GRcade

Hanoi/northern Vietnam was amazing but now we're stuck in the airport filling forms cos Emirates have lost our luggage, fuckkng nipppy

Just got back from a 2 week trip to Japan and had an absolutely amazing time. Going back there next July again as long as my holiday is approved at work.

Egypt tomorrow

11 days of sun in Sharm El Sheik. Don't think it'll be too active as we're taking our toddler, but grandparents coming too for childcare so hopefully we'll fit in a few activities like scuba diving.

Just got back from India. What an amazing place full of the complete spectrum of human experience. It's full of sights, smells and sounds (often not always pleasant) and a mix of the serene and the chaotic. Can't ever imagine living there and getting used to it, but it's an experience you should seek out. Moreso than a lot of places I've been, it does feel like a different world.

I remember when I moved to Japan, people would say that would feel exotic and alien, but it didn't really. It didn't even prescribe to my stereotypical views of what "Asia" would be (as if one set of adjectives could describe the continent). Japan quickly became very normal for me and was quite easy to adapt to

Just walking round an Indian city just takes it out of you - so much going on that you have to be switched on at all times. It was tiring just walking the streets, but that was probably more impactful that the typically tourist sites, which were often walled and set apart by ticket gates. Whilst serene and relaxing, they did feel less typical of the country than the crowded and noisy streets outside.

The only real disappohtment was - surprisingly - the food. I thought that what we have in the UK would be typically warped representation of what it was like over there (like with our Chinese food) , but actually it's fairly authentic. Perhaps because of how intwined the two countries have been through colonialism and, later, immigration and integration. Whilst the food was great, I did wish there was a bit more variation as having curry each night got monotonous. That could have just been the restaurants were were picking, mind. Managed to avoid any of the stereotypical holiday sickness too.

Would absolutely recommend it as a destination. It's not a relaxing holiday, by any means. You need to embarace the assault on the senses and the tiredness. You also need to embrace the reality that Indian encompasses the absolute highs and lows of human existence - it has streets simultaneously blighted by garish luxury and absolute poverty. You have to begrudgingly accept begging, the touts, the litter etc. It does also invoke anger that these things seem inevitable and that a mindblowing amount of people are resigned to this purely by birth. It leaves you feeling angry that this will never change and also guilty, as a wealthy white tourist from Europe going there for the good and turning a blind eye to the inconvenient bad.

Where did you go exactly?

I did the Golden Triangle cities of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Also did Mumbai, Ranthambore and Jaisalmer. Managed to catch a Cricket World Cup game whilst there too.

And all our party completely avoided any sickness too, which everyone said would be inevitable. Delhi's air pollution greatly irritated by throat and nose though, so I had a face mask on after the first day. It got pretty terrible.

Fantastic write up, cheers Parksey.

Think you've cemented my opinion that it just wouldn't be for me.

Parksey wrote:I did the Golden Triangle cities of Delhi, Jaipur and Agra. Also did Mumbai, Ranthambore and Jaisalmer. Managed to catch a Cricket World Cup game whilst there too.

And all our party completely avoided any sickness too, which everyone said would be inevitable. Delhi's air pollution greatly irritated by throat and nose though, so I had a face mask on after the first day. It got pretty terrible.

I went for a month in 2012 and really enjoyed the variety of food, from the familiar Punjabi cuisine in the north, lighter seafood focused dishes on the west coast to mostly vegetarian in the south. I never visited Rajasthan (we went in January so didn't want to spend much time in the north, we started in Delhi but soon flew further south), is the food there mostly similar to Punjabi? I loved Mumbai as they had food from all over the country there, everything from £2 street food meals to modern Indian tasting menus, Hakka style Chinese/Indian fusion and Indian inflected Western food. Admittedly, I did sometimes break things up with a Dominos pizza or McDonald's breakfast!

I agree that it is an exhausting place, mentally and physically. I had an amazing time but I was 28, not sure I would have the energy for it now.

Booked my next flights to go see my partner. May next year! Can't wait

We're heading to Lapland next week to see Santa.

It's a balmy -13 there at the moment

dmin wrote:We're heading to Lapland next week to see Santa.

It's a balmy -13 there at the moment

Santa lives at the North Pole though, how you going to see him at Lapland?

He's on tour

dmin wrote:He's on tour

At his busiest time of the year?

Qikz wrote:

dmin wrote:He's on tour

At his busiest time of the year?

No one's gonna go to his Summer tour, though.

aayl1 wrote:

Qikz wrote:

dmin wrote:He's on tour

At his busiest time of the year?

No one's gonna go to his Summer tour, though.

It's his summer tour for the southern hemisphere by this logic!

Qikz wrote:

aayl1 wrote:

Qikz wrote:

dmin wrote:He's on tour

At his busiest time of the year?

No one's gonna go to his Summer tour, though.

It's his summer tour for the southern hemisphere by this logic!

The Earth is flat so it's a myth that it's summer in the southern hemisphere.

Had a great time in Lapland; saw Santa(!), went for a sleigh ride, dog sledding, snowmobiling and even saw the northern lights

-25 was cold!

I'm looking for some advice on honeymoons and how best to book one. I'm assuming that anything designed or advertised as a honeymoon package is pretty much always going to have a premium/overpriced element to it, whereas if you just booked the same thing as a normal holiday, it might work out a bit cheaper? I have a few ideas on destinations and budget, but given there's so much out there, I wondered if anybody had any tips or recommendations. My current thinking is to book/sort as much as I can myself which will presumably save some money, but if there are any kind of packages or all-inclusive deals that are actually good and worth it, I'd be happy to be proven wrong and would welcome any comments on that.