to overprotect their arts and cultural programmes making it hard to get a job or even funding if you are a foreigner. We all like to talk about the joys of EU membership, but even with all its advantages I had one hell of a hard time finding the funds for my latest short film, and when that fell through ended up making a MUCH smaller scaled down film in DV instead of my original plans in S16mm. And then i watch New Line throw money out the window on another short film I worked on as Grip and it can be very frustrating... sorry... long aside here :D ).

Anyways, part time jobs tend to be the best for those who are travel minded. Had a good friend back in England who worked all year part time and then spent three months travelling all the back roads in China. He even went to a village that had never seen a black man before. He said that he had a fantastic time, so much so that he returned last summer and loved it yet again. So he doesn't even speak mandarin or cantonese... but who cares, he was able to communicate in very basic ways and loved it. He spent one week in a small village where he was fed and housed and in exchange helped them out with their english classes in their small school. He loved it and the children had a great time.

And yes, to answer S&T Kawaii Love:

But don't you ever get tired and just like to stay in one place ones a while. And I bet you need to have alot of shots against foreign deseases.

It's always nice to stay in one place for a bit, to just relax at home and read, not worry about moving around and getting stressed, but the truth is that having come from an international community, and having lived all my life in foreign countries, now that I've finished University and work (or try to get work) most of my oldest and best friends have left the country and work all over the globe; from the US to Dubai, and from Australia to Singapore, so to to see them I HAVE to travel. And ultimately some of my best moments have been spent with friends.

As for shots, haven't had all that many over the years since I have tended to rarely fall sick and most of my travels have been around Europe and other countries with les infectuous diseases. Although to be honest when I travelled around latin america or asia I had to take quite a few shots and pills. But not falling sick when you travel is also a question of common sense... i.e: don't eat something from a marketplace where the cook has filthy hands, or eat in places that look too unhealthy. Of course I've done some of that over the years, :eek: but generally I've come to regret it, so experience helps I guess. Though finally, what's a few shots compard to being able to see Ankor Wat for real, to walk around it's ruins and stand in awe beneath the shadows of civilizations long past whose wonders live on still today. I'd take half the shots in the world to be able to return to Halong Bay in Vietname and marvel at all those small islands, and eat marvelous crab and swim again in its crystal clear waters (well... nearly crystal clear). Hell, I'd even take a shot so as to go the Museum of the Red Cross (which I'd recommend to anyone) and that's just across the street.

And one last thing... what about places you've visited in the counrty where you live. You don't always have to travel thousands of kilometres to see great things. Even though I have to note that people generally tend to visit places less in the very place where their home is. When I lived in London I was amazed that very few of my English friends had ever visited the British Museum, considered one of the best in the world... and it even has a free entrance. Oddly enough people only ever tend to pay attention to peoples and places in foreign countries and tend to be blind to the beauties back home.

So I guess we're all foolish people really.

[WanFeiLwong]

Alright then, I'm from Texas but I've been to a couple places:
US- California, Chicago, New York, New Jersey, Las Vegas, Tenessee
Canada- Just kinda drove around to most of the national parks(Makes Texas look so bland)
Europe- Italy, France, GB, Germany
Asia- Taiwan, Japan
China- Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong

It's great to explore different areas and learn different cultures. Before I left the country I was pretty arrogant and all Gung-Ho about our way-of-life.

[Coaxial]

The more you travel... the less you really know.

Someone told me that once... not sure who really, though I guess it's a perversion of "the more you study, the less you know", but no less true because of it.

It's like languages; the more languages you speak, the more you realise how limited you are and want to learn more. We humans are never happy are we... more, more, more... always more... Oh well, at least travel broadens the mind a bit :D