Foreign Travel?

[caver]

LittleBitty,

Scotland is nice. Gloomy weather wise but they are pretty tolerant of us "yanks." I was stationed there for 2 years and my parents came over for a visit. They enjoyed visiting the old castles and such.

 

[California]

Cairo, Beijing and Bangkok have the worst smog I've ever seen.
At the time India was still relatively smog free, comparatively.
Worse than LA in the 80's, by an order of magnitude.

I dunno man. We were in New Delhi during Diwali. It's a national holiday about the same time as US Thanksgiving. Its like a week long New Year's Eve party, day and night. There was so much continual fireworks smoke - gunpowder - that you couldn't see a block away. Every breath hurt.

But the 'best' part: We got back to SFO and our luggage never came out. We waited until we were the last ones at the carousel and it stopped. Then suddenly we were hustled into an interview room for questioning. A long wait then lots of stupid questions. The lead agent swiped my camera with a tissue and put the tissue in a test machine. It apparently tested positive. The questioning continued.

Finally after the camera swab, it occurred to me that we reeked of gunpowder smoke and that had triggered an examination of our luggage. I described Diwali to the agent, and that finally got us released to enter the US.

 

[WinterDeere]

It’s true and Europe is the hot spot this year for many…

My defense is that I've been going to Europe almost every year since the mid-1990's, way before it was popular.

My wife and I are headed to Ireland this November. It will be my first time really being out of the country. Well, except for the Caribbean a couple decades ago.

I'll be in Dublin in August! But I've also been there in Sept/Oct/Nov, and it can be quite a bit colder than here. Ireland never gets truly cold, like our northern states, but it also never gets truly hot. I remember being in snow there in October, and while it wasn't exactly blistering cold, most of their larger buildings still had not switched on their central heating for this surprise early cold snap. We were staying in an old castle, and the rooms were cold enough that getting out of the hot shower took real courage.

They prefer un-pasteurized beer, which does indeed taste better, but wreaks havoc on my stomach after a few days. Every stereotype you have ever heard about the Irish drinking like fish is true, the two beverage choices with each meal are usually Guiness and Smithwicks (pronounced "smitticks").

Their Guiness is indeed better than what we get here. It's low ABV, so you'll feel full and bloated long before drunk, if you're used to the higher-ABV IPA's and Belgian beers that are so popular everywhere else.

One thing about most of the UK is that they eat more vegetables than us, two portions of vegetable with every meal versus our one, but their vegetables are absolutely terrible. Mostly boiled can crap, that's mushy and gray, compared to the fresh and crisp stuff we tend to have here. I've never been served and rejected so many vegetables in my life, as each trip to the UK.

 

[ning]

LittleBitty,

Scotland is nice. Gloomy weather wise but they are pretty tolerant of us "yanks." I was stationed there for 2 years and my parents came over for a visit. They enjoyed visiting the old castles and such.

We were in Scotland for just under three weeks a while back.
Heat wave - going through Heathrow they had these huge fans set up in the concourses (no A/C); once in Glasgow where we were staying a week and a half for an event many stores were having to throw out meat because their open coolers couldn't keep up.

We had clear sunny days until we went further north; got the proper gray and drizzle on Skye and finally put some pants on.

 

[MossRoad]

I dunno man. We were in New Delhi during Diwali. It's a national holiday about the same time as US Thanksgiving. Its like a week long New Year's Eve party, day and night. There was so much continual fireworks smoke - gunpowder - that you couldn't see a block away. Every breath hurt.

But the 'best' part: We got back to SFO and our luggage never came out. We waited until we were the last ones at the carousel and it stopped. Then suddenly we were hustled into an interview room for questioning. A long wait then lots of stupid questions. The lead agent swiped my camera with a tissue and put the tissue in a test machine. It apparently tested positive. The questioning continued.

Finally after the camera swab, it occurred to me that we reeked of gunpowder smoke and that had triggered an examination of our luggage. I described Diwali to the agent, and that finally got us released to enter the US.

When you're the last ones, and the agents come up to you.... a fine way to end a vacation.

 

[MossRoad]

I dunno man. We were in New Delhi during Diwali. It's a national holiday about the same time as US Thanksgiving. Its like a week long New Year's Eve party, day and night. There was so much continual fireworks smoke - gunpowder - that you couldn't see a block away. Every breath hurt.

But the 'best' part: We got back to SFO and our luggage never came out. We waited until we were the last ones at the carousel and it stopped. Then suddenly we were hustled into an interview room for questioning. A long wait then lots of stupid questions. The lead agent swiped my camera with a tissue and put the tissue in a test machine. It apparently tested positive. The questioning continued.

Finally after the camera swab, it occurred to me that we reeked of gunpowder smoke and that had triggered an examination of our luggage. I described Diwali to the agent, and that finally got us released to enter the US.

I think all they'd find on me is donut residue.

 

[California]

Diwali in New Delhi, November 2004. The streets looked like this.

Our view looking down from the hotel window into a neighbor's back yard looked nearly identical to this. It was an extended family gathered with several boys lighting fireworks. Noisy, too! India is endlessly amazing.

Searching for illustrative photos just now, I read that fireworks were to be banned due to air pollution complicating Covid. I doubt that could be enforced.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Diwali in New Delhi, November 2004. The streets looked like this.

Our view looking down from the hotel window into a neighbor's back yard looked nearly identical to this. It was an extended family gathered with several boys lighting fireworks. Noisy, too! India is endlessly amazing.

Searching for illustrative photos just now, I read that fireworks were to be banned due to air pollution complicating Covid. I doubt that could be enforced.

I lived in India for a year teaching. Now mind you I am from the south and was a raft guide for many years so I have seen some pretty debaucherous firework incidents. But the school I worked at had the most ridiculously dangerous fireworks display I have ever wittenessed during Diwali. Kids running everywhere without eye protection shooting off all kinds of crazy stuff. It ended when I huge mortar flipped over on its side and shot into the crowd. Walking around town was downright scary. You know those little snaps that you throw down on the ground when you are kids? In india they have those the size of baseballs and sound like an M80. Life is just different over there in India.