Hardly world travel, but Mrs. Noland is going to Louisville, KY tomorrow until Saturday for a conference. Anybody know of any decent/fun/interesting restaurants she should check out?
So spending Thanksgiving to New Years Day in SE Asia - any advice? I'm flying in/out of Bangkok with the wife. I spent 5 weeks on the beaches of Thailand about 6 years ago, so I have a fair idea of what to expect. Some thoughts: -I'm thinking of going directly into Laos and doing the river and some of the Laos highlights -Then get into Vietnam and see things there (still unsure of sights) -Do Cambodia and Angkor Wat -Spend the last weekish seeing the beaches again, this time with the Wife. -Doing some reading it seems that some of the islands have changed. I loved Phi Phi last time I was there, but I get the feeling it is overbuilt now. -Also debating trying to fly in/out of Manila to do some diving -Curious on opinions on how to get around between Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam - it looks like mostly flights. Any other advice is welcomed.
Been to that part of the world a few times. On my phone now and can't type too much but I'll post more in a few days. The Philippines just got hammered by one of the worst storms in recorded history so you may not want to plan on that.
Vietnam: Ha Long Bay is awesome, recommend a 2 day cruise, its magic. Nah Trang is awesome just to relax, the Sheraton is great. Hoi Ann (sp) is pretty relaxing and you can replace your whole wardrobe with custom threads for cents in the dollar. In fact my pro tip for Asia is just take your toiletries and a single change of clothes, buy everything you need when you are there, it's cheap and the quality can be outstanding. A custom made pure wool suit for $100 AUD in Nam will be better quality than a $800 suit off the shelf back home. And shorts t-shirts etc are like $2 each, Or if you're feeling a bit more classy a Ralph Loren polo for $20, whenever I'm in asia I pretty much buy 12 months worth of clothes, it makes it a really cheap holliday. Just hire a taxi to get between Vietnam and Cambodia, from Saigon anyway, will cost like $10.
LTMS is 100% correct with the Vietnam suggestions. Personally I didn't love Saigon or Hanoi, but if you've been to a poor-ish Asian city before you'll know exactly what to expect. Some people love them, but for me Bangkok / KL / Hanoi / Jakarta etc are all pretty much the same. The French influence in Hanoi is interesting, but this was negated by the trouble I had breathing what passes for air there. Ha Long Bay is spectacular, and Nha Trang is an upmarket beach resort town. Hoi Ann is nice but I think they evacuated it last night courtesy of the typhoon. I hear great things about Angkor Wat, but I didn't get there because I got endlessly fucked up on the river in Laos instead. I know they've cracked down on the riverfront bars over there, but I expect the party scene is still massive. If you find yourself over there, check out Jaidee's bar. Good food, good drinks, nice atmosphere, a 'happy menu' if you're into the psychedelics, and an actual secret menu if you're into the sort of stuff that earns the death penalty over there. Please don't get executed on my behalf, but we never had any problems and the bar has been running for 13 odd years, so I'd say he's paying off the right people. Phi Phi is more or less Phuket now, but the diving is still great. And if you want more diving in that part of the world, check out the Gili Islands. Top notch diving, and 3 islands with varying levels of romantic seclusion / general revelry, depending on what you're after.
Ill third all those suggestions from LTMS/AlmostGaunt for Vietnam. If you do make it to Hoi Ann i recommend Yaly Couture for suits, i got 3 pure wool suits made there and im still super happy with them a few years on. If you make it to Saigon the Cu Chi tunnels was an experience ill never forget (admittedly it is very touristy but still very interesting) As for travel you can get some pretty cheap flights on local carriers for the longer journeys or hire a van with a driver for shorter journeys (i was travelling with 4 other people so this was an economical and easy way for us to travel, may be less so if its just you and the missus). Otherwise the trains are also a cheap way to get around from what i hear (if a little hectic... but hey all part of the experience right?). Definitely do Cambodia and Angkor Wat. If you wanted too you could do it easily in a couple of days but i really liked Cambodia and wished we had more time there. The people are super friendly, the food is amazing and the beer is tasty, cheap and plentiful (isnt it always in SE Asia)
If you have any inkling of claustrophobia I'd say skip the Cu Chi tunnels. I never thought I had a problem with anything like it until I visited the tunnels. Hell we even took the shorter of the two main tunnels. Im a relatively small guy and even with the widened for tourist tunnels it got kind of freaky when the guide crawled out of sight. We had some great pictures from that day but my brother lost his new digital camera on the bus back to the city. It really did give a good prospective on how the war was fought, traveling into the super dense forest and crawling through insanely tiny tunnels. The independence palace in Saigon is really neat if you like retro stuff since it hasn't been changed since it was over run in the 70's. It is very touristy though.
Not really "world" travel, but I'm going to be spending about 4 days in San Diego with a girl around the beginning of December. I'm in my mid 30's so I'm not looking to get shit faced every night, or that sort of thing. Any recommendations on areas to stay (decent concentration of things to see/ good places to eat), things to do, and maybe some good restaurants? Thanks in advance.
Depends on your budget. The Gaslamp in downtown is a great combination of those things, and most of the other stuff you'll want to do (Beaches, Seaworld) is 15-20 minutes away tops on the 5. But it's a bit pricey. If you're looking for a slightly less expensive area, check out Mission Beach off the Grant/Garnet exit. Kind of a college-y area when it comes to the bars by the beach, but it's a nice little area for a pub crawl, and if you have a hotel in the area you won't have to walk the normal 20 minutes from parking to the beach. Plus, a great breakfast place with rooftop patio dining where my friends and I used to go for breakfast burritos and mimosas called The Broken Yolk. Great for day drinking, because it's right next to a hole in the wall kick ass dive (Couple pool tables, couple dart boards, jukebox, cheap beer) called The Silver Fox. Just don't use the ATM there, it may or may not be shifty about card skimmers. If you like Bar-B-Que at all, check out Kansas City BBQ on Harbor drive downtown. It's down at the end of the convention center near the USS Midway (a tour of which is also a kick ass idea). KC BBQ is where they filmed the "Great Balls of Fire" bar scene in Top Gun, and has decent food. If you keep going on Harbor past the Midway, you get to the actual harbor area, which has some great seafood restaurants. For the most beautiful cove in San Diego, drive up to La Jolla. It's rich people land, and beautifully so. So is Coronado island, the grass on the median of their main street is trimmed like a putting green, and the beach sand seems to be flecked with gold. But La Jolla has some nice architecture. Old Town is nice to spend a day in. Old, mission style architecture, a little fair type atmosphere and some excellent margarita pitcher deals nearby. The main problem with all of San Diego is parking. Street parking is damn near impossible to find, and lots cost around $20.
San Diego is my adopted hometown. What said Iczorro isn't bad advice, however the best bbq town is Phils without a doubt. Gaslamp is a good place to see, it's a bit more mature than PB (Pacific Beach, which is known as the college student bar area), but in the good way, the bars tend to be chill, there are some great restaurants there. Mission Beach is kind of what you may expect from Southern California. There is a nice boardwalk, a wide beach, and shopping along the boardwalk. As well, you can have campfires on the beach, there are fire pits. That can be really fun, you can bring beer on the beach so long as its in a can (technically alcohol is prohibited, but the cops don't care so long as you're not being a dick and there's not glass). La Jolla is cool, so is Sunset Cliffs, which is Point Loma, not too far from downtown. Coronado is really worth seeing, the beach is great and the Hotel Del (the Hotel Del Coronado) is pretty cool, it was built around the time of the Titanic, so you get a lot of the woodwork mixed in with modern luxuries. You can walk the beach and check out the hotel, its not a bad way to spend an afternoon. The best sushi in town is sushi Ota, its in Pacific Beach, so its a bit of a drive from downtown, but its the best sushi this side of Japan, and I'm not exaggerating, all the Japanese expats/travelers go there. My favorite burrito place is Lucha Libre which isn't too far from the airport. You can hit up Seaside Village, but thats ultra touristy with all the knickknack shops/crappy food vendors usually associated with those places. The Midway (an aircraft carrier) is now a museum thats worth seeing. You can check out most of the ship, and there are some planes on the deck so thats fun. You can always try surfing if you like cold water, if you want to do that hit up La Jolla Cove and take a lesson.
Whoops, yeah I meant Pacific Beach when i said Mission Beach. And Phils is definitely better food than KC BBQ, but the line is like an hour long on a good night. If you don't mind a hipster/gay vibe, check out Hillcrest. It's the gay neighborhood of san diego, with all the kitchiness that implies, but The Brass Rail is an awesome gay bar that is just a laid back dive. If you want the full on gay bar experience complete with drag shows and such, go to Lips.
I think its interesting that in SD you can be completely unaware that Tijuana is only a half hour away. They are neighboring cities, but it doesn't feel like that at all, unless you go down to San Ysidro, IB.
TJ is a young person's town. The last time I enjoyed myself there, I was 24. I went again when i was 26 and hated it. Watered down drinks, super crowded clubs. Plus, we went through the American TJ nightmare and lost a pretty big titted white girl for about 8 hours.
I'm only an Australian, who spent a week in San Diego, and my whole goal was "drinking holiday", so my opinion doesn't mean a whole lot. But I spent 4 days in San Diego and 3 days in Pacific Beach, and Pacific Beach was a lot more fun. We had the added bonus of knowing a stripper friend who lived in Pacific Beach, but all up the bars were better, the beach is close by, and we visited a few nice places to eat. We found everyone to be really friendly and relaxed.
Going to NYC on vacation in Feb. Anyone have suggestions for hotels in the Times Square area? We've stayed in the Marriott and The W before, so fail-safe is just re-booking at The W. Also, I know it's going to be cold as fuck around that time (Valentines Day -- fuck you; one last hurrah for us though before she has the kid), but any ideas for things to do? This will be our third time going back, and probably the last for a while, so I'd like to make it memorable.
I am flying to Puerto Rico on December 31st and heading home on January 6th. My brother is getting married on January 4th in San Juan and my family has a condo rented for most of the stay. Most of us speak Spanish or have traveled in the Caribbean before but Puerto Rico is new to us. Any suggestions on what to do/not to do? We've been told Old San Juan is nice to visit (only during the day), the rainforest is small but cool, and you can swim with luminescent algae. Thanks!
I went down there to fish and drink, you can figure the drinking out real easy down there but if you want to fish these guys do it right
So, here we go. Wedding. Thailand. One month. What to do, where and how? Before getting your advice, I'd prefer not to contract the Thai rainbow of STD's. Thanks.
Your wedding? You're there for a month or it's in a month? Bangkok is pretty nuts. Khao San road is the crazy backpacker party street, Soi Cowboy/Na Na/Patpong are the sex districts, and tons of markets and shopping. A few good temples (Wat Pho and one across the river) and the Grand Palace are good to see. In many ways it's another big asian city, though the sex tourism and Thai street food set it apart. As of last week, I've now seen a ping pong show - it's worth it. The titty bars are depressing - just naked girls barely moving waiting to be bought, at least the two I went to in Cowboy. The islands are absolutely amazing and world class - Koh Phi Phi, Railey Beach, Koh Phangan. Koh Chang (big) is pretty awesome but doesn't have the diving of the southern islands. Avoid Pattaya and Phuket unless you want to see lots of old guys with young Thai girls. I've heard lots of good things about Koh Tao and Koh Lanta as well. The north is definitely interesting and chilled out - Chang Mai, Chang Rai, Pai. More of a hippy, jungle, let's do yoga and see elephants kind of vibe. But the jungle is pretty and there's good outdoor type things to do. After going through parts of cambodia, laos, and vietnam the north is less exceptional than the island in my opinion. Eat lots of food. The food is awesome and cheap and all of it comes off the street.