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August 30, 2009
Still woke up at 3:00 AM
So the sleep supplement worked beautifully when I arrived in New York a month ago. But back in Seoul it failed me and I woke up at 3:00 AM. I tried to go back to bed around 5:00 AM but just didn't fall asleep.
So now I have to fight jet lag the old fashioned way - by staying awake a stupid number of hours so I end up going to bed at a normal time even though I woke up early. So far I'm doing OK. I watched a few episodes of Dexter, ate a few meals, went outside for a workout, and went out for a late lunch.
Now I visit the in-laws, get dinner, come home, do some yoga, and hopefully stay awake until 10:00 PM. I'd settle for 9:00 actually...
Speaking fo exercise outside and yoga later and all that, I want to reinforce what I said about exercise making me a better traveler. The other day I was walking around New York City all day. In the old days my back would have been killing me. Not anymore. I thought I had a bad back - turns out it was just a weak back.
To further complicate things there's an Ebay auction I hope to win ending in about 17 hours - if I get back on schedule I'll be up by then anyway.
August 29, 2009
Sleep aids for and after the flight
So normally after a long flight I am tired. If I arrive home at 10:00 PM I go to bed around 11:00 PM. The jet lag problems start when I wake up - usually at 3:00 or 4:00 AM. Then my whole schedule gets destroyed.
When I arrived in America in July I took Champion Nutrition Sleep Aid. I don't work for them or anything so this is an independent review. I slept 7 or 8 hours and had no problems adjusting to American time since I got off to a good start.
Just recently, I was flying from New York to Seoul. We left New York about 1:00 AM Thursday night / Friday morning and arrived after a 14 hour flight in Seoul at 5:00 AM. After the first meal on the plane my wife and I both took the Champion Nutrition Sleep Aid and we're convinced we slept much better on the flight than we usually do.
Now it's 10:30 PM in Seoul. I am tired and I'm going to bed. I'm taking Sleep Aid again. Hopefully tomorrow morning I'll be blogging about what a great night's sleep I had and how I'm back on schedule.
If you want to try an over-the-counter sleep medicine, the only two I've used are Champion Nutrition Sleep Aid (I feel weird plugging them so much in this article when I'm not getting paid) and Nocturnabol. They both usually work for me.
Has anyone else had success with some sort of supplement for sleeping through long, boring, uncomfortable flights or for overcoming jet lag? I've heard of people using melatonin - I've never tried just plain melatonin but I think all the sleep supplements have it.
August 28, 2009
One day in NYC = Megu MIdtown and Michael Jordan's Steakhouse
I didn't remember this post about restaurants in NYC until just now, but yesterday my wife and I spend the day in NYC and squeezed our activities between two very good meals.
I'll start with an outline of the day's schedule:
Megu MIdtown - I think we arrived around 2:00 for lunch. This was a really nice experience for $60 (2 lunch sets, 1 cappucino, tax) and I'll write a review soon.
We then spent some time in the UN building right across from Megu Midtown. They had a photo gallery called "Women and Water" and another gallery on atomic / nuclear weapons. We didn't do a tour but we did hit the gift shops where a UN charm (or pendant) for my wife's charm bracelet set us back $60. Ouch.
Next we headed to Century 21 Department Store near the World Trade Center Site. I got a Ralph Lauren sport jacket made in Italy for $70 and some Boss sneakers that look kind of like shoes (no laces) for $65. I'm really excited about the sneakers because I like wearing comfortable shoes when I teach.
Next we went to Times Square. The new pedestrian-friendly section is very nice although my father tells me that David Letterman doesn't like it. My wife found NYC charms for $5 each in a gift shop here. Luckily they didn't have a UN charm or I'd have cried.
Then we went back to Grand Central and had dinner in Michael Jordan's steakhouse. I think it was around 10:00 by now. Michael Jordan's Steakhouse cost us about $70 (2 8 oz. fillet mignons for $29 each and a side of asparagus for $9 or something). Not quite as good as Ruth's Chris in our opinion but still very good. And the location is not only convenient when you're taking the train but also great for people watching if you get the right table (which we did).
All in all, we had a wonderful day in NYC. Now we're packing to fly back to Seoul. Our flight (Asiana) leaves at midnight tonight so it'll be a couple days before I blog again.
August 26, 2009
Six Flags Hurricane Harbor water park in New Jersey
Yesterday my wife and I drove down to Hurricane Harbor in NJ with a few friends. I hadn't been to an amusement in America in a long time and though I had been to a water park in Korea in recent memory I was expecting a totally different experience in America.
Tickets are normally $35 each but my friend got them for $11 through his job (he's a news producer). We also split about $40 in gas, $15 for parking, $21 on a locker, $25 for the worst Papa John's pizza ever. Plus we spent $8 on a decent salad and $3.20 on a horrible cup of coffee. Plus we had snacks on the way there and on the way back.
So it's not cheap and the discounted tickets really helped. But we did have a full day of fun, we were in the park from around 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM and the park is open until 7:00 PM. So I'd have to say I got my money's worth.
My friend was also there last Tuesday and said the lines were so bad that they spent all day going around the "Take it EEE ZZZ" (maybe that's the name) river. Yesterday, Monday the 24th lines were not bad. I'd guess 15-30 minutes depending on the ride.
The rides are mostly water slides. There were about 10 that you went down on either single or double person tubes. There were 3 that you went down tubeless. One of those is, we're guessing, about 8 stories high and what looks like a close to vertical drop. Climbing the last few flights of stairs made us a bit nervous but after that none of the other slides worried us.
Anyway the slides were fun - I think we tried about 6 of them. They also had a wave pool and the lazy river thing I mentioned. We enjoyed both of those too. The wave pool was infested with kids who bump and kick a lot but what can you do? I'd love to go back to Bermuda and the almost empty Horseshoe Bay but that's not really an option.
All in all, Hurricane Harbor makes for a very nice day trip, especially if you can find discounted tickets somewhere.
August 23, 2009
NCL cruise got off to a bad start - confusion over specialty restaurant vouchers
I'm not quite ready for the entire review just yet, but I want to tell this story. We got on the cruise ship and we were ready for the wait to get into our rooms. We had bathing suits in our carry-on bags and we found a table in the shade outside in the back of the boat.
The plan was to eat and swim while waiting for the rooms to be ready. First I decided to go to restaurant reservations to confirm two reservations that my travel agent had already made. She had booked us as a group (there were 6 of us) and gotten us free reservations at Shogun, the Asian restaurant, and Trattoria, the Italian restaurant. These were normally $15 for Asian and $10 for Italian (per person of course).
So I go to confirm the times and they say I have no reservations for us. I say there's a problem - not only should I have reservations but they should be free. The lady looks at me funny, talks a bit more, and finally goes to get the manager.
The manager turns out to be a maitre d' and basically says he can make reservations but that's it. He's not very polite when I ask him what we can do to fix the problem. He doesn't want to do anything - he keeps repeating that I have to pay for the restaurants no matter what. I get the feeling that he thinks I'm some sort of scam-artist. I ask him to call my travel agent and sort out the mess for me. He says no. I say, "So basically you're saying I'm completely on my own and you won't do anything to help me?" The answer is yes.
The maitre d's name is Armed in case anyone from NCL is reading and wants to yell at this guy. Anyway, I call my travel agent and explain the situation. They can't talk to Armed so they say they will call NCL and get back to me.
A bit later they do get back to me. NCL group bookings confirmed that the 2 specialty restaurants should be free for all 6 of us and told the travel agent that they would email email the Norwegian Spirit (Armed I guess) and let him know.
I go back to the restaurant people and tell them they have an email coming explaining that the reservations should, in fact, be free. They say that for now they have to charge me normally but that once they get the email they can drop the charges. I make reservations for Shogun.
Soon we get into the rooms and I find a card that says something about Shogun. My sister also has this card. My parents do not. I also have a card for Trattoria. This one my parents also have but my sister does not.
We're not really sure what these cards mean and we really have no idea why I have both while my parents have one and my sister has the other. We forget about our troubles and have some fun on the ship and then go to Shogun that night. The food is excellent.
At the end I give the waitress my card. She's confused but I guess someone somewhere told her that the dinner was free. I sign the card and that's it. We left a cash tip because she didn't give us a receipt to sign like they usually do at specialty restaurants. She kept the card which turned out to be a credit voucher thing.
It would have been nice if Armed had said that if we were getting a free meal that there should be a voucher card in our rooms. That would have made him appear to be helpful (instead of being an ass) and saved us a lot of confusion wondering what those cards were for. Of course, we still wouldn't have known why I had 2 vouchers while the rest of us had 1 each for different restaurants...
The next day my parents got their card for a free meal at Shogun. My sister got the card for Trattoria.
A few days later 4 of us went back to Shogun because it was so good. They asked us to sign receipts from the first day of the cruise. We thought that was funny but it was no problem.
The last day of the cruise we all handed in our vouchers for Trattoria but they said we had to give them to reception. Kind of funny since before we had to give them to the restaurant but no big deal.
Anyway, that's my story. It seemed like a lot of people didn't know what they were doing. I was certainly one of them but then again it wasn't really my job to know what was going on there. It also seemed like the restaurant reservations people and the maitre d' were not real anxious to help me. Like I said before I felt like I was being treated like a scammer instead of a customer who needed help.
August 21, 2009
Back from the cruise
The review will come in a couple of days. It was a good vacation overall but my wife and I have decided to try another cruise line next time after 2 NCL cruises.
Today we visit Boston with the family. We go to our favorite Italian restaurant and hopefully do something else in Boston. I'm about to look up the address to Paul Revere's house. I'll blog more later.
August 16, 2009
Days 1 and 2 of NCL Spirit Boston to Bermuda cruise
I am on the NCL Spirit and tomorrow we arrive in Bermuda. I'm with my wife, my sister + brother in law, and my parents.
We're having a good time, but I don't think this review will be as positive as my NCL Pearl Seattle to Alaska review was. The Spirit seems a bit smaller and older. No big deal but some doors are very hard to open. When we got on the ship most toilets weren't flushing for an hour or two.
One of the biggest things we've noticed is that service at the restaurants is often very very slow. Every time sit down at a restaurant it seems we're in for a long wait. Some of us are not real impressed with the food although I've been liking mine. MY father says that the entrees are like appetizers and the appetizers are miniscule. Since you can order more than one entree that's not really an issue for me. Although you do need to order everything at once since the service is so slow. Although after a good mango, kiwi, and papaya salad tonight I asked for 2 more and they came quickly enough.
A few other small things I'll put down here before I forget. Some of the tiles in the pool have fallen off and the pool seems too small. Also the shower in our room is a little old because there's some palstic or something peeling off it that's a bit irritating.
I know it sounds like a list of complaints but we are enjoying the cruise. I've liked pretty much all the food although that's not true for everyone in my family. The pool emptied out around 5:00 so I did get to enjoy that. I can't swim very far anyway so a small pool is OK by me.
The only thing I've really hated is a pilates class I walked out on today. They set us up next to the engines so we couldn't hear the instructor very well. They took us to a spot where the sun was blasting me in the left eye. The wind was blowing my mat around. I lasted about 2 minutes. My wife and sister enduredf the entire class and both said it was basically just an easy stretch class - not a workout and not real pilates.
Anyway, just a few things I wanted to get down before I forgot. There was also a mix up with some free meals at specialty restaurants we were supposed to get because our travel agent got us a group deal but that'll wait for another day.
And don't worry about the list of complaints because I am having fun. It's hard to pinpoint the things I like. Swimming in the small pool, the food, working out in the small gym that has no pullup bar (the gym's not perfect but I like it), the company of course.
More later!
August 14, 2009
Briefly, two articles you may want to read
I'm leaving for my cruise tomorrow morning so I will keep this very very brief.
I did want to link to an article or two though. This one talks about swine flu and the travel industry. At least one company is hurting as a result.
Here's a vacation idea for a girl's getaway.
My next blog entry will be made from the cruise ship.
August 13, 2009
Help a reader with a European vacation plan: Barcelona to Milan and lots in between!
Here's a question that I'm sure someone here can help with:
I am an avid reader of your blog. I asked you for some help two years ago for a vacation to Vieques. I am writing again to ask for some advice on a trip to Europe. We(two people) will be traveling into Barcelona and departing from Milan. We will be there for two weeks. We will stay in Barcelona for a few days and then move on the southern France (esp. Nice, Cannes, Marseilles, etc.) then make our way to Milan. Particularly, I would like to get some recommendations for traveling between the cities.Here are some options:
Buying a 3 country Eurail pass with 5 times use.
Renting a car when leaving Barcelona (would need automatic transmission; also, is a US license ok?)
Taking a plane from Barcelona to Nice. Then another plane to Milan a few days later.
We will be traveling the last week of August through the first week of September.
Any other hotel, restaurant recommendations would also be greatly appreciated.
Best,
Janak
By the way, Janak, I've been to both Spain and Italy but not to Barcelona or Milan. I'm a bit jealous of your next trip. I'm sure it will be awesome!
August 11, 2009
Travelgrove meta search engine review
The following is a paid review.
When I first heard of Travelgrove I was reminded of Kayak because it was described as "a meta search engine that helps its users find the best deals on airfares, hotel rentals, car rentals, cruise deals and vacation packages."
I don't believe you can search for all that on Kayak so I was looking forward to a more comprehensive travel search engine when I started trying it out. I went to the vacation search engine, which I presumed would include flight + hotel packages and searched for a trip from JFK to Prague Sept. 18-25.
The results were pretty disappointing. There were some unrelated travel deals (for example Flight from Boston (BOS) to New York City (JFK) from $79). There were some hot deals and I thought the first must be related to my search: $219 & up -- Europe on Sale this Fall on Lufthansa. The other hot deals were not really close though. For example one was $625 & up -- Caribbean Iberostar Vacations w/Air, $150 OFF.
There was a button encouraging me to search Travelocity, Hotwire travel-ticker, and Bookingbuddy. But Travelgrove itself gave me no useful results.
I next went to the travel guides section, and figured I'd review the one on South Korea since I think of myself as kind of an expert. I was expecting something more detailed but the information I found was very general in nature. I don't think anyone could begin planning a vacation with this travel guide. They list a few tourist attractions but there's really not much there for travelers to read.
I next went to the community, thinking it would be a message board. They seem to be encouraging travel journals more than forums although the one I clicked on was actually a few sets of pictures (Salzburg and Vienna). I did see a link for forums but I got an error message so I was never able to check them out. Perhaps when they're fixed I can edit this review to include something on the forum community.
Waiting on a plane
This story about passengers spending 6 hours on a plane going nowhere reminded me of a couple of my own experiences.
First, back in 2001 when I was flying to Korea for the first time I spent over 20 hours on a plane. It's a 13 hour flight anyway, but Gimpo airport in Seoul (this was before Incheon became Seoul's primary international airport) was foggy so we flew an hour south to Jeju. Because of immigration and customs, we weren't allowed off the plane (although Jeju does have international flights).
So after 14 hours on the plane we had to sit there on the plane a few more hours in Jeju. Eventually we took off again and flew to Gimpo in Seoul. It was over 20 hours. Then I got to try to sort out the connecting flight to Jinju I had missed...
Second, my wife and I were flying to Houston to visit my sister in 2005. It was raining so our flight was delayed taking off. The captain was bragging about how other planes were turning back to refuel but they were smart and had tons of fuel so we could wait for clearance forever.
He did warn us that it was going to get hot because the plane was too old for him to put on the air conditioner while it was on the ground. That didn't make us feel safe. I think we sat on that plane about 3 hours and it did get pretty hot and uncomfortable.
Anyone else have a story about getting stuck on a plane?
August 10, 2009
Reader's Digest Off the Beaten Path Review
I like this book. The first thing I noticed was that it looked fancy, like a coffee table book designed to impress people but that's not really practical. It's a little too big and heavy to carry around with you as a guide book.
So I opened it up ready for some nice pictures and I did find those. But I was also pretty impressed with the content. They basically list some attractions in each of the 50 states that would be nice to see but that aren't considered "big" tourist attractions. I found some things in my home state of New York that I had never heard of and that sound pretty good.
To give you an idea, they have 28 things listed in the New York section, pages 238-247. I had heard of the Cloisters Museum in Manhattan (part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and the Museum of the City of New York, also in Manhattan (on Museum Mile I think - at least around there).
So I was pretty impressed - I mean that's2 out of 28 in New York, a state with which I'm pretty familiar. I looked at a few other states including California and Alaska. I'd heard of several things in Alaska - Glacier Bay was the highlight of my cruise a while back and Denali National Park was mentioned when I started working on a travel plan for Alaska. And everyone has heard of Juneau. Yet, because these things are in Alaska I guess I have to agree that they are kind of off the beaten path though they will certainly be crowded with tourists during cruise season.
Overall, while you might recognize a few names in the book, I imagine that most everyone here will learn about a bunch of new places and some of those new places will make it on to your list.
So there's good travel content, plus it looks much nicer than other books like 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. I mean I have that book too and it's interesting (maybe even slightly more interesting because it covers international destinations) but I think Off the Beaten Path has it beat. The travel info, although it only covers the US, is interesting and covers more obscure places plus the pictures, paper quality, and hardcover make it just a nicer book overall.
Plus if you buy it on Amazon, the price is about $20, only $7 more than the 1,000 Places book. I'm happy I have both, but Off the Beaten Path is for reading and impressing friends.
August 7, 2009
Things I'd like to do and places I'd like to stay in California
So I was reading Reader's Digest Off the Beaten Path because I'm going to review it tomorrow. It's going to get a good review. I mean it's $30 for a hardcover with nice color photos and good content while we're used to paying $20 or more for much lower quality (not hardcover) travel books.
Anyway, I was reading up on some California stuff and somehow I ended up thinking about that California travel plan a while back written by Kiwi Collection because they wanted to show off some of the best hotels in California. The general outline for that itinerary is San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Carmel by the Sea, San Luis Obispo, and LA.
Off the Beaten Path has the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park and Museum. Frankly it's hard to believe that any National Park is off the beaten track in San Francisco but who knows?
Then in Santa Cruz, we have Natural Bridges State Beach. The picture looks awesome though, again, it's hard to imagine a beach in Santa Cruz that isn't packed with tourists.
Anyway, I'm thinking that anyone could use this book to find some different things to add to a vacation itinerary.
Meanwhile, I wanted to make this entry a little longer so I checked out the Kiwi Collection's hotels in San Francisco. The St. Regis San Francisco says it is 5+ stars and $450 - $10,000 a night. That puts it in the category of some of the world's most expensive hotels, of which I have stayed at none.
But Kiwi Collection includes San Francisco hotels that coast as little as $140/night according to that page I linked to above. If you're curious, the hotels in LA don't go up to 10 grand even though they have their own 5+ star hotel in Hotel Bel-Air ($385 - $4,000/night).
Anyhow, between the pictures and travel tips in Off the Beaten Path and the lure of hotels I can't afford I should be pretty busy tonight.
August 6, 2009
Traveling to Ohio
I'll be the first to admit that I'm no expert on Ohio - I've only been there once and it was just a weekend. But I have an article here and a few other sites I want to share. Plus maybe you can give me some tips so I can create a nice Ohio travel plan for next summer...
Of course, Cleveland is the most famous destination in Ohio. Here's a good 36 hours in Cleveland from the New York Times that covers shopping, churches, the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame, and more. Click through to the second page of the article for some information on Cleveland's museums.
The other city that everyone will have heard of is Cincinnati. The big attraction here has to be the The Cincinnati Museum Center at Union Terminal, a railroad station that has seen most of its space converted to museums (and theaters and a library).
Canton has the Pro football Hall of Fame but I'm not sure if they have anything else.
Columbus is the capital of Ohio and also its largest city. There are several good parks/gardens here plus museums and performing arts. Personally, I'd like to see an Ohio State Buckeyes football game.
After a couple of days in Cleveland, you might try a scenic trip on a passenger train, the Hocking Valley Scenic Railway. There's also the Great Mohican Indian Pow-Wow on the Mohican Reservation. You can experience the food, music, crafts people, storytelling, drums, dance competitions & hoop dancers. This one obviously requires some planning - you have to arrive when the Powwow is going on.
For something completely different, (I blogged about this plus a few other weird vacation activities a few days ago) try out one of my hobbies, LARPing. This Ohio LARP (live action roleplaying game) sets up a medieval fantasy atmosphere where you can play a hero fighting evil villains or even the evil villain thwarting the heroes if you like...
August 5, 2009
Something a little funny
I don't usually notice these kinds of stories but my sister found this one about some Korean tourists who beat up an Italian thief so badly that the thief thanked police for arresting him.
August 4, 2009
I now blame NCL more than my travel agency for my past confusion about an upcoming cruise
A week or so ago I was complaining about having used a travel agent, but actually most everything was my fault. Not that I'm taking full responsibility - I also blame NCL for confusing me.
I had a little booklet from NCL with luggage tags and a bit of information. In there it said I needed edocs. What I didn't know was that the little book was what I needed - it was very confusing because it didn't look at all like edocs, certainly not like the ones I had last time I went on an NCL cruise.
I went to log in to NCL to print out my edocs but I needed a reservation number. It was on the little book but I didn't notice it (I read the book but it was hiding on the cover - who reads the cover?) so I called NCL. They wouldn't give me the reservation number because "only your travel agent can give you that." So they put me on hold, called the travel agency, came back and said that a travel agent would call me soon.
And that's what happened. The travel agent explained everything I needed to know about how that little book and my passport was all I would need on the day of the cruise. Good to know - would have been nice if NCL put that information in their book!
Here's a related story about how people are fed up with planning and booking vacations online. They still do it though so it can't be all that bad but the article implies that people don't trust travel agents by saying that people can't find ones they want to use:
"Travel companies (on the internet) expect the consumer to behave like a travel agent," he explained. "The question I always ask these guys is, 'Could your mother-in-law use your Web site without having to call you for help?' The answer is always no."I'm not sure I understand since I never really thought it was hard to find a travel agent. Maybe it's just hard to find one you like?In fact, Mr. Harteveldt said a growing number of consumers appeared to be interested in using an offline travel agency, if they could find one.
"The fact that there are more people now who would consider using a good offline travel agent is telling me people are saying, 'Enough already,' " he said.
August 3, 2009
Even normal vacations can be dangerous
Here's an article that reminds me of my recent post on dangerous vacation activities. I just returned from my live action roleplaying game. It involved running around a campground hitting people with foam swords. It's actually much safer than it sounds; injuries are very rare. But I'm always careful because I know that playing this game could potentially be more dangerous than standing in front of a classroom (my job).
So the New York Times article I linked to above is about staying healthy on vacation. They say that when traveling domestically, people don't give much thought to health:
"If you're going to Africa you know you need shots. If you're going to a cabin on a lake, health is typically not one's concern."Anyway the article follows with some common sense tips that most of us probably don't and won't follow. But maybe we should...But it should be.
"People on vacation tend to bend the rules," observes Dr. Kurt Frantz, medical director of the Mammoth Clinic in Yellowstone National Park, who treats thousands of vacationers each year. "They don't wear helmets, they drink too much -- that sort of thing." And then they get into trouble.