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Ghost of LL

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Posts posted by Ghost of LL

  1. 17 minutes ago, hookem2010 said:

    For those who went with kids, how old were they? I've got a 2 year-old and another on the way, so I know it won't be anytime soon, but I'd like to go while wildlife is still a thing that exists.

    The boy was 13 and the girl was 11.

    The sweet spot would be to go when the oldest is 12.  That's when there are a lot of cut-offs on price.  Kids 12 and under stay at a reduced rate at a lot of the lodges.

    • Like 1
  2. On 3/29/2024 at 11:04 PM, millhouse said:

    Bump. I am doing this, help me.

    Much like @Ghost of LL this is my wife's idea and I am 100% down with. We have talked to one outfitter so far and they basically said for the time we want to go (August/September 2025) Kenya is the place to go. They also recommend the lodges ran by Angama (both in the Mara and Amboseli) so glad to see them mentioned here.

    @conVINCEdI want my only responsibility to be getting flights into and out of Africa (which will probably be on BA or Qatar) but I don't want to go someplace that feels like Disneyland and has 23 jeeps parked around 2 lioness. What do I need to know, what do I need to ask, who do I need to talk to, should i consider someplace other than Kenya, how much lubricant do I need to procure for the cost of this? Does not seem like the type of trip to skimp on (so we wont) but I don't want to pay for things that are not worth it.

    I cannot recommend Angama Mara highly enough.  We were there for five days, at the end of which Mrs.LL and LLDaughter both cried when we had to leave.  The location is amazing, but the staff are really unparalleled.

    You can see from the website that the location is up on the top of the 1,000-foot bluff overlooking the Mara game preserve.  The pictures on the website don't oversell it.  If anything, they undersell it.  From both your tent (which really is only technically a tent because it has canvas walls, but it feels like a room) and from the common areas, you can look down through binoculars and see all of the animals down on the floor of the valley. 

    It takes about 40 minutes to drive from the Lodge down to the floor of the valley, during which you'll see plenty of zebras and baboons and, as you get close to the valley floor, a bunch of giraffes.  And once you're down there, you'll see everything from hippos to lions to leopards to buffalo.  At that time of year, you may be there for the tail end of the great migration crossing the Mara River (we caught it in Serengeti National Park in Tanzania).  I can't really describe the sheer number of wildebeest.  And if you can catch them crossing that river, which is crocodile infested--I can't imagine how cool that would be.

    But really, what made the Angama Mara special was the service and people.  As soon as you arrive, they assign you a driver, a butler, and a room attendant.  All three were just fascinating people and took good care of us.  The second day, LLDaughter got sick--a combination of fatigue from the flight and the high altitude (the Maasai Mara is at 6,000 feet and the Lodge is 1,000 feet above that).  So she and Mrs.LL stayed in the room that day and just watched the animals through binoculars.  Except for the baboons who ran across the balcony deck periodically--they got an up-close view of those fuckers.  Anyway, they didn't go to breakfast.  When LLDaughter fell asleep for a nap, Mrs.LL went out of the tent to walk to the common tent to grab some lunch, and there was our room attendant just sitting on a bench outside with a menu.  No telling how long he had been waiting.  He just decided that they might get hungry at some point and he wanted to be available.

    All this is going to cost you.  Plan on $1,000 per person per day.  Now, that does include all your food, drink, and wildlife fun.  And you can get plenty of drinks--they'll email you ahead of time to ask what booze you would like in the room and what drinks you want in the minifridge.  But still . . . that's pricey.  Gratuities are not included.

    We flew Qatar business class in the QSuites.  I can't recommend that more.  And the fare for Qatar in QSuites was the same as BA wanted for Economy.  So that was a no-brainier.

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  3. 9 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

    Fuck you. LL is a stupid fuck for bumping a 12-hour post that everyone else was smart enough to ignore.

    You will be gone by Tuesday also. 

    Fuck you.  I responded to the post because it directly addressed me.  I'm sorry that I don't spend every waking moment on this site.

    18 hours ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

    Q3:

    spacer.png

    And fuck Chad Fairchild.  Have a little fucking grace.  Say "yeah, I saw the replay.  I didn't see the change of direction in real time.  I made a mistake."  That's the answer; that'd be the end of it.  But Chad has to be a little bitch.

     

     

    And finally, fuck the Astros.  Can we wear the gold-trimmed uniforms for every game against the Astros this year?  Because fuck the Astros.

     

     

    So that's my list of people who can go fuck themselves on this day off: shadow, Chad Fairchild, and the Astros.

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  4. 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:

    I dunno, seems like fake news.  How could they find the time to work, what with all the raping and criming and drug smuggling they do?

    They're a very industrious people.  I mean, even in their laziness, they're exceedingly hard-working.

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  5. 7 minutes ago, ClubWhatever said:

    Big ships like that are possibly the worst invention in history.   Destroying marine life, polluting waterways, leading to ugly, industrialized ports, increasing vulnerability of economic systems, satiating Merica's appetite for oil as well as plastic trash goods, and on and on and on.  Just the worst.

    Counterpoint: cheap Chinese manufactured goods and ripe produce year-round.

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  6. 7 hours ago, Mango4 said:

    Going to Munich for Oktoberfest. Plan on going to Dachau but will take any other recommendations in Munich. Only have a few days there before taking the train to Berlin  

    Shit--I have a thread on Oktoberfest from way back.  But I can't find it now.

    As to hotels, there is a Sheraton Four Points and a Courtyard Marriott within walking distance.  Marriott may have changed this, but when I went some years ago, they didn't have "surge pricing" for rooms booked on points.  So the Courtyard is something like a Level 3 hotel, and they didn't change that during Oktoberfest.  So you could get that room for really cheap on Marriott points.  But whether you're booking on points or using cash, you need to book a hotel now.

    You ought to get a pair of lederhosen, and your lady needs a dirndl.  Yeah--you'll feel dumb as you get dressed in the hotel room.  But then you'll step foot outside and start walking toward the Wiesn, and you'll see that everyone else is ismilarly attired.  And you'll feel suddenly that you're pretty cool.

    The general scene is that there are a dozen or so big tents.  Each has its own vibe.  Hippodrome is the smallest and maybe the coolest.  Hofbrauhaus is for the Australians.  Augustiner has the best beer.

    You go in and find a seat.  You have to be seated to order a drink (or food).  There is no bar that you can walk up to and order.  It's a way of limiting capacity.  You order, the bier comes, and you pay--nobody is going to run you a tab.  And once you have your bier, you can get up and walk around if you wish (though you'll lose your place at that table). 

    All of the tables are like picnic tables that seat 16 (though the tables at the Hippodrome are smaller--they maybe seat 10).  If you see a spot, politely ask the people sitting there if it's available--"ist dieser Platz frei?".   If yes, they'll motion you to sit.  Aside from being socially appropriate, it also has the side benefit of being something of a conversation starter.  And it's kind of expected that you're going to be social.  And why wouldn't you be?  You're surrounded by people from right around the world drinking and having a good time.  I'm still in contact with people I met at Oktoberfest who are from everywhere from Germany to Australia.

    Tables can be reserved for large groups.  But if you see an empty table with a "Reserviert" sign on it, you can still sit down and order a bier.  But if the reserving party shows up, they'll kick you out.  Or they'll just ask you to push down.  That happened to us at the Hippodrome.  I think the Swiss guys who had the table reserved were quite happy to have Mrs.LL in her dirndl continue to hang out at their table for a while.

    Remember to eat something.  The standard snack at every tent is the half-chicken (halb Hahnchen).  It's way oversalted and rotisserie grilled.  Fucking delicious.  But you're going to want another bier or two after all that salt.

    Dammit--now I want to go back.  Maybe we'll take the kids when they're both over 16.

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  7. 10 minutes ago, mdmost said:

     

    Seeing my team unfurl a World Championship banner and come out with gold-trimmed uniforms with a World Champion sleeve patch . . . damn, I'm not sports crying, but there's definitely a sports lump in my throat.

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  8. 1 hour ago, Grundy said:

    Thank you for the recommendations! Much appreciated..

    We are leaning towards Munich as the starting point and then heading towards the Wengen, Murren, or Lauterbrunnen area as a base for operations. Anyone have a preference as to which area to pick as our home base to explore the area?

    That whole area south of Interlaken is amazing.  I don't have a preference as between villages, and I've only been there once many years ago.  So I don't have any real good recommendations or commentary on that.  But it's a beautiful area.

    I'm happy to give whatever thoughts you want on Munich.  I will observe that Munich is the birthplace of National Socialism.  So if you want some good Nazi sights, Munich is your town (Nuremberg is also great for that).  If you're interested in such sights, you should have a browser page on your phone open to Third Reich Ruins any time you're walking around Munich.

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  9. 7 hours ago, Chopper said:

    Interesting twist about separate bathroom slippers. I presume you have to change out of your street shoes and into slippers upon entry to the restaurant, and then into/out of separate bathroom slippers if you approach the toilets?

    Did you notice if many Japanese carry their own slippers into restaurants or do most just rely on the house selection?

    I have to say that this was somewhat rare--we only saw it in a couple of restaurants we went to in Kyoto.  But I don't remember changing into "house slippers" when entering the restaurant.  You just took off your shoes and went around in your stocking feet.  Then, when you went to the toilet, there were bathroom slippers for use there.  But then you take them off when you're done and leave them at the bathroom door.

    The Japanese I saw didn't bring their own slippers.

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  10. 1 hour ago, Pato del Muerto said:

    Well we had at least a reference to internal polls from both candidates that were both way off, if the numbers given were accurate representations of that polling.  Shouldn’t polls for that race take those things into consideration and bias for them accordingly?  Then again i guess it’s not exactly the NYT running those polls for a special Alabama state leg seat. 

    And that's the punchline.  You have a very challenging race to poll, and probably the least capable pollsters doing the polling.  When you have a 25- or 30-point polling miss, that's reflecting of shitty polling.  And given the challenging environment and the likely quality of the pollsters involved, that probably should be a surprise.

    4 minutes ago, The Dog said:

    I think it's because we're looking at yet another data point in a long line of others since the Dobbs decision (and other stuff). The fact she won isn't the shock - it's the margin. 

    And I'm not saying otherwise.

    Look--I've been pretty bullish on Biden's chances throughout this cycle.  And I think I've pointed out on this and other threads some of the challenges that pollsters face and why I think Nate Silver's take is increasingly comical.  I agree with you that Dobbs is going to be a big motivator for voters, and may alone be enough to push Biden over the finish line.

    All I'm saying--but I'm saying it loudly--is to be cautious of special-election results and to not give them more weight than is due.  They're sui generis.  I mean, it's good to win elections.  I'm not doing the NYT punchline of "Democrat wins by 25 points; here's why that's bad for Biden."  I'm just saying that there are a whole lot of MAGAts who didn't vote in this election (and who probably didn't even know that there was an election going on) who are going to turn out in November to vote for their Orange God.

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  11. 28 minutes ago, Js1 said:

    A Democrat should have won in a seat that was R+1 and R+7 the last 2 elections? By 25 points? And overperformed R internal polling by 35 and D internal polling by 23?

    Maybe, just maybe, there's something missing from the media "conventional wisdom" about Trump up high single digits in every single swing state.  Unless you believe that women will vote for Republicans, youth voters are 50/50 and Trump is going to capture 25% of black voters.  Because the results don't agree with that.

    Roe still matters. A lot. 

    Two things can be true at the same time.  Polls can be broken, and Democrats can be expected to overperform in special elections that are (almost by definition) low-turnout affairs.  So when I say "A Democrat should be expected to significantly overperform in a low-turnout special election," it is not responsive to that point to say "but the polls are fucked up."

     

    And by the way, that's particularly true of polls in a late-March special election.  All of the difficulties of polling a nationwide election are magnified when your constituency is so small.  How the fuck do you get a decent sample when an Alabama House district only has 42,000 residents?

    • Fuck Around and Find Out 1
  12. 14 hours ago, Js1 said:

    Dems flipped an AL state house seat. Trump +1 to Dem +26 currently. 

    but no, tell me more about how the GOP is going to romp in 2024 when they’re getting blown out in marginally GOP districts in the Deep South 

    Tell me how a special election for a state House of Representatives seat with miniscule turnout is predictive of a high-turnout presidential election.

    We all know that the people most likely to turn out in special elections are highly educated and politically inclined voters.  And right now, that's a group Democrats do very well with.  It's not a surprise that Democrats overperform in such elections; it would be a huge alarm bell if they didn't significantly overperform.

    So when a Democrat won a special election in Oklahoma in 2017, did it indicate that the Oklahoma Senate seat on the ballot in 2018 would go Democratic?  Fuck no.  But the overperformance was in the range that indicated that 2018 would be a good year for Democrats (though not necessarily so good so as to turn Oklahoma (or even that Oklahoma congressional district) blue).

    What I'm saying is this: we need to be really cautious about touting special election results.  A Democrat won.  But a Democrat probably should've won.  It's like beating New Mexico State 66-36 in Week 1--that's great.  But we were supposed to win.  And if we're giving up 36 points to New Mexico fucking State, uhhhhh . . . I don't like our chances next week against UCLA.

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  13. 14 hours ago, Hank_Hill said:

    Yea we’ll be with my wifes Japanese/Brazilian friend who is a Tokyo resident for the first couple days so she’ll be helpful I’m sure. Any nuances y’all can recall off the top of your head?

    I found the Boutique Japan website (here is their blog entry on Izakayas) to be pretty helpful.  Yeah--use bathroom slippers.  But bathroom slippers stay at the bathroom door; don't wear them back to the table. 

    Oh, and while it's super common to blow your nose at the table, it's considered very rude in Japan (though that didn't stop Mrs.LL from repeatedly doing so).  And don't rub your chopsticks together to clear splinters; it implies that you think the restaurant uses cheap chopsticks.

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  14. 13 hours ago, Hank_Hill said:

    Heading to Tokyo and Kyoto in 2 weeks. Have done frighteningly minimal planning for me. Live in Hawaii so we will be back a couple more times so not that concerned. Doing 4 days centered in shinbashi —> 3 days Kyoto —> 3 days in Shinjuku to finish. Doing team lab, Tokyo tower, and shibuya sky so far and that’s like…all we’ve planned. Don’t mind not having an itinerary this go around but any other must sees in Tokyo? Got a list of shrines/restaurants/bars to wander to in Kyoto and Arashiyama. 
     

    edit: JK thought this was page 1 for some reason. I’ll actually fucking read or whatever.

    Yeah--as noted upthread, we loved Tsujiki Outer Market for a sushi brunch.  I really wish we had more time and had done it more than once.  But as it turned out, we did it the day we were leaving for Kyoto, so we had a mid-afternoon train to catch and kind of had to leave before I was completely ready to go.

    We also really liked the Shimbashi neighborhood, as the photos indicate.  It's completely what you imagine Tokyo as being.  Go on Thursday and Friday nights--that's when the salarymen are going to be crowding into the izakayas and getting well and truly plastered.  You'll have a blast.

    Near Shinjuku, go over to Omoide Yokocho (Piss Alley).  It's a two-block area of tiny bars along a very narrow alley.  I can't really explain it beyond that.

    I will tell you, particularly as some who says he has done minimal planning, you'd probably do well to get a guidebook to read on the plane.  Not for particular sights--you'll figure that out on your own.  But there are enough nuances to the whole culture that it'd made basic things like going to a bar a lot easier/much more enjoyable if you read up ahead of time.

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  15. 1 hour ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

    NFL games suck there too. Jerry World just flat-out sucks. 

    That stadium is now 15 years old.  As in, it's halfway through its anticipated life.  And when you look at the newer stadiums (e.g., SoFi), it looks dated.

    Point being--don't expect this game to go to Jerryworld ever now that it is sewn up at the Cotton Bowl through 2036.  In 2036, Jerryworld is going to be 27 years old and Stephen is going to be actively seeking a site for a new stadium.

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  16. 3 minutes ago, babysdaddy said:

    I thought I was the only one.  Crossing the Bay Bridge or the Golden Gate used to make me sweat.  

    My brother--when we're in San Francisco, I won't do it.  The last couple times to Napa, Mrs.LL knows I am going to pull over at the scenic overlook before we get to the Golden Gate Bridge and she is driving across.  I'm going to sit there and stare at my phone in the passenger seat as we go across.  But there's no fucking way I'm driving it.

    The weird thing is--I'll walk out on it.  I mean, not to the center.  But I'll go out a hundred feet or so onto the bridge on the sidewalk.  But no fucking way I'm driving.

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  17. 1 hour ago, Dahobbs said:

    Jesus, that's insane. Nightmare fuel. Prayers to everyone on the bridge. 

    As someone who has a very serious fear of bridges, yeah. This is definitely one that is going to cause some nightmares.

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  18. FIFA is going to have a real issue with the basura fans in a couple years. That’s not the visual (or audio) they want coming out of the World Cup.

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