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Ok, this is pretty well outside of the thread's purview, but I didn't see an thread that it would fit under, and of the few active ones this is the closest, so: I've been thinking about a visit to French Polynesia next June. (I'm American, meeting a friend who's Australian, and there's not that many options for places that are in the middle.) Anyone have any experience with that? Or, really, anywhere in greater Polynesia?
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Oct 27, 2023 06:15
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 04:22 |
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I just learned about that place the other week, courtesy of Civ 6! It seems like a really cool spot, and I'd like to get there some day. I have a biologist friend who very occasionally does expeditions in Micronesia, so with any luck maybe I can tag along on one of those some day and then do a little island hopping afterward. For this trip, we were looking at French Polynesia; by virtue of its eastern placement, it actually does have flights from the US. My current impulse (highly mutable as this is just based on skimming a few sites as a starting point) is to meet up in Papeete, spend a bit of time poking around the town and a few days doing some hikes inland Tahiti and/or maybe over on Moorea, then go up to the Marquesas. Nuku Hiva seems to have an archaeological site that's open to visitors, and some other cultural sites, plus additional hiking. And we'll probably spend some time at a beach resort. It's neither of our favorite thing, but we don't hate it and beaches don't get a lot nicer so might as well have a couple resort days. If people are interested I'll try to remember to report back afterward.
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Oct 28, 2023 01:36
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If you decide to use AirBnB remember to activate the option in search to show the real price. It defaults to showing the nightly price, and excluding all the fees so you find a hundred results of "wow, $27 a night! Oh, plus $250 cleaning fee, plus $30 service fee". $250 and up for "cleaning" is not an exaggeration; I've seen that kind of number numerous times. It's basically SEO for AirBnB listings since the site defaults to sorting results by nightly rates, so listers just move all the profit into the fees. There's a lot of little legal quasi-scams like that scattered through the site, so read everything carefully. And if you find yourself getting really truly scammed, like you rent a place and it turns out to be "not ready" absolutely do not accept any substitution from the lister. If you do, AirBnB will consider you taken care of and will not help you, even if the substitute is nowhere near what you reserved. Hostels are nice if you're extroverted! Like the poster above said, they're great for just meeting someone new to go try stuff with, or chatting about what others are up to and maybe getting some ideas. I like to leave unplanned time if I'm staying in a hostel, so I can visit something I learn about in conversation, or join up with someone I meet and like for a day.
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Jan 2, 2024 11:47
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Strong Sauce posted:Really love spending time jiggering which country to fly into so I'm not paying nearly 4x more all because i want to fly into a non-hub city. Singapore has really cheap flights to anywhere in the region. You probably already realized that and are going to grab one to go onwards to Bangkok, but I’ve been in and out of SG a couple times on my current trip, it was only like $100 to get here from Cambodia, and tomorrow I’m leaving for Nepal which cost $200. One-way prices, but still, I was impressed at how low the costs get.
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Apr 8, 2024 23:57
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Qubee posted:I’m open to all other ideas though, staring at a white wall included. This is from years ago, so double check it’s even still there, but I remember enjoying the museum of Islamic e: saddest rhino’s got you; that’s the one I meant. I misremembered because when I was there, the rotating exhibit was the architecture and design of mosques and they had really good models of significant ones from throughout the world, including a really detailed model of some from the Hejaz that you’d never be able to actually see (unless you’re Muslim, obviously) Akratic Method fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Apr 11, 2024 |
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Apr 11, 2024 11:33
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Strong Sauce posted:how's the heat over there in SE Asia now? i am hearing tons of reports about the extreme heat. I was in Cambodia at the start of April, and every single day peaked over 100 F. It was genuine heat stroke danger territory if you didn't keep to shade and stay hydrated.
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May 1, 2024 15:14
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Accipiter posted:Scored a really good deal on first class round-trip Delta One tickets to Taiwan in a few months. I had a lot of fun in Taipei, and spent a pleasant day in Tainan as well. It's a very friendly country with great food. How did you get $45 tickets?
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May 2, 2024 18:45
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| # ¿ May 4, 2024 04:22 |
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Accipiter posted:Right now the plan is just Taipei but I'm certainly open to other places as well, provided they can be accessed with relative ease by a stupid foreigner. I'm dumb as poo poo (and in particular speak/read zero chinese) and did ok using transit. Bought high-speed train tickets to Tainan, and took city buses to a few small towns up along the north coast. You'll be able to get around just fine, I think. Also, within Taipei the metro is really good!
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May 3, 2024 17:27
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