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Post by Kye on Jun 18, 2017 22:34:09 GMT
So, I'll be going to Morocco in October --I just reserved my place and bought my airline ticket. It's just for a week, but I'll get to ride on a camel! And sleep in the desert! And hopefully eat some delicious Moroccan food.
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Morocco
Jun 18, 2017 23:02:18 GMT
via mobile
Post by juju on Jun 18, 2017 23:02:18 GMT
I went many years ago, and really enjoyed it!
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Morocco
Jun 18, 2017 23:07:47 GMT
via mobile
Post by Kye on Jun 18, 2017 23:07:47 GMT
I'm looking forward! But I feel a little guilty.
No one else in my milieu seems to travel as much as I do.
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Post by JoeP on Jun 19, 2017 11:11:03 GMT
Then you owe it to them to set a good example!
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Post by Kye on Jun 19, 2017 12:00:43 GMT
Good thinking, Joe!
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Post by Moose on Jun 19, 2017 19:29:14 GMT
You should ask Yuki for recommendations of places to see (I know he doesn't want to go back there but he might still know natural beauty areas at least)
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Post by Kye on Jun 19, 2017 20:43:02 GMT
I won't have much free time to do my own thing. It's a short trip, so they try to squeeze in as much as they can. My Morocco trip
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Post by Sarah W. on Jun 19, 2017 21:52:53 GMT
That looks really amazing!
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Post by Kye on Jun 19, 2017 22:17:51 GMT
I hope it will be. It's my 5th G Adventure tour, and all the other ones were fantastic so I have a good feeling about it. It's a great company for solo travellers and I'm so glad I found it.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 20, 2017 10:44:44 GMT
Should be lovely! Except for the camel riding experience. I personally do not recommend it, but I think if you've never done it before, it's worth trying once. I told DG he should try camel riding when we go to the Uluru in September. I have no intention of doing it. I strongly, very strongly, urge you not to eat a camel.
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Post by JoeP on Jun 20, 2017 11:05:45 GMT
I've ridden a camel (in Kenya). What's wrong with it? It's very rolly, but as long as you are expecting that, fun.
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Post by Kye on Jun 20, 2017 11:51:00 GMT
I don't think I'll be expected to eat one. Just go for a ride.
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 20, 2017 12:02:21 GMT
I've ridden a camel (in Kenya). What's wrong with it? It's very rolly, but as long as you are expecting that, fun. I may have been unconsciously influenced by Indy, but "no camels" is my motto. The rolly thing is not fun at all. I also don't like riding a horse, so it could just be that I'm not into animal riding. It's all very unpredictable and weird.
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Post by Moose on Jun 20, 2017 20:30:45 GMT
I'd ride a camel .. though what I'd really like to ride is an elephant
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Post by Kye on Jun 20, 2017 21:07:54 GMT
Riding an elephant is definitely on my list! I rode a water buffalo when I was in Vietnam. Very slidey and sloped. At least the camel will have a saddle.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2017 15:57:13 GMT
To by very honest, I'm jealous as all get out, despite the climatic circumstances daunting my intentions in that direction.
I personally harbor a secret desire to visit the strange little community of Gibraltar, and then cross the straits to Morocco and do the Fez/Casablanca/Marrakesh thing. As noted I am daunted by the potential uncomfortable warmth of such travel. *sigh* The same thing for Borabadur, Bali and the Malaccan Straits...that has GOT to be entirely intolerable in regards my personal comfort...it is literally 'equitorial', and lush, and humid. And more humid. And, humid beyond that. It drops very low on my list compareed to Scandinavia, Iceland, and dare I say it, Antartica. Northern Canada rather tickles my fancy of ready access, quasi-adventure travel.
I am very impressed with your dedication to traveling...if you haven't noticed, I have been flippantly referring to you here as 'Farther Kye', with the extra 'r' in your title; I think it fitting. And you like the the less developed regions, what some would call 'adventure travel'. What piques my interest in your regard is that I don't perceive you as a person with a lot of personal disposable income. This means, as much as you enjoy it, you will look for value for your money, or....you have a relative in airline flight business. I have done some 'adventure travelling'; the Silk Road trip was a guided tour with an Australian I firm I recommend. That was done with the assets of inheritance - my wife's death. But subsequent travel, including 'Barging the Canal du Midi', and then the 'Barging in to Central Europe Tour', were done with saved earnings. My 'The British Isles' Isles: Pilgrimage to the Wholly Stoned Circles and Back the Long Way' tour was financed through my saved earnings from my career in public service (my jerb as a library clerk), and was planned at my retirement reward. I haven't even calculated the damage yet...but, it was worth it.
So...I like the destinations you choose. So I'm interested in the outfit you are using to schedule your forays. If the church-mouse like you can travel, semi-exotically (out of language)and, so far, enjoy your travels....then I'm interested.
I did the Silk Road Tour with Sundowners Tours. HQ in Melbourne, I believe. They arrange cross-continental train trips. Mine was supposed to be from Beijing to Moscow, but they decided the wasting three days on the train from Taskent to Moscow was a waste, and they flew us in to Moscow and gave us two more days of knocking around in St. Petersburg (after Moscow). I recommend Sundowners...the guide and their contractors were all excellent. They specialize in 'Orient Express' type adventures. (I still harbor a secret desire to see Istfahan, and these are the people who could make that happen...but, PITA bureaucratic bullshit.)
I did the Canal du Midi with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT), a subsidiary of Grand Circle Cruise Lines. Our tour was fantastic and there were 26 people on the barge, with about six staffers, including the great guide. I would recommend them, but expect to be bombarded with junk mail. So, don't approach the company unless you're sure you might put cash down. My household has two adults which have utilized them, and we get twice as much junk mail from them...it is prodigious.
The Barging Through Central Europe tour was one designed by Grand Circle Travel as part of their set of barging options. Barging here means 200-250 people on a 'luxury barge'. It is group travel, with too many in the group in my estimation. Mind you, neither of us had ever been to the area, nor spoke any of the languages, so a guided tour was for us. We both intend to return to do the second half of that (had we done it as an extended tour), which is down the rest of the Danube, from Vienna to the Black Sea, and finish up with Istanbul. We'll see. Like I said, I'm willing to look at other operators. I have not even compared them to their biggest competitors in the small ship cruise biz (of which I think highly of the concept), Viking Cruises. I think of these operators as promoting 'bubble travel', where the group is not very diverse and the interactions with the 'locals' is highly structured.
My pilgrimage was done by moi....and I recommend him highly. I liked his planning; such as it was. As long as he is working in his language bubble. I offer up big kudos to all the folks serving or assisting lost wanderers like myself throughout the British Isles. The fact that I could ask for assistance, and understand the responses (mostly...there were challenges) because we shared a common language, sorta, that simplified most of the challenges. The ability to travel by rail to reach, or gain significant proximity, by public transit, to most pilgrim attractors, was the backbone of my 'plan'. I bought a BritRail Flexipass, with 15 days of travel for two months, as my usage, and used all but one day. I used the flexi-pass for moving camp, and then used local bus and train service to travel from those sites to others in their immediate vicinity, using out-of-pocket change. The folks in the train stations, and on the trains, again throughout the British Isles, deserve BIG kudos for their help and the tools they were willing to make available. The paper print-outs on train connections was ingenious and wonderous to me. You trained me to come to the window and ask for assistance from the ticket seller....they ALWAYS gave me helpful assistance. I also found most (not all) of the bus drivers to be similarily inclined.
Oh, and riding a Tiger Moth was my thrill. That was after the Dragon.
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Post by Kye on Jun 22, 2017 17:25:47 GMT
Kelly, in every pic I saw of you during your travels, you looked so happy. It always made me smile. I didn't notice the "Further Kye" reference. Thank you! I use G Adventures for my travelling needs. ( www.gadventures.com ) It suits me to a T. It's a Canadian company with a high degree of integrity in their dealings with the countries they operate in. The guides are local, wherever possible they use mom-and-pop establishments, including some pretty cool and funky hotels, and the groups are small --no more that 16 people, of all ages and nationalities. I'm a woman and a solo traveler (not to mention old) so it's not really feasible for me to take off on my own. But G goes where I'm interested in going and as long as my health and cash hold out, I'll be continuing in my travels. I get a pension, but I also work full-time, so that helps me financially. I live simply without many expenses beyond the basics. Travel is my thing! G is not the cheapest, but it's far from being in the expensive range. I have some savings so that certainly helps.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 22, 2017 20:01:11 GMT
Okay...I see several options in which I would be most interested. Patagonia is distinctly in my possibilities. And...I see they do Bali. Hmmmm....
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Post by Moose on Jun 22, 2017 21:37:02 GMT
*sighs enviously*. I'd love to be able to travel - I do so vicariously when my friends do but it's not the same. If I ever wake up one morning both rich and able to easily go beyond a mile or two of my house you can betcha that I will be out there. We will take the cats with us .. and Honey
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 24, 2017 9:19:36 GMT
If you are going to travel to Bali, WG, make sure to do so during the dry season. It'll still be hot a hell, but atleast a lot less humid.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 24, 2017 15:22:29 GMT
If you are going to travel to Bali, WG, make sure to do so during the dry season. It'll still be hot a hell, but atleast a lot less humid. There is a 'dry season'? When? Ah...wait...this is monsoon country, right?
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Post by raspberrybullets on Jun 25, 2017 4:17:01 GMT
May to September I think. Not as much rain. And if you go into the mountains it will be a lot cooler too.
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