Day 30 - Things I will (and won't) miss

Will miss
Cheap street food
Meeting new people everywhere
Buying local
Reliable (and sometimes cheap) public transportatio
New and crazy foods
Airline lounges
Walking everywhere (and thereby avoiding driving in traffic)
Exploring new places
Waking up each day with no set schedule


Won't miss
Almost being run over hourly by anything with wheels
Public toilets
Wells Fargo international ATM fees
Trying to speak a new language every few days
Top bunks
Waiting in immigration/security/boarding lines
Changing currencies every few days
Carrying all my belongings with me (and having to turn around carefully so I don't hit people)
Exhaust-filled air
Garbage in the streets
Stray animals
Looking like a homeless person

I have gotten used to walking and using public transportation.  With all the construction back home, I had been getting more and more agitated with driving.  I wish there were subways and cheap taxis back home.  At least there will be in NYC.  Well, not cheap, but available.

If I was being paid to write these entries, I could probably do travel writing for a living.  Since I'm not, I guess I will have to adjust to the American lifestyle, which certainly has its positives.  I'll touch on some of those differences in a later entry.

Day 30 - Packing Decisions

I think I did a pretty good job packing light.  I haven't ever felt as if my backpack was too heavy, but I have wished I had more space at times.

Most useless item: fleece jacket.

The fleece jacket is by far the bulkiest item I packed, taking up most of my daypack.  It is also an item I have still not used.  I justified bringing it by saying it could act as a pillow or blanket, but I have an extra pillow and who needs a blanket when it's melting outside?  Looking back, I should have checked the weather forecast and realized cool weather gear was pointless.  If I really needed a jacket, I could have bought one.

Most useful item: toilet paper.

As detailed previously, toilet paper is scarce (and not often used) in Asia.  Bringing a roll from home to go in my daypack came in handy almost daily.  Unlike toothpaste, it's difficult to even buy it in some areas, so I think toilet paper was the smartest thing I brought.

I wished I had brought one more set of clothes.  With the space freed up by leaving the fleece at home, I wish I had brought one more of each clothing item.  When doing laundry just wasn't an option, I really needed one more to set to avoid wearing dirty clothes.

I wished I had brought less liquids.  Considering the strict liquid requirements the airlines impose, that might seem hard to believe.  Even with one tiny bag, liquids are heavy.  I could have shrunk each liquid bottle by 1/2 and been fine.  Plus, most liquids are sold overseas and I ended up with tons of free vanity items from the airlines.

Good Decisions
Synthetic clothing - All of my clothes have been perfect for the weather
Shoe selection - All three sets have been useful.  (Sandals, athletic shoes, shower shoes)
Locks - My zipper locks and bicycle locks have kept all of my belongings safe


Bad Decisions
Medicine - Not bringing more US medicine, like anti-histamines and decongestants
Adapters - Not bringing a grounded US plug adapter has been a real pain for my laptop
Plastic bags - I needed more plastic bags for the different currencies.  After they are mixed, it takes forever to separate them back out.

Overall, I think my packing went very well.  Backpacking trips in Europe (and southwestern America) are good preparation.

Day 30 - Surprises

There are a few things that have surprised me this trip.

First, there I have seen very few Americans outside of London.  There are hordes of Australians and a good number from the UK, but barely any Americans.  I know travel is not as ingrained in our culture since we have such a large country and that we generally frown upon having a "gap year" while it is encouraged in other countries.  I was shocked to have met only a single American at my hostels and that was in Japan.  Money is clearly not an issue for us, so I wonder what that says for us as a country.

Second, I am shocked by the dominance of American restaurants.  Everyone knows McDonalds is global, but I didn't realize just how popular KFC was.  I thought it was hilarious four years ago in Slovakia when KFC had its own highway exit.  Now I know that KFC is that popular everywhere.  In Malaysia, people dressed up and brought the entire family to go to KFC.  Besides fried chicken, our burger joints are everywhere as well.  I found a Wendy's in one city.  We export our culture through movies, but also through food.  I can't help but wonder if we are going to make the rest of the world fat.

Third, I have been repeatedly told that the American accent is easy to understand.  Of course, I can't hear it myself, but the Asian people much preferred it to Australian and British accents.  I find that interesting.  I am sure there are language experts who can explain it in technical terms.  Maybe it's just that the world is used to hearing American accents in TV shows and movies.  Also, most countries teach American English rather than British English.  In Europe, British English is more common, so I don't ever remember discussing the American accent.  In Asia, it seemed to come up as a conversation topic at least once per country.

Fourth, most ATMs do not charge a usage fee.  Every American ATM I know of charges a $1.50 to $10 (Vegas) fee to use the ATM on top of any fee charged by your issuing bank.  Overseas, my card was never charged except for in Thailand.  Maybe it's because I have an international card and the banks only charge domestic ones.  I'm not sure.  I do remember paying fees in Europe four years ago, so maybe it's an Asian thing.  Although, the banks here in London haven't charged me either.

Fifth, Hong Kong (and maybe other places) has currency issued directly by retail banks.  The HSBC ATM at the airport issues Hong Kong dollars with the HSBC logo on them.  In fact, almost 100% of Hong Kong's currency is printed (and owned) by private banks.  Technically, you can take an HSBC dollar to any branch and the bank will give you the equivalent amount of US dollars.  It's sort of like when the US was on the gold standard and you could exchange dollars for gold.

There are a few more things that surprised me, such as English proficiency, but I'll put that in its own post.

Day 30 - Nearing the End

Now that I'm almost done, I appear to be healthy again (other than a slight cough).  My ears finally became totally normal today.  Flying with sinus issues is pretty awful.  My immune system is probably running pretty well right now after being exposed to just about everything possible over the last month.

I'm nearing the end of my trip, so I can start posting some overarching thoughts and less of the day-to-day.  With less than 24 hours in Paris, I won't be doing much there other than eating some pastries.  I might take a picture of the Eiffel Tower just for fun.

I haven't really thought about going home yet.  There has been so much to do each day.  I think I am going to have some severe "reverse culture chock" when I get back.  I'll create some lists on here about it.

Day 30 - British Airways First Class Lounge

I went straight to the first class lounge in terminal 5.  This lounge isn't quite as nice as the Cathay Pacific first class lounge in Hong Kong, but it's probably the runner up.

If you like to drink, this is the place to come.  There are hundreds of bottles of wines, spirits, beers, and mixers are four or five bars set up in the lounge.  There is even a dedicated champagne bar.

Wine, anyone?

Or perhaps some champagne?

There is also a nice buffet, but you can order your own dish from a menu for free.  There is a terrace that overlooks other parts of the airport and great views of all the tarmac activities.

Plenty of seating.

Indian curries, fresh breads, fancy salads.

My first mashed potatoes of the trip!

I plan to snack here to get a free dinner.  Back to Paris!

Day 30 - Last Day in London

I had my free breakfast again.  This time I have a picture.

Sausage, bacon, toast, eggs, baked beans, mushrooms, tomato.

For my last day, I was determined to see the British Museum.  However, my Australian roommate has eaten breakfast with me for three straight days and wanted to enjoy the sunny 70 degree weather in the park.  I had plenty of time for a single museum, so we walked together through the park for an hour or so.

Then we stumbled upon this thing,

That's Prince Albert.

Across from his memorial, the Prince Albert Hall is a giant dome and famous in its own right.  We walked from there to the nearest metro station where we said our goodbyes.  She went off to Buckingham Palace and I went into the metro.

Coming out of the metro, I found Chinatown.

Chinatown.

After going through Asia, Chinatown was a sort of sad Disney-like copy.  I didn't stay long and started walking to the museum.  When I arrived, I was hungry for some reason.  I walked to the nearest cafe and ordered a roast beef sandwich.  I was slightly concerned when he took two pieces of regular grocery store wheat bread and coated each with a thick spread of butter.  Then he added roast beef and what the British call a salad (lettuce, tomato, onion).  I ate it, but the butter was a little strange.

Buttered beef.

Then it was time to go inside.  I was greeted with this scene.

What's with the horse?

I moved onto the exhibits and found a pretty famous rock.

The Rosetta Stone!

It turns out that London has some of the best artifacts from all over the world.  Some of the displays even mention that the original countries want their stuff back, but that everything is too fragile to move.  Here are some things I found.

Easter Island statue.

A room full of Egyptian statues.

Room with thousands of books from the Enlightenment Period.

Even better, the museum is free.  I can't argue with that.  Afterwards, it was time to head back to get my bags from the hostel and head to Heathrow.  It took a while since there were subway delays, but I had planned 4 hours just to be safe.

I picked up my bags and walked across the street to Paddington Station to board the Heathrow Express.  15 minutes later I was at the airport.  Using the first class check-in and Fast Track security lane, I was through in ten minutes.

Day 29 - More London

I ended up falling asleep at 10pm last night after a long day of walking, so nothing new from last night.

I started the day with breakfast downstairs again.  I will take a picture of it tomorrow and explain.  The "Full English" breakfast is not something we would typically eat back home.  Mushrooms and baked beans don't usually qualify as morning delicacies.

I headed off to Harrod's, the famous department store.  This place is a really cool store that sells handbags that cost more than my car.  A single chocolate truffle from the display was $5 USD.  Here is the ice cream menu.

I hope there are real gold flakes on top.

Here are some pictures from the rest of the store.

Egyptian escalators.

Fancy elevators.

Giant bears.

After window shopping (and going to one of the world's nicest bathrooms where a man sprayed me with five different colognes) I headed to my next destination.

Hard to get St. Paul's in one picture.

Quick picture inside.

I couldn't afford to get in, but since the ticket counter is inside the building, I was able to get an idea of what it looked like.  I hadn't passed the no picture sign, so hopefully it was okay to sneak a quick one.

Then it was lunch time, so I headed across the street to the first restaurant I saw.

Conveyer food!

A few plates I snatched.

Yum.  On the downside, it was certainly the most expensive meal of my trip.  More than $30 for lunch.  That's more than I spent on food for a week in Thailand and Malaysia.

After lunch it was off to find London Bridge.

It turns out, it's not falling down.

See the bridge in the back with the rings?  That's not it.  That's the Tower Bridge.  London Bridge is actually pretty ugly.

The original one is in Arizona now.

London Bridge wasn't nearly as cool as London Tower.

Nice castle they have here.

I think I will go inside.

On second thought, the outside looks nice enough.

Admission prices in London are just outrageous.  If I spent $30+ USD for every single building, I'd hit my daily ATM limit and have no money for food.

I went to Brick Lane, which is famous for its curry houses.  I ate at the Brick Lane Curry House in NYC, so I wanted to find the street.  It turns out, it's sort of a run-down area.  In fact, vandalism is a problem.  At the public toilets, they have to stop it somehow.

Cameras are the solution.

Yes, that camera is pointed inside the stall to ensure you don't vandalize the toilet or write on the walls.  After the creepy bathroom experience, I headed back to the hostel to rest my feet.

Day 28 - London

Today was a long day with a lot of walking, but I covered quite a bit of the city.

I started out walking from the hostel to Kensington Park.  I found the Princess Diana Memorial Playground.

BREAKING NEWS: Children may be injured while playing.

 The park is nice.

Kensington Palace

Kensington Gardens

I then headed out of the park exit to Kensington High Street.  I found a Whole Foods!

It was a very nice Whole Foods.

I continued on until I found some nice looking buildings.

Westminster Abbey

Hi Ben.

UK Parliament building.

Methodist Church.

All of those buildings are steps from each other.  The fee to enter the Abbey was nearly $30 USD.  I declined.  It's sad to have to pass up such a famous building, but with all other tickets costing a similar amount, it's just unaffordable to pay that much.  London has plenty more to offer and I can spend my money on bottled water, which costs a fortune.

After this area, I followed all of the people in suits to their lunch.  It turns out that London businessmen get cheap sandwiches and eat in nearby parks.

Falafel baguette.

Eating in the park.

After lunch I headed to the giant wheel in the sky.

More than $30 USD to ride.  No thanks.

It wasn't worth the price, but it makes a good photo.  Then I went to someplace worth the price.

The National Gallery.

This huge art museum is completely free.  That was a nice change from everything else in the city.  The museum is in Trafalgar Square, which has some good views.

Trafalgar Square

Next up was a miniature version of Times Square, which I have learned that every city has.

Piccadilly Circus

Oops, I got my day out of order.  Before the lunch hour, I saw something really neat.

Buckingham Palace

Changing of the guard.

More changing.

It's quite the scene to watch.  I have some videos that do more justice to it.

That was a lot of sights for the day.  The sun doesn't set until nearly 9:30pm here, so maybe I'll fit some more activities in tonight.

Day 27 - Arrival in London

The hostel is inside of a pub.  In Bangkok, my hostel was in a coffee shop.  I have a feeling this will be louder.

The first task was to do laundry.  I had to wear dirty clothes today since there was no laundromat in Amman.  Dirty clothes from Jordan are very dirty, so it was miserable all day.  I found a laundromat nearby, but it closed in 30 minutes.  I raced there and luckily there was a 20 minute "fast wash" cycle option on the washing machine.  It wasn't cheap, but it worked.  I didn't have time to dry the clothes, but the synthetic materials dry quickly.

Local dry cleaner.

 $9 for 20 minutes!

I hung them back at the hostel and went for a pita across from the hostel.

Turkish doner kebab pita.  Tasty.

My clothes were almost dry when I returned and I talked to two Americans from Chicago about getting an MBA.  One of them had applied at the same schools I had.

I watched the semifinal of the Euros between Spain and Portugal before writing updates and going to bed.  Tomorrow I start my last city!

Day 27 - Flight to London

We arrived in Paris and I walked through immigration without even a question.  I went to the SCNF station to buy my Eurostar ticket.  I punched in all my information (including my youth discount for being under 26) and the machine told me the fare: 396 pounds sterling.

That's more than $600 US dollars.  I don't think I will be going to London by train.  Ryanair same-day tickets were a little better, but the times were terrible.  I considered staying in Paris or going somewhere cheaper than London, but then I thought up a great idea.  British Airways miles!

I went to BA.com and found myself a nice flight to London for only 4500 miles leaving in just under 2 hours!  Perfect.  Except that when I tried to book it, the BA website broke.  I called the local number, but they told me I had to call the US office since my account is registered in the US.  The US office was closed.  Not good.

I sat around the Paris airport until the British Airways office in the US opened and paid for wifi so I could make the call.  I wasn't able to make the flight I wanted, so I settled for the 4:45 departure.  I booked the flight and checked in 60 seconds later since I made the call from right in front of the counter.

BA doesn't have a lounge at CDG, but I used my Admirals Club membership to go there.  The Admirals Club had terrible food options, but at least there was free wifi.  I sat around eating pretzels and writing updates until boarding time.

The flight was less than an hour which was good.  The line for immigration was about the same amount of time which was bad.

Then I took the very expensive Heathrow Express right to my hostel which was across from the station.  $60 for a round trip ticket for a 15 minute ride.  Ouch!

Day 27 - Flight to Paris

I was picked up just a little after 5am outside the hotel by a Jordanian tae-kwon-do champion.  He was injured when an opponent broke his leg, so now he drives a car for foreigners so he can learn English.  He hopes to heal in time for the Olympics.

There was no traffic since it was 5am, but my driver decided to be the slowest driver I have ever seen in Jordan.  Instead of the 30 minutes quoted, it took an hour.  Now it was 6am and I had a 7:10am flight.  Without baggage and with a business class ticket, it should have been fine.  Instead, I found myself at a crazy airport with extra steps everywhere.  First, I had to go through a security screening to enter the airport.  Then, when I tried to use self check-in, but the machine ran out of paper.  When I explained this to the immigration guard, he told me to stand in the normal line with everyone else.  After moving 5% of the line in 10 minutes, I gave up on waiting.  I knew I would miss my flight.

I used the confidence trick again and it worked quite well.  "Hello, I am a Oneworld Emerald flying on a business class ticket for a flight that board in 15 minutes." "Oh, right this way sir."  Much better!  I had a boarding pass now, but the couple in front of me were arguing with the immigration officials and I was stuck behind them until 6:20.  Boarding was beginning as I rushed to the gate.  When I reached the gate, I had to go through security again.  I made it through to the bus area just in time to get on at 6:30.

I build a huge buffer in for every day I have a flight and somehow it always seems to go down to the wire anyway.  At least I made it on.

Below are the usual flight pictures.

Breakfast options.

Fruit and bread.

Salmon quiche, chicken sausage, hash browns, mushrooms, and hummus.

After that, I slept the rest of the flight.

On a fun side note, my seatmate was pretty concerning.  He was obsessed with the safety briefing card and asked a ton of questions.  Where is my life vest?  How will I open the door?  What is a water landing?  Is there a boat?  Where is the mask?

Who reads the safety briefing for 20 minutes?

This man had clearly never flown on a normal airline.  His passport was from Bhutan.