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| 31st December 2009 thecrashpacker | go! - From: Murder on the Phi Phi express but keep your head screwed on as you do and be aware of the effect you are having as you pass through the world. tourism is commerce, travel is exchange. Exchange ideas and respond to new things that come your way, don't stay in the rut. Spread your dollars and share your ideas. Find things that aren't in the book. |
| 29th December 2009 TeHA | WOW....and I'll be there soon?!?! - From: Murder on the Phi Phi express Hmmm, just wondering if it's really somewhere I want to go now on my 4 month backpacking trip throughout SE Asia, which starts after the new year?!? |
| 28th December 2009 thecrashpacker | bit sad really, - From: Murder on the Phi Phi express and a bit rushed. The situation is still going on, I'll post up anything I hear thanks for the responses |
| 28th December 2009 Marcoelitaliano | same feelings - From: A Wing and A Prayer I'm with you 100% in this. When I started travelling in the 90s there were no low cost flights. There were simply two ways of moving around: either flying and paying the (right) price for the sort of (good) service you would get, or travel via bus or train, far cheaper options those days, and move overland. Either way it was a worhty experience. The introduction of lowcost flights simply barbarized the art of travelling. Though, I'm afraid, they are simply another expression of the sad times western world lives nowadays. And I'm afraid -again- that eliminating the idea of lowcost flights would not solve the problem. They are merely a symptom of something bigger. Marco |
| 28th December 2009 Mell | - From: Murder on the Phi Phi express Contratulations on your high blog viewings Crashpacker and Happy Christmas! :) If you have time, come and tell us the secret of your success on http://www.travelblog.org/Topics/21363-1.html |
| 28th December 2009 Krista Lundgren | Woah - From: Murder on the Phi Phi express Woah... this is a crazy story. Thanks for sharing! |
| 28th December 2009 Dave Fosdal | wonderful - From: Murder on the Phi Phi express best writing I have ever seen on here-- thanks!! |
| 26th October 2009 thecrashpacker | odd - From: Indian summers in the UK and strange sometimes |
| 22nd October 2009 barnaby davies | Very enjoyable - From: Indian summers in the UK You've hit the nail on the head. We're a funny lot.. |
| 22nd September 2009 beccajose | Wow... - From: A Wing and A Prayer I get it crashpacker, i get what you're talking about. it was just an idle thought in your head that you wanted to get out. Don't worry, you don't need to be 100% correct or worry about being hypocritical, people like me will still nod along as we read your blog and shake our heads as we read the comments from people that are trying to pick apart your thoughts... :) |
| 22nd August 2009 thecrashpacker | - From: A Wing and A Prayer Thanks - I have never denied being a hypocrite! I'm fully aware of my ability to hold 2 opposing thoughts in my head at the same time, and I pride myself on having contrasting beliefs and actions. I despise drinking alcohol yet I still enjoy getting drunk. I feel grotty after eating a huge meal, yet still keenly gorge myself on food. And I love being able to get around the world quickly and cheaply yet i also believe there are downsides to it. If we can reduce carbon emissions by 2%, then brilliant - its a start, and then we can let the cows fart in peace! Many small towns have suffered recently after budget airlines offer to use them and negotiate cheap landing rates and demand investment in infrastructure, and then pull out as soon as they feel like it. I'll give you that Ryanairs fleet are all new. They had those rockhard seats specially designed to cram everyone in, took out the seat pockets and fixed unique yellow and blue advertising boards all over the place! And there is someone stopping me from flying expensive business class - ME! I was musing that this may be a 'social fad' of cheap flights and in the future this option may not be open to any of us... Perhaps then we will "experience the world" in a different, maybe more leisurely way, and i'm sure you will be enjoying it along with all us clueless people. |
| 18th August 2009 tw | Interesting thoughts - From: A Wing and A Prayer Thanks for your most interesting thoughts on cheap flights! It's very rare indeed to find such a combination of total cluelessness and hypocrisy in one blog post. "air travel is, as we all know, the number one killer of the environment." Ehmm, no. According to the IPCC (you can read their complete report on the internet), aviation is responsible for around 2% of the world's emissions of climate gases. If there were no flights at all between 1990 and 2050, they estimate that this would have resulted in the planet being around 0.05 degrees cooler in 2050. I don't think this sounds like a disaster. "they hold small cities to ransom with their demands". I think rather they benefit small cities, which before cheap flights were not on the tourist map at all. "Flying rust buckets waiting to crash". The budget airlines typically have much newer airplanes than the so-called "decent airlines". Ryanair has the newest fleet of all airlines. "I reckon we could all afford to pay green taxes of three or four times what our tickets cost us. We cant afford not to for our planets sake, but it would also make us value our travels more, we would appreciate the trips that we had to save up for.." If you are so keen on paying a lot for your tickets, nobody is stopping you from flying business class on the "decent airlines". I can assure you that I value all the trips I made for next to nothing with Ryanair, just as much as if I had paid more. In fact, I value them more, the less I pay. It is especially pleasing to know that I am annoying all the sad, clueless hypocrites who want to deny everybody else the opportunity to experience the world. Keep up the good work! :-) |
| 17th August 2009 thecrashpacker | - From: A Wing and A Prayer still stung me for forty quid - anyway its hell on earth so i don't care how i spell it! Stan-shed is what it feels like. |
| 17th August 2009 thecrashpacker | - From: A Wing and A Prayer People do and will choose the most attractive option based on price and time... but the prices are so stupidly low now, we end up choosing unpleasant and harmful flights. Maybe we'll look back at these times and laugh/shudder about our attitude to flights and other 'junk' areas of our society... |
| 17th August 2009 bob | - From: A Wing and A Prayer Hi You wrote "Ryanair stung me for forty quid to check in at the Stanstead airport" I believe its spelt Stansted Thank you |
| 17th August 2009 Mell | - From: A Wing and A Prayer I am not sure you would change all that much, just because it would take you longer to reach your destination. If it had the benefits of ''sun will feel warmer, the sea fresher, the change in cultures will taste more exotic and my eyes will open wider'' etc, wouldn't you be choosing it over flying, despite the cheap flights. I think, people will choose the most attractive options available at any time and it won't make too great a differerence to how they think or behave. But, I am hoping the environmental issues will cause the boats to become cheaper so I can do more overland travel, when I have the time. I fancy getting a perspective on how big the world is. Flying makes it seem much smaller, I think. |
| 16th August 2009 monika | great blog - From: A Wing and A Prayer I just want to say what a great blog you wrote, i might use some of your frases! I travel a lot, move a lot, but still i agree with you...no more cheap flights:) Fantastic!! |
| 9th August 2009 Mell | - From: Exit through gift shop... HaHa! I didnt read the blog yet, but I love that picture of the rickshaw. :) |
| 15th July 2009 thecrashpacker | yeah, - From: Tonys Shoestrings i bet we won't be flying around in planes as much, and i reckon some places will over-develop and others will be more and more ignored, as people follow the herds... |
| 15th July 2009 Ali | Great Blog... - From: Tonys Shoestrings I wonder how we'll look back at the current state of travel in 30 years... |
| 7th July 2009 Mell | - From: Tonys Shoestrings I think it is only sensible to read guide books. Why would we choose to avoid benefitting from the experience of others by avoiding guide books. Love the blog though. :) Those old ones have to be fun to read. Hopefully, I will get my hands on some. Wish I had a chance to visit Samui in 1981. They seemed to be tearing the whole place up, for the sake of providing fancy facilities for tourism when I was there a few years ago. It is no longer hippy heaven, and that is for sure. |
| 6th July 2009 thecrashpacker | - From: Tonys Shoestrings Read travelblog, and ask bloggers questions, then chat to travellers you meet on the road...You'll have a great time and make new friends |
| 6th July 2009 Graciela | Information - From: Tonys Shoestrings I think guide books are useful but to a certain extent. I mean, you have to experience things on your own. Always. Lonely Planet guides are useful but sometimes not updated. I am going to SEA next months and I am reading travelfish.org which is excellent. Once I will be back I will let you know what it was like. Love, Graciela from Argentina. |
| 1st June 2009 thecrashpacker | i agree! - From: Zanzibar to Killi Sam, you are absolutely right, I should have booked a ticket properly, and i tried a whole number of places, looked on the internet for contact numbers of the airlines, even emailed people in the UK to try and book me one from there. I'm not advocating the way that everyone takes a cut, but it seems sometimes unavoidable, and this time i was wondering if maybe some of my money was filtering into the local peoples pockets. Hopefully people who needed it. On the whole, i found baksheesh/bribing/tipping a lot less common in zanzibar and tanzania than many other places round the world |
| 1st June 2009 Sam Ngina | Feeding the corruption - From: Zanzibar to Killi Your illuminating story clearly shows how the "baksheesh" system is fed by lazy mzungus such as yourself, who couldnt be bothered to follow common code and practices by simply booking your flight at a reputable travel agents. What did you expect when you bought your "ticket" off the shack on the beach? Little wonder you took off at all! Tanzania could do better to tighten rules and disallow such practices if only to stop blase travellers such as yourself from thinking they can get away with anything if they flash their Western dollars about. It takes two hands to clap - in your case, you (and others with similar mentality as yourself) are the main reason of the baksheesh system existing in the first place. If you had used common sense and booked your ticket at a travel agents like the other tens of thousands, you wouldnt have had to worry about getting on a plane at all, and you wouldn't be fanning the baksheesh system Shame on you! |
| 1st June 2009 Ali | Baksheesh - From: Zanzibar to Killi I've not experienced this first hand - but friends have told me: "the worst thing about the baksheesh system is that it works so well". A similar thing was said in Shantaram (Novel by David Gregory Roberts) |
| 31st May 2009 thecrashpacker | - From: Zanzibar to Killi i was chilling before climbing Killi. When we returned to fly back to london, I was prepared for the worse. They tried to tell me I had to fly to Uganda and connect from there! I think they make it all up as each plane comes in! G&T and sunsets are great on zanzibar, nearly didnt leave! |
| 31st May 2009 PA Leslie | Hi, fun to read your entry! - From: Zanzibar to Killi I was in Zanzibar last summer. Arrived there without a ticket to leave the place. Guess we ended up in the same office...where I went to buy mine. Was a little easier...till few days later I show up with a massive bag...no bribe...but no charge...I just told him..I know...just on a fun long trip. But when it comes to funny airline...did fly few days before from Abu Simbel to Cairo...my name on the ticket was not matching my passport...who cares....and it didn't even match on the boarding pass...and the security check...a joke...this just few miles from Sudan...and on an airline partner of Star Alliance...quite a joke. What did you do in Zanzibar...I spent few days diving and enjoying G&T and sunsets.... |
| 19th May 2009 thecrashpacker | - From: Everyone loves DUMBO i reckon theres more to discover - new york is all about change |
| 19th May 2009 TravelQueen | a bit jealous - From: Everyone loves DUMBO I just came back from a couple days in NYC, wish I found, or knew about DUMBO! Love the sunset pics and your fun style of writing! |
| 18th May 2009 thecrashpacker | everyone loves an acronym - From: Everyone loves DUMBO cool, i'm sure these places are made up randomly - our taxi driver had no idea what we were talking about, in fact he called it a totally different name. I've decided to call where i live in London an tongue-twisting acronym too - something like BroHoFo... |
| 18th May 2009 thecrashpacker | thanks! - From: Everyone loves DUMBO i'm just having some fun and enjoying writing about it... looking for ideas of new places to visit... any ideas? |
| 18th May 2009 Maria | Love this... - From: Everyone loves DUMBO I really enjoyed your writing, your photography and your perspective. Thanks for the great take... |
| 17th May 2009 Kathleen | Acronym Correction - From: Everyone loves DUMBO I believe it's "District Underneath the Manhattan Bridge Overpass" - not "Down Under". |
| 2nd May 2009 Cookiek | Hi - From: Just keep driving! I agree, there does seem to be a real snobbery in the UK about coach/train travel in general. I have traveled across China and Australia by train and everyone I know thinks thats great, but when I mention that I want to take and overnight sleeper from London to Fort William I get some very quizical looks! I am plannng a trip through Europe and into Russia by coaches/trains and when I metion it to people, they react like its not 'real' traveling, people do see it as inferior to flying. I think it is small country syndrome, (either that or people have deep scars from bad National Express trips as kids!) it doesnt seem to exist anywhere else in the world that I have been. Very strange! |
| 18th April 2009 thecrashpacker | update - From: Theatre on the Frontline thanks, those were my thoughts after wandering into the demo and out through the other side, but it appears that the police here are being prosecuted for excessive force and possibly manslaughter after the protests. In the recent Thailand protests, 2 people died but the police/army have not been properly investigated or being charged... I guess one thing about England is that although it is not 100pc fair, it is a far sight fairer than most. The news over here is making a massive thing out of these charges. Its amazing though that with so many cameras recording every angle of the protests, there are only a couple of bits of abusive footage, therefore, hours of perfectly friendly, non abusive protesting. Not the ugly, demonic scenes that the news wants to project. |
| 17th April 2009 Vinovat Sudarynya | Thanks. - From: Theatre on the Frontline I really enjoyed this blog, as I do all of your writing. Your observation about "protesting as posturing" is spot on. J. |
| 24th March 2009 thecrashpacker | ha! - From: Seasonaires at Sixty miles an hour cheers! |
| 24th March 2009 Kate | Spot on! - From: Seasonaires at Sixty miles an hour I am Aussie, I did a season in Whistler, and you hit the nail on the head with your article. Superb piece of writing! It brought back a lot of memories! K |
| 24th March 2009 Jo Trouble | - From: Seasonaires at Sixty miles an hour You made this Kiwi snowboarder laugh :-) |
| 3rd March 2009 LukeIRL | heh - From: Generic Ko-San Blog entry It speaks volumes! |
| 2nd March 2009 liliram | Awww.......... - From: Dead Leg IV No painkiller? Ugghhh......can't imagine the pain! |
| 2nd March 2009 harshal | nice - From: Dead Leg IV nice blog |
| 2nd March 2009 Sanjana | Great - From: Dead Leg IV Great Experience..So thrilling and exciting.. http://www.floridabeachestorivers.com/ |
| 1st March 2009 generationk | haha - From: Generic Ko-San Blog entry one of the most entertaining blog entries on this site |
| 20th January 2009 Incognito | WOW - From: Dead Leg (1) Really like your style of writing, I just want to carry on reading. |
| 2nd December 2008 thecrashpacker | - From: Dead Leg (1) don't know yet - possibly four - i'm just scratching them out when i get a chance and looking back through old things i wrote at the time. I may go back and flesh them out as i discover old diaries, notes, tickets, things like that. Friends keep reminding me of stuff that happened that i forgot about too! thanks |
| 2nd December 2008 Vinovat Sudarynya | Thanks. - From: Dead Leg (1) Superb writing and a fantastic story - thanks. How many blogs will there be in the Dead Leg series? J. |
| 29th November 2008 thecrashpacker | update soon... - From: Dead Leg (1) yup, it's a pretty crazy story, and there's more to come. It happened a long time ago and i'm using TB to get it down, bit by bit. |
| 20th November 2008 Ali | Just read 14 of your entries... - From: Dead Leg (1) Fantastic - I've enjoyed every word - how did I end up here? - I don't know but I will be following from now on. |
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