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Good Things You Have Seen Overseas That You Wish We Had Here In The UK

Discussion in 'Travel Tips and Advice' started by Timmers, Jul 1, 2014.

  1. Aromulus
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    Aromulus The Don Staff Member

    Once a week, We used to dock in Charlotte Amalie, the Capital, and grab a taxi to the bay. as soon as we left the tender boats...
    Sometime it was just plain and unadulterated shopping trips on the main street. But mostly beaches and barbeque'd lobsters or 1/2 lbs burgers.... And copious amounts of Bud or Coors light...
  2. Maharg
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    Maharg Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    Yeah. They still have them, mainly around tourist areas like Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus etc
  3. Kilo
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    Kilo Member

    Oh my goodness yes!

    Even in such as Orlando, I used to feel sorry for the familes buying expensive restaurant passes for those on the Disney site. So ok I'll go against popular opinion and say they aren't THAT bad - you can certainly live on it for a fortnight, but if they'd just taken a shortish drive off "campus", they could find any number of really good local restaurants, serving food which knocks the themed Disney stuff into a mouse eared hat, and for a fraction of the price.
    At those prices, make sure you give that waitress a good tip! Don't be like the beginning of Reservoir Dogs kids.
  4. Kilo
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    Kilo Member

    Things I wish we could bring over here.

    Top of the list must be the entire cafe culture they have abroad. You can go out, 9 or 10 at night, soft lighting, and people sat drinking coffee or alcohol, and not wanting to deck each other with stools or look all "well ard".
    There's families with kids, people selling on stalls and the shops opening really late.

    The only place I've so far come across this sort of atmosphere (excepting special events in our cities such as the Christmas markets - these are one offs) is believe it or not in a little village in North Wales called Beddgelert. Even here it's on a very small scale, but the shops there don't close until stupid o clock, and the few pubs and restaurants are open to the streets, with mainly well behaved walkers.

    I'm not that well travelled though.

    Oh and I really wish we could import the "safe feeling" you get walking around Singapore at any time, but there's a very good reason for that feeling, which isn't going to come here any day soon. It isn't just the draconian justice system, it's in the mindset too. Very special place that.
  5. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    I was thinking that maybe it was just lentil soup after having a discussion about it with the loved one.
  6. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    I certainly agree with the café culture, I was in a small town in Holland for a few days last week and had a great time sitting outside the cafes in a beautiful setting on a beautiful day doing a bit of people watching.
    Singapore is one of the safest places in the world, like you said, you get a feeling of safety all around the place, and no chewing gum all over the pavement as in the UK, which reminds me. I was in a Bolton back street this morning waiting for a company to open their doors, as I was waiting a young lad walked past my car and chucked a cigarette packet on the floor, that really pisses me off 100% that these lazy people cannot take their rubbish home.
  7. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    That looks lovely, idyllic. The shadow of the palm tree reminds me of the Bounty advert that was on tv years back, I always thought coconuts were hairy and brown and hung off the trees because of that advert, I didn't realise until I worked in the Carribean that they grow inside a thick green casing :), we live and learn.
  8. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    You or the Mrs not had it, when in the middle east. Cracking flavours from it.
  9. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    Orlando has a license to print money, like you said about the meal tickets, you're much better off doing your own thing and ignoring buying tickets before you go there. I have been to Disneyland once and its hellishly expensive, I certainly wouldn't like to take a family there.
  10. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    I've had a similar experience there, its always better if you are dining with a local who can advise on portion sizes and so on, the US to me appears to be built around food, the amount of fast food on offer is especially worrying, shell suit definitely required to hide those extra pounds you put on :)

    The big disappointment for me in the US has always been the poor quality of their beer, they have some micro breweries that sell good beer but the beer generally on sale is like water and alcohol levels vary from state to state.
  11. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    They have it all, the red taxis, Star Ferries to island hop and the horse and carts, and of course the train station at Kowloon to get you up into mainland China. Another thing that impressed me there before China took HK back was being able to get a visa for China on the same day, I used to go somewhere on Nathan road for that, which reminds me, I loved the ex pat bars, Ned Kellys last stand the Kangaroo Bar and many more. Oh yes, it goes without saying about the flight into the old HK airport, legendary.
    • Agree Agree x 1
  12. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    A work colleague who had an amazing capacity for alcohol once gave me a tour of Rice (Houston). Firstly, its all paved, secondly there was a heap of such micro brewery type "pubs". I recall one was an old bank with vault included. This chap once did time in a Norwegian jail for drink driving in Norway. 2 weeks on the rig, 3 weeks in prison, 2weeks on the rig etec etc. LOL.
  13. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    The thing that disappointed me most of all in Sweden was the girls, I had it in my mind that they would all be blond and fit as butchers dogs, unfortunately that is not the case :lol:.

    I think I was expecting them all to look like the lead singer from ABBA :)
  14. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    That was very accommodating of the Norwegians LOL, its like being in prison working on a rig as we both know.
  15. Anon220806
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    Anon220806 Well-Known Member

    Well...in Mora in 1985/86 thats exactly how they were. 90% blond. I noticed in and around Stockholm it wasnt the case.
  16. Methersgate
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    Methersgate Well-Known Member Lifetime Member

    Ned Kelly's is doing fine, and you can still get a Chinese visa in four hours - turn left on leaving Arrivals at the airport and look for China Travel Service. Little boy was hugely impressed with the special MTR train to Disneyworld, with Mickey Mouse shaped windows, but he enjoyed the Star Ferry (HK$1.80) just as much as Disneyworld (HK$700!)
  17. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    Its good to see young lads impressed by the simpler things in life for a change, the Star Ferry crossings are unique and a must when visiting HK.

    Do they still have little signs displayed on the ferry saying "watch out for pickpockets"?
  18. Timmers
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    Timmers Well-Known Member Trusted Member

    The reason I thought they would all be blond is because of the time I spent in Torquay at my sisters in the late seventies. They had language schools there and all the Swedish girls seemed to be blonde, funny how you acquire preconceived ideas about a country.
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2014
  19. Howerd
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    Howerd Well-Known Member Trusted Member Lifetime Member

    As more and more women use realistic blonde hair dye, so the 'real blonde' will become extinct!

    It's down to simple genetics and the recessive gene that determines blonde hair colour, requring both parents to have the 'blonde' gene for any chance of their offspring being blonde.

    Read about Gregor Mendel (an Augustinian friar) and his work with pea plants to understand this!
  20. Markham
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    Markham Guest

    From the Caribbean, "Saba Spice" which is only produced on the tiny British island (Saba) and is a delicious spiced rum. Philippine pineapples, vastly superior to the south American variety sold in the UK - but Tesco does sell little plastic pots of Dole pineapple chunks which are grown in Bukidnon and packaged in Davao. Nowhere do you find finer lobster than in New England. "Mother-in-Law's Hellfire" is a curry mix I've only ever seen in the Indian market in Durban; super-delicious but a little goes a long way!

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