The "I'm Going on Vacation" Thread

[Sapphire]

Coming back today! I went all over London. And even up to Blackpool and to a suburb next to London. It was sweet!

I'll continue the story contest when I get back.

[Animeniax]

Didn't school start for you guys on the East coast? Also, shouldn't you wait until the hurricane devastates the area before you return?

[enkoujin]

Didn't school start for you guys on the East coast? Also, shouldn't you wait until the hurricane devastates the area before you return?

You weren't supposed to tell her that.

She's going to get blown away by the news now.

[Sapphire]

I should have stayed in Londonnn. Work got cancelled for me too.

[rockmanj]

You didn't read the news? Oh, you young people~

[Sapphire]

Not really. I was too busy having fun thousands of miles away. I didn't get the work-cancelled email till I was on the plane, too. :<

[rockmanj]

I am envious of you...'ave never been to Europe.

[Sapphire]

Don't you live in Korea? That is awesome as well.

[Buffalobiian]

Did you notice my absence for the past week? Probably not.

But I was, because I was cruising around the Whitsunday Islands on this catamaran for 7 days. It's a graduation trip with a fleet of around 12 boats.




-Navigation is pretty fun. That was my main job as First Mate. It's relatively simple with GPS maps that show you exactly where you are, but we still did things a bit old-school by measuring out distance/bearings and matching it up with tides.

-Anchoring is more involved than I thought. Before this I expected it to be a "drop it in the water and all is good" exercise. In reality you have chain length, tidal/wind approaches, mud/sand/coral bed and shore distances to consider.

-Polarised sunglasses are the bomb. Everyone should get them.

-There's no such thing as sneaky sex. The boat rocks. We know.

-Expired sunscreen can be okay. It can also give you a rash. You've been warned.

-Check that the sulage pumps have power. Not emptying your holding tanks for 3 days means it starts to smell quite bad.

-If you're not tipsy you're doing it wrong. Drinking enhances boating 100x. Just keep someone under the limit in case boat police people come by.

[Animeniax]

Wow sounds like a lot of fun. What did you graduate from, university or post-grad work?

Ditto on polarized glasses.

Drinking while boating is bad if the trip is rocky and you get sea sick.

[Buffalobiian]

Thankfully I seem to be immune to sea sickness. Everyone else on my boat got it to some degree depending on how choppy things are. They get better when they look outside. I sit there and read like a boss.

Graduating from MBBS

[Kraco]

I sit there and read like a boss.

It's thanks to all the anime you have watched. Probably. Maybe. It's not impossible.

[shinta|hikari]

It's all those vomit inducing FPS games he's played.

[Janice]

Vacation thread! I love vacations. I went to Japan last year for about a month. I took over 800 pictures, but here are my favorites.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskreGQxT

Places I went:
All over Tokyo
Hakone
Kyoto
Osaka
Himeji
Hiroshima
Miyajima

[Kraco]

https://flic.kr/s/aHskreGQxT

Certainly a very Japanese atmosphere in those photos, even though I've never been there myself.

[Animeniax]

Vacation thread! I love vacations. I went to Japan last year for about a month. I took over 800 pictures, but here are my favorites.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskreGQxT

Places I went:
All over Tokyo
Hakone
Kyoto
Osaka
Himeji
Hiroshima
Miyajima

Are the pictures of Shibuya crossing taken from inside the Starbucks? I tried to but was told by staff it wasn't allowed

Very artistic pictures! Can you post any with you in them?

[Janice]

One is taken inside the Starbucks (or the level above it - I forget) and the other from the upper level of the train station above the street. You can see the Starbucks on the other side of the crossing in that picture. No pictures of me. Sorry!

[Buffalobiian]

Vacation again, USA for the first time.

Washington DC:



-huge flex in terms of monuments etc to commemorate national history. I guess it's a much bigger deal for the US than it is for Australia.

-Also American flags everywhere. This isn't actually DC exclusive, it's the case all over the place. I've been to Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. Nowhere else hangs out a flag just because.

-Chinese food sucks in Washington DC.

Rhode Island
-It would have been amazing to be rich back in the day. Bloody hell these mansions are big. No internet though.. that's a deal breaker.

NYC:



-Food is better
-Interesting use of basements. We see no basements in AU. Never. It must suck when it rains though.
-Cool streets.
-Your subway stations are really hot and stuffy.
-Revolving doors are still a thing?!?!
-In general, you guys have some cool buildings. I love the way your wooden houses look. Stone buildings are also on another level.

Boston:
-Getting colder. Not much else for me to add.
-On our way up through New Haven, there's a Thai place called September in Bangkok and it's amazing.

New Hampshire:



-cool scenery and autumn leaves.

Maine:



-Lobsters. Oh god they're sweet. Small.. but so so sweet. And for 8.99USD for a pound (+ free cooking) it's a bargain. I used to think that I could never tire of eating lobsters. Having eaten 2 meals of lobster in 2 days I can fathom it to be possible, But still.. I'm accepting sponsors for a challenge.
-You cup noodles are also super cheap as well, but those taste horrendous.
-It's cold. Bloody cold. Canadians much be such nice people because their balls have frozen off or something. I don't know how you do it. Subtropical it is for me.



Overall observations from an Aussie:

-consumer tax there is a pain in the ass. Service charge, tips, sales tax.. I concluded that a part of this comes from giving state governments so much autonomy. In Australia, there's income tax which goes to the federal government, and Goods + Services Tax at a flat rate of 10% which applies to nearly all goods. This tax is included in the price - what's listed is what you pay. Also, no tipping culture here. It just makes paying for stuff so much less of a math exercise.

-Talking about paying for stuff... your currencies are fucked up. Quaters (25c) coins? 1 cent coins? WHY????? 1c is useless man.

-The median US pedestrian is ruder than the median Australian. I didn't think that was possible, but that was. There's a range of course, and I met some amazingly nice people there, but by and large you guys aren't friendly to strangers.
That said, maybe it's that Australia's actually higher on the list than I ought to place it. Hong Kong's actually on par with US if you're talking about off-the-street conversations. As a service industry it does a bit better. Japan's in it's own league of politeness.

-Driving. You guys drive like lunatics. I'm equally amazed that I didn't see a single car crash despite this.

-Shopping malls are very few in the US. By few, I guess I mean I didn't see a single one. They're pretty common over here. Most of your shopping complexes seem to be shops arranged around a car park in the centre.

[Ryllharu]

Our money is worth more. And pennies come into play thanks to the taxation clusterfuck you correctly identified.
I personally like Canada's dollars and coin breakdowns much more.

As for friendliness...you did travel the I-95 corridor. That's kinda on you. Go literally anywhere else (until you hit portions of the west coast), people are much nicer and much more friendly. Same with the driving experience.

Sounds like you enjoyed it overall though!

[Sapphire]

You were in USA/NYC while I was in Japan! I'm in Okinawa now and I was in Osaka.