Advertisement
Published: November 13th 2005
Well, I'm still not back home, so you get another entry!
So, I was just sitting in my hotel room wondering how the bathroom fan turns itself on and off. Even after some ten days here, I don’t know. Is it on a timer, based on when you turn the light on/off? Have the Swiss perfected a stench detector? Perhaps there’s a humidistat? Regardless, I feel less than comfortable not being in complete control of this device.
On the topic of comfortable, I had a conversation with my friend Mats the other night. He has recently moved back to Zürich after spending a few years in the US. We got to talking about how it’d be great if you could pick the best parts of a place/culture to create the ideal place for you. So, this motivated me to come up with a sort-of “best of” list this morning, but not the sort that I’ve already posted. This is a list of some of the things that _I_ would choose if I could choose the best things, and many of these are little things, from the places and cultures that I’ve been to. It was kind of a fun exercise, and really, anybody could make this list. There are different little things about living in different parts of the US, different parts of the same city, really even each person’s experience of the same places and events can vary quite enormously…. well, enough philosophic, PC mumbo-jumbo, on to the list…
Enjoy,
-Cory
FOOD - Condiments in a Tube
They’ve got ‘em here in Switzerland, and I also saw this is Stockholm. We’re talking aluminum tubes of ketchup, mustard, and my favorite, mayonnaise. Tubes like you might find for artists’ paint. There’s nothing like being able to just squeeze out the proper portion of mayonnaise, onto your bread, or into your bowl. There’s no knife involved, and if you feel so, you lick the excess straight from the tube’s nozzle.
FOOD - Water from the Tap
There is nothing wrong with bottle water, especially when the local tap water is off limits for health or because of drastically bad taste. Heck, in Redlands I drank a lot of the bottled stuff because I lived in an old house, with old pipes, and also, well, moving there to the East Valley also taught me about chemical that I’d never heard of called perchlorate. Also, I’ll never forget the morning in Redlands when I could smell diesel fuel in the stream as I bent over the sink in my bathroom to brush my teeth! Later my suspicion was in fact confirmed by news story explaining how a fuel truck had overturned, leaking diesel into the river, in an area in a higher portion of the local watershed… nice.
Getting back to the tap, I see nothing wrong with bottled water, but it is completely frustrating to be somewhere where the stuff from the tap is perfectly safe, but you have to purchase bottled water every time you sit down at a restaurant for meal. This is how things are in Switzerland, and although they will bring you tap water if you ask for it, everyone will stare at you like you’re a little bit crazy. A little bit cheap, yes, but I wouldn’t say that I’m crazy. In places like France and Spain we found it more socially acceptable to order a carafe of tap water to go along with your wine/beer and meal.
HOTELS - A Special Place for your Room Key
I love this thing that they have in some hotels where you stick either your room key, or some part of the keychain, into a little slot in the wall, just inside the door of your room. Its brilliant! When you come in the room, just slide the key into the slot and suddenly everything comes on, your lights, the fan, etc. This, and also you don’t have to worry about misplacing your key somewhere in the room. I like this very much.
Of course, the downside is that it hot climates you can only run the AC while you’re in the room (maybe its not obvious, but you have to take your key with you when you leave the room, to lock the door from the outside…). We were able to work around this AC problem once in Thailand. This particular room had a slot where you were supposed to insert this card that’s attached to the keychain. Well, I just dug a phone card out of my wallet, slipped it into the slot, cranked the AC, and we took the real key with us while we took a little swim. Afterwards, we returned to a very, very chilly room, and okay, there’s an obvious environmental benefit to their system, but it felt good to have worked around this, just once, for the benefit of our comfort.
BATHROOMS - Here’s to Dedicated Shower Drainage!
Here’s to the bathtub or shower stall. Here’s to _not_ having one of these ‘Stockholm Showers’ as they’re sometimes called, where when you turn the water on, the entire bathroom is in fact the shower.
With this setup, when you shower, the toilet, the floor, and if you’re not careful your towel - or if you’re lucky, only your girlfriend’s towel -, and in the absolute worst case, the TP, can get completely soaked. Sure you, can be careful, and take preparatory steps to avoid this, but not matter what you do, the floor and toilet will be wet, and believe me, it ain’t drying too quickly afterwards either. Me, I prefer a tub or shower stall any day.
BATHROOMS - Taking a “Sit”
Call me attached to certain ‘Western’ comforts, but I like my toilet to have a seat. Ok, I agree that squat toilets can be more sanitary. For instance, when you use a public squatter, ideally no part of your skin ever comes in contact with the toilet surface (I did say _ideally_). However, well, I just prefer a good sit to ‘popping a squat’ any day of the week.
FOOD - Unique Treats
Okay, now we make that uncomfortable trip from the bathroom to the kitchen. Here in Zürich, I found these coconut flavored, chocolate covered granola bars at the grocery store, and I’m hooked. When I return to the US, I plan to stock up and carry back with me the maximum amount allowable by law.
TRANSPORTATION - ‘One and Done’ Subway Ticketing
I love the simplicity and convenience of city subway systems where every ticket is the same price, regardless of how far you’re traveling (at least within some ‘central zone’). Buy a ticket, shove it into the slot in the little gate thingy, and you’re into the system and can ride the train wherever you want. You don’t have to do anything further with your ticket, for instance to get out of the system at your destination, and you also haven’t had to spend the time to figure out how much it costs to go from your A to your B. This is great especially for tourists. I love the one-ticket system!
BATHROOMS - Gotta Go, Gotta Go, Gotta Go Right Now
Widely available, public toilets are the friend of anyone who has either small-ish bladder, an affection for coffee, or both. Surprisingly, on our trip, I have to give the best score for _accessibility_ to China. I actually give my lowest score to Sweden and Switzerland.
In China, toilets are everywhere and either free or cheap (mostly the latter), though as I’ve already documented, these are for the most part the most disgusting toilets that I have ever seen anywhere in the world. Contrast this with Stockholm and Zürich, where I’ve seen very, very few public toilets, and those that are available are incredibly expensive. I would have to give high all-around marks to New Zealand for having a good number of clean, free toilets. USA, well, we get pretty low marks.
I’m sure some of you will remember the Seinfeld episode where Kramer was out on the streets of New York when he had to go...?
TRANSPORTATION - “After you, no, after you…”
Pedestrian right of way is very much the case here in Switzerland. If you hover anywhere near a cross walk for only a few seconds, drivers will almost immediately stop to let you cross. This is the law on the books, and also in practice. If you do find yourself at a crosswalk in Zürich though, always remember, the cars stop, but the Trams (those big things with the bright lights on them after dark), they don’t.
Anyway, as a pedestrian, having the right of way is great. In China, we saw the complete reverse. Even in the case where cars are turning right after stopping at red light, traffic has the right of way over pedestrians crossing the street onto which the cars are turning.
It is my opinion that giving peds the right of way makes sense from a safety perspective, but also is a nice time-saver for walkers. You can cover ground pretty quickly when walking a few city blocks here in Switzerland. Of course, they still have these red/green light cross walks at major intersections that you have to wait for traffic to cross, but you still have it pretty good.
Switching again to the situation in China, I think perhaps that the sheer number of people, pedestrian people, in China might play into the equation. With so many walkers, if peds had the right of way, traffic could become perpetually snarled. So many people crossing the streets could bring traffic to a stand still… Of course, maybe it’s just physics. Remember momentum? I think the formula is that p = mv where p is momentum, m is mass, and v is velocity. Your average car has a lot more m than your average human, and a moving car can get a little bit more v than a person as well…
TRANSPORTATION - Just Checking In
The ability to be able check in for a flight potentially many hours before departure should be an unalienable right. Too many places that we’ve been on this trip, we’ve been unable to check in until 2, 1 ½ or even 1 hour before departure. In these scenarios, there’s basically a dedicated line to check in for a particular flight, and the line doesn’t open until they say that it opens. This setup just leads to a whole lot o’ line waitin’: Wait in the check in line. Wait in the security line. Wait in the line to board the plane.
Of course, I understand that logistical reasons why airports/airlines would prefer this check in process, especially at really large airports. Nonetheless, it can kind of stink to arrive 3 or more hours early, then have to sit and wait. Usually you end up sitting on the floor, resting your back against a hopefully soft-ish part of your bag, waiting for ‘them’ to open up the check in line. Or, if you’re in China, when check in does begin, the line disintegrates completely, and there’s free-for-all to push your way to the front to check in. I’ll tell you that there are not many places where I’m taller and I outweigh most of the population, but China is one of these places. Of course, I have also observed that the lower one’s center of gravity, the better one’s potential to push.
Anyway, I’ll take the ‘one like to check in for economy flights on Airline A’ any day, especially if I’ve arrived early…
TRANSPORTATION - Having two exits off of a plane rules!
I’ve had this happen to me once on another trip, and once on this trip. Your plane lands, and they open up both the front and rear doors to exit the plane. It’s great! People in the front go forwards, and people near the back go.. yes, you’ve got it, backwards. You walk down the steps outside the plane, get on a shuttle (ideally there are two), and in minutes you’re at the terminal. The plane is empty in no-time flat. This is a great system.
TRANSPORTATION - Leave it to the Germans
Here’s one vote in favor of intelligently designed airline seat pockets. We saw this on our Haparg Lloyd (discount German airline) flight from Munich. Maybe this design was a natural adaptation to the generally tall German cliental, but the seat back pockets on this plane were not in their “usual” place.
Instead of the seat pocket being at knee level, with the in-flight magazine, safety card, air mall catalog, and “blow chunks bag” stacked top on top of each other, altogether subtracting an extremely valuable 1 ½ inches of critical legroom (and believe me, I’ve noticed), instead of this, the Haparg plane’s seats had pockets higher up, behind the fold down tray table. This is absolutely brilliant! More room where we “kneed” it.
SHOPPING - Tag it Yourself Produce
I like tag it yourself produce shopping. You just bag it, weigh it, tag it, and throw it in your cart/basket. Then, when you get to the front to check out, there’s no time wasted weighing and scanning. By this point I’m usually pretty hungry and I just want to get home and tear open that box of coconut flavored, chocolate-covered granola bars…
What I don’t like, and can see this wherever, some places in the US included, are stores where you have to bag your own groceries at the checkout. I say that you get Timmy or Jen, whatever teenager you’ve got, get him/her off the couch/phone/Xbox, and have them come into the store to get paid something close to minimum wage to put my groceries in some bags.
CURRENCY - Cash and Carry
I much prefer cash to coins. I hate coins because they’re loud, heavy, and are always falling out of my pockets. Give me China where coins are almost non-existent. In fact, I believe that Chinese may have invented paper money.
In European countries, and also in Canada, there’s introducing more and more high-value coins. Believe me, I’ve stayed awake at night fearful of this growing trend. The values of these coins are so high that you just can’t ignore change anymore. You get a couple Canadian loonies, or British Pound coins in your pocket, and you’re talking about a good amount of dough.. okay, at least in the Pound case you have something of value ; )
I do agree that coins do work pretty well in vending machines, to purchase train tickets for example, or food. Perhaps what I need to do is to find some alternative storage strategy for coins, something other than my pockets or wallet. Perhaps I need go out and pick myself up a man purse or something.
ARCHITECTURE - Metal Shutters
Ahh, architecture, some say this highest form of art. Well, in Switzerland I’ve discovered an architectural element that I’m very found of. This is the metal shutter door that you can crank up or down outside your window. They have these in the office here in Zürich, as well as in my hotel, and they’re absolutely great for shutting out bright sun in the office, or disturbing light at the hotel.
I think it would be a great idea to outfit many of the campus buildings at my former company with this feature. These buildings have little or no roof overhang, are often exposed to incredibly intense, hot sun, and the smallish offices can get incredibly hot. Just slap some of these roll-up/roll down shutters on the outside, and each person can then control they’re own comfort. Maybe this isn’t what they’re about though…
HOTELS - Lobby Cams
Sherry and I stayed in a hotel in Bangkok that had a TV channel where you could watch the hotel’s front door, lobby, and front desk. I guess this is for not only bored voyeurs, but also so that you can wait for a friend to arrive downstairs from the comfort of your room. I suppose that this channel would also be useful were there to be a fire or some other circumstance that would necessitate evacuating the building. People watching this channel would certainly have a head start, just look for the people, probably the front desk staff first, streaming to the exits. Then you know, it’s time for _you_ to run.
HOTELS - Mit Fruhstuck/Con Desayuno
Okay, I know that it is built into the price of the room, but I love the free hotel breakfast, especially the good ones. You get this a lot. It is common in Europe, we’ve seen it elsewhere on our trip, and in the US it is quite common as well. I even have a friend that’s been known to choose a hotel/motel that is _close_ to a Hampton Inn, so that in the morning, he can just walk or drive over there for a free, better than average breakfast.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.105s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 11; qc: 55; dbt: 0.0532s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Tom
non-member comment
A Doctors visit in order?
Cory, if the fan has been going on for 10 days straight and it is activated by stench... see a doctor. You need help.