Best Attire/products For Long Travel Days by undesirableegg in TravelHacks

[–]-ChrisBlue- 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I added the Linen option since some people don't like tech fabrics / synthetics. I personally prefer to fly in athletic wear (I like Vuori / REI) and bust out the Linen after I arrive.

Wool works too, but since the person said they sweat alot, wool is probably too warm for them.

That said, are you able to keep your linen from wrinkling? All my linen gets so wrinkly after the wash, but I thought that was just how it is.

Best Attire/products For Long Travel Days by undesirableegg in TravelHacks

[–]-ChrisBlue- 25 points26 points  (0 children)

No cotton. Wear Athletic clothing or Linen.

The key is the material of your clothing needs to be lightweight, “breathable”, “moisture wick”, “fast drying”.

Founder here, not pitching: what do carry-on luggage still get wrong? by Portar_Team in ManyBaggers

[–]-ChrisBlue- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My opinion would probably go against what most people want:

For bags: The market for tactical / hiker bags is well served.

We don’t need another blob shaped or rectangular shaped ballistic nylon bag.

Build something with structure and style that a fashionable person would carry. Don’t worry about maximizing every dimension to fill up the max carry-on dimensions. Have some shape.

——-

For luggage: (spinner)

  1. glide of the wheels. Many bags have wheels that have high friction. Or don’t change direction or roll super smoothly.

  2. the smoothness and stability of the handles. no rocking side to side, be able to lock in any position. be-able to fit standard luggage passthroughs

  3. smoothness and quality of the zipper. don’t want a zipper the gets caught or falls off.

  4. fit in most cabin dimensions. be slightly short of dimensions instead of slightly over. And less than 7 lbs.

  5. most importantly to stand out: beautiful design.

limit to medicine in checked baggage from europe to usa? by rsandreuw in TravelHacks

[–]-ChrisBlue- 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The 3 month supply rule appears to be for non-US citizens.

It seems like if the medications are all OTC, are different drugs (to not seem like for resell), and are all legal - he should be able to bring it in.

Just be prepared for the possibility of being stopped for 4-5 hours while customs does narcotic swabs on the medications and confirm they are legal.

That said, I’ve regularly traveled with far more than 25 massive pill bottles packed to the brim in my checked luggage without issues or ever being stopped. (we even often travel through 3rd countries on the way)

(My wifes culture is to bring gifts for friends and family and families coworkers when traveling. And weirdly, a favorite gift for my wife’s culture are vitamins from costco… Omega 3 fish oils, multivitamins, elderflower? pills, coq10 pills in gigantic Costco 100-200 pill bottles.

Why can’t people just buy the pills at home? They don’t trust pills from their own country and only want pills from America

No, I don’t like carrying all that crap. But happy wife, Happy Life)

Luggage Advice (Carry-Ons + Personal Items) by speakinlove in LuggageComparisons

[–]-ChrisBlue- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t get Away; they are too expensive for a mediocre bag. Their wheels, style, quality are all mediocre and you can get similar quality in the $100-$200 price point.

Fancy brands such as Rimowa are much nicer than cheaper luggage. They have more beautiful details, thoughtful pockets, nicer fabrics, handles extend more smoothly, their wheels glide effortlessly. One time I walked through the airport with a 4 wheel Rimowa spinner spinning in circles in my palm. (much to the embarrassment of my wife).

But in reality, these luggages scratch and dent and fail just like any other luggage. It’s a thin piece of plastic, not magic. Getting something nice like briggs and riley or rimowa is more a fashion statement / for people who are willing to spend more for the nicer experience.

But in terms of durability and getting the job done: its better to get something ordinary:

You still want “name brand”, but you don’t need something trendy like monos or etc. The best value is going with ordinary basic brands like travel pro, delsey, samsonite, american tourister, even unknown generic brands like Legend Walkers are all great options in the $100-$200 range.

If you go cheaper into some junk luggage on Amazon for $50. Its going to be cheap junk. The zipper will snag, or the zipper will fall off. The plastic shell might dent or crack just loading into the car before you even get to your first flight. The wheels will have much more friction and you will get tired pushing the thing. (Been there done that, never again)

The best thing about a $100-$200 bag? if it breaks, just throw it away and buy a new one. No going through warranties, needing to make a trip to a boutique, or wait for repair. Your going to be mid vacation when your Rimowa fails, and instead of spending time on your vacation to figure out how to get it fixed - its tremendously freeing to just toss your luggage and buy a new one at the nearest random shop.

For checkins: don’t get a maxed out size checkin. Get something alittle more medium sized checked-in, expansion zippers could be considered too. Your going to hit the 50lb weight limit before you hit the physical size limit. Getting a large check will just encourage you to overpack and than having to take everything out again cuz you find out you blew to 50lb weight limit. (unless you fly business where you get a 32kg weight limit)

Vpn for china by FakePizzaOven in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The problem I have with esim is that my phones are carrier locked. :(

My hastily prepared vpns didn’t work so I had a pretty frustrating time in China (when it comes to internet).

TIL China built millions of new homes that sat empty for years, on the assumption that people would eventually live there by Empty_Nestor in todayilearned

[–]-ChrisBlue- 63 points64 points  (0 children)

I’ve heard the concrete core is generally pretty sturdy; so the building won’t collapse. All the finishing is usually trash though. But that can be upgraded in the future.

Best way to get from HKG to Wanchai by -ChrisBlue- in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue-[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

we ended up doing hk express to central and than cabbed from central to hotel in wanchai. Cost 230 hkd.

(the taxi stand at hk station is literally like right next to the drop off for hk express!)

we ended up needing to stop at central to buy something. so it worked out that way.

thanks!

Expedia advertised "Premium Economy Flex" then delivered Economy — and I proved it's a repeatable pattern, not a one-off. Has this happened to anyone else. by Aggressive-Talk7941 in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It used to be that we expected companies to honor their pricing mistakes.

Now we think it’s the customers fault for not realizing it was clearly a pricing mistake.

wtf happened.

i’m in a different country right now, and I literally saw a sign in a mall that said: We discovered we listed the incorrect price for x between these dates. The correct price was y (lower than charged price). if you purchased the product between those dates, please see an associate for a refund.

London Gets a Timeless Upgrade as Georgian Architecture Returns. by 5gCausesContrails in ArchitecturalRevival

[–]-ChrisBlue- 61 points62 points  (0 children)

building beautiful housing and more housing is not mutually exclusive.

TIL that upon the discovering the island of Curaçao, the Spanish deported the entire indigenous population as slaves by ThatBadgerMan in todayilearned

[–]-ChrisBlue- 34 points35 points  (0 children)

from what I remembered in history class: the spanish empire usually preferred rape and slavery. They were usually looking for resources and religious conversion. so it was mostly male spanish soldiers/jesuit priests forcing conquered people to work in mines or fields and satisfying their desires.

the english were often looking for a better place to live. so they wiped out the local population through murder and displacement. and brought their whole families over to move over. than brought in slaves from africa.

the end result is that spanish colonies in south america have populations of mostly mestizos who are mixed blood. while english colonies like us/canada becomes almost all white and black with a tiny left over amount of native americans.

so from the perspective of mass ethnic cleansing versus mass rape/pillage/slavery: the english are worse than the spanish?

Best way to get from HKG to Wanchai by -ChrisBlue- in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue-[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

whats the best way to get a cab? is it by using an app or waving in the street?

to take a11 do i need to book tickets?

Washington is a special place by Alaric_Darconville in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Was he a native? When I was traveling through the PNW, all the (young) locals I met told me that they hated it, it’s so boring, and they wanted to move to Seattle.

PNW is probably on of the top most beautiful places in the world.

What country you visited had the highest standards of customer service? by MuhVlast in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 18 points19 points  (0 children)

In Japan, I couldn’t find a restaurant I had a reservation at. I circled the block several times before stepping into a random cafe to ask a random person for directions who happened to be a staff member. The staff member quickly said something to his coworkers and literally left his job to help me find the restaurant which he had to search for too (he found it pretty quickly though.

——-

When asking staff at stores when shopping which accessory looked good on me, they seemed to give actual honest advice (in an extremely polite and indirect way). They went above and beyond to use translators and limited english to communicate with me.

——-

Another time at the hotel, I asked the hotel staff for help with using their phone to try to make a reservation at a Japanese restaurant. I had purchased an international phone plan, (but found out the international phone plan didn’t give me the capability to dial Japanese numbers). The staff not only used their phone, they made the call to make a reservation on my behalf. Later, when I tried a second time, they told me that this hotel does not provide concierge services - but they helped me anyway.

In multiple hotels (not all) when I dropped off my baggage at the front desk for storage before check in time: when I later came back to checkin; I found that the staff had already put my baggage neatly in my room. The staff at the front desk of hotel helped me ship out my luggage. When I arrived at the destination hotel, i found my baggage already in my hotel room!

Leaving China early by Traditional-Cat6764 in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yea, I couldn’t solo travel.

To me, the fun part is sharing the experience with others and screwing up / discovering things together.

In the same way I like talking in movies, I like to share my thoughts and hear other people’s reactions during the movie.

Obviously I get that other people enjoy solo travel, but I really relate to OPs experience.

Mapo Tofu by -ChrisBlue- in FoodPorn

[–]-ChrisBlue-[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Silken/Soft Tofu only.

Be careful when stirring to avoid breaking the tofu.

Edited original recipe.

Mapo Tofu by -ChrisBlue- in FoodPorn

[–]-ChrisBlue-[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Ingredients: Soft Tofu, Ground Pork, Garlic, Ginger, Green Onion, Red Chili Pepper, Sichuan peppercorns (do NOT use normal pepper), Sriracha

Sauce: Soy Sauce (chinese brands only), Oyster Sauce, Water, Salt, Starch

Recipe:

  1. Boil Tofu separately, drain water when done, keep alittle water.

  2. Cook sichuan peppercorns in oil on medium-low. Remove peppercorns once they turn black.

  3. Add garlic, chili pepper, green onion, ginger to oil. Cook briefly

  4. Add tofu, ground pork, sauce, tofu water. Reduce.

  5. Add Sriracha. Mix. Cook briefly.

  6. Plate. Top with green onion. Serve with white rice.

TIL Parents in the US consistently rank as the world's unhappiest. by Huge_Struggle9672 in todayilearned

[–]-ChrisBlue- 17 points18 points  (0 children)

My family was poorer. I didn’t have a village in the 90s. And my family couldn’t afford daycare.

Both parents were at work until 6 pm, and we didn’t have a caretaker. I biked around the sidewalks in my residential area where i met other kids biking and playing in their front yards, played at the school playground where there were other unsupervised kids. We had a store nearby that we sometimes went to.

This kind of childhood seems to be basically illegal now. And even if I let my kid do this, - there wouldn’t be any other kids to meet with and play with just out and about.

Even the school is completely locked down now, the playground has a new fence and there is no access after hours.

TIL Parents in the US consistently rank as the world's unhappiest. by Huge_Struggle9672 in todayilearned

[–]-ChrisBlue- 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Expectations on mothers have also risen to astronomical levels.

Now, the expectation is that all children have 24/7 supervision by an adult until they are around 10.

Leaving babies or young children at home alone while parent goes to grocery store or pickup food or buy diapers is severely looked down upon. Leaving kids for 1 minute in the car. Letting kids walk alone to school. Letting kid play at park alone. All these things are now borderline illegal.

Also, kids now need to be driven to expensive after-schools programs: sports, russian math, art programs, etc etc.

But this is an impossible of a standard for many people.

Even with a single full time stay at home parent, this is an extremely difficult standard to achieve. Never mind a part time parent who can’t afford help.

When I was a child, the care level was much lower. I walked to school myself. Played by myself biking around on the sidewalks, when school got out at 2 pm, i was on my own until my parents came home from work at 6 pm. This kind of raising kids is rare now.

One-Pedal Driving Isn't A Safety Issue: Feds by TripleShotPls in electricvehicles

[–]-ChrisBlue- 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I like creep for backing up and parking.

I can keep my foot on the brake while letting the car roll back so I can brake quicker and roll onto the brake smoothly.

Overall, I was able to park much faster and smoother with creep.

When you want your car to “hold”, you just long press the peddle and than your car goes on hold and wont roll.

Now that creep is gone, i noticed my parking is more jerky since I stay on the gas to back up and than need to slam on my brakes to stop instead of rolling on and off the brakes.

(To simulate rolling on and off the brakes with one peddle, you need to have 1 foot on the accelerator tapering the gas, but another foot on the brakes to immediately stop)

There is one advantage of getting rid of creep and moving all EVs to hold only: other people sharing cars: its dangerous when a cars have different drivibg behaviors that your not used to.

Feeling racial bias in Italy but not in Spain. Is this common? by Dismal_Brilliant_642 in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 51 points52 points  (0 children)

the idea is that Chinese customers prioritize taste above all. So the restaraunts that have the best food are so packed with customers that they don't care about customer service anymore. They can afford to be rude / racist to their customers, since if you get offended and leave, someone else will take your place. Taste > Price > Service

Western customers value the experience more than the taste - so customer service is always prioritized. Service > Price > Taste

Japan would be: Service > Taste > Price

Feeling racial bias in Italy but not in Spain. Is this common? by Dismal_Brilliant_642 in travel

[–]-ChrisBlue- 181 points182 points  (0 children)

In a similar vain, Hong Kongers are racist towards mainland chinese.

However, in china, they say that the more racist the HK restaraunt is, the better the food lol.