Has Anyone Booked a Holiday Yet?

[Costock_Fox]

5 hours ago, lifted*fox said:

Ar? 

I've tried to figure out what you mean but I can't lol. 

Ar Seoul.

[samlcfc]

21 hours ago, Shah johns said:

Booked Phu Quoc Vietnam for December. Anyone been? or any advice on what’s worth seeing /doing.

Are you looking for anything particular from the trip? Are you travelling with a partner, kids, friends?

I passed through there a couple months back and hung around for around 11 days to catch the World Cup group stages.

The stretch of resorts and hotels just outside the islands main town seems to be where most people stay. There's a long beach there, and if that's where your based, you'd probably want to make sure your hotel sits on the beach. They are pretty militant about keeping non-guests off of their stretches and there aren't many areas that hotels don't lay claim to. I'm 100% sure they're not allowed to claim the beach, although the staff I challenged on it got pretty violent. If you have a place near the beach, you'll happily avoid any of those sort of issues.

I can imagine it's a fairly decent place if you're just looking for somewhere to relax and knock back a few beers each day, especially when the weather's a bit better in December.

There are a couple smaller beaches that people head to, and those locations have activities for kids and some sports type stuff going on for a wider audience.

There were many tour companies offering boat trips etc, and apparently it's a pretty famous area for diving. I didn't get involved, so couldn't really weigh in on that.

The south of the island houses the world's largest cable car, and that runs to a smaller island where some company is in the process of setting up a theme park of sorts. They've got a beach set-up offering water sports currently, and they may have set some more stuff up by the time you get there. Made for a decent afternoon activity.

Other attractions include a water park which I didn't visit, a pretty brutal old prison from during the French occupation and a local wine farm. For a heads up, considering the tours might visit some of the places. The wine farm wasn't much kop, and the prison although slightly interesting, won't keep you for too long. There was a fish sauce factory and pearl farm that they peddle too. I passed by them on a scooter and the pearl farm is just a shop, whilst the sauce factory is a shop with a additional room, filled with foul smelling vats of the stuff. 

I'd been out in that part of the world for a while and basically spent the entire time in Phu Quoc watching football, so whilst my input probably isn't great, I'll happily answer any questions you might have if I can.

 

Edited 26 August 2018 by samlcfc
Spelling

[foxfanazer]

Hamburg stag do booked for end of October. Not sure that counts as a holiday

[Costock_Fox]

About 5 weeks till I’m in Cambodia, can’t wait.

[bovril]

Flying off to Italy next week. First holiday in over a year so much needed. That is all. Just thought I'd let you know. 

[Stadt]

1 hour ago, bovril said:

Flying off to Italy next week. First holiday in over a year so much needed. That is all. Just thought I'd let you know. 

I'd recommend learning a bit of Italian if you've never been before

Edited 29 August 2018 by Stadt
this isn't even funny but I can't stop laughing at my own bad joke

[tetly]

Going Ibiza with the misses and kids, it’s our third time now the kids love it there. 

[broughtonblue]

1 week till a safari in Kenya. Bit worried about mossies though as I've been bitten to bits this summer and been on anti biotics 3 times cos they've got infected ?

[Bayfox]

On 30/08/2018 at 12:58, tetly said:

Going Ibiza with the misses and kids, it’s our third time now the kids love it there. 

Where abouts? We love es canyer. But always visit Ibiza town.

Think we need to try portinax sometime soon tho.

[samlcfc]

On 29/08/2018 at 23:29, Costock_Fox said:

About 5 weeks till I’m in Cambodia, can’t wait.

Knocked about Cambodia for a few weeks over May/June. Some brilliant stuff to see there. Went to check out Koh Rong Sanloem for what was meant to be a couple of days and ended up staying for a week. The lazy beach area is an absolute paradise, and you can only reach it either by walking through the forest for a half hour or asking one of the supply boats to drop you off. My wife and I almost had the place to ourselves because it was low season. Even the Austrian resort owners left us to it for the last few days and went back home!

Are you heading anywhere in particular? 

[Strokes]

We came back from Crete just over a week ago and although it was a magnificent resort and lovey hotel, I don’t think it’s worth booking in high season. Next year I’ll take the fines for taking the kids out of school, it ruins you holiday when the places are so crowded and you have to get up early to get sun beds etc.

Has anyone been to Riga in Latvia before? I’m arranging a stag party and considering it as a location.

[tetly]

43 minutes ago, Bayfox said:

Where abouts? We love es canyer. But always visit Ibiza town.

Think we need to try portinax sometime soon tho.

We arrived early this morning at our hotel. It’s a sirenis hotel aura all inclusive and has a water park attached. We are going old town for a night show the kids the real Ibiza.

[Bayfox]

42 minutes ago, tetly said:

We arrived early this morning at our hotel. It’s a sirenis hotel aura all inclusive and has a water park attached. We are going old town for a night show the kids the real Ibiza.

Can't beat Ibiza town. Shame it doesn't have a better beach.

The super yachts in front of a world heritage site is such a contrast. But a stunning one.

[Costock_Fox]

1 hour ago, samlcfc said:

Knocked about Cambodia for a few weeks over May/June. Some brilliant stuff to see there. Went to check out Koh Rong Sanloem for what was meant to be a couple of days and ended up staying for a week. The lazy beach area is an absolute paradise, and you can only reach it either by walking through the forest for a half hour or asking one of the supply boats to drop you off. My wife and I almost had the place to ourselves because it was low season. Even the Austrian resort owners left us to it for the last few days and went back home!

Are you heading anywhere in particular? 

Ahh I really wanted to go there but figured because I am there in the rainy season spending a week on a beach wouldn’t be the best idea but it does look stunning.

I’m in Siem Reap for a week building a school then heading to Battambang, Phnom Pen for a day, Mondulkiri to an elephant sanctuary for two days then back to Siem Reap for another few days.

Any tips would be great.

[samlcfc]

2 hours ago, Costock_Fox said:

Ahh I really wanted to go there but figured because I am there in the rainy season spending a week on a beach wouldn’t be the best idea but it does look stunning.

I’m in Siem Reap for a week building a school then heading to Battambang, Phnom Pen for a day, Mondulkiri to an elephant sanctuary for two days then back to Siem Reap for another few days.

Any tips would be great.

1

We were lucky enough to only experience a slight bit of bad weather, but I think the rain does start to kick up a gear over the coming months. I'd definitely recommend visiting in the future if you ever get the chance. I think I'll be mostly done with Asia for a while once I've finished up this trip, but can see myself returning to Sanloem if I feel like some super relaxing time out. Hopefully, it doesn't change too much with the rapidly growing Chinese holiday developments in this part of the world. 

 

The school building sounds like a good experience. I did something similar in Malawi a good few years back now and it was fantastic. Hope it all goes brilliantly for you. 

 

In terms of recommendations, I spent a bit of time in Siem Reap also. There's the obvious one of the Angkor complex, which whilst insanely expensive, is well worth seeing whilst you're in the area. If you're on a small budget (like myself), I can alleviate any fears of being restricted only to a day ticket if you don't want to splash out for the 3 days. I took a bike into the area for one day and certainly felt like I'd seen enough of the sights when I'd come to the end of it.  They'll give you a map with a couple of routes on, of which the larger is easily doable at more than leisurely pace if you rise early. I must have got up at about 4am in order to catch the sunrise and if you do, there is an expanse of water called "Srah Sang" which make for a peaceful place to enjoy it. Everyone on tours heads to the Angkor Wat to start the day, so there was only 4 of us sat there. If you finish up at the Angkor Wat, it's also less crowded later on. 

 

One of the other famous temples "Ta Prohm" gets quite busy later, although if you do head in early and before it opens up, I found that there was a dirt track running parallel to it's more northern wall, east to west, that comes close to a fairly large hole in the wall. You can cut through the forest a bit and lug your bike with you, leaving you free to explore peacefully for a while. Just be sure to get out a few minutes before opening if you decide to check it out. The staff would probably get the hump if they found out.

 

There's a place called APOPO in Siem Reap as well which is worth a visit. They are an NGO that uses trained African rats to sniff out the landmines in the countryside. It won't keep you busy for long, but they tell you a bit about what they do and give a demonstration to visitors. Interesting to see and well worth supporting considering the cause. Some brilliant people doing great work. The Landmine Museum in Siem Reap is an interesting couple of hours also. Started by an old child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, who survived and then set about removing the landmines they'd place on by himself. He houses some orphan kids there and has a few buildings telling his story and the history in general. 

 

With regards to the mines, I'd recommend checking out places which teach about the countries not too distant past. The marks left from the war and genocide are obvious everywhere. It's desperately sad, but some of the sights set-up to educate tourists about the period are well worth a visit if you don't know too much about it. There's the "Tuol Sleng" genocide museum in Pnomh Penh, which was an old school the regime used to house prisoners. Its history is harrowing. There are the killing fields also that can be done in the same day.

 

I didn't do much in the other areas you mentioned, although some of the elephant sanctuaries looked pretty awesome. I was trying not to conserve money at that point and unfortunately had to pass them by. Have a good one!

 

 

 

Edited 1 September 2018 by samlcfc

[Costock_Fox]

1 hour ago, samlcfc said:

We were lucky enough to only experience a slight bit of bad weather, but I think the rain does start to kick up a gear over the coming months. I'd definitely recommend visiting in the future if you ever get the chance. I think I'll be mostly done with Asia for a while once I've finished up this trip, but can see myself returning to Sanloem if I feel like some super relaxing time out. Hopefully, it doesn't change too much with the rapidly growing Chinese holiday developments in this part of the world. 

The school building sounds like a good experience. I did something similar in Malawi a good few years back now and it was fantastic. Hope it all goes brilliantly for you. 

In terms of recommendations, I spent a bit of time in Siem Reap also. There's the obvious one of the Angkor complex, which whilst insanely expensive, is well worth seeing whilst you're in the area. If you're on a small budget (like myself), I can alleviate any fears of being restricted only to a day ticket if you don't want to splash out for the 3 days. I took a bike into the area for one day and certainly felt like I'd seen enough of the sights when I'd come to the end of it.  They'll give you a map with a couple of routes on, of which the larger is easily doable at more than leisurely pace if you rise early. I must have got up at about 4am in order to catch the sunrise and if you do, there is an expanse of water called "Srah Sang" which make for a peaceful place to enjoy it. Everyone on tours heads to the Angkor Wat to start the day, so there was only 4 of us sat there. If you finish up at the Angkor Wat, it's also less crowded later on. 

One of the other famous temples "Ta Prohm" gets quite busy later, although if you do head in early and before it opens up, I found that there was a dirt track running parallel to it's more northern wall, east to west, that comes close to a fairly large hole in the wall. You can cut through the forest a bit and lug your bike with you, leaving you free to explore peacefully for a while. Just be sure to get out a few minutes before opening if you decide to check it out. The staff would probably get the hump if they found out.

There's a place called APOPO in Siem Reap as well which is worth a visit. They are an NGO that uses trained African rats to sniff out the landmines in the countryside. It won't keep you busy for long, but they tell you a bit about what they do and give a demonstration to visitors. Interesting to see and well worth supporting considering the cause. Some brilliant people doing great work. The Landmine Museum in Siem Reap is an interesting couple of hours also. Started by an old child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, who survived and then set about removing the landmines they'd place on by himself. He houses some orphan kids there and has a few buildings telling his story and the history in general. 

With regards to the mines, I'd recommend checking out places which teach about the countries not too distant past. The marks left from the war and genocide are obvious everywhere. It's desperately sad, but some of the sights set-up to educate tourists about the period are well worth a visit if you don't know too much about it. There's the "Tuol Sleng" genocide museum in Pnomh Penh, which was an old school the regime used to house prisoners. Its history is harrowing. There are the killing fields also that can be done in the same day.

I didn't do much in the other areas you mentioned, although some of the elephant sanctuaries looked pretty awesome. I was trying not to conserve money at that point and unfortunately had to pass them by. Have a good one!

 

 

 

Nice one. Yeah I’m doing Angor Wat a couple of times, once arranged through the school and will do it on my own before sun rise. I watched a Jack whitehall program with them rats on, absolute madness! 

 

Will have a proper read of this later as just walking to the ground but thanks for the recommendations.

[Unabomber]

Well I'm off to kelling Heath today. Not quite as glamorous as some places mentioned in here, but I can't wait.

[Costock_Fox]

15 minutes ago, Unabomber said:

Well I'm off to kelling Heath today. Not quite as glamorous as some places mentioned in here, but I can't wait.

Nice, I used to go there as a kid. I was there when Claridge shinned in the winner V palace and was just getting my clothes from round the pool. Heard the cheers, missed the goal and dropped my money all over the shop, scenes.

[Riyad_Suarez]

On 01/09/2018 at 07:52, Strokes said:

We came back from Crete just over a week ago and although it was a magnificent resort and lovey hotel, I don’t think it’s worth booking in high season. Next year I’ll take the fines for taking the kids out of school, it ruins you holiday when the places are so crowded and you have to get up early to get sun beds etc.

Has anyone been to Riga in Latvia before? I’m arranging a stag party and considering it as a location.

I went there on a stag do in April this year and absolutely loved it.

 

We stayed really central and the city centre itself is really lovely. We'd heard a fair bit about clubs to avoid with blacked out windows etc that were dodgy but we went to a fair few bars and didn't really have any trouble anywhere.

 

I'd highly recommend a place called Rock Café which was open til about 7:30am on the Saturday night we were there! (The girls in there were much fitter than I expected and were really friendly )

 

There's loads of stuff you can arrange for stag party's over there. We (around14 of us) were picked up by a limo which had a few cold ones each and a young lady inside to greet us all with her favourite dances, which was a good start to a stag do.

 

We also went shooting which was worth doing and the best man (without telling anyone else) ordered a set-up whereby a KGB looking bloke who was about 6"5 and as wide as he was tall to come in and frisk a few of us for drugs, which I thought was a set up until he asked me if something was funny before whacking me in the face! He then frisked a few others before planting something on the stag, arresting him and driving him around Riga for a good hour and a half, slapping him around a bit as they went and shitting him up in general. 

 

There's enough to keep you busy there for a few days (we actually went for 4 nights) and they don't completely hate the English unless you start acting up, which is nice.

 

Check out the bar on the top floor of the Radisson if you do end up going as you can get som really  good views, even from the urinals (did I just say that?). There's a medieval restaurant tats worth checking out too.

 

I hope that helps.

 

 

[chuck'em]

On 01/09/2018 at 11:09, Costock_Fox said:

Nice one. Yeah I’m doing Angor Wat a couple of times, once arranged through the school and will do it on my own before sun rise. I watched a Jack whitehall program with them rats on, absolute madness! 

 

Will have a proper read of this later as just walking to the ground but thanks for the recommendations.

I did the killing field and the Tuol Sleng museum on the same day as mentioned above. I find it to be very emotional draining. The killing fields is a great place to go and learn the history in a setting that's strangely serene and I kind of wish I had only done that. The prison is an absolutely harrowing place that will stick with you for a long time. 

[Costock_Fox]

2 hours ago, chuck'em said:

I did the killing field and the Tuol Sleng museum on the same day as mentioned above. I find it to be very emotional draining. The killing fields is a great place to go and learn the history in a setting that's strangely serene and I kind of wish I had only done that. The prison is an absolutely harrowing place that will stick with you for a long time. 

I’m only in Phnom Pen for a day so will probably only have time for one of them but I’m half thinking I might just chill in the city and check out the markets etc.

 

In the last few years I’ve been to a few morbid places like Auschwitz that make me tempted to miss them out but I’m aware of the how huge history behind it.

[jonthefox]

Has anyone ever taken the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn before?. Just wanted an idea if it was easy or a pain.

[deep blue]

Would be grateful for any suggestions in booking accommodation in New York next Easter.

 

2 adult couples, 1 single adult, and 2 boys (11 and 14 by then) - 7 in all.  We are looking at hotels or apartments and the constraint is that we want to be in Manhattan or somewhere easily accessible to midtown (e.g. Brooklyn, close to ferry and/or subway).

 

There appears a problem in looking at apartments - most of them seem to be technically illegal because they have to be in a building that houses no more than 2 apartments, which seems to restrict us to houses, rather than apartment blocks, and there seem to be none of those in Manhattan and not many anywhere else.  We don't want to take any risks with that, or with dodgy renters.

 

Anyone have any recommendations?

 

Thanks … Neil

[Ozwin]

Guys, talk to me about Copenhagen. What can I do? Is it as expensive as they say? Will I freeze to death in November? Hit me.

[cambridgefox]

On 02/09/2018 at 09:00, Unabomber said:

Well I'm off to kelling Heath today. Not quite as glamorous as some places mentioned in here, but I can't wait.

Was going this weekend,but I’ve now got to go to UCL to look at Universities with the daughter.

plenty more Una stalking opportunities in the future !!