OMG My Cancun Cab Driver is High!

Mexico is a beautiful country.  I've spent about six weeks exploring the Pacific and Atlantic shores of this great country.  Hands down the best food I've had in my life has been in Mexico:  quesadillas in Oaxaca with pumpkin flowers embedded in the cheese, chuiquilines (nachos on steroids), and ceviche in the Yucatan!

Isla de Mujeres

I visited the Yucatan with my little sister, and we started our journey in Cancun.  We were staying with a friend in the suburbs of Cancun.  We used shared taxis and buses to get around the area.  We spent our first day lounging around the resort for La Joya, we didn't pay, we just walked in like we owned the place...more or less...probably less.

The Joya resort at Sunset

After a leisurely dinner on the Cancun strip, reminiscent of the lights of Vegas, we took a bus to get us back to our suburb.  One of my favorite things to do when I travel is use the local transit.  Whether it's a shared taxi with 5 people sitting in the back of Corolla or bullet train headed to Beijing - I love it all.

It was time to catch a taxi back to our friend's home.  We hailed a cab down, and he steadily came our way.  The inside was decorated with tacky neon lighting.  I speak Spanish, but just in case, I had a slip of paper with our address on it.  He looked at it briefly and started driving.  My sister noted to me in Urdu that something was off about the way he was driving.  Then she pointed out that he had gone in a circle.  So in an effort to assist him, because my Spanish just wasn't the best in terms of directions, we called our friend.

Ferry from Cancun to Isla de Mujeres

They spoke for at least five minutes.  The cab went this way and that.  Finally, the driver handed the phone to me.

"Ummm you should get out of that cab, the driver is stoned.  You're in the right neighborhood."

So we respectfully departed.  The driver didn't take payment and sheepishly drove away.  We stumbled through the sleep Cancun suburbs and finally found the house.

Amazing Street Address on the Cancun Strip

Lesson learned:  Pay meticulous attention to your landmarks.  It may come in handy around midnight when you're stumbling around in a foreign land.

Lesson learned:  Pay very careful attention to where your driver is going...

Getting Paddled in Venice with Google Maps

Venice or the Venetian in Vegas?

When one normally thinks of Venice, they think of gondolas, canals, romance, and maybe pasta.  One rarely ever associates the lovely city with harsh brutal winters and homeless on a rampage, but as my story will illustrate, both of these can happen.

So word of advice, do not get to Venice after business hours.  The sleepy canal village falls to sleep, shocker, after dark.  Making navigation next to impossible.

Speaking of navigation, google maps works pretty well in Europe, until it doesn't.

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We took an evening train into Venice from Rome.  When we got to the train station in Venice we took a bus over to the touristic Venice, because this is where we had booked our hotel.  Once we got off the bus, we turned on google maps and tried to locate our hotel.  Carrying a heavy duffel bag and a tote, my shoulders were aching, not to mention I was exhausted.  My friend also had a rolling bag and a handbag to carry.  Rolling bags are a little tricky to navigate along the cobblestone, but definitely beats carrying all that weight on your back.  The hard part is when you have stairs in your trajectory, which I assure you, there are plenty of in Venice.

So we would walk a hundred yards, and the blue ball would disappear from the map, and tell us to walk into the water at other times!  After speaking to hotel receptionist, we decided to follow a different route.  We learned at 3 am that everything in touristic Venice is connected by ferries.  We took a ferry to the stop we deciphered from the map the receptionist had drawn from us.

Looks pretty in the day time...very confusing at night time!

Once we got off the ferry, we were smack dab in front of a huge church and alleyway that stretched on forever.  After inspecting all of the forks in the road, we chose the alley.  The thought did cross our minds to sleep in that church in 15 degree F weather (Celsius = pretty fucking cold).

We called our hotel once or twice.  A sleepy woman who spoke no english came to the phone, and offered no assistance to our american cries.

Finally we found a recognizable landmark on the receptionists' map and found the lovely bed and breakfast.  We earned that sleep!

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We took the train out of Venice again.  We recognized that we were carrying too much weight, and needed to mail somethings home to get it off of our backs, literally.  So I went searching around the train station and finally found a post office, I was overjoyed.

As I approached this building, right outside the station, I noticed a homeless woman sitting outside of it.   She was talking to herself, and maybe me.  I couldn't make out the Italian hours of operation listed on the door, as I looked past her.  I made a circuit around the fascade of the building.  As I was returning to the station, she jumped up and ran after me with a large piece of plywood.

I picked up my pace.  Not quite running, not quite walking.  She paddled me so hard on my bottom with that plywood that my butt was sore the next day.  I started to sprint away, as she continued to utter profanities at me.

St. Marco's Square

There was a crowd that had gathered.  Joy!  A gentleman even let out a chuckle.

I sheepishly returned to the train station and explained the impossibility of what just happened to my traveling companion.

Lesson learned:  pack light

Lesson learned:  don't hover around homeless people, especially in a foreign land when they are screaming at you

Enjoying Venice, finally!

Huatulco, Mexico and When Tourism Goes Bad

Overlooking one of the resort beaches

I love buying a ticket to a far away exotic land, and escaping from the routine.  When I come back home, I'm thankful for many of the conveniences and opportunities we have as Americans.  One such trip that made me thankful to be back home, was my visit to Huatulco.

Prettyful!

I went in June, peak of the summer season.  While I didn't travel very far to get there, I was already staying in Puerto Escondido for the month, I still used up a weekend going here.  I made a day trip out of it.

Our cab driver took us to a beautiful cliff where we overlooked the pacific in all of its glory.  This is where the trip started to turn south.

We then drove over to the main beach resort area.  It was over crowded and no where to sit.  We grabbed a drink at an overpriced restaurant on the beach.  About a million people approached us, to buy this or that.  Normally in Mexico, I'm not approached that often by the local merchants - I think it's because I look Mexican.  My traveling friend here was of Irish origin, and stood out like a sore thumb.

overpriced but pretty

We finally caved and purchased a boat ride when the 10th person approached us about it.  It was a quick loop around the bay, I have to admit - it was quite stunning.  Finally we made our way over to the main town, which was dead.  There was no one there, which was a little depressing.

We ended the afternoon at a beach front resort.  Which from the distance didn't look too bad, but when we got close, there were little bits of garbage in the ocean.  Furthermore, there were lots of weird bugs on the beach.  I felt pretty gross after getting out of the water.

Beach El Stinky

So my advice, if you find yourself in southern Pacific Mexico, there are way better places to go to than Huatulco.

How to Cut the Line at The Vatican

We approached the Vatican on Christmas Night.

So today we have seen St. Peters Basilica.  We were really lucky and a bit reckless and stupid taking a ride from a complete stranger from a bus station near our place of residencia in the north western outskirts of town!  We thought we were in trouble when we saw unchartered territory, but he was actually taking us to our final destination and not the next train station that we had on our itinerary.  He took us all the way to Vatican City, nice guy!  But probably wouldn't ever hitchhike again, at least now I can say I've done it!

Then we got inside St. Peters Basilica and visited the Michalengelo's masterpiece of Mary holding Christ after he was taken down from the cross.  After words we visited Castle Saint Angelo after the recommendation from a friend.  The castle itself was not so impressive, but it housed a collection of paintings that had been stolen than recaptured by the Italian Carabinieri, or their version of the CIA.  I spotted some whatever Van Goghs, Renoirs, and a Raphael.  The guns there were huge ranging to nine feet in length.

Thus far we've gotten pretty good at using public transit and standing there and looking pretty.  God I cant imagine doing something like this when Im an old fat turd.

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In the main Piazza in front of the St. Peters' Basilica

Yesterday we finally saw the Sistine chapel. We had advanced booking from the Internet and were able to get in without waiting in the monstrously long ticket line. I can honestly say it was probably one of the most amazing works of arts imaginable, I mean the museum houses many masterpieces. After the final judgement I really liked mostly all of the Raphael rooms, they were immaculate. And then finally we saw the modern galleries, they even had some Van Goghs and Dalis.

Then after that we had gone to a local Italian restaurant and finally had some lasagna. It wasn't all that.

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HOW DO CUT THE LINE AT THE VATICAN?

So like I said earlier we had already purchased and printed our passes at an internet cafe.  We read about a secret entrance from the museum and gift shop at the end of the Vatican complex.  You will note that the line to get in is about a mile long and wraps around the Vatican.  We didn't wait at all.  Thank god for technology.  

The only difference in our experience was that we started our tour of the Vatican complex at the end, and worked our way backwards.  This is hardly any reason to wait in a line that is a mile long.

Walking along the River in Rome

Allergic to the Mediterranean

Piazza Duomo in Catania - Allergy central

I've spent a lot of time around the Mediterranean along several different cities.

The first time my immune system met the mediterranean was in Spring of 2007.  I was fortunate enough to have no symptoms of allergies (allergic rhinitis) while I was there.

My next rendezvous with the mediterranean was during my Sicily, Italy, Paris trip.  They didn't start as soon as I landed.  I spent my first 2 days in Palermo, sneeze free.

The night I got into Catania I was also fine.  It wasn't until a day of sightseeing the following day.  So I guess Day 4 of my European travels.  And when the symptoms began that night, they were relentless.  I could barely keep my eyes open, it's as if the light would trigger another sneeze.  My nose quickly was becoming raw from blowing it all the time.

My traveling friend carried zyrtec with her.  Up until this day I had never taken it before.  The effect was amazing.  Within one hour I felt the symptoms had significantly decreased and I was able to go out for dinner, sneeze and snot free.

I never where glasses when traveling, unless my allergies are acting up.  Mount Etna in the back!

As I traveled up the boot of Italy, and flew into Paris - I found that I was taking this medication daily.  And the effect was not as powerful as when I took it for the first time.  Towards the end of my trip - I was doubling the dose of zyrtec to combat my symptoms in Paris.

Believe it or not, when I came back to America, I was allergy free.  It's as if my nose had completely dried up.

In front of Isola Bella in Taormina - at this point I've become used to blowing my nose 500 times a day.

Finally my last venture towards mediterranean soil was when I went to Tel Aviv.  And this time the symptoms started on the plane as it was touching down.  My mouth felt itchy, and my eyes began to water.  Before I knew it, I was sneezing before I got out of the plane.  I miserably managed this once again with zyrtec and benadryl.

Allergies iz make me crazy!

I am leaving for Southeast Asia and China soon.  This time I'll be adding nasal steroids on to my regimen.

Sometimes I think maybe if I only I grew up in a third world country I wouldn't have to deal with pesky allergies, reactive airway disease, eczema, etc.  FYI, I only have allergies not the other two conditions, but I know many immigrants who have developed these illness here in the US, because our immune systems become hypersensitive.

Ahhh!

But then if I grew up in a third world country.  I probably would've have hepatitis already at least once, worms, cholera, typhoid, etc.  I'll just self medicate with anti-histamines.

Washing your clothes in Italy - Taormina

Reading Italian for Dummies didn't make finding this place any easier!

Getting to Taormina was very difficult, but it was well worth it.  The city was really a piece of paradise.  It looked so much like San Sebastian, but instead with mountains in the background it had Mount Etna, before in catania we were on the opposite side of Mount Etna.  The two days spent there were well needed, in the morning we were awoken with the most divine view of the spaggio, or beach.

The view from the cable car that took us into the main town.

We explored the ancient Greek colloseum where we spent riposo (rest), and then afterwards we went to the spaggio (beach) to view isola bella.  Honestly it was very comfortable and serene lying there on the rocks looking at the little island on the fringe of sicily.  

Mount Etna in the back

After weaving through the main streets of Taormina, we found a cafe near our hotel.  We grabbed a table outside.  We were the only patrons, and the only person in the cafe manning the counter was a tall, dark, transvestite.  She was something!  We bought a piece of pie.  Nobody wanted to eat the last bite, and my friend tossed it into the sky using her fork.  It flew high in the sky, and boomeranged back on to the wind shield of some expensive European car.  

The owner of this car was chatting it up inside the cafe with the cashier.  So naturally, we got up, and sprinted to our hotel room.   

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The view from our hotel

Travelers often wonder, how do you manage washing your clothes on the road.  Especially in Europe where I didn't see lavanderias at every block, the way you see them in Mexico.  So naturally being brown, I figured I would just wash things in hotel bathrooms with shampoo or whatever soap I could scrounge up.  

At first my traveling buddy was kind of opposed to this.  But then she came around when she saw how convenient this was.  Don't have to coordinate with the laundromat, we're constantly on the road, etc.  So she washed a bunch of stuff by hand in the hotel in Taormina.  

At least we got stunning views from the laundromat!

Even though it was winter time, there was a lot of moisture in the air there.  Her clothes hung on the line, and would not dry.  So we some how heard of a laundromat.  And of course this being a coastal mediterranean town, the laundromat was on the top of a hill.  After what felt like climbing Mount Etna - we finally found this magical laundromat.  Where the attendant happily placed the washed clothes in her dryer.  For about 7-8 items of clothing the grand total came to 10 euros, insane.

What am I wearing?!  

So I you ever find yourself, away from cheap convenient laundromats, and our staying at a hotel well out of your budget - I would advise don't sit in the bathroom scrubbing away at a whole load of laundry.  Stay flexible, and just do 1-2 items at a time - that way you aren't lugging a heavy soggy bag on top of everything else you are lugging around on your travels.  

That's another reason why I love visiting third world countries, all those little things like the lavanderia make life so easy, and of course cheap!

Talking to Strangers on Flights

It would be wrong of me to not include this controversial topic in a blog about traveling.  I've been on a whole lot of flights in my 28 years.  Granted many of them were not travel related, some business related, and other related to visiting the family in the motherland.

Maybe I should just drive everywhere...

TALE 1 - HAVA NAGILA 

A few years ago I had an extended period of time off, and decide to make a vacation out of it.  I would spend about a week in Israel with a friend I had made in Sicily the year before, and I would conclude my travels in Istanbul with my traveling friend.

So there I was, migrating to the back of the plane in hopes of finding my seat from Washington, DC to Tel Aviv.  Gosh I hope I'm not sitting next to a baby, a fat person, a snorer or a smelly person.  I had the pleasure of sitting next to an old Jewish gentleman cloaked in kippa and all.

My seat some how seemed to be in the middle of his family.  I was in the isle and to my left were all of his relatives.  He was to my right.  And the row in front of my were more relatives.

I smiled hello, and looked forward to sleeping and watching movies on this long transatlantic flight.  We didn't go a few minutes before the silence broke off.

"What's your name?"

"Where are you going?"

"Where are you from?"

At this point, I was like, "um I'm from Virginia."  He looked at me cockeyed at this point.

"No really, where are YOU from."

"Pakistan"

This opened a whole flood gate of questions.  It was as if I was the anti-Moses who had the sea crash on him instead of the other direction.

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TALE 2 - Filipino Ex-Husbands 

I was doing study abroad in Madrid, and I had about 2 weeks to kill during spring break.  I was already on the other side of the Atlantic - so I decided to bite the bullet and visit my family in Pakistan.

I boarded the flight for Qatar Airways, and fell asleep for the first hour.  I was pretty uncomfortable, no matter which why I turned I couldn't get comfortable.  Before I knew it, the little filipino lady next to had engaged me dialogue.

She asked increasingly prying questions.  Before I knew it I had told her my life story.  And then all of a sudden as I was pondering the nature of women in modern day Islam with this stranger while sharing personal information - I felt a burning sensation on my neck.

I realized I was that loud annoying person on a flight, who bothers every single person sitting near them because I talk to much.  Furthermore, I felt uncomfortable sharing this much information with a complete stranger, what can I say, she had very good bed side manner.

To her credit, she was a wonderful woman.  And while I did share a good bit of my life with her, she also told me about her children in the Phillipines.  How she was working in Spain day and night to make enough to put them through private school.  And finally how she regretted marrying so young, and being divorced all before she became 30.

Or maybe public transit!

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As uncomfortable as these two experiences might have been, I did learn a lot from them.  About people, myself, and how the best way to kill time on a long flight is yapping away with a complete stranger.

For my next trip coming up, I found a solution to prying conversations:

Travel Pillow

This pillow sounds like the holy grail based on the reviews.  Can't wait to try it!

Sicily (Taormina) to Rome - For Dummies

Yeah I should look up what this, it was all over Sicily

So we got to ride the train for free, due to our inability to read our german tickets for transit from sicily to rome, we spent a few hours in the train station playing hillbilly and retard amongst the tourists.  They use military time in Europe!  Argh!  To our defense the tickets were written in German.

Thanks to the genorisity of a romanian family we were able to get into the right train.  And thanks to the fact that it was christmas day, we were able to ride the train for free.  In the train we met a 20 year old girl from Slovenia, who was enamoured by US culture, not because of art, history, or politics, but because of the Twilight New Moon tween phenomenah.  It was very sweet.  Unfortunately our stay in Taormina used up most of our energy and we were left with very little.  We got a little sleep from Naples to Roma, and finally awoke to a warm Rome. 
We slept into the evening, and finally awoke to walk around the city of Rome.  

Speaking of Naples, huge regret of mines.  I really wish we stopped there even if just for a half day.  That pizza in Eat Pray Love sounded so amazing.  

We hit the collosseum at first that appeared to be as majestic as its stories, and then we walked along the main river that cuts rome in half, and got to vatican city.  Unfortunately only the entrance piazza was open to the public.  evnestill it was totally worth it.  We ended the night at Fontana de Trevi, and wished for what our hearts really desired after a conversation reminiscent of Eat Pray Love.

Cool Gate near the Roman Forum

The next day, we woke very late due to the horrendous amounts of exercise we got the day before.  We awoke and first visited the National Roman Museum of History, which was full of sculptures of Greek and Roman origin.  there was a special emphasis placed on their hair styles.  And then we went to the Roman history of Antique Art held in the Barbari palace, which was amazing, and hopefully a teaser for tomorrow, when we get to see the insides of vatican city. 

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So far we have seen the inside of the Roman collosseum and spent the day exploring the Roman forum and the farnesine gardens, to get a sense of the life of the ancients.  I loved the orange trees that they had there, i cant imagine how it is in the spring time i bet it smells so citrusy!  Anyways, it didnt help that I wore really tight shoes yesterday which ended up mangling my little right toe.  Thank goodness for Rome being the motherland of comfort food.  And pesto like I cannot discribe.  For lunch that day we had burgers at the theater cafe, which were attrocious!  So I guess its common sense to not buy american food in Italy.  I was totally eyeing the pasta the ladies next to us were eating, if I only I had more time to order!

I remember what this one is called! The Roman Colloseum

This morning we woke up and saw some more churches in Rome.  We are trying to hit all of the top ten churches in Rome, I think we are almost done with the list.  Next is San Clemente!  And hopefully tommorrow we will hit the Sistine Chapel!  Buonasera!

Good bye Taormina, thank you for the lovely weather

Suleymaniye Hamam - Istanbul

The line was ridiculously long, we must've waited for over an hour to be called. And when we finally were, it was to get in another line!

It's a very odd experience. But once you loosen up a little and "acclimate to your surroundings," it's very liberating! When in Rome...

Once the lady comes by to scrub you after you've been cooking on the marble, your skin will be renewed! With such exfoliation I was concerned that I would end up with abrasions, I have really sensitive skin - but my skin was super soft. The hot tubs and tea are a nice treat! I haven't felt this relaxed in a long time! I also purchased a massage here, and I got lucky because the masseuse was incredible. Highly recommend, but be prepared for long lines.

Tel Aviv to Petra and Back in 24 Hours

Petra remains one of those places that hasn't made it onto everyone's bucket list.  Not sure why this is since it is absolutely breathtaking.  It probably has to do with how it's surrounded by a whole lot of nothing, there is very little nearby for many miles, and it's in the middle east (although that doesn't hurt Dubai!)  Going to Petra, I felt like I was in Indiana Jones or Transformers - minus magic goblets and talking trucks!  Both of those movies featured Petra.

Stunning, approaching the monastery.  Taken around 11 am.

The Jordanian guide to hitchhiking

I decided towards the end of my time in Tel Aviv that it would be a huge loss if I didn't visit Petra, being so close by. So I took a bus from the main bus station to Eilat, crossed the border into Aqaba. And shared a taxi with other travelers to Petra which is 1-2 hour long ride if I remember correctly. They charged us double what the going rate was. It helped to network with other people to break up that cost.  I would highly recommend this, as many people come to vacation in Eilat with a trip to Petra in mind.  Most everyone at the border was heading that way.

A customs tip for all travelers heading back to Israel.  There's no point in requesting they stamp your passport rather than the removal slip of paper.  I thought that maybe I would spend less time at the border because I have the Israeli stamp on my passport, not true.  Now whenever I travel to muslim countries, which happens often enough, I will be scrutinized over this stamp.  Furthermore, there are certain countries that don't allow entry.  I don't think I can perform Hajj in Saudi Arabia until I get a new passport, because the Saudis make no exception.  This is funny because you can actually see Saudi Arabia from the beach in Eilat.  Also plan to waste several hours at border checkpoints in and out of Israel.  Finally have your receipts handy at the Israeli border from Petra to prove your "vacation."  Many of you won't have to pull out your social security card and ROTH IRA statement, but alas, my father's name is Mohammed so I have learned to live under this kind of scrutiny at unfriendly borders.

Woah!  Treasury in all of its glory!

I didn't have hotel reservations, and booked one easily walking down the one commercial street they have. I met another traveler there had purchased a 2 day pass to Petra, and he didn't want to use the second day, so he sold it to me. Saved some money this way. This was easy enough to do, however, for single female travelers I would advise you to be cautious in regards to walking around commercial Petra alone. I definitely got some weird stares, and atrocious vulgarities uttered at me. I still rate this 5 stars.

me and camel

American dollars are pretty weak here. Be prepared to have every single dollar haggeled out of you, from customs at the border to the horse rides in the park. Horse rides really suck. I would advise that you get there to the park before it opens at 6 am to enjoy it in it's full glory all alone. I got there at 6 am, paid it to the Monastary by like 9. Walked the whole way, only took a horse from gate to the canyon, not very far. When I was turning around it was getting close to midday and getting very packed, especially near the monastery. The other benefit of going so early is that all the bedoins aren't awake yet to haggle the s*&^ out of you!

I made a friend!  Rabies free!  I didn't pet him though!

Food and water in the park is ridiculously overpriced. And if you do want to buy something from the locals, walk away - and they'll drop the price.

me for scale, I am 5 feet tall

Got a cab back, rode it solo. It was half the price than the first one. 

Would've loved to have spent more time there. 5-6 hours of the park is definitely not enough. But I came, I saw, I conquered...more or less.  I ended up missing my department flight from Ben Gurion Airport to Istanbul.  All the money I saved roughing to Petra I lost in buying a SECOND ticket to Istanbul.  Would I do it over again, hell yes.  YOLO.