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Travel The MEGA Travel Thread!

Kenickie said:
main thing is that i have a shitty debit card that does not have the chip & pin that everyone swears is required to use in Europe. i waver between the danger of carrying cash and the insane fees that come with using debit cards internationally. any suggestions?
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I don't know if it's 'required' for use in Europe, in my case although it wasn't a debit card specifically i traveled in Europe on a travel money card which had no chip and had no issues (This was 2012). The problem i find with debit cards holding currency in your home country is the conversion fee + the withdrawal fee on top when using ATM's abroad.. in the past i've pre-loaded money in the currency i plan to use onto a travel card to avoid conversion fee's while using ATM's - but your also losing out on the exchange a bit because your doing it through your bank, but for me it was a compromise for the convenience of using foreign ATM's without conversion fee's to avoid carrying around large amounts of cash.

I have found this better suited for longer travel, carrying cash would be more ideal for shorter travel.

Hope you enjoy, I've only been to Milan train station but i spent some time in Berlin and Venice..
 
is there some reason why we can't like sticky this post? or merge it into this thread? there are like two new travel related threads made in the past two days. c'mon now, act like you kind of give a shit. give traveling the respect it deserves! quirky subheaders!

what is the deal with trains? like is it really this impossible to book train tickets? do they just hate americans? idk.
 
Ipiales, Colombia


JOrmbfb.jpg
 
That last photo is just phenomenal StoneHappy, i'm totally awe-struck. - I had no idea South America had such incredible landscapes. These photo's really remind me of why i'm working so hard now, so that in 5 years or so i will have a lifestyle that will allow more frequent travel. Good stuff!
 
The last picture is taken in a national park (Torres del Paine) in southern Chile. And when I say southern I mean just about as far down as you can get without touching the south pole. The park is outside a town called Puerto Natales if you want to look on a map. It's proper travelling requiring a three hour flight south from Santiago to a place called Punta Arenas and then a long coach journey to Puerto Natales. (And then another couple of hours on a coach to the park...and then a 10k hike to that glacier...for it is a glacier you are looking at there). The park is closer to the south pole than it is to Santiago and the area is so far away from civilisation they get tax free goods because of the expense of getting everything down there. It is one of the most beautiful places I've been to in the world.

The flight down there is also phenomenal. Basically you spend three hours flying over that wiggly coastline of Chile which is all mountains and glaciers. Occasionally you see a small community in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The places some people live.
 
Altitude sickness sucker punched me this time. Helivac'd out. Currently third day in a KTM hospital.

Killer week. Almost died a few times. That's not what I'm after. Think it's time to hang up my trekking boots for a while and focus on family vacations together.
 
L2R said:
Altitude sickness sucker punched me this time. Helivac'd out. Currently third day in a KTM hospital.

Killer week. Almost died a few times. That's not what I'm after. Think it's time to hang up my trekking boots for a while and focus on family vacations together.
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Oh? Sounds intense. I plan (hopefully) to visit the region in 2017 sometime specifically for trekking.. how strong is the altitude sickness? I've only hiked at maximum elevation of 2400-2500m which is just on the cusp.

Somewhat related: I read last week about the Nepalese governments plan to ban inexperienced climbers from attempting Everest, and to set a restriction of 6500m? as a prior requirement needed to legally climb. I'm not sure why this wasn't implemented earlier, although I suspect that it probably has to do with the huge amount of revenue made from those climbing licences, especially from wealthy bankers and those in finance.
 
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In a nutshell, the kongma la pass turned my perfect trip to hell. I faced the khumbu glacier as I feared, but infinitely more dangerously alone and in the dark.

My trip summary is as follows
29/09 lukla (2840m) - Monjo (2835m)
13.55kms
665m ascent 637m descent
5hrs 4mins

30/09 Monjo (2835m) to namche (3440m)
5.06kms
790m ascent 250m descent
2hrs 47mins

30/09 day trip to Kumjung hill (3800m)
4.4km
483m ascent 483m descent
1 hr 56mins

01/10 day trip to Samde (3610m)
12.48km
601m ascent 575m descent
4hrs 18mins

02/10 namche (3440m) to Pangboche (3930m)
13.85 kms
1353m ascent 821m descent
6hrs 18mins

03/10 day trip to Ama Dablam base camp (4580m)
8.73km
994m ascent 985m descent
3hrs 58mins

04/10 Pangboche (3930m) to Chhukkung (4730m)
10.83kms
957m ascent 157m descent
4hrs 15mins

05/10 day trip to Chhukkung ri (5550m)
5.76kms
1268m ascent 1287 descent
5hrs 13mins

06/10 Chhukkung (4730m) to Lobuche (4910m) via Kongma La pass (5535m) *got lost a few times, mainly near the pass, too far and late to backtrack*
11.41kms
2179m ascent 2012m descent
11hrs 43mins

07/10 rest day at Lobuche. After lunch walked up hill above town in slippers. Unrecorded. Not high, not long.

08/10 began day trip to kala patthar but found vision spotty, aborted in 15 mins and returned. Walking straight line was difficult, had to look with peripheral vision since direct line of sight distorted. No one available to help me get to pheriche. No phone or data or wifi available. Lodge owner called heli.
 
has anyone who isn't L2R (hydro) applied for a visa for traveling to asia? we're looking into Shanghai since it's absurd cheap and then hopping over to Hong Kong which technically i don't have to have a visa for. it's really strange and i doubt that Pander and i would be denied but shrug who knows.
 
that's exciting. i hear they eat eye balls in china. hong kong airport is where i discovered Little Thing Magazine, but during a short layover so i didn't get to see the city.

all i remember about the vietnam visa was needing a photo with passport-y specifications, but it couldn't be my passport photo. so i had to go cvs. other than that it was just filling out a good deal of paperwork a good deal ahead of time. to be honest, both times i've been to asia i was traveling with people going for business so all i had to do was give my info to their secretary who had me sign some papers and then applied for me. i wasn't there for very long -- just a long week -- and i do remember the visa didn't give approval to be there much if any longer. i am squeaky clean, so can't shed any light on how a record might impact things.
 
damnit. i literally know no one who hasn't traveled to asia for business or because they are married to an asian person. at this point i'm convinced its impossible to go to asia for tourist purposes since no one seems to do it.

i spoke at length with a young man my age today and he said that i should just get over it, because nothing can be nearly as bad when he got trapped at the russian/ukraninan border crossing. the worst that they will do is not let me leave the airport to enter the country. which is obnoxious, but not horrible if i travel there with enough money to go somewhere else if i am denied at the border.

i don't have a record and neither does pander, but that doesn't matter when they don't have to have a reason to deny you entry.
 
I had no idea Hong Kong holds its visa and immigration policy independently from the rest of mainland China, that's interesting.

I've never visited China, so I can't say the following with any certainty but:

From what I've read there's a number of countries which can enter Hong Kong visa-free for a period of time (It's usually 90 days/3 months). This is a similar process to other Asian countries, I've experienced this when passing through Malaysia. Thailand was the exception where I needed to provide proof of a return or follow on journey before entering, I don't know if Hong Kong is the same.. but I can't imagine you having a problem, the only issue I could see is that because your flying into Hong Kong from within mainland China they might require you show how you originally entered China, which will be your Shanghai visa.

The Russian/Ukrainian border made me laugh, a friend of mine experienced a similar situation at the Ukrainian and Belarus border crossing, he was hitch-hiking and the Belarus border officers thought he was using a fake passport (it was pretty worn out) and thought he was trying to enter Ukraine illegally, he was held in an interrogation room for 12 hours.
 
malakaix said:
The Russian/Ukrainian border made me laugh, a friend of mine experienced a similar situation at the Ukrainian and Belarus border crossing, he was hitch-hiking and the Belarus border officers thought he was using a fake passport (it was pretty worn out) and thought he was trying to enter Ukraine illegally, he was held in an interrogation room for 12 hours.
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yeah he got a 30 day visa for russia but told customs he would only be there for 7 days. he was on an overnight train to ukraine and arrived at the border on the morning of the 8th day. so technically his visa wasn't expired but you know. they held him for like 8 hours until apparently someone came in and looked at his face (which is this like perpetually stoned puppy hippie face) and said "let the american idiot go." he laughs about it now but he said at the time it was terrifying.
 
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