Mauritian Holiday
We just spent about a week on the beautiful island of Mauritius. We had a great time, the people were so nice, the scuba diving was great and we would recommend a short break there to anyone.
Add comment September 16th, 2007
Top 10 Traveling Mistakes
We’ve all made mistakes traveling. Here are a few that could be called “typical” and should be avoided.
- Not doing your research on your final destination. Weather, timezone, customs, currency, language, culture and other factors could put you in a spot of bother.
- Assuming your final destination will have all the required transport facilities at your disposal upon arrival to get you to your accommodation.
- Using hotel communication systems including the phone and fax. If you’ve done this, they’ve no doubt, nailed you!
- Consuming the contents of the hotel room mini-bar. Don’t do it! Go to the local store and buy a couple of drinks there, it will save you a bundle.
- Not giving yourself enough time between flights. It can take up to an hour to get out of a 747 after landing and then you may still have to get to another terminal or airport for your connecting flight! Give yourself plenty of time to avoid missing your flight.
- Booking a day tour without shopping around. You might be getting suckered!
- Not paying in local currency. You will be doubly losing. Once with the exchange rate used to convert into your currency and once more back into the local currency to get your change.
- Not booking accommodation for your final destination during high season, a conference or festival. You might find yourself sleeping in the street.
- Trying to pack in too much activity into a specific period of time.
- Forgetting your camera.
Safe travels!
Add comment August 23rd, 2007
Lost in Translation
Hehe, this picture is quite funny…It seems to have been translated by someone with a Afrikaans - English Dictionary. This person probably decided to use the wrong translation to forbid “open flames”. Naked lights, never heard of ‘em!
Add comment August 18th, 2007
The Simpsons Go Green
Just saw this movie, yes, I know, a bit behind a lot of you…Well it’s because of where I live! Anyhow, it matters not.
The Simpsons, the movie, just like the TV series does not disappoint. The humour starts right from the word go with Ralph making the very first appearance of all the characters.
The movie is also one to cover one of the most pressing issues of our time, if not of mankind, the environment. It does so just like Al Gore did, in a public friendly, easy to understand, way. I think it’s great that the creators, writers and actors all teamed up on this issue and publicise, with what will inevitably be one of the most popular movies of the next few months, a deadly serious issue like Global Warming and pollution in an idiot friendly way.
I laughed throughout the movie and thought it was great even after so many TV episodes. I missed Uter though, the exchange student, and I will probably either go see it again or rent it when it comes out on DVD. I won’t download it though, Bart got in trouble for that 
Add comment August 4th, 2007
Thames Boat Tour
The Thames, cuts through London it does!
When people think of London, invariably the Thames comes up. It’s fun to take a boat down the Thames. You can get a ticket and board your tour boat close to Parliament. The trip consists of a cruise down the Thames with a tour guide slowly talking you through all the major attractions on the banks of the famous river. Parliament, the London Eye, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London are a few you’ll see along the way.
At the end of your little trip that takes about an hour or two, you end up in Greenwich which is also quite nice. We always went for a walk in the beautiful park after one these little tours. It was fun and you can go check out the Greenwich Meridian at the top of the hill. You know … GMT … I’ve been on both sides of the Meridian, have you?
Enjoy!
P.S. You’ll be knocked-up for a tip as you leave the boat. Up to you really, can’t remember if I ever tipped the staff.
Add comment July 12th, 2007
Try again
I drive by this strange signpost everyday on my way to work. I think someone needs to rethink this one. Kids should never be for sale!
1 comment June 23rd, 2007
Belly Dancing in Istanbul
We went to Istanbul a few years ago over the Valentine’s day weekend. February in Istanbul…it’s freakin’ cold! It’s a beautiful city and the Turks were very friendly and helpful bar the usual 1 or 2 locals anywhere you go in the world who try to rip you off or take you for a ride. That’s exactly what a cab driver did there so be careful with those crazy cabbies in their shitty little yellow cabs.
There’s quite a bit to see there,especially in the Old Town where the Mosques, Ayia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace and other attractions are really fascinating. There’s so much history there. The apple tea, for tourists, is also quite nice when it’s cold out.
We took a boat ride along the Bosphorus. It wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world but it was kind of fun to see the nice palaces and buildings along the shoreline of a famous waterway. It’s worth doing if you are in Istanbul for a few days.
While there we also went to a belly dancing evening which was good fun. The dancers were clearly interested in the tourists from the richer nations as the American and Brit were constantly offered to come on stage and paid more attention to than we were. It’s for the tip at the end you see. Might be bigger, might not. Anyway, they fed us and danced for us and it was quite a nice evening. At the end though, the place turned into a strip club. Sitting there with my would-be wife, a waiter came to me after the show with a “free” entry card to the upstairs strip club. Dude, I’m attached or does that not bother you?? No big deal, we just laughed it off and even more so as we left when we realised the belly dancers were also the strippers. 
Two jobs eh!
Go to Istanbul, it’s a great city!
Add comment June 15th, 2007
Warmer and Warmer
We watched An Inconvenient truth the other day. Al Gore really does get his point across well. He’s a great orator with a great great great yet worrying movie under his belt now.
It’s a bit of a depressing topic unfortunately, wasting away our lovely little planet, but it’s also one that needs addressing pronto. It also highlights that if WE work together we can really do something good for nature, for once. What’s really good about the movie is the way they get the message across in an educational yet interesting fashion. It could have been the driest movie ever, but it wasn’t, it was gripping and interesting throughout.
We as humans are nothing short of a plague of locusts really. We plunder, burn, eat and destroy pretty much anything we can get our hands on. Most of the time to make a quick buck or two. And now, what’s happening, CO2 is rising so rapidly that the graph Gore shows looks like the Matterhorn. Rising, rising, rising to levels never seen before and with that, all its correlated problems.
So what can we do? We can buy nature friendly products, we can switch that light off when we’re not in the room, buy local products, walk or ride a bicycle more often, make use of public transport more often, group together as a whole to force companies to improve efficiencies and make use of better technologies.
It’s a bit rich coming from me with a 2.8 turbo diesel and a site about traveling but I’m trying, slowly but surely. Everyday, I cut something else out and I give a colleague a ride everyday so that’s good. There’s lots more I can do but I need access to new safer products as does everyone else. And fast!
Add comment June 1st, 2007
Amsterdam Sex Shows
We went to Amsterdam a while back and enjoyed what this great Dutch city has to offer. We decided to go to a Live Show one afternoon and proceeded to select one from the many on offer in ther Red Light District.
In terms of price, they aren’t particularly cheap. Given that we were on a budget, it was quite an outlay for us and with the added sales pitch that there were actually 2 parts to the show and that a couple of free drinks would be thrown in as part of the deal, we opened our wallets and succumbed to the lure of lust and all that naughty stuff.
The venue wasn’t all that nice, it was kind of a grimmey bar/theatre with a large stage. The drinks, well actually, the half-drinks were sucked back in about 3 minutes due to their size and the show was sort of interesting, a banana featured, and then some guy got on stage and lay on his back while some ugly broad rode the crap out of him.
Anyway, it was interesting but I wouldn’t do it again. If you haven’t seen one and really want to, go for it. It is an eye-opener and will help you decide whether or not it’s worth the money and all the fuss. I’m sure there are much more interesting ones out there than the one we were party to but the price we paid for this one leads me to believe that a “classy” show is gonna cost you an arm and a leg.
If this post offends you, sorry, but it was interesting and worth writing about.
Add comment May 19th, 2007
Learn a Language
Language is always used. It’s one of the best tools in life. Be it French, Spanish, Japanese, German, Turkish, English, Russian or Xhosa. When we communicate orally, we generally use a language unless we just grunt and even then, that could probably constitute a language.
When travelling, languages are always useful. The more you know, the better chance you have of being understood and getting what you are looking for. It’s amazing how many people go abroad on their travels and expect locals to speak their language. You are in their country, the least you could do is at least try and say hello in their language. It’s usually pretty easy in their native tongue. A simple local “hello” will open more doors for you than a brash, “Hey, why don’t you speak my language, look look, I am here, speak my language.
I’ve always tried to learn at least a few basics before going somewhere I don’t speak the language. I speak 3 fluently and can converse and read in 4 more so I enjoy languages. I grew up in a household where 3 different languages could have been spoken at any given time. Before my wife and I went to Istanbul, I forced myself to learn hello, thank you, please, count from 1-10 and a few other useful words in Turkish. It definetely helped, I caught the taxi driver out trying to set his meter to late night tariffs while we were in broad daylight and gave him a piece of my mind in broken Turkish! Felt good.
So why not grow out of that single language mindframe and learn another one? My wife is, she’s busy learning French, good for her. Then Spanish, Italian and Portuguese will come that much easier to her. I’m very proud of her efforts despite the obvious difficulties of learning another language.
So learn another one, go travelling where they speak your newly acquired tool and let that smile on your hosts face make your day brighter.
Add comment April 10th, 2007
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