The Travel Thief

As much as I travel, I have never, and plan to avoid, going on a sea cruise. This post shows the dark side of cruising. NCL ran into bad weather that drastically changed their cruise routing. Their fault? No. Could they have handled it better? Possibly. But the real thing is being around hundreds of angry passengers working themselves into a mutinous mob. Trapped. At least when things go wrong on land, there are more opportunities to escape, but I can't imagine being around all those people with no way off or to unwind.

Before this Fiji trip there was some, um... let's call it "unpleasantness" in my life. I had a lot of hurt and anger brewing from multiple things and lost motivation to devote time and energy to things that I loved.  I was even at a point that had I not sunk so much money into the Fiji trip on non-refundable hotels and flights, I would have considered cancelling it altogether and staying home. As the departure date drew closer, I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to enjoy myself by holding onto these feelings. Unlike most struggles in my life, I couldn't let it go. A week prior, I started to at least look forward to the trip, deferring my angst until I returned. But then, on the day before I was set to leave, I woke up and all that emotion had washed away. Without any further effort on my part, I had let it go. I was relieved. Someone knowing a portion of my stresses said to me "Pack Light" in reference to the emotional baggage. It resonate...

Home from another whirlwind trip to Asia - this time Myanmar with some time in Singapore.  It was originally planned as an extension to my trip to Sri Lanka Here is the summary of my time on the road: 9 Days in 5 cities 4 different airline carriers: United Airline, Jetstar Asia, Myanmar National Airlines and KBZ 7 different airports: Newark, San Francisco, Singapore, Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan, Heho 9 flights totaling 51.5 hours of flying.  (OMG) Longest flight San Francisco to Singapore: 17 hours Meals eaten in a day: Breakfast, 2nd Breakfast, Snack, Lunch, dinner, Dinner, Sandwich, Brunch, Snack Most expensive meal was buying snacks in Newark Airport pre-flight: $26 Highest temperature: 107 F with a "feels like" temp of 122 F.  I was singing Midnight Oil's "Beds Are Burning" in my head a lot It was an absolutely brutal trip, but worthwhile.

Always a treat when you see the exact plane/flight you were on 2 days prior had an "alternate" landing... https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-pilot-safely-lands-plane-nose-landing-gear-failure.html/amp Ironically, I remember thinking that it was an unnecessarily bumpy landing on the runway when we did it considering it there were no weather issues to contend with. I rolled my eyes to myself and thought 3rd World country carrier on a short route...not the cream of the pilot crop.

2 weeks ago I woke up early on a Sunday morning as I normally do.  I didn't immediately get up and go for my usual run and instead sat down with a cup of coffee at my computer to quietly relax.  Scrolling through Facebook, I was catching up on what people had been doing on Saturday night when I saw a friend shared a news article from that morning. Bombings in Sri Lanka. My entire day changed. The place I had visited only 4 months ago was subjected to a massive act of terror. Churches and major tourist hotels they targeted and I was set to leave on a business trip there in 2 weeks. For the first time in my travel career, I was scared. I get asked the question a lot: Aren't you worried about xyz? Whether it be the destination, the state of the world in general or something else, there's always a perception people have when it is something they are unfamiliar with.  I normally laugh it off, explain safety statistics or that things can happen anywhere.  I think t...

I was watching Hallmark Channel last night (don't judge! I had a hard week!) and the strangest TV ad for a destination came on: https://www.ispot.tv/ad/I0Dw/china-national-tourism-administration-nansha Nansha. Having never heard of it and having only just gone to Hong Kong 6 months ago I had to look it up.  What I found is that it is a giant port that is part of Guangzhou China where a pilot free trade zone has been established.  There really isn't anything there unique to speak of other than perhaps it's location near other heavy hitters (Hong Kong, Macau).  My serious question is: If the goal of the 'city of the future' (watch the ad!) is to attract businesses to register there and increase port traffic, why the heck are you advertising on Hallmark Channel during "A Royal Christmas" or whatever garbage I was watching?  You would think that part of the marketing strategy would be to know your audience.  It's not like anyone will plan a vacatio...

I really don't watch the news anymore because I feel it tends to focus on a lot of dramatic life pieces ( STUDIES FOUND THAT BREATHING WILL NOW GIVE YOU CANCER!  STAY TUNED!!! ). With this ban on media centered on indifference, I tend to be a bit late to the story when something big happens.  Case in point, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris catching fire. I was at lunch at work and coworkers starting talking about it, and I honestly thought it was the college in the US and not the church in Paris.  Strike one for my mental empathy sensors. I checked Facebook and saw my friend that was in Paris on her vacation and listed Notre Dame as one of her top sights to see had in fact seen it that morning.  She posted a sad picture of the smoke plume from a distance and it felt bittersweet that she was able to see it but then watched it be destroyed. Scrolling further through my Facebook feed, nearly everyone posted a link to an article, a live feed or their own personal pictures...

I will admit that I am not someone who knows how to enjoy "Sun and Fun" types of vacations.  That being said, once a year we go somewhere that specializes in that with a fun group of friends and have a blast.  This year we went to Aruba and stayed at the Riu Antillas Palace hotel.  It was all inclusive and adults only which was a selling point for us. Anyone who had been to Aruba before thought we were crazy for staying at an all inclusive on the island.  The food on the island is great quality and there are lots of choices.  However, the value of this resort to keep the trip affordable because the one night we went out was expensive.  Plus, with 6+ people, coordinating 3 meals a day plus drinks, snacks etc is too much hassle on a short trip.  When we wanted lunch, we spent exactly 10 mins gathering together, brushing the sand off and getting seated at a restaurant.  We all could do our own thing and not have to worry about This was my first tim...

I love to read the"behind the scenes" lists about airline travel and one particular fact from such a list sticks with me.  Flight attendants say their least favorite drink to serve in flight is diet coke.  Diet Coke takes up to 3 times longer to pour than other drinks due to its fizzy nature. https://www.thisisinsider.com/flight-attendants-hate-diet-coke-2017-7 And there is a real reason behind it!  Regular coke is made with sugar which increases the surface tension and viscosity in the drink - and in real terms that means bigger bubbles are forming.  If you ever played with bubbles as a kid, think about how the larger bubbles floating in the air would burst first and the tiny little bubbles would be the last to burst. This tiny air travel science lesson was all to say that I was surprised that on my United flight this week napkins were advertising Diet Coke specifically.  Not Coke, or Coke products, but Diet Coke, the bane of airline drink service.  Wh...

I'm an anglophile.  I blame my mother for raising me on PBS shows in the 80s which were almost completely British programming.  Considering that this was a time before cable, it makes sense given the lack of options coming through on the antenna. One of the things I was looking forward to in Hong Kong was some of this British imprint on Chinese culture. Even though the British officially departed 20 years ago, this tradition of afternoon tea has taken hold in Hong Kong. Hong Kong definitely has a strong tea culture in general (I love milk tea! More on that at a later time) so it is no wonder that this remained. Afternoon tea is credited to the Duchess of Bedford for beginning this trend. Dinner used to be late and large so getting there from breakfast was a challenge.  The Duchess of course was having her dinner fashionably late as was the style of the 1800s, but we girls all know that you're going to get hangry waiting that long. Thus, afternoon tea was born! Though t...

Hong Kong (or officially Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China) is the fourth most densely populated region in the world. It spans over 200 islands and is built on reclaimed land or hilly terrain.  The Hong Kongese have developed every way imaginable to get around the city with these challenges, including the longest escalator system in the world. The Central-Midlevels escalator is 800 meters long in total and is located (you guessed it) in the Central Business district, linking up to the Mid-levels on Hong Kong Island.  I did not fully do my research ahead of time and the suggestion to see (via tourists websites and a local) was taken without a second thought. Here we go!  Escalator woooo! First, I didn't realize that it was not one or a handful of long escalator. It's actually 18 escalators spread out along the way.  Second, I thought they were older than they were. The escalators were built in 1993, not sometime during th...