Travel stories

[MarkL]

Its the offseason and I miss traveling due to covid so here goes some interesting travel tidbits.

Prior to kids, my wife and I were particularly well traveled. Just as a BG-relevant example, Jinks won 5 MAC games as head coach. We were traveling during all five. For the 3 games at the end of the 2016 season, we were in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Korea. I remember catching one of the scores mid-day on a beach at Phi Phi Island with a Thai beer listening to the ocean waves. Good life. In 2017, one of the MAC wins we were just locally in Charlottesville, and the other we were in Punta Arenas, Chile having recently been on an island a few hundred miles from Antarctica taking photos of penguins. Our one international trip with kids was in Paris. We were a couple days from catching the BG / Notre Dame game from view of Notre Dame cathedral, a few months after the fire. It was a bit haunting looking into the blackened stain glass from as close as we could.

Anyways. One fun travel story. Bangkok in November 2016. We had an English speaking guide we hired for a few days. She was set to take us to all these tourist trap Buddhist temples. The resting Buddha, the gold Buddha, I lost track of how many. Prior to the trip, she said we would have to wear modest clothing, ie no exposed shoulders or knees. Obviously we honor religious customs so we packed up jeans and a light jacket. I only brought one pair or long pants, and I chose somewhat heavy jeans because it was cold November when we departed and arrived in the states, and we had a stop planned in Korea where it was going to be as cold as back home.

Here's the problem. I knew Thailand was going to be hot and humid. What I didn't know was we got an unseasonably hot and humid day. Near 100 F out, no clouds in the sky, humid, no wind. In long heavy pants. Walking probably 15 miles throughout the day. Drinking only bottled water as to not trust the public water.

Now SE Asia for anyone who has been there is always hot and humid. Thankfully that was the only day I dressed for an average Ohio October day when it turned out closer to July in the Bayou instead. But still, I think we did laundry every other day that trip just due to sweating through everything. I had to buy a few more shirts as to always have some fresh laundry available.

Also hot there, Thai food is SO much spicier in Thailand than anywhere in the states. Not just Thailand, though. Same went in Cambodia and Vietnam. But one nice benefit of loading all the food up with Thai red peppers is we never got sick. Between drinking water all the time, and the natural hotness of all the food, we managed to avoid sickness over there. Apparently many tourists make a mistake along the way and eat something bad, or drink something with dirty ice, and get sick. I believe those hot peppers as common in our meals as black pepper is in Texas kept us healthy.

I've got loads of travel stories. Food stories, sights we've seen, travel tips, and a few close calls too.

Any fun travel stories? I might put a few more on here until football season starts up.

[BillyLP]

Hilarious. My wife lived in Thailand for a little over a year and has shared similar stories about the unrelenting heat, both with temperature and spiciness. On the opposite end, when we were in Ecuador I ordered a meal and requested it spicy (per a friend's suggestion). The server warned that it would be very spicy and asked if I was sure, and I said yes. It had zero spice to me at all. They apparently have a pretty low tolerance for spice there and "spicy" was just a dash of cayenne. Unfortunately, the native food there wasn't much to write home about unless it was their pork chops or locro de papa soup. Absolutely beautiful country, though, and extremely affordable. Highly recommend.

[MarkL]

Another food story. In Valdivia, Chile, which is a gorgeous area with some great breweries. We had perhaps the best steak dinner I've ever enjoyed our first night there. Perfectly marbled steak.

Night two, we ... bafflingly ... decided to try something other than steak. So we went to a grill and found this pork dish. My Spanish isn't great so I understood that the dish was pork chops, belly, and a few other cuts.

The dish came out and at this point I thought to google what all we ordered. Yes there was a pork chop and yes there was pork belly. So far, so good.
Also, pork intestine and tongue. I've had both before, so we're also still okay.
Also, pork liver. Meh. And ... pork testicle.

Shoulda gone for another steak.

[MarkL]

Haven't done one of these in a while and the offseason is slow. On our babymoon, we did Germany and Portugal. Specifically Munich, Lisbon, Sintra, and Porto. First day in Munich was a Sunday and we realized as soon as we got to the hotel that our SLR charger was not working. So while my pregnant wife napped, I went out for a walk on a hot German Sunday afternoon. Checked Google Maps for various electronics stores in walking distance from the hotel and every one of them was closed. Turns out in Germany, if they don't sell either coffee or beer, they're closed on Sunday.

I came across all manners of biergardens, all of which were open on Sunday. Oh darn.

Next day we had a walking tour of the city. Prior to we needed breakfast. So naturally my breakfast was a white sausage with a pretzel. And a lager.

I'm definitely heading back to Munich sometime.

[TalonsUpPuckDown]

Here are my two Munich travel stories. On a beautiful spring Saturday morning while strolling through the Viktualienmarket I happen upon an open table at one of the outdoor gardens. It being 10am, in my broken German I order up a small beer (Kann ich ein kleines bier bitte haben?) The server quickly deduced I was non-native and proceeded to blow me friendly sh!t about ordering a small beer then busted my chops again when I went to pay (me: Kann ich die Rechnung bitte haben? him: Fur dein kleines bier?).

For dinner I stopped at a sidewalk restaurant in Weissenburger-Platz and went through the entire meal speaking only German. I was quite proud of myself until the server brought the check. I'm still not entirely sure how tipping works so she sees me struggling with the bill and in perfect American English says "Tip's not included with that." Yeah, I wasn't fooling anyone.

[MarkL]

Ha! The perfect English only comes out when it involves receiving money. Easy to love Germany.