WATMM travel thread

[fenton]

Interail has its upsides, but mostly they neglect to tell you:

 

You still have to reserve [and pay a reservation fee] seats on most trains.

 

This means the whole journey you're constantly finding out that the trains for the next few days are full and instead having to make alternative plans, accommodation or different routes...

Did about two weeks interailing and it was OK, I have had much better luck travelling on a whim!

[zkom]

 

Anyway, I've done a bit of traveling lately. Within the last year I've been to France (Mainland and Réunion), Madagascar, the Netherlands, Czech, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Slovenia and Croatia. Roughly in that order. Mostly backpacking, except for the Netherlands which was work related.

 

Nice. What kinds of transportation were you using?

 

Has anyone tried using Interrail to travel between the cities? Is it a good way to do it?

 

 

Flights for long distances, otherwise buses, trains and ferries.Taxi brousses within Madagascar of course. :)

 

I was interrailing about 10 years ago. It's relatively cheap in Western/Central Europe compared to other transports but in Eastern Europe it's usually just cheaper to buy the individual tickets. And as fenton said you still need to reserve the seats in the intercity trains but you can also use the local trains that don't need no reservation but are also really sloooowww. Also the reservations cost money which might be a problem if you are traveling like we were on a 20 euros per day budget in Western Europe..

[Guest Atom Dowry Firth]

 

what a sexy beast btw. so excited.

 

 

 

 

Lush. Is the rental company cool with you driving this thing through a number of different countries and back again though? Renting vehicles is usually just for getting about in the general vicinity of the place you rented the vehicle innit(?). If you're planning on biking through Europe maybe look at the possibility of buying a cheapish bike outright and just running it into the ground. Wouldn't be as cool as riding this bike you've got your heart set on but would probably save you some considerable cash. Also hell yeah WATMM meetup for when you're in London confirmed!

[chenGOD]

In Taipei for about an hour and a half. Just enough time to stretch the legs out before getting back on a plane.

[lala]

im going to asia again for the 5th year running. last time in goa my lappie melted twice.

 

 

any advice which wto buy? (it was an I7 so i'l downgrade) but any other pointers will help

[Hugh Mughnus]

In Taipei for about an hour and a half. Just enough time to stretch the legs out before getting back on a plane.

so bloody exciting

 

hope you have a great time

[usagi]

 

 

what a sexy beast btw. so excited.

 

 

 

 

Lush. Is the rental company cool with you driving this thing through a number of different countries and back again though? Renting vehicles is usually just for getting about in the general vicinity of the place you rented the vehicle innit(?). If you're planning on biking through Europe maybe look at the possibility of buying a cheapish bike outright and just running it into the ground. Wouldn't be as cool as riding this bike you've got your heart set on but would probably save you some considerable cash. Also hell yeah WATMM meetup for when you're in London confirmed!

 

 

yeah, they are. quite a few rental agencies are cool with it, I believe, so long as you pay out the butt. but I'm bent on making this a biking trip (not inclined to just take buses/trains/etc, did that last time) so I'll foot the cost. I just want to cut out as many unnecessary costs as possible.

 

the real limitation in terms of how far I can ride with this is the added 0.3 euro per km. well that and fuel, of course. so yeah, that, plus the problem of actually returning the bike, make visiting Lunn'on impossible this go-round. also it is admittedly too ambitious, I mean it's like close to 2,000km, and there's too much to see on the way and too little time.

 

so I will have to come up to y'all next time. *sadcum*

[JS20]

This Sunday I fly out to spend a week with a customer in Edmonton, AB, Canada!

[fenton]

im going to asia again for the 5th year running. last time in goa my lappie melted twice.

 

 

any advice which wto buy? (it was an I7 so i'l downgrade) but any other pointers will help

 

 

Got an i5 in my Macbook Air, seems to not have melted after 4 months in 30+ degrees humidity but I don't feel as confident about it as when it was living in a cooller country.

 

Will report back in 1 year.

 

Maybe alu chassis is the way to go though. And No moving parts if possible, bar the fans.

Obv it is very thin and light too, so ultrabook types might be the best travel companions.

[lala]

the toshiba was black. never again will i buy a black one lol

 

 

i like a big screen tho... hmmmm maybe I5 with SSD? (dont use maccies) if i can manage to get the funds tho

[fenton]

If you're just using it for checking facebook and communicating with peeps you could get a cheapo chromebook. The white HP 11" models are very light, cheap and thin, and should reflect heat.

 

 

would make storage of media a nightmare tho, and be rendered almost useless without a data connection to hand. although 3g is pretty cheap out here and you could tether it to your smartphone.

 

i pay £5 a month for unlimited tethering, have successfully torrented and stuff without getting banned.

Tried that in india a few years ago and it was not very successful though.

[zkom]

I tried to get a prepaid SIM when traveling in India but it would only work within Mumbai (IIRC) and was a bit sketchy deal. The seller told not to answer any unknown numbers as there was something weird about the registration process and the operator might make a call.

 

Finally I just gave up with it.

[lala]

its for art, djing, making music, the whole shebang.

 

im even thinking of taking my AR & A4

[jellyrajah]

can anyone recommend some places to check out in Tokyo?

[lala]

im going in marchish ( whenever golden week is)

 

shibuya for sure (shopping district) and theres a cool looking club called 'womb' im going to try go to

Edited August 15, 2014 by lala

[lala]

double entendre

Edited August 15, 2014 by lala

[chenGOD]

For Tokyo, standard fare for first time visitors is grand. Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Harajuku. There are cool bars and restaurants basically everywhere, the problem is if you don't have someone to show you around for those finding them can be quite difficult.

 

As for my own travels: Yangon is ducking mental. Most if the cars here are second-hand Japanese, so they're right hand drive. Some are Korean, which are not right hand drive. Regardless they drive on the right.

Food is ridiculously cheap, to the point that it's cheaper to eat out than buy shit in the supermarket. I spent 50 cents on breakfast yesterday, and splurged for $3.50 brunch today.

There's a crazy mix of people here, not too many dreaded crusties (yet) and the Burmese are super super friendly.

Loving it so far, even with the mild case of (inevitable) food poisoning.

[fenton]

Club Module in Tokyo is really very good.

 

 

Beer vending machine on the dancefloor too!

For Tokyo, standard fare for first time visitors is grand. Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Harajuku. There are cool bars and restaurants basically everywhere, the problem is if you don't have someone to show you around for those finding them can be quite difficult.

As for my own travels: Yangon is ducking mental. Most if the cars here are second-hand Japanese, so they're right hand drive. Some are Korean, which are not right hand drive. Regardless they drive on the right.
Food is ridiculously cheap, to the point that it's cheaper to eat out than buy shit in the supermarket. I spent 50 cents on breakfast yesterday, and splurged for $3.50 brunch today.
There's a crazy mix of people here, not too many dreaded crusties (yet) and the Burmese are super super friendly.
Loving it so far, even with the mild case of (inevitable) food poisoning.

 

 

I might head over there soon!

[lala]

been told by people that you can get welll nicked for even DJing in thailand without work permit, and that it does happen, and with the reason army curfews he said im a bit mad to plan to try dj there all the time... damn didnt think about that.

 

might be goa again then

[chenGOD]

This is Shwedagon Pagoda at night from a distance.

Mental.

 

[modey]

For Tokyo, standard fare for first time visitors is grand. Shibuya, Shinjuku, Akihabara, Harajuku. There are cool bars and restaurants basically everywhere, the problem is if you don't have someone to show you around for those finding them can be quite difficult.

Yeah I think I'm gonna stick around Shinjuku/Akihabara most of the time. I wouldn't say no to going elsewhere, but I think it'll be overwhelming enough as it is, considering it's my first time overseas. I do have the intention of trying all kinds of weird shit though.

[JS20]

This Sunday I fly out to spend a week with a customer in Edmonton, AB, Canada!

 

Gonna stay an extra week, and visit Banff since I have the weekend to myself now

[kichiguy]

On my way to Burma (Myanmar) for three months. Will be there for work, but hope to travel a bit in SE Asia as well. Leaving in slightly less than 11 hours, have not yet started packing!!

 

Coming to India at all?

[spratters]

I'm doing a 3 week trip from LA to Seattle in a few weeks, hopefully popping to Vancouver too. Can't fucking wait. It'd be good to meet any of you locals out there for insider tips that a Brit just wouldn't know.

[lala]

been told by people that you can get welll nicked for even DJing in thailand without work permit, and that it does happen, and with the reason army curfews he said im a bit mad to plan to try dj there all the time... damn didnt think about that.

 

might be goa again then

 

got told by a nice thai lady to 'not be so stupid, of course you wont get nicked for djing, its only the rude idiots that get nicked' so i guess thailand is back on. woohoo

Edited August 22, 2014 by lala