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Ghost of LL

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by Ghost of LL

  1. I paid on miles (actually, AmEx points). I think it was around 180,000 points per person round trip for first class on Singapore Airlines from LAX to NRT. I then got a reasonably cheap flight on AA from AUS to LAX.
  2. We didn't have that experience with the smog. It was polluted, but it wasn't that bad. We went in April; perhaps it's a seasonal thing? But this does bring up a good point, and maybe it's a rule of thumb that should be adopted: the shitter the country, the nicer your hotel needs to be. I don't mind staying at a pretty cheap hotel in Berlin. But if I'm going to Nigeria, you better believe I'm staying at the Ritz Carlton. I've shared on here previously that Russia was the only place I've traveled where I felt unsafe even in my hotel. Fucking mobsters running prostitutes out of the lobby and meeting with cops in the hotel bar. And this was in a nice Western hotel. Never again. But, I have to ask--Kamchatka? I do know that Alaska Airlines used to fly to Petropavlovsk from Anchorage years ago. But that flight is long-since discontinued. To get there now, I think you'd probably have to go through Moscow.
  3. If I set a basil plant on my front porch, will the deer eat it? Or is basil one of those weird things that the deer won't touch?
  4. I suppose my felling on it is that when I'm in their country, they're the ones who get to set the rules for "decorum." Yeah--there are a lot of dudes hustling for baksheesh. I found that a curt "la'a" does the trick to back them off. And if you want to be somewhat polite, a "la', shukran" or "la, ma'lish" will work well. I mean, you probably are going to have to say it a half-dozen times. But isn't that part of the charm of being in a foreign place? If everyone adhered to an American sense of decorum, wouldn't a large part of the adventure of going overseas evaporate? That is one of my favorite travel stories. Our first night in Cairo, Mrs.LL and I went to a hookah bar along the Nile. It was a great place--the patio stretched along the Nile waterfront and you had everyone there, from young Egyptians to people with the nearby French and Austrian embassies to rando tourists (i.e., us). So after a while, the fire in our hookah starts to die down. So a guy with a pot of charcoal comes over and freshens up the fire. Having done so, he puts out his hand for some baksheesh. The smallest I had was a 20-pound note (then worth about $0.80). Oops--big fucking mistake. That's like giving a piece of your pizza crust to a pigeon. You're going to have a thousand pigeons descend on you in short order. And so it was with the charcoal guys, who were suddenly refreshing our fire every five minutes. All of this was much to the amusement of some of the European diplomatic staff, who were at nearby tables. We started chatting with a couple of them, and they explained that this type of de-minimis service gets one pound. But I don't have a pound. Yeah--nobody does. That's the fun thing. They make a one-pound note, but there's really tough to come by. And shopkeepers don't want to make change, because they've got their own baksheeshing to do. So yeah--we trotted back to the hotel and had the concierge break a hundred-pound note to singles.
  5. I mean, I only said this exact thing like three months ago. But better late than never on that particular uptake, I suppose.
  6. Laugh all you want, but that's a damned fine drink. But personally, I leave out the fruit and go straight with a dirty martini.
  7. Yeah--because when my life is on the line, I totally want to see "Made in China" on the tag of my body armor.
  8. Wow--you didn't like Cairo? That's really surprising to me. Mrs.LL and I loved it. Now, as I said before, it may be because we stayed at the Four Seasons. So we had our little sanctuary to go back to at the end of the day. And I think there's something to that in a place like Cairo, which is wholly alien and not . . . shall we say diplomatically . . . consistent with our Western standards for cleanliness and hygiene. But we had a fucking blast. Where else are you going to see things all around you that are 4,500 years old? Where else can you glide along the river in exactly the same way people did thousands of years ago? And then there's the shopping. And I'm not a big shopping guy. But the bazaar is amazing. You can get any spice imaginable (and plenty of others you could never imagine). And the shopping for various Egyptian things. Ok--so for those who watched John Oliver and are going to scold about looting antiquities, please just keep scrolling. But yeah--there are dealers who will sell you legitimate Egyptian antiquities. If you're staying at the Four Seasons, you ask the concierge where to go and have him call ahead for you. Then the shopkeeper will take you to a back room, where they have all the really good stuff. You want a Middle Kingdom wooden tomb model of a river boat? Yeah--they got that. And it can be yours for not nearly as much as you think. I didn't buy anything--for one thing, clearing Customs with that kind of thing can be a challenge--but it was still very interesting to see.
  9. I got to hear the rant the first go-through, so let me refine it. We're talking about a chain--think Panera Bread. And the salads at these places are bland as fuck. They're just boring and plain and basic. Now, @Brisketexan blames the demand side of the curve. He hypothesizes that those salads are bland as fuck because that's what the customer wants. And when we're talking about salads at Panera Bread, the customer is your basic white female. That's not to say that a man won't order a salad. But let's not also pretend that food isn't gendered. If Mrs.LL and I are out to dinner and she orders a steak and I order a salad, most of the time the waiter is going to come back and set the steak in front of me and the salad in front of her. Yes, it's stupid. But yes, it's also a real thing. So in developing salads, Panera Bread (and Newk's and Modern Market and Zoe's Kitchen and every other similar place) is marketing for white women. From that, Brisket assumes that white women are to blame for their shitty bland salads. I might put forth a different hypothesis. I blame the accountants. The customer is the victim. From an accountant's standpoint, there are three ways to add flavor: (1) fat, (2) sugar, and (3) salt. All three are unhealthy, but all three are cheap as fuck. So if I'm an accountant who wants to make something healthy, I need to cut those three. The accountant can add some of the ingredients identified in this thread to make up for the flavor lost by cutting fat, sugar, and salt. The accountant could add herbs de Provence or shallot or fresh ginger. But guess what? Those are expensive. So instead of doing that, the accountant is going to add none of those, and persuade the customer base that in order for something to be healthy, it also has to be flavorless. And in this the American food industry has succeeded spectacularly. Americans are broadly convinced that something has to be unhealthy to taste good. And if something tastes good, then they're immediately suspicious of its nutritional and dietetic value. This is not a new thing. It's been going on for about three generations. And for the American food industry, it's been a fantastic success. So I think Brisket's wrong. The basic white woman isn't the perpetrator here; she's the victim. Along with the rest of us.
  10. Hong Kong is that way because if you're related to a Chinese dissident, they'll absolutely snatch you and hold you until your relative returns to face "justice." So if your dad was at Tiananmen Square and fled to Los Angeles, I think I'd definitely skip Hong Kong. And if you've written a bunch of shit critical of the PRC, they'll snatch you and give you a real rough time. And don't even think about posting shit on Twitter while you're there talking about how the PRC is killing Hong Kong. But for the average tourist who is going to go to Hong Kong, eat some food, take a ride on the Star Ferry, and hike up to the Peak (and post pictures of it all on Surly), you're unlikely to encounter any difficulty. And I think that's the real indicator of how dangerous America really is. I've been to several of those Level 3 countries. And I exercise exactly the same amount of caution I exercise in most of America, which is to say "extra." You have your head on a swivel, you're aware of the people around you, and you don't go around places that seem sketchy (because they are). You don't realize how attuned you are as an American to threats until they're gone. In Japan a couple weeks ago, Mrs.LL and I were running around the Shimbashi neighborhood around 11:00 PM eating and drinking. We started to make our way back to our hotel, and I started to lead us through a reasonably dark passageway underneath the train tracks. Now, in New York or Chicago, this kind of passageway would be an absolute no-go, and Mrs.LL grabbed my arm and said "Uh, no." I said "we're in Tokyo--c'mon." We went through, and . . . it took us about an hour to get to the other side because there was a cool 8-seat bar halfway through the passageway with a bartender who wanted to teach me all about shochu. It's really kind of a sad commentary on America. We live in a minor state of terror at all times. And we're so acclimated to it, we don't even notice.
  11. I think there's a lot of truth to that. But it's an interesting question. In a multi-party system, ideology is clearly at the center of partisan identification. But in a two-party system, it can play a somewhat less significant role. But the GQP seems to be testing the hypothesis that it can play no role whatsoever.
  12. That Level 3 is a real grab-bag, isn't it? You've got everything from Hong Kong (which I think is pretty safe so long as you (1) aren't related to a Chinese dissident, and (2) don't say anything negative about the PRC) to the Democratic Republic of Congo (which . . . no, I mean absolutely fucking not). To be clear--I'm not going to either Hong Kong or the DRC any time soon. But those two pretty damned different when it comes to safety for the average American tourist.
  13. Kids ride free on the Underground if they're 10 or younger. You just go to the wide ticket gate (the one you use if you have luggage), and the attendant will let you through. If you have older kids, make sure you get the Young Visitor Oyster Card, which gives you a 50% discount on their travel.
  14. I've got five of the seven. The last two I plan to knock out in a few years after the kids go to college and Mrs.LL and I can take a cruise down to Antarctica from BA.
  15. I use the term "gypsies" with a lowercase "G" because that's what they call them in Rome. Ethnographically, I don't know what they are. Maybe they're Roma, maybe they're Arabs or Turks or Sicilians. And I suspect it's a melange of all of them. I think to the Romans any dirty person who engages in petty criminality and is of a somewhat darker complexion than the average Roman is a "gypsy."
  16. You can also get an Oyster card through TfL's app and have it in your Apple wallet. I think that addresses that concern, and it's super-easy.
  17. Let's not get carried away. The Four Seasons in Cairo was very nice. That's not to say that you should spend all (or even a lot) of your time at the hotel. I'm a big fan of street food, and Cairo has a really fun nightlife. But it is to say that, particularly at my advanced age, I really like being able to go through a door at the end of the day and have a quiet sanctuary with plenty of amenities and a feeling of home. I'll tell you, I've never been pickpocketed. And I think it just comes with having a base level of paranoia. I mean, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean someone's not trying to pick my pocket. So I don't go in for the money belt or anything else, because for one thing it's unfamiliar. I know when my wallet is in my pocket because I can feel it; it's always in my pocket and it feels weird when it's not. I will say that in Rome (and elsewhere in Italy), you need to watch out for the gypsies. If one approaches you, there's a high likelihood that there's another nearby looking to snatch your wallet (or your wife's purse). If someone approaches you begging or bumps into you or anything like that, it's time immediately to go to Red Alert and put your hands in/over your pockets.
  18. Preach. I am a convert on the use of the hotel laundry. It's not that fucking expensive (probably about double what you'd pay at your dry cleaners at home), but they pick up your shit and return it to you the same day usually. And that allows you to pack just a handful of changes of clothes for a two-week trip.
  19. Stonehenge is going to be pretty controversial. I also think it's pretty cool. But at the same time, it's a bunch of old stones. It really doesn't take that long to see. And it's a big time investment to get out there for (at most) a half-hour standing around and pondering giant stones. If you're going to do Stonehenge, I would recommend pairing that with a trip to Salisbury Cathedral. It's one of the great gothic cathedrals of England, and it's also where they keep one of the four surviving copies of Magna Carta. It's also where I had the weirdest experience of my travel life. I am sure I've shared this story before on this site, but it was really weird. This happened back in 2018. My parents decided they were going to treat the family with a trip to London and Paris. Great. So one of those days we rented a big 9-passenger van from the rent-a-car spot at Waterloo Station and off we trucked west. We say Stonehenge and then went over to Salisbury Cathedral. So as we approach the cathedral, I pull in to a car park next to the cathedral school. There's an attendant there who is taking a few quid to park. Ok--"where do you want me," I asked him. He replied (in his very muddled rural English accent) "Oh, just over there; you know--you've been here before." Weird comment. Perhaps he thought I was a tour guide based on the size of the van I was driving. But it was very weird given that I was wearing a Beto for Senate shirt. Anyhoo--you go in first to the Charter House, which is the building next to the Cathedral where they would hold meetings. It's where Magna Carta is now kept. There are a number of volunteers in there to answer questions and such. I walk in, and one of them says "good to see you again." Weird. So we're there looking at Magna Carta, and my wife is talking with one of the volunteers about its preservation, when my daughter trots up. And the volunteer says "Oh, hello again--chose to come back from the Cathedral did you?" My wife and daughter look at one another very confused, and I look at them both very confused. Mrs.LL kind of scolds my daughter, "did you wander off into the Cathedral?" No--and I know she didn't because she was staying pretty close to me. And it's kind of weird because my daughter was wearing a pink hoodie that we had bought her the previous year when we were in Spain that just said "Madrid" across it in big letters. It's kind of distinctive. So we go check out the cathedral. Again, someone entirely different says to me "good to see you again." And there are maybe a dozen people in the Cathedral. It's not crowded. In fact, it's kind of deserted. We left the Cathedral and headed back to the car. The attendant is gone. The little shack he was manning was gone. But I do have a note saying that I was parked without authorization in the school's car park. We drove back to London pretty quietly. I think it wasn't until we were inside the M25 loop when I was finally like "ok--that was pretty fucking weird, right?" And everyone agreed that something really weird was going on there.
  20. I used to be like that. But then I started doing it. And I have to tell you--some of my favorite travel experiences have been outside Europe. We just got back from Japan, and it is one of my favorite places I've been. You can check out the thread on this very board for tips and pictures. But it was great. The food, the people, the culture--it's amazing to be in a country where you can feel like you're in the future in one block and then travel a few blocks and feel like you're in the first millennium. A couple years ago we went on safari in Africa. It was probably the time when I've seen my entire family the happiest. Everybody had a great time. And just everything exceeded expectations. Whether it was Victoria Falls or seeing a lion chowing down on a buffalo in the Masai Mara or just landing on a dirt strip after having to do a fly-by to clear the zebra off the runway, just everything exceeded my expectations. But I think my favorite was Egypt. And I'm not really an Egyptology guy. But we spent a few days in Cairo and then took a cruise up the Nile to Abu Simbel. That one really was life-changing. Now I'm kind of looking at India. I've been to India once. It was a brief stop on a cruise. And it was . . . interesting. The first time you see a person just squat on the sidewalk and drop a deuce is pretty surreal. And the first time you see a little orphan kid begging without a scrap of clothes is heartbreaking. But at the same time, some of the sights are absolutely out of a dreamscape. Anyway, we have friends from the neighborhood who are from India and who are apparently pretty well-off. Her father is like the Indian equivalent of Roger Goddell. They keep saying that we need to come with them one summer and hang out at the family compound. We may have to do that next year.
  21. I would agree with this. The British Museum is the single most significant repository of human artefacts in the world. I don't understand the critique that they are "random." Human history is random, I suppose. If you don't want to look at exhibits that are outside the British Isles--either because of moral objection or because of disinterest--that's fine. The exhibits that pertain only to British history are exceptional. I think the Sutton Hoo trove is alone worth the price of admission. But I think you're depriving yourself if you don't look at the other stuff. The Rosetta Stone is a remarkable piece. It's the only way we know a lot of what we know about Ancient Egypt. The Assyrian relief of the Siege of Lachish is itself incredible. And for those who want to wrong their hands about it being in London, perhaps they can console themselves with the knowledge that if it were left in Ninveh, it would have been destroyed by ISIS with the rest of the archeological site of that ancient city. But yeah--the collection is overwhelming, even if you were a history major. So a guide is a good idea. And planning out exactly what is of interest to you is critical.
  22. You're obviously not a hockey guy. But having googled it, you agree with me on the parallels, right?
  23. I don't really think we had a choice in the matter, so I guess I'm on board. But this has real Rick Bowness vibes to me.
  24. To be fair, Luka is showing me to be a goddamned prophet.
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