Quote from: lagereek on May 08, 2012, 16:00

Quote from: cascoly on May 08, 2012, 15:03

Quote from: antistock on May 08, 2012, 00:57

  the first thing you see in a piss poor country is the abysmal state of the roads, if there are roads actually ! 

ever drive in any US city, especially ones that have winter potholes?

US infrastructure is miserable - here in seattle, you need to avoid driving in the right hand lanes on many roads

many bridges across the country are considered unsafe and little is done til they collapse

but with a 'no new taxes' philosoph for last 30 years, cities and states have been left to rot

I have driven many times in New York,  potholes galore!  just about everywhere.

Sounds terrible. I've been thinking about visiting the States, but people keep telling me that it's expensive and dangerous, and now I hear that the infrastructure is falling apart. I think I'll just stay here in my bamboo hut 

Nah, nah,  its not that bad. New York, is magical, something about the big apple, which cant be explained,  really is. Although, its not like London, Rome or Paris,  these are just pure history, fantastic.

it's my 4th the first 24h. After that everything is jugs repeating itself, all the street performers/artists are doing the same, mostly really boring and low level entertainment shows and in lots of case7s they're exploiting animals (cobras, monkeys, horses used to pull  carriages etc). On top of all the place is a cesspool, evedy square centimeter of marrakech stinks of urine and sheat, whether it's horse or human. I've seen tourist st holding sweaters over their noses to keep em from throwing up. They don't have the basic hygiene standards, flies everywhere, on the food, ppl sneezing and no one covers his.mouth with his arm/hand, bread is.delivered and handled like newspaper...And I wax thinking.about going to India . Well at least there's so many things.to see in India, unlike here...

I'm listening to ppl traveling to 3rd world countries how stiff that has become. You easily spend 3-3,5k € on Cuba or in Brazil in a couple of weeks. That's 3 times more you'd typically spend there 5 or 10 years ago. The same goes for Asia, Thailand for example, prices got doubled in the last 5 years, at least alcoholic drinks cost the same as in Europe (because Asians can't handle liquor). So you actually pay 500-1500€ for a plane ticket to enjoy yourself and throw your money at everything because it's so cheap, just to realize everything costs the same or even more as in most EU countries. And there's no real problem with crime in Europe, you can't say it's dangerous whereas if you travel to any Latin American country (except for Cuba) you really have to watch where and when you're going somewhere, especially by yourself or as a couple or even a small group. I'd really like to go to Latin America for instance (probably Mexico due to cheap flights). But all that puts me off. I'm not interested in Asia (perhaps in India), just to let you know to focus on other continents when you write your posts

I'd like to hear some first hand experiences, I know there's lots of ppl traveling a lot, like holgs etc.

Asia is booming regarding prices but there are still a few countries rock bottom cheap.
for instance vietnam, cambodia, laos, myanmar, philippines.

it's all to you, how much you can go rough, in southern cambodia i could rent a nice room in a guesthouse with fridge
aircon toilet balcony for 120$/month in low season and around 200$ in high season, in the big cities add 30%.
in Vietnam similar prices but better service and cleaner rooms, in laos and myanmar is quite rough but exotic,
in Thailand indeed everything is doubled but still good for accomodations, 15$/night will give you plenty of nice clean rooms
unless you stay in bangkok.

beers are still relatively cheap, or you can go local and drink whiskey or rum or rice wine for 1-2$/bottle.

transportation by bus and train is still cheap, taxis on the other side keep going up, same for renting a moto.
with AirAsia there are cheap flight all around asia, so much better than Ryanair etc.

security is a problem but nothing compared to south/central america.
as a rule, the rougher you look, the better it is, nobody will bother you but it's not easy to hide a big full frame camera + flash + tripod.

however, for photography i would recommend Myanmar, it's fantastic for both architecture, people, and lifestyle, but very rough to move around, not
for the inexperienced traveller.

thailand is so much overrated by opposite, while cambodia and vietnam have plenty of photo opportunities, laos a bit less but still worth it.
malaysia nice place but photographically boring in my opinion, singapore excellent but as expensive as back home if not more !

Oh well, interesting that you chose the city I hear most negative things, security-wise, about.
Can't imagine why you like to travel: you don't like architecture, nature or streetlife. Might as well stay at home.

I could do with going to a desert right now, but I've blown my year's travel budget.

Oh well, interesting that you chose the city I hear most negative things, security-wise, about.

About that, the plane ticket price is so low it's almost worth getting stabbed there. I mean you just can't have it all, can you

nothing to do and to see in the whole of Asia ??

I would definetely stay way clear of a place called Glasgow, its somewhere in Scotland, nobody really know where but its well reputed as the last resort of the Haggis-eaters, a very, very dangerous breed.

If ye can say, "It's a braw, bricht moonlicht nicht, then ye're a'richt, ye ken"

BTW,  love that speach and accent, but dont understand a damned thing. Not many do.

 

A wee deoch an' doris - Harry Lauder

Quote from: wut on July 09, 2012, 12:27

Quote from: ShadySue on July 09, 2012, 05:31

Oh well, interesting that you chose the city I hear most negative things, security-wise, about.

About that, the plane ticket price is so low it's almost worth getting stabbed there. I mean you just can't have it all, can you

Hmmmm
I met a young woman from Rio last year in Pisa and asked her if Rio was as bad as I'd heard. Her reply was to the effect that she has survived there with no problems, but tourists are very much targetted. So I guess it depends how 'local' you might look. I certainly would have no chance of looking local.

Well you know how I look, I certainly don't have a latin look and I'm not black either. But I'm no albino either, so I'd be spotted by crooks from a km away. But there are many white ppl living in Rio as well, A tog I know spent a few weeks there last year, showed us some photos and told us all about his trip. What draws me there is the unbelivable energy, ppl are dancing on the streets, ppl of all ages, the atmosphere is incredible.

And yeah, I've heard a lot of bad things about Brazil (security wise) as well and I did raise those concerns in my previous posts. But most ppl that answered to those post said it wasn't that bad or that it depends on you really, some of them were locals (velocicarpo, madelaide).

Oh yeah, this is a real legend!  what a lovely accent! isnt it. How can you beat that?  thanks for posting this Sue!  it was well worth having a beef with you just to see this. Brillant!

it's not an accent, it's a whole language apart.
can't see anything lovely about it, and same for those speaking strict Liverpoolian.

95% of men go to Thailand for sex tourism.

and who can blame them considering how much the so called thai culture is overestimated, how much they managed to ruin all the pristine beaches, to make a disneyland out of the whole of thailand, to scam and ripoff tourists in any possible nasty way, to make their sea look yellow/brown and the countryside an open air dump, with all the garbage being taken down to the ocean at the next flood.

culture might be found in myanmar and cambodia, not much in thailand actually, as most of it's culture is in fact khmer/cambodian to boot but rebranded as "thai" or "siamese" ! and it all comes from India anyway, as for the food it's a blend of burmese and khmer and chinese as well, nothing really ever "invented" in thailand, not even the Red Bull as it's a ripoff of a notorious korean energizer drink.

not be harsh but having lived in SE asia for a few years i'm a bit tired of all the BS running on about the so called "land of smiles".
i only return there to make photos as unfortunately it's still the top tourist destination in south asia and therefore my top seller for south asian images.

and following your logic, 99% of the western people going in thailand know jack sh-it about thailand and the orient as a whole, fact, which is not far from truth actually, so many expats living in a "bubble" even after 20 yrs in SE asia.

Quote from: antistock on July 09, 2012, 21:01

Quote from: Lagereek on July 09, 2012, 13:41

Oh yeah, this is a real legend!  what a lovely accent! isnt it. How can you beat that?  thanks for posting this Sue!  it was well worth having a beef with you just to see this. Brillant!

it's not an accent, it's a whole language apart.
can't see anything lovely about it, and same for those speaking strict Liverpoolian.

Liverpoolian is horrible but a gaelic or whatever its called genuine accent like this,  thats called culture.

Gaelic is a language; there are various Scots dialects.

Quote from: wut on July 09, 2012, 15:35

For me no. I wasn't sure I'd like Morocco before I went there and it was a lot worse than I expected. Travel that by far the worst in my life, so far I've had a good time on every single travel. It's like going to hell. What I wanted to say, I have enough travel experience to know whether I might like the place or not.

When it comes to Asia, nothing draws me there. Not the ppl, not the dirty big cities with nothing besides temples to see and dirty smelly food stalls etc. I know if you go on a trekking, there are gorgeous sights, beautiful nature (Laos etc), but I'm not into that. From what I've heard from numerous ppl, nothing raised my attention, nothing interests me that much that I'd want to go there. 95% of men go to Thailand for sex tourism.

then maybe you should try sex as i guess you're in need of it considering your absolutely foolish outlook on anything oriental.

if you can't like asia you simply don't like life.

you're an obvious unexperienced traveller and you can only blame yourself if the places you traveled are a "hell".
typical fat greasy yank watching Fox news and pretending the world revolves around ammmmerika !

Great stuff! I can respond now since I'm getting ready for a cup of tea with my friends. We're gonna discuss some politics too and what those * commies liberals are up to.