Funny travel-related stories

I frequent a number of travel websites and one of them, Tripadvisor, has recently created a blog where the administrators (or one of them, "the Snarky Owl") store some of the funny things they come across in their work. Have a look next time you have a few spare minutes and could do with a laugh!

Autumn in Woluwe Park

These are from last week, and since then high winds have blown off a lot more of the leaves, but despite the odd grizzly day, we really are having quite an astonishing November. My dentist told me his apple trees have burst into bloom, although he had very few apples this year because it was too hot in July and too cold in August, obviously they don't know whether they are coming or going..

(No) crouching Tiger, hidden dragon

In Laos recently I had to reassure nervous animal-loving tourists that Tiger Balm did not really contain any parts of tigers - but now I see that the UK's Trading Standards Office objects to spicy "Welsh Dragon sausages" because they don't contain dragons! Curiously they appear to think that vegetarians might believe these don't contain meat, which I find a bit odd, but their main concern is that the type of meat used should be specified - i.e. they aren't actually insisting the dragon designation be removed so much as that "pork" should be added.

Now people are wondering whether it will be necessary to rename "toad in the hole" (sausages in batter - no toads!), fairy cakes, "pigs in blankets", etc. and I can think of a number of Belgian/French dishes that would have to go, such as "oiseaux sans tête" (headless birds - or "paupiettes de veau", veal escalopes rolled up around a stuffing and secured with a toothpick") and "bras de gitane" (gipsy's arm), which in the UK is called a Swiss roll.

In fact, as I doubt that Swiss roll has anything to do with Switzerland, I am surprised the Trading Standards Office hasn't also addressed the accuracy of national designations like Danish pastry (also known as a Belgian bun!), which I believe is known as a Viennese pastry in Denmark and Wienerschnitzel/escalope Milanaise... French toast is an American dish, unknown in France, and is neither French nor toasted. "Filet américain", on the other hand, is a Belgian dish consisting of raw minced/ground beef (as used for hamburgers, hence the "American" designation - but should hamburgers be called after Hamburg anyway?) mixed with mayonnaise, herbs and spices. Similarly, "lait russe" or Russian milk is the Belgian name for what is essentially a caffe latte: I believe it is named after the type of glass it is served in, which is the sort used in Russia to serve TEA! At any rate, it is not made from Russian milk! So it would certainly not pass muster with the British trading standards people.

Chocs away!

I ate the advent calendar! Or "CATlendar" to translate the pun "chalen- drier" (calendar = calendrier but this one features cartoon character Le Chat).

Urban sunset

Lady P.

Maybe I am behind with the times but I hadn't come across this type of facility (at Kinepolis, a multiplex cinema) before! They are kept locked until 7 p.m. because there have been too many accidents with children attempting to use them - they are placed quite high, presumably because one is supposed to perch rather than sit down, which supposedly makes them faster to use and speeds up traffic. I'm not entirely convinced.

Départ

Je suis parti
Par les chemins bordés de rosée
Ou piaillait le soleil.

Je suis parti
Loin des jours croupissants
Et des carcans,
Vomissant des laideurs
A pleine gueule.

Je suis parti
Pour d'étranges voyages,
Léger et nu,
Sans bâton ni besace,
Sans but.

Je suis parti
Pour toujours
Sans pensée de retour.
Vendez tous mes troupeaux,
Mais pas les bergers avec.

Je suis parti
Vers des pays bleus.
Vers des pays larges,
Vers des pays de passion tourmentés de tornades,
Vers des pays gras et juteux.

Je suis parti pour toujours.
Sans pensée de retour.
Vendez tous mes bijoux.

Léopold Sédar Senghor, Poèmes Perdus.

Although, anyone who knows me would know that that last instruction (sell all my jewellery) is highly unlikely to come from me!

Back to Bangkok

Unfortunately when I was in Bangkok, I was too busy eating, shopping and talking to take many photos - I wish, for example, that I had thought to photograph a beautiful plate of mango with sticky rice and coconut sauce before I gobbled it all up! Those I did take aren't brilliant, but I promised M. to put some up as she said she couldn't imagine the city our former boss has gone to live in. So here they are.
























The old wooden buildings are part of the Jim Thompson house - he was an American who started the modern Thai silk industry - which is the only tourist site I bothered to visit this time. Photo below is of the Erawan (hindu) shrine, with the overhead Skytrain and Skywalk in evidence behind it, which also feature in a couple of shots above, showing what a concrete jungle the city is - which I like, myself!

Last of Laos

This Buddha statue was in Vientiane. They have very interesting noses!


















The frangipani is Laos' national flower.

Luang Prabang

Pak Ou caves on the Mekong

Vang Vieng

Vientiane

We had the immense good fortune to be in Vientiane during the That Luang festival, and attended it both in the evening of 4 November, when "wax castles" are brought to be carried around the sanctuary and then offered to the monks, and early the following morning.
On the morning of 5 November, people gather in and around That Luang, first for prayers and then to make offerings to the monks (Takbaat).

Cambodia to Laos

Flew from Bangkok to Siem Reap for Angkor (Cambodia), then to Pakse in Southern Laos, then Vientiane from where we went by bus to Vang Vieng (not shown but it's about half way between Vientiane and LP) and finally Luang Prabang, returning from there to Bangkok. Here's a map for anyone who doesn't have it in their head:

Encore Angkor

Monk-y business

Miaows from Laos

Back from BKK (and Cambodia, and Laos..)

What a shock, coming back from 32° and tropical sunshine to 9° and the typical Brussels November grey drizzle - although it could be worse, I'm sure the plane was skating on the frosty runway when I landed at Vienna yesterday morning.

I hadn't been to Bangkok in 16 years and it has changed quite a bit, I would say for the better as it is great being able to whizz above the traffic on the Skytrain and walk above street level on the Skyway. But I don't like the new Suvarnabhumi Airport (pronounced Suwanapum, as you can hear on the video on that site) that opened only a few weeks before I arrived: it was fine on arrival when I merely had to leave it for the city, but on departure I discovered it is very hard to find the airlines' lounges, which are clustered in side-concourses off the main one: for one thing, as there is nothing to identify where you are, if you lose track you have to come back to the central area to tell whether you are in A, B, C, D etc., for another while there are heaps of signs to "airport lounges", these are spread over several concourses and the signs don't refer to specific airlines, possibly because their location isn't yet definitive; so you have to search down each concourse for the exact lounge you want. I actually managed to locate the Bangkok Airways lounge, but then went off somewhere and couldn't find it again! Worse, coming back from Luang Prabang, and needing to check in with Swiss/Austrian for onward flights to Europe, we found "international transit/transfer" signs pointing in both directions, and an information official sent us the wrong way despite our specifying the airline - and it's a very long way to go to find out you need to be right at the other end of the airport! It turns out that there are 2 transit/transfer desks, at opposite ends of a very, very, long concourse, one for Star Alliance airlines (though you have to look hard to see this below the Thai Airways signs) and the other for all other airlines, and just to confuse matters, the Star Alliance desks are next to the domestic transfer area, so you think you must be going the wrong way because of all the domestic transfer signs.

The photo below is of the view, across Lumphini Park, from the swimming pool of the building my friends have just moved into - lucky things! Their apartment is directly below the pool so it's almost like having their own.