all their summer cultural festivals if I can. deoends on when i can get away.
like to see fireworks, water festival some food ones. fuji rock would be cool too.
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Fine, but why? Seriously, please detail the reasons.
Iāve nearly gone there several times but my better half keeps telling me itās off the beaten track and all that and demanded I outline the offsetting attractions before sheāll consider it.
Tell me,
- Is it cheap? Yes I want to know because Iām cheap
- What are the safari options like
- Do they cater for vegetarians- I assume Yes, butā¦
- Is it easy to get around
- Is terrorism still the national sport
- How did you arrange the driver ( I booked a driver in India but he whinged when we asked to to take us to places he didnāt get kick backs from, so we had to tip him every fucking night just to shut him up) How much does a private driver cost?
- Love to go but I need help to convince my better half.
I have been going there since 1985 on business and have holidayed as well.
There are good cheap Hotels - 4 star local rating is good quality.
Safaris ? Nice jungle and mountain treks on elephant and chance to see tigers, though all I saw was lots of monkeys.
Great food, I was at a great place in Colombo eating up big, shocked to find it was a vegetarian place. Prices are outrageously low.
No more Tamil Tigers and terrorist unrest, very peaceful.
Beautiful beaches
Roads not great but cars with drivers inexpensive and buses OK.
Mrs Fox and I(with some friends) are renting a beachside mansion later in year, staffed with chef and staff. I am going to play plantation owner ! Reasonable cost for six people
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dirt cheap. Bottle of water is 100rupee which is about 80c. Even tipping the porters is only 50-100rp max
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we have done the safari at Yala national park and doing another on Wednesday. Again, safari cost 1500rupee ($13)
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yes, my wife is vego. Quite a few vego meals have curry but still lots for vegos. Way more than Japan if youāve been there
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no, itās really hard. Very few trains, buses are kamikaze. Weāve hired a driver for the 2 weeks. He is very good. We went through Sri Lanka dreams. We usually dont like doing tours and like to organize everything ourselves, we have done it for all our other trips. SL is terrible for driving, get yourself a driver
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hope not. Havenāt seen anything to suggest itās a problem, civil war has ended
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Sri Lanka dreams. This driver has been excellent, given us tips of where to go but also asked us what we wanted to do. Sri Lanka dreams give you a list of things to do in the areas
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itās cheap, easy to get to (think Sri Lanka air fly direct out of Melbourne). People are so friendly, though I havenāt met a rude Lankan in Melbourne either. Great sites, great food, great people
When changing money, dont bother in Melbourne. Itās not a major currency so you get a ā ā ā ā rate (was quoted 95, rate is 118). Over here, changed aussie cash at airport, 114. Guide took us to a place in kandy (one of the destinations) and still got 118.
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On vegetarians, India must be the easiest place in the world to be one, and Iād imagine Sri Lanka is similar.
Iām headed to Orlando Florida with my sister soon weāre leaving on the 30th of may
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Hey John Rain. Iām looking at doing the Nakahechi Trail with wife & 14 YO daughter in April 2019. Will likely do it using the mob below who are offering a self-guided group tour at the right time. My daughter will respond better if there are people hiking other than her parents!
How did you find it? Most reviews have been very positive, though I have read some criticism that it can be a bit claustrophobic / monotonous given it is largely through forest.
We will do it as part of a three week trip to japan, probably flying into Tokyo & out of Kansai. It will be my 4th visit, but the 2nd for my wife & 1st for my daughter.
Are there any other hikes that would be worth doing instead / as well? We may have time for a day or two of the Nakasendo Trail, or maybe up in the Alps.
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There is plenty for vegetarian here and unlike most other parts of the world, being vegetarian here actually means No Fish as well. Everywhere else, when you say youāre vegetarian you get āwhat about fish?ā
The natural enemy of all other tourists is the Chinese tour group which is a large herd of pushy, overly loud, cultural barbarians.
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There is one here in Kandy. ā ā ā ā I hate them, want to throw boiling water on them.
Osaka is the worst for that too, Japan is so well organized and then you get to Osaka and its dirty and smelly (not that smelly, just compared to tokyo) and slightly less unorganised and you wonder what the ā ā ā ā happens, only to realise it is full of Chinese
The best is in Europe though, they are so racist they hate the Chinese so much. If you even have the slightest olive complexion at one of the outlets theyāll serve you 5 times over before even looking at a Chinese shopper
Orlando is pretty meh.
Itās great if amusement parks are your thing, otherwise itās a pretty bland city that lacks any personality.
In Europe last year, weād take the 3-hour tour of Schonbrunn in Vienna for example. Their bus would arrive, disgorge 30 people in the huge courtyard, take photos and leave. Ditto Budapest, Prague etc etc. just tick destinations off a checklist with photographic evidence.
What we took 13 days over, theyād take 7.
Walked out from my hotel in Santorini yesterday morning, and thought I must have been somehow teleported to China. - not a Greek or anyone in sight except a 50 strong Chinese group.
To be fair generally the younger Chinese are ok, but the older ones are pure peasants.
Lucky Iām going to Disney then
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Give Epcot a miss. Huge waste of time and money.
Had a couple of nights there on a road trip (visited previously on honeymoon)
Not sure if you have locked in your amusement parks - but we have now done both Disney and Universal
Hands down as a big kid, go to Disney. Even if you have kids under 10 go to Disney. Plenty to do and see.
Outside of the amusement parks - do you like golf or outlet mall shopping? (oh dear - I just had flashbacks of driving around 45 minutes trying to find a park at the outlet mall)
Itās a very meh city. If you have a car try and head north to Jacksonville or west to Tampa area
Haha, massive exaggeration. Gritty and down to earth, maybe, but not dirty and smelly by any stretch. It has a very small percentage of Chinese residents, but does have many shopping tourists from all of Asia and is experiencing a boom in this right now.
Chinese or Korean tour groups? The latter are by far the rudest, most obnoxious of the lot. Even the Chinese get annoyed by them - call them ācricketsā. Our tour guide through China was constantly saying things like āwe need to get there early, to beat the cricketsā.
The bickering between Asian countries about each other and etiquette is full on. Twice Iāve been on all-Japanese tours in Japan and theyāve warned everyone to watch their bags at the next stop because of foreign tourists. Once the whole bus chuckled at the guideās obvious rude stereotyping. I was shocked.
There was a big thing in the news last year about an Osaka train driver on an airport line who apologised to regular passengers because foreigners were taking up all the space in carriages. Thankfully the public reaction was one of disgust (at the driver). The same train line now has etiquette guides in multiple languages pasted all over the carriages.