Holidays - The Bear and Badger

Mod74

If you do go book into

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g190820-d794204-Reviews-Roberto_s-Bowness_on_Windermere_Lake_District_Cumbria_England.html

Quite possibly the nicest meal I've ever eaten.

TheDJR

Hm, I will, that good? Need to stop eating out, done Prima and Marco Polo's in the last two days.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Billy_Hologram wrote:

Almost forgot my favourite place to eat in Kyoto, very near to the hotel I mentioned, it's called 'What's'.Â I'm not sure what the style is, perhaps Tiger can help, it comes from Korea.Â Anyway you sit without shoes in a curtained booth with a grill built in to your table, you order cuts of beef which comes raw in bite size slices so you grill it yourself.Â I went to a few of these in Kyoto, the beef was good in all of them, but this places was unreal.Â The best beef I've ever had bar none, it was expensive but worth it.

I'm guessing just Korean BBQ. We did that in Seoul and it was quite good, although the beef wasn't the best. Had been meaning to go to one in Melbourne as our beef is quite good.

I want to go back to Japan too, haven't really looked at what I want to see though. As for the Ghibli museum, you can get your tickets in Japan but they have to be from a ticket machine. We got lucky and the concierge in our hotel walked us two blocks to a 7-11 with one of the machines and bought our tickets for us as there was not English option. Was definitely worth it, absolutely amazing. I probably could have spent all of my money in that gift shop.

As for me, I'm trying to organise little holiday things. Going to Newcastle this weekend for Toonstock. Then the next trip will probably be back to Paris in Feb for a birthday. I'm trying to organise myself to get to Germany to see some friends there too, maybe at the end of January.
I'm also looking at cheap Contiki tours in Turkey. There's an 8 day boat one that is quite reasonable and takes you some amazing places. Flights there are cheap too. Might do that in May.
Then I'm trying to organise a friend of mine to travel outside of Aus and come and do a bike trip from Paris to Amsterdam. Or at least just tour around. That wouldn't be until June though. After that I might just return home, depending, as I have a job op with my uncle that might put me in a good money earning position that would allow me to travel more than I would living in the UK even though it's so close to travel destinations.

JMW

ShabbyMcCrabby wrote:

As for the Ghibli museum, you can get your tickets in Japan but they have to be from a ticket machine. We got lucky and the concierge in our hotel walked us two blocks to a 7-11 with one of the machines and bought our tickets for us as there was not English option. Was definitely worth it, absolutely amazing. I probably could have spent all of my money in that gift shop.

If you're in Tokyo, there's a Ghibli shop at the foot of the Sky Tree which pretty well had as much as the Ghibli Museum, perhaps not the super-expensive model stuff, but the rest was there. Obviously you're not getting the whole museum experience, but it did for us on our re-visit.

Nina

Well, if you decide to do the bike trip towards Amsterdam, let me know. We have some space, and I don't think Bas would have any problems having you over. As long as your friend is not Skerret, still a bit unsure about that guy...

Actually am still quite jealous about what you've all done in the last couple of months. Need to keep that in mind next time I have motor bike lessons. Travelling around like that (light weight and on two wheels) is the reason I want to get my AÂ license.

ShabbyMcCrabby

Oh definitely, that would be awesome, thanks. And my travelling friend is not Skerret, he's a friendly carpenter. Unless Skerret wants to as well.

Travelling by something as open as possible is the best way. The difference between a bicycle and a car is immense as there is nothing between you and the sights and sounds of what you're going through. Motorbike touring would be great too. We came across a guy who had all his possessions on his motorbike and was just hopping around the place earning enough to eat and buy petrol. He'd been over most of the US it sounded. He was a bit of a transient but I imagine it would be quite an adventure. Even the older couple who were on trikes and had ridden from Florida to the Grand Canyon had some good stories, they were doing it easier and staying in hotels and things.
Â It would be great to do a tour of Europe considering how close everything is.Â

Taking the backroads is the best too, I'm sure there is plenty of towns in France that I went through that most people miss and they were all spectacular. i was originally planning on riding to Spain but I wouldn't have gotten there in time to meet my friend. Would have been a tough slog through the mountains though.

Funkstain

I'm off on the most expensive camping trip of all time. A few hunnert per night to stay in a tent which can be trampled by hippos and elephants. That's right I'm off on a ~~game hunting~~Â safari trip to Tanzania; the Selous Game Reserve to be specific.

Anyone been on safari? Anything I should know except don't pull the lion's tail?

Then it's off for diving off the East coast, a marine reserve near the Mafia islands (hoping there's a link to the coda nostra). Very much hoping to experience diving with fuck off huge whale sharks although bit worried they can swallow me or something.

fullspectrum

Sitting on my sofa, after having a bath that washed off some of the some of the feeling of 10 hours of Virgin Cramplantic economy class, that took me from Montego Bay to Gatwick.

Never travelled time zones this way (5 hours foward) and have been advised to stay awake until UK night time but it's feeling difficult after a bit of relaxing.

Anyway. Jamaica was an incredible country to visit in our two weeks as we circled the island. I plan on posting a few pictures later.

M0stly harm13ss

@TheDJR What's your budget like? This place is gooood for a special meal, but pricey (in Cartmel, so near the Lake District)

http://www.lenclume.co.uk/sr/gallery.html

Skondo

Off for a long weekend in London tomorrow. Going to masters tennis at Royal Albert Hall, couple of museums, couple of (hopefully) nice restaurants booked and I'm sure we'll do a little Christmas shopping too. Should be good fun, well, apart from the shopping.

Carbon_Altered

Funkstain wrote:

I'm off on the most expensive camping trip of all time. A few hunnert per night to stay in a tent which can be trampled by hippos and elephants. That's right I'm off on a ~~game hunting~~Â safari trip to Tanzania; the Selous Game Reserve to be specific. Anyone been on safari? Anything I should know except don't pull the lion's tail? Then it's off for diving off the East coast, a marine reserve near the Mafia islands (hoping there's a link to the coda nostra). Very much hoping to experience diving with fuck off huge whale sharks although bit worried they can swallow me or something.

I've been to Tanzania and Uganda with work - East Africa is pretty cool on the whole. Didn't go on safari there though (but have done in Zambia). You on arranged trips or doing your own thing? It's all very safe there, I'd just recommend being careful on the ferries they use around the islands; not the safest and often over loaded.

fullspectrum

[redacted]

WorKid

WOW.

I am so jealous.

g.man

I could do with a holiday.

g.man

WorKid

Your life is one long holiday.

igorgetmeabrain

Not to be picky, but the 'pic you were most pleased with' was the one with the massive fuck-off pole running straight down the middle?

JMW

But without it you'd see even more of the ugly ship.

krs

The pole symbolises the divide between the real Jamaica represented by the local people's day to day life and the artificial commercial world presented to the tourists. The ship in the distance with its back turned; the thin horizontal lines of its sun-warmed decks dramatically intersected by the thick, cold, vertical, unshifting steel pole in the shade. The pole is everything. Bravo, Nicholas. Bravo.

g.man

WorKid wrote:

Your life is one long holiday.

*sigh*

fullspectrum

(deleted)

g.man

Great stuff Nick. I particularly love that last photo.

someday maybe

g.man

g.man

Great stuff Nick. I particularly love that last photo.

someday maybe

g.man

g.man

Apparently I love it quite a lot.

g.man

WorKid

I know you can't tell from a photo, but it doesn't look ohmygodit'sfartoohot hot.

More kind of ahthat'slovelyandwarmandthere'sanicebreeze.

fullspectrum

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Funkstain

Carbon_Altered wrote:

I've been to Tanzania and Uganda with work - East Africa is pretty cool on the whole. Didn't go on safari there though (but have done in Zambia). You on arranged trips or doing your own thing? It's all very safe there, I'd just recommend being careful on the ferries they use around the islands; not the safest and often over loaded.

Thanks mate. Must admit wasn't too concerned with safety - from what I can tell much of Africa is fine as long as you avoid active warzones. I'd love to go to Rwanda some day, I've heard parts of it are as close to paradise on earth as you can get.

This is my first Africa trip so I'm pretty excited about it. We've gone for a sort of mixed pre-arranged and do our own thing plan: transfers are pretty much all sorted, but flexible. So we'll turn up, get taken to where we want to go, then do our thing until we want to move on; and we have a safety net of a tour agency who can help us sort out any issues.

Not sure which bit I'm most looking forward to: the safari (we're staying at a tiny camp of 6 tents, and it's next to a lake, so hippos, elephants etc wander around amongst the camp. Given that hippos are the single most dangerous wild animals in the world, there i apprehension!), or the island retreat (with the only known spot in the world where you're almost guaranteed whale shark diving, which also fills me with anticipation / apprehension).

First proper holiday since we went travelling for 6 months a couple of years ago, can't freaking wait.

Funkstain

Oh, and Nick - your post is very inspiring! We've been thinking about a second honeymoon to the Caribbean, but have been put off by the apparent package nature of most trips there. Being able to wander around and get a basic feel for the place sounds much more our thing, so I'll be showing this stuff to Sylvia later!

fullspectrum

(deleted, sorry)

g.man

Awesome.

JMW

Jamaica clearly withdrew permission.

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