Morocco, by a country mile. There was no surf at all and I don’t think we had any interactions whatsoever that didn’t involve people trying to scam us.
also they put a barely cooked egg on top of every single dish you order, without fail.
’what do you reckon happens if I order a barely cooked egg? Two barely cooked eggs!?’
The last holidays to Antigua before I divorced, with Mr XL were the worst not because of the place.... it tends to be how you are getting on with others that counts on holidays rather than the physical conditions. South end on Sea for a short break with a boyfriend (who would choose that!!) was not great however despite the person. The hotel was like something out of the 1950s in a bad way.
Dublin is a fvcking great city but you go there to get on the lash, listen to Irish bands and watch your English mates get increasingly p1ssed off as the locals are 20 times nicer to you than to them. It is not a 'tourist destination' anymore than say Cardiff or Birmingham is.
When I was last there one of my (English and super tightfisted) mates lost his room key. We convinced* the lady on reception to tell him they were special high security room keys and cost 200 Euros to replace. Fair play to her she kept it going right up to the point he asked to speak to the manager. Top bantz.
It's weird how it's completely ok for people to be hostile to the English in Ireland. We went in a really dodgy old man pub and the elderly locals were lovely and started talking loudly and pointedly when they heard my accent about how awful the troubles were but they never agreed with the bombs, they were wrong. The only nasty comment I got was in a trendy pub from a waiter who probably isn't old enough to remember the GFA
I enjoyed the pyramids but then I was inside the Great Pyramid with just Mrs Goose and nobody else, which was a massive stroke of luck. Made it very atmospheric. I imagine it would be awful rammed full of people. I really liked Cairo generally.
I haven't exactly holidayed there, but I spent one night in Cairo in transit, and it was just awful - I was so excited about going, but it was such a disappointment.
Rude, hostile immigration female staff (apparently, being a woman by herself, and under the age of 80 justifies treating me as I have come there just to steal their men - stare at my passport photo, stare at me, talk to your colleague about me, repeat until you get bored, then just wave me through like I was a mosquito that was bothering your sunbathing).
Then the creepy men (and I am not a snowflake by any means, I am very rarely phased by blokes having a gander), but these ones managed to be intrusive and insulting, all in one go, which was fun. And then the taxi driver trying to "persuade" me that 5 UK pounds are pretty much the same as 5 egyptian pounds (presumably, I had never heard of exchange rates, and would think "ooh, well, they're both "pounds", so they must be worth the same!), so, just give me a fiver for the 15 egyptian pound fare, and we'll forget about the change, c'mon! I had to agree to give him a tip in order to get him to shut him up, he was starting to get a little intimidating.
Also, I think he assumed I was muslim, so spent the (mercifully) short ride telling me how disgusting all Christians are, cheap and immoral - "you understand what I mean, no?" Erm, no!
And then, to top it off, he dropped me at my hotel, and literally stood outside waiting for me while I went to the cashpoint to take out the fvcking 10 eqyptian pounds.
Romania is ace, got the danube delta, Bucharest is a good laugh in a weird way, then Transylvannia is fantastic. Two great roads to drive on as well (one of Top Gear fame).
The wimmin are beautiful, the men are mostly cavemen.
I did a standard 2 week Cairo, Luxor, cruise, Aswan trip. It had highlights but overall, given how excited I was about it, I think it was the most disappointing holiday of my life. Just could not get on with Egypt, and it confirmed cruising just not my thing, even down the nile.
Dublin is a great place, bags of history going back to the Vikings, very good Art Gallery, great archaeological museum, Chester Beatty Museum of Oriental Art is world class, and of course there is the Trinity College library. Walking tours are ace, and Dublin castle is worth a (short) visit. I spent a weekend there and there is still enough stuff left for a second weekend some time.
Just avoid the Museum of Irish Emigration - biggest fraud I have ever fallen for, unbelievably poor but incredibly expensive.
Worst place I ever went was Benidorm, but even that was saved by the fact that the hotel pool was perfectly pleasant, you could do day trips to Valencia, and there is some really excellent trekking/climbing in the surrounding hills - steep gradients and big elevation changes but so much easier when you are doing it near sea level.
I've never had any hostility from the Irish, although a m88, attending the same stag do as me in Cork, did get punched in the side of the head, for taking a piss in an alleyway. Turned out the wall he was pissing up against was the wall of a church and a local (a regular mass-goer and good religious boy, I don't for a second believe), saw the excuse for a scrap took righteous offence and twotted him.
Ha Hip2BSquare - I went to Durres for a mate’s wedding and confirm it to be an absolute shithole. It was actually so bad as to be quite funny. I have a memory of never having seen such a horrendous looking beach in my life with hoardes of litter-throwing Kosovans on holiday and motorbikes curving between sunbathers on the sand. The locals were also surprisingly incredibly unfriendly.
Think there's a difference between shit at the time and shit in hindsight.
Not many in the former, a few more in the latter. One's standards inflate after all.
Generally it's been a day to day thing. India for eg - shithole one minute, fantastic the next. Repeat.
Worst single longer period was a hotel in Sri Lanka. On honeymoon so expectations high and it had started in the Maldives (excellent for shortish period) then around Sri Lanka but avoiding Colombo which had also been superb. But no easy way of avoiding a layover in a fairly dusty corner so we'd be in right position for safari the next day. This is how we ended up in the dumpiest and, for what it was, priciest shitheaps I've ever been to. Malaria-infested 'lake' enclosed by trees so the mosquitoes stayed around waiting for our pale flesh. A few stray dogs milled and lay around. Hard to tell which ones were dead. I am a greedy bastard but couldn't touch the breakfast. Brown water out of taps. etc.
Single worst hotel experience Moscow early '90s. Doors didn't fit, even where there were some. No plugs in basins. Toilets mostly didn't flush. Enormous dead frog in half-tiled empty pool. But that was all part of a characterful and fascinating trip with loads of craziness. The Sri Lanka place was just a dump.
wasnt bery keen on Corsica, we stayed in some sheoherds cottage in the mountains, too remote, unfriendly peolle and gruesome looking mountain villages, all shuttered and bullet holes.
then there was an almighty storm we had to keave early becos track tonthe cottage became a river and we fled in middle of the night. Heard later some poor shepherd was washed away.
adored Cuba. In 1998. Not so much poor food as no food at all, esp at lunchtime, couldnt find anything. But still adored the sexiness of it.
skiing - I see your Flaine and Tignes and I raise you Val Thorens or Les Menuires. Ugh. Q like Tignes actually, you can make it work for you.
have any of you ever had to pass through Nairobi? Just. Dont.
That comment reminds me of Goa - was there one New Years eve and turns out young men travel there on mass from the cities for NYE but women don’t...must have 98 per cent male on the beach ...
I worked Summer 1988 at Butlins Minehead so if any of you were there then, I may have washed your dishes! Best memory was of then was the day the pubs first opened all day (they used to close mid-afternoon to early evening). I got completely smashed on scrumpy in town. Wouldn't ever be tempted by a Butlins holiday tbf.
When I was 8-14 years old my dad would take a month off in summer and we would drive all the way from Newcastle to the South of France, as my mother refused to fly. For the first few years this was with a caravan but later with a tent. Sitting on the scorching hot rear leather seat, my brother and I would take our revenge by fighting constantly the whole way from Washington to Nice. When we got there we stayed on a campsite which required crossing a motorway, and double rail line, and another motorway to get to the pebble beach. Basically I stopped going on holiday with my parents as soon as I was old enough.
Was in Dublin when USA 94 was on -was acers! Everyone bought me and my m6 pints, we stayed in TCD. We also went to Galway that trip, where we ended up buying everyone pints.
Been to Tignes and Flaine, both lack architectural merit but have good skiing. Worst ski resort I went to was Borovets, complete dump run by gangsters and full of strip bars after 11pm. Not helped by the complete lack of snow after day 2.
As a kid we'd go on 'holiday' to crap places because my old man would get stupidly good deals like £2 a night pp with B&B at Quality Inns and the other rubbish chains. The worst place was Hull. But then again we spent most of the time in York.
In terms of actual holiday destinations: Benidorm. No explanation needed.
I went to Egypt on one of those Nile Cruises a couple of years ago. With my brother-in-law. Cairo looks like it has recently been hit by multiple airstrikes. Like yesterday. Rubble all over the shop. People sitting in the road. I mean actually sitting in the road.
On the first day of arrival my bil turned to me and said deapan "It looks like Aleppo".
He has served in some right shite-holes. Liberia, Senegal and Mauritania, for example. But not actually Syria.
I laughed. Then everytime we drove into or sailed by some shite town, he would simply turn to me and say "Aleppo" Nothing more need be said. .
Is it? Surely it depends on whether you are friends with your brother in law. I can imagine situations where "the girls", if say the wives were sisters, might go off for a trip on their own and the brothers-in-law, if they were mates, might do likewise. A cruise is a slightly quixotic choice of holiday for anyone under 70 IMO but I don't see why it is made odder by the fact that the companion is an in-law. Finally, I would note that the relevant poster merely states that he was in the company of his brother-in-law on the cruise. He does not say that wives were absent.
I've never been on holiday with my sister's husband but I have gone on long cycle rides with him (particularly long for him I don't doubt as he is a much better athlete than me and has to go slower for me to keep up).
This was an illuminating read. Someone should do a RoF Guide.
Was going to step in to defend the non-Kuta parts of Bali until I remembered the rats who shared our five-star accommodation in Ubud ("We're in the jungle, sir, what do you expect?")
+1 for Paris being a bit shit (but hard to say it's the worst destination). Pretty as it it, that city scores zero marks for fun after the museums shut.
+1 also for Nairobi being terrible, apart from the restaurant where you can eat crocodile, but who goes to visit? You're either kicking off an overland or passing through on your way to smash the 'Jaro.
fook me, actually going on hols to Hull? The mind boggles.
Cairo really isn't that bad, just standard second world megalopolis. Worth it for a few days for the pyramids (for me the ratty context was all part of it) at Giza and Saqqara plus the museum in Cairo is stuffed with the most unbelievable treasures. Also found the old Christian churches and the mosques intriguing for a bit. But the real point of Egypt is to get out of Cairo, which I loved. We got lucky though with the guide we had on our cruise (only cruise I've ever been on) who was a great guy and an expert and we had him to ourselves. Up and off the boat early doors is the ticket before the hordes descend from eggcrate hotels on the Red Sea coast and the temps get up too much.
If I could run away leaving family life behind and go on hol I think I'd give an Ethiopia, Rwanda, Namibia trip a random go
Goose, I like Bali too. Kuta is a dump, but so what? Anyone with any sense is staying in Legian or Seminyak in that part of the island. And yeah, I liked Ubud too (just not the rats running around our jungle villa).
So you didn't go to Carnivore, Guy? Actually it's the onIy good memory I have from Nairobi. I got stuck there for two nights after I somehow missed my bus to Aruba, which gave me a whole day to enjoy the delights of the city.
Yes did Carnivores before flight home, as I believe is traditional...not necessarily a brilliant idea, biggest meal I have ever eaten just before long flight...
Understandable to not want rats running around. The worst was in Hanoi where I opened up the toilet lid to see a massive rat sitting in the bowl. Fortunately the toilet had a pretty powerful flush...
@Laz Thank you for your consideration. Actually there is a back story to why i went with Jose to Egypt.
First is that he (in middle age) has discovered travel to foreign countries. But the job he does, does not earn much.
He had leave and wanted to go to Egypt. On the cheap. If I paid half, it would be a cheap trip for him. He is the epitome of tight-fisted. He has a series of girlfriends (all absolutely sizzingly hot of those that I have met.)
However, I am not sure he has ever really recovered from an incredibly acrimonious divorce, many years ago, to a woman who he married when he was about 19. She may have been hot once upon a time, but is perhaps the most boring person I have ever met.
My wife is a teacher at an independent school so we are constrained as to our own holidays together by her term times. Me, not so much.
I always thought she would love to go to Egypt. She studied Egyptology as part of her (two) degrees but weirdly she said "no". She reckoned Egypt would be a 'disappointment'. Without even going there?
She can actually read hieroglyphs and will merrily (but slowly) translate them for me in the British Museum. Of course I have no idea if her translation is correct. Because I have no idea. She could be talking nonsense. But it has never appeared so. And her translations appear to line up with the adjacent Museum explanation. However, she makes out more detail than that.
The reason her brother has served in the countries referenced by me (with the Servicio Maritimo of the Guardia Civil) was he was doing so to try to stop migrants from Africa leaving and so was involved in programs (mostly funded by the EU, as I understand it) to stop them trying to canoe over the ocean to the Canary Islands. He has done a few stints in the Canaries too. This is not really a dinner table conversation but I presume he was pulling the dead, dying and living from the water. He is no fan of migrants or Muslims and is quite right-wing but it it his career. He does his job.
He was long been based out of Valencia* and Cartagena. In 2019 he finally got a transfer to the north and now commands a patrol boat out of a base in Galicia.
He once told me the story of patrolling Valencia harbour during the America's Cup. This was about 2007 or something. He said he watched as one of the yachts was exercising and committed some sailing offence (by failing to give way to other boats, I think.) So this happened a couple of times and he was prepared to let it go. However, on the about third time he decided action was necessary. He bought his patrol boat alongside and jumped on.
The yacht skipper went mental.as he clambered aboard and clomped about in his combat boot footware. There was a brief exchange of extreme words and he handed him a fine for a couple of thousand pounds. Er, one of those America's Cup Yachts plus the team support cost the best part of £50 million. He knew that.
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I have been to Sigisoara and Brasov. Admittedly they are nicer than the rest of the country but still pretty dull.
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I’d happily go to all of these shit places just as long as we can travel easily again
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Morocco, by a country mile. There was no surf at all and I don’t think we had any interactions whatsoever that didn’t involve people trying to scam us.
also they put a barely cooked egg on top of every single dish you order, without fail.
’what do you reckon happens if I order a barely cooked egg? Two barely cooked eggs!?’
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Cluj-Napoca has very beautiful women
But that's Transylvania
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Totally agree re Pyramids, absolute gash, had thought they were in the middle of nowhere, not on the fringe of a dump and SO much rubbish
also, i didnt find the egyptians i met friendly
And the russian prostitutes were everywhere*
*cost me a small fortune and i ran out of money**
Not really i have loads of money***
*** i am joking
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Totally agree re Pyramids, absolute gash, had thought they were in the middle of nowhere, not on the fringe of a dump and SO much rubbish
also, i didnt find the egyptians i met friendly
And the russian prostitutes were everywhere*
*cost me a small fortune and i ran out of money**
Not really i have loads of money***
*** i am joking
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Amazing you can get a tun for ripping off someone else’s post after slagging it off. Bravo.
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In the UK- Blackpool
Abroad- Holland and Iceland
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The last holidays to Antigua before I divorced, with Mr XL were the worst not because of the place.... it tends to be how you are getting on with others that counts on holidays rather than the physical conditions. South end on Sea for a short break with a boyfriend (who would choose that!!) was not great however despite the person. The hotel was like something out of the 1950s in a bad way.
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Dublin is a fvcking great city but you go there to get on the lash, listen to Irish bands and watch your English mates get increasingly p1ssed off as the locals are 20 times nicer to you than to them. It is not a 'tourist destination' anymore than say Cardiff or Birmingham is.
When I was last there one of my (English and super tightfisted) mates lost his room key. We convinced* the lady on reception to tell him they were special high security room keys and cost 200 Euros to replace. Fair play to her she kept it going right up to the point he asked to speak to the manager. Top bantz.
*it took zero convincing
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It's weird how it's completely ok for people to be hostile to the English in Ireland. We went in a really dodgy old man pub and the elderly locals were lovely and started talking loudly and pointedly when they heard my accent about how awful the troubles were but they never agreed with the bombs, they were wrong. The only nasty comment I got was in a trendy pub from a waiter who probably isn't old enough to remember the GFA
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GFA ?
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I enjoyed the pyramids but then I was inside the Great Pyramid with just Mrs Goose and nobody else, which was a massive stroke of luck. Made it very atmospheric. I imagine it would be awful rammed full of people. I really liked Cairo generally.
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"Amazing you can get a tun for ripping off someone else’s post after slagging it off. Bravo."
WTF are you talking about?
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Incredible experience I should imagine Goose
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I haven't exactly holidayed there, but I spent one night in Cairo in transit, and it was just awful - I was so excited about going, but it was such a disappointment.
Rude, hostile immigration female staff (apparently, being a woman by herself, and under the age of 80 justifies treating me as I have come there just to steal their men - stare at my passport photo, stare at me, talk to your colleague about me, repeat until you get bored, then just wave me through like I was a mosquito that was bothering your sunbathing).
Then the creepy men (and I am not a snowflake by any means, I am very rarely phased by blokes having a gander), but these ones managed to be intrusive and insulting, all in one go, which was fun. And then the taxi driver trying to "persuade" me that 5 UK pounds are pretty much the same as 5 egyptian pounds (presumably, I had never heard of exchange rates, and would think "ooh, well, they're both "pounds", so they must be worth the same!), so, just give me a fiver for the 15 egyptian pound fare, and we'll forget about the change, c'mon! I had to agree to give him a tip in order to get him to shut him up, he was starting to get a little intimidating.
Also, I think he assumed I was muslim, so spent the (mercifully) short ride telling me how disgusting all Christians are, cheap and immoral - "you understand what I mean, no?" Erm, no!
And then, to top it off, he dropped me at my hotel, and literally stood outside waiting for me while I went to the cashpoint to take out the fvcking 10 eqyptian pounds.
Horrible, horrible place.
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I'll chaperone you next time cru...
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Durres in Albania. It’s exactly how I imagine Blackpool to be, but with scarier locals and the occasional dead dog lying next to the pavement.
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Romania is ace, got the danube delta, Bucharest is a good laugh in a weird way, then Transylvannia is fantastic. Two great roads to drive on as well (one of Top Gear fame).
The wimmin are beautiful, the men are mostly cavemen.
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I did a standard 2 week Cairo, Luxor, cruise, Aswan trip. It had highlights but overall, given how excited I was about it, I think it was the most disappointing holiday of my life. Just could not get on with Egypt, and it confirmed cruising just not my thing, even down the nile.
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Aw, thanks csider! :)
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Dublin is a great place, bags of history going back to the Vikings, very good Art Gallery, great archaeological museum, Chester Beatty Museum of Oriental Art is world class, and of course there is the Trinity College library. Walking tours are ace, and Dublin castle is worth a (short) visit. I spent a weekend there and there is still enough stuff left for a second weekend some time.
Just avoid the Museum of Irish Emigration - biggest fraud I have ever fallen for, unbelievably poor but incredibly expensive.
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Worst place I ever went was Benidorm, but even that was saved by the fact that the hotel pool was perfectly pleasant, you could do day trips to Valencia, and there is some really excellent trekking/climbing in the surrounding hills - steep gradients and big elevation changes but so much easier when you are doing it near sea level.
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Ah, forgot about Scarborough. Scarborough was really shit.
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I've never had any hostility from the Irish, although a m88, attending the same stag do as me in Cork, did get punched in the side of the head, for taking a piss in an alleyway. Turned out the wall he was pissing up against was the wall of a church and a local (a regular mass-goer and good religious boy, I don't for a second believe),
saw the excuse for a scraptook righteous offence and twotted him.0
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Regarding the pyramids, it is fooking weird how they are right at the end of a suburban street with a golf course about 200m from the Great Pyramid.
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Sicily is the very polar opposite of shit
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Ha Hip2BSquare - I went to Durres for a mate’s wedding and confirm it to be an absolute shithole. It was actually so bad as to be quite funny. I have a memory of never having seen such a horrendous looking beach in my life with hoardes of litter-throwing Kosovans on holiday and motorbikes curving between sunbathers on the sand. The locals were also surprisingly incredibly unfriendly.
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I really want to go back to Egypt - maybe if I go with someone, or can meet up with someone who lives there, I might have a better time.
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all booked Cru, think James Bond and Major Amasova in the Spy Who Loved Me...
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Think there's a difference between shit at the time and shit in hindsight.
Not many in the former, a few more in the latter. One's standards inflate after all.
Generally it's been a day to day thing. India for eg - shithole one minute, fantastic the next. Repeat.
Worst single longer period was a hotel in Sri Lanka. On honeymoon so expectations high and it had started in the Maldives (excellent for shortish period) then around Sri Lanka but avoiding Colombo which had also been superb. But no easy way of avoiding a layover in a fairly dusty corner so we'd be in right position for safari the next day. This is how we ended up in the dumpiest and, for what it was, priciest shitheaps I've ever been to. Malaria-infested 'lake' enclosed by trees so the mosquitoes stayed around waiting for our pale flesh. A few stray dogs milled and lay around. Hard to tell which ones were dead. I am a greedy bastard but couldn't touch the breakfast. Brown water out of taps. etc.
Single worst hotel experience Moscow early '90s. Doors didn't fit, even where there were some. No plugs in basins. Toilets mostly didn't flush. Enormous dead frog in half-tiled empty pool. But that was all part of a characterful and fascinating trip with loads of craziness. The Sri Lanka place was just a dump.
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wasnt bery keen on Corsica, we stayed in some sheoherds cottage in the mountains, too remote, unfriendly peolle and gruesome looking mountain villages, all shuttered and bullet holes.
then there was an almighty storm we had to keave early becos track tonthe cottage became a river and we fled in middle of the night. Heard later some poor shepherd was washed away.
adored Cuba. In 1998. Not so much poor food as no food at all, esp at lunchtime, couldnt find anything. But still adored the sexiness of it.
skiing - I see your Flaine and Tignes and I raise you Val Thorens or Les Menuires. Ugh. Q like Tignes actually, you can make it work for you.
have any of you ever had to pass through Nairobi? Just. Dont.
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Yep Nairobi is pretty hellish
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Magaluf - I knew it would be shit but wasn't expecting it to be 80% male.
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That comment reminds me of Goa - was there one New Years eve and turns out young men travel there on mass from the cities for NYE but women don’t...must have 98 per cent male on the beach ...
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I worked Summer 1988 at Butlins Minehead so if any of you were there then, I may have washed your dishes! Best memory was of then was the day the pubs first opened all day (they used to close mid-afternoon to early evening). I got completely smashed on scrumpy in town. Wouldn't ever be tempted by a Butlins holiday tbf.
When I was 8-14 years old my dad would take a month off in summer and we would drive all the way from Newcastle to the South of France, as my mother refused to fly. For the first few years this was with a caravan but later with a tent. Sitting on the scorching hot rear leather seat, my brother and I would take our revenge by fighting constantly the whole way from Washington to Nice. When we got there we stayed on a campsite which required crossing a motorway, and double rail line, and another motorway to get to the pebble beach. Basically I stopped going on holiday with my parents as soon as I was old enough.
Was in Dublin when USA 94 was on -was acers! Everyone bought me and my m6 pints, we stayed in TCD. We also went to Galway that trip, where we ended up buying everyone pints.
Been to Tignes and Flaine, both lack architectural merit but have good skiing. Worst ski resort I went to was Borovets, complete dump run by gangsters and full of strip bars after 11pm. Not helped by the complete lack of snow after day 2.
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As a kid we'd go on 'holiday' to crap places because my old man would get stupidly good deals like £2 a night pp with B&B at Quality Inns and the other rubbish chains. The worst place was Hull. But then again we spent most of the time in York.
In terms of actual holiday destinations: Benidorm. No explanation needed.
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rogermellie @ 08:45
"Egypt is some other kind of shithole"
I went to Egypt on one of those Nile Cruises a couple of years ago. With my brother-in-law. Cairo looks like it has recently been hit by multiple airstrikes. Like yesterday. Rubble all over the shop. People sitting in the road. I mean actually sitting in the road.
On the first day of arrival my bil turned to me and said deapan "It looks like Aleppo".
He has served in some right shite-holes. Liberia, Senegal and Mauritania, for example. But not actually Syria.
I laughed. Then everytime we drove into or sailed by some shite town, he would simply turn to me and say "Aleppo" Nothing more need be said. .
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Mauritania! Wonder what the dive bars are like there. I'd like to go to some proper second tier African countries. Eritrea would be good.
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Dry country apparently. There are a surprising number of them in Africa.
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Taking a cruise with your brother in law is an odd arrangement I have to say.
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Is it? Surely it depends on whether you are friends with your brother in law. I can imagine situations where "the girls", if say the wives were sisters, might go off for a trip on their own and the brothers-in-law, if they were mates, might do likewise. A cruise is a slightly quixotic choice of holiday for anyone under 70 IMO but I don't see why it is made odder by the fact that the companion is an in-law. Finally, I would note that the relevant poster merely states that he was in the company of his brother-in-law on the cruise. He does not say that wives were absent.
I've never been on holiday with my sister's husband but I have gone on long cycle rides with him (particularly long for him I don't doubt as he is a much better athlete than me and has to go slower for me to keep up).
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Heh@athlete
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Yes it is Laz, bike rides and cruises down the Nile are not really analogous
(although obviously if wives went along all bets off- nothing to see here)
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This was an illuminating read. Someone should do a RoF Guide.
Was going to step in to defend the non-Kuta parts of Bali until I remembered the rats who shared our five-star accommodation in Ubud ("We're in the jungle, sir, what do you expect?")
+1 for Paris being a bit shit (but hard to say it's the worst destination). Pretty as it it, that city scores zero marks for fun after the museums shut.
+1 also for Nairobi being terrible, apart from the restaurant where you can eat crocodile, but who goes to visit? You're either kicking off an overland or passing through on your way to smash the 'Jaro.
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fook me, actually going on hols to Hull? The mind boggles.
Cairo really isn't that bad, just standard second world megalopolis. Worth it for a few days for the pyramids (for me the ratty context was all part of it) at Giza and Saqqara plus the museum in Cairo is stuffed with the most unbelievable treasures. Also found the old Christian churches and the mosques intriguing for a bit. But the real point of Egypt is to get out of Cairo, which I loved. We got lucky though with the guide we had on our cruise (only cruise I've ever been on) who was a great guy and an expert and we had him to ourselves. Up and off the boat early doors is the ticket before the hordes descend from eggcrate hotels on the Red Sea coast and the temps get up too much.
If I could run away leaving family life behind and go on hol I think I'd give an Ethiopia, Rwanda, Namibia trip a random go
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I got stuck in Nairobi overnight kingfaff, picking up a tour the day after arrival. Don't mind saying I did not leave the hotel after dark...
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Here's a second for Iceland. Never again.
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I liked Ubud. Good bars and restaurants. Useful base for trips around the interior of the island. Bali is a bit overrated though.
Ethiopia, Rwanda and Namibia are three countries I would love to go to as well.
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Goose, I like Bali too. Kuta is a dump, but so what? Anyone with any sense is staying in Legian or Seminyak in that part of the island. And yeah, I liked Ubud too (just not the rats running around our jungle villa).
So you didn't go to Carnivore, Guy? Actually it's the onIy good memory I have from Nairobi. I got stuck there for two nights after I somehow missed my bus to Aruba, which gave me a whole day to enjoy the delights of the city.
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Yes did Carnivores before flight home, as I believe is traditional...not necessarily a brilliant idea, biggest meal I have ever eaten just before long flight...
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Understandable to not want rats running around. The worst was in Hanoi where I opened up the toilet lid to see a massive rat sitting in the bowl. Fortunately the toilet had a pretty powerful flush...
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@Laz Thank you for your consideration. Actually there is a back story to why i went with Jose to Egypt.
First is that he (in middle age) has discovered travel to foreign countries. But the job he does, does not earn much.
He had leave and wanted to go to Egypt. On the cheap. If I paid half, it would be a cheap trip for him. He is the epitome of tight-fisted. He has a series of girlfriends (all absolutely sizzingly hot of those that I have met.)
However, I am not sure he has ever really recovered from an incredibly acrimonious divorce, many years ago, to a woman who he married when he was about 19. She may have been hot once upon a time, but is perhaps the most boring person I have ever met.
My wife is a teacher at an independent school so we are constrained as to our own holidays together by her term times. Me, not so much.
I always thought she would love to go to Egypt. She studied Egyptology as part of her (two) degrees but weirdly she said "no". She reckoned Egypt would be a 'disappointment'. Without even going there?
She can actually read hieroglyphs and will merrily (but slowly) translate them for me in the British Museum. Of course I have no idea if her translation is correct. Because I have no idea. She could be talking nonsense. But it has never appeared so. And her translations appear to line up with the adjacent Museum explanation. However, she makes out more detail than that.
The reason her brother has served in the countries referenced by me (with the Servicio Maritimo of the Guardia Civil) was he was doing so to try to stop migrants from Africa leaving and so was involved in programs (mostly funded by the EU, as I understand it) to stop them trying to canoe over the ocean to the Canary Islands. He has done a few stints in the Canaries too. This is not really a dinner table conversation but I presume he was pulling the dead, dying and living from the water. He is no fan of migrants or Muslims and is quite right-wing but it it his career. He does his job.
He was long been based out of Valencia* and Cartagena. In 2019 he finally got a transfer to the north and now commands a patrol boat out of a base in Galicia.
He once told me the story of patrolling Valencia harbour during the America's Cup. This was about 2007 or something. He said he watched as one of the yachts was exercising and committed some sailing offence (by failing to give way to other boats, I think.) So this happened a couple of times and he was prepared to let it go. However, on the about third time he decided action was necessary. He bought his patrol boat alongside and jumped on.
The yacht skipper went mental.as he clambered aboard and clomped about in his combat boot footware. There was a brief exchange of extreme words and he handed him a fine for a couple of thousand pounds. Er, one of those America's Cup Yachts plus the team support cost the best part of £50 million. He knew that.
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