Well I was in Central America and Mexico - so no I don't believe Yemen came up.

I'm trying to figure out how to get a family trip together to Antigua, Guatemala. It's not so easy with money, schedules, dealing with the dog to try to do this at this point. Hopefully I don't have to wait a few years until I start my hobo-retirement.

The ignorance that Americans demonstrate when it comes to countries that aren't theirs is breathtaking.

From an American perspective, travelling to a place in Europe that isn't Paris, London, or Rome is adventurous.

It was so weird listening to people in America call me brave for going to places like Czech Republic and Hungary and I'm thinking, "They're in the EU mother****er. They're not war zones! Millions of tourists go there every year ffs!" These aren't necessarily stupid people either. They're well-educated, young people telling me this.

When I was teaching in China, relatives were asking me if I was nervous about living in a straw hut. I thought they were just taking the piss out of me but they were dead serious. Some of them are that stupid.

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It's frustrating watching the Pod Save America crew not getting Trump and deplorables at all. Their line of thought is so infuriatingly establishment that they really have no credibility when it comes to political discourse. They seem to think that Trump is somehow being deceived by these wily dictators and their extraordinary power. The reality is that Trump is a bully and is responding the way a bully does when facing actual power: with subservience and cowardice.

Do it! Flights from LA aren't bad.

I'm going back in a few weeks. Definitely go up and see Semuc Champey and the Caves of Candelaria in the middle of the country. And Tikal of course. And Lake Atitlan.

Yeah, well, multiply all your expenses by 4. Scheduling is not easy either.

Any tips on Belize? Family holiday, 3 nights in the jungle and 6 on the beach. Staying at Resort places but anywhere of the beaten track anyone can recommend

Lamanai Ruins and the river tour are amazing. We didn't stay in Orange Walk which is near there - but did drive through and it seemed pretty bleh.

I really really liked San Ignacio - which is on the other side of the country (if you go I can recommend you my favorite AirBnB of the whole trip - with the nicest caretaker in the world who's like your personal concierge as well). They have a small ruins there called Xunantunich (lol had to look that up) which is really cool. There's a Korean-Mexican-Belizean (!) fusion restaurant there that's one of the best of the whole trip. We ate there every night and everything was good. You can do a day trip from San Ignacio to Lamanai - but it's a lot of driving.

You can also easily do a day trip to Tikal from San Ignacio - which was by far the most impressive Mayan ruins of the whole trip. You could probably fly to Tikal from Belize City and save all the driving if you've got the money. It's one of those places that should be on everyone's bucket list imo. Chichen Itza is great but super crowded and it's really just that one pyramid that blows you away. Tikal is gigantic so you can always find a quiet place - and there are endless gigantic pyramids. Also you can't climb on the ones in Mexico but you can climb on most of Tikal. For now at least. Just don't do what we did and decide to watch Apocolypto the night before - bloodiest movie ever.

Belize City is not much but I liked walking around some of the old dilapidated colonial mansions, and the Belize museum is interesting. Do not go south of the river under any circumstances. All the rest of Belize is supposed to be pretty safe though and we never saw or heard of any trouble.

We spent 3 nights on Ambergris Caye and one night on Caye Caulker. I wish it had been the other way around. After Caye Caulker I sought out islands with no cars. It's such a different vibe. But if you want more night life and food options - San Pedro on Ambergris is better. There was a restaurant in the middle of San Pedro (not on the water) that had my favorite meal meal of the whole trip - stone crab claws. I can't remember the name of it - something Italian I think. But you can't miss it - they have all the seafood sitting out on the street in trays.

We didn't do Blue Hole but if you're there 6 days it's probably a must see. Swimming with the nurse sharks was cool. I'm not really that much of a beach person and I didn't start diving until later in the trip. So I can't think of any special advice there.

I had confidence in suzzer’s judgment traveling abroad but now not so much.

It’s amusing so many people here act like North Korea is just a typical place in the world.

We need to start a thread in here to discuss travel and life experiences, the regs here have a wealth of knowledge and experience.

I seriously think a lot of you are conflating pre and post Warmbler. Pre-Warmbler no one thought you could die for making a stupid mistake. Find me a post that says otherwise.

Pre-Warmbler, most of my impressions of what traveling in NK would be like were based on this 3-part series:



Not sure which episode it's in - but the encounter with the lonely girl working at the tea shop no one ever visits was poignant and enduring.

My impression was you go there, you've got minders 24-7. It's awkward and boring and they make you look at every stupid monument they have. Maybe you get to eat dinner on your own but that's it. For me, the whole reason to go was for the experience of being in a place that's trapped in time and about as different from US life as you can get. I treasure those kinds of experiences, and I know I get countless insights from them, even if they're not much fun at the time. Also you get to regale people with stories when you get back. And the older I get the more people LOVE my stories.

As we've discussed earlier Iran is kinda similar right now apparently - at least with the minders. But no one freaks out about going to Iran and basically writes you off as a hopeless idiot who deserves to die if you even think about going there.

No. I wouldn't go there myself. It's not just a typical place. That doesn't mean people who go are just asking for getting beaten to death and I have no sympathy for them if that happens.

I remember this too!

Haha there's no way Trump knows how to use a cell phone for any purpose not related to calls (and he probably struggles with that). It's a herculean task just for him to be able to correctly pronounce words on a big teleprompter 5 feet away. In that recent speech he gave re: the wall while in the oval office you could see how much of a struggle it was. A cell phone (even one of the big ones) with no buttons??? yeah I don't think so.

Here's how it usually goes IMO. The tweets that are coherently written are when the aides make up their own or reword what he's trying to say. The "intelligence should go back to school!" type gibberish is word for word what he wants said or when the aide has to sound Trumpian.

I bet a few times he demanded to be given the phone when an aide or Kelly or Kushner or whomever said it wasn't a good timee, but he wouldn't let up so they said "FINE!", handed him the phone to cause they were tired of being abused and wanted to teach him a lesson. Trump's attempt ended up being the covfefe one or hamberdler. Then Kushner/aide/Kelly/etc was like "See! I told you! Give me that I'll fix it!" Then that led to a long, vicious fight with yelling and swearing and childish nonsense only for it to be as if nothing happened an hour later.

That is what life is like with somebody who has NPD.

Yeah, I like this idea.

It certainly doesn't belong ITT; it's sort of LC thread-adjacent, but doesn't really fit there great either, as the topics change too frequently.

But I really like the idea. It would have potential to be one of best threads in the forum. I feel like suzzer should start it.

Watched the NK Vice doc a long time ago and when I saw it posted here my first thought was of the tea shop girl too.

The more you travel the more you realize the world is not the scary place portrayed by the US media. The people in here scared of Central America have not traveled extensively.

That being said I wouldn't go to NK either but that is one of the few places on earth that is true. Comparing Central America to NK is laughable.

I have it under good authority that Central America is where MS-13 comes from!

Suzzer,

Would you go to NK today? You're clearly aware of the Warmbier thing, so you obviously wouldn't do anything remotely like that. And it sounds like you would value the experience.

This. Among developed nations, America is actually fairly dangerous when it comes to violent crime. It's even more dangerous than a whole lot of developing countries. Yet, Americans don't feel scared to walk around their own country.

Another thing when it comes to travelling overseas is that most Americans don't do a whole lot of it. When they do, it's normally really expensive. There's a lot of risk involved in going to a place you might not be familiar with in lieu of a place like Paris or London where you know for sure that you'll enjoy yourself.

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I've always wanted to go on a modified version of the Silk Road (obv have to go around the war zones) or a trip along the Trans-Siberian Railroad in the future. It'd be an interesting journey on par with the Epic European Vacation I took in 2017. It might be something that will have to wait for a while though.

I'm struggling to picture "well-educated young people" think that it's some act of bravery to visit ****ing Prague.

Agreed. I was deep on the Carribean side of Costa Rica for two weeks last summer and it was no problem. Yes I'm aware this is far from the most dangerous place to go but I was still kind of apprehensive.

Most people are good and kind hearted yet the American media focuses on that one rare time someone went missing or got poisoned etc. Life is nothing without a little adventure.

grunching here.

i look at alot of analysis and also do my own the 2020 presidential votes and state's voting records in general.

after looking at probably 20 separate analysis, this is all i've seen;

all analysis i've seen has michigan and wisconsin going back to democrats. seems almost certain in my view. hilary was horrible in these states, even in the D primaries. any other candidate would have done better and won these states. hilary would have won them if the FBI didn't get involved in the last week.

most analysis has pennsylvania going D........ unclear to me but it went pretty big for obama. so it makes sense it goes back to D.

then a few pundits i saw have iowa and arizona going D.

so basically from hours and hours of analysis, there is movement in only 5 states, all of them going D. basically 3 states that most people have switching to D... note: if beto is the candidate, then texas comes into play and then the R are dead if he wins texas.

but basically michigan/wisconsin/pennsylvania gives D the presidency.

democrats and republicans have a lock on so many states these days. not too many swing states left..... of course, things change. but wisconsin and michigan were almost unprecedented in terms of shockers, wisconsin especially

A Bachelor's degree requires little more than a pulse at some universities.

in terms of safety, i'd take venezuela over yemen over north korea.

i'm thinking big cities of course...... you can probably just stay at the sheraton in caracas. very little stress.

yemen and north korea don't have any infrastructure to support westerners visiting.