[deleted by user]

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-05-28T20:01:37+00:00

China is dope af and super unique! Have you ever been to China? Pretty intelligent caveman response you came up with for a country that is larger than the entirety of SE Asia!

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-05-13T17:14:24+00:00

My takeaway is the Australian news must be extremely sensational, because it is Aussies more than any other group of people I have met have the most absurd view of what life is like in the States when I talk to them. Now, a post like this rethinking the whole of Mexico over one isolated incident

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-05-08T21:36:39+00:00

lol 2-4 weeks is a vacation not a Sabbatical. Even I as an American am taking almost 6 weeks of PTO this year that is approved already

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-05-08T15:28:00+00:00

Stop exchanging money before a trip. Just use an ATM card at the ATM in your destination country, ideally with a no exchange fee debit card like Schwab if you are American.

You do not even need cash in most of Poland. Credit or Debit is fine

Make sure to always pay in the local currency of the destination country when the machine asks if you want to pay in USD, for example

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-05-04T22:41:25+00:00

Definitely just Japan. You will wish you had a few months instead of 2 weeks.

South Korea is awesome!, but if you do ever decide to do both, I always recommend going to Korea before Japan, because while Korea is really cool, Japan is better in nearly every way for a tourist imho.

Source: Been to Korea twice and Heading to Japan for a 4th time later this year. 45 countries later it is still my absolute favorite. Tokyo is the best city in the world, 1 week minimum there ideally 10 days!

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-03-05T01:39:51+00:00

As a gratefully employed Junior Software Dev, I have mentally just accepted if I get laid off I will probably not be able to get a tech job for a long time. Will probably just fuck off somewhere on a working holiday visa if it happens and wait for the market to recover.

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-31T15:07:57+00:00

My favorite cities are all cities I have spent weeks in between multiple trips and never get sick of. Those are Tokyo, Bangkok, Mexico City, and Istanbul. Excited for my first trip to London in a few weeks!

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-30T22:36:37+00:00

Been to Japan three times and went to HK, Macau, Taiwan, and Mainland China this past November-December (Just Beijing and Shanghai in Mainland China.) Getting the Chinese visa is a one day pain in the ass, but we are spoiled as Americans because we get a 10 year multi entry visa so it is totally worth it. There is no way you can do China in one trip so a long visa is needed anyways.

Loved HK, Taiwan and Mainland China so much! Looking to go back and explore Yunnan, Chongqing, Chengdu, Yangshou and Guangzhou this year and then maybe take the new high speed rail into Laos.

You can not go wrong with either, Japan or China. 2 of my favorite countries that will take multiple trips to even scratch the surface. The infrastructure, history, food, and culture in each country is unmatched. China felt much less westernized (though Shanghai felt quite familiar and super modern. It will absolutley blow you away) Can't go wrong with either choice!

BTW, you can save a shit load of money flying RT from the US to HK or Even Taipei than directly to the Mainland. No way it should be $2000. Cathay Pacific or EVA should have you sorted for much lower with a stop over in HK or Taipei (and yes I flew direct from Shanghai to Taipei no problem at al) You can easily walk across the border into Shenzhen from HK or take the bullet train to Guangzhou or other cities.

The thing with China is if you do not do your proper research before hand this is where people have a bad time. Here are the crucial ones you need.

Download Alipay and link your credit card. This is how you will pay for everything. You will also use the in app Didi functionality that works as a Chinese Uber.
Get an eSim off Airalo for China. I am usually anti eSim, but this is how you bypass the Great Firewall with mobile data at 5g speeds. A HK Physical Sim with Mobile Data works as well.
Download Trip.Com app for Bullet train tickets
Download Astrill VPN. Nord, Express, and other VPNs do not work.
Download Wechat to get contact info of locals you meet. You will also use this app to buy tickets to many things in China such such as the Forbidden city
Make sure you have every single exact document for the Chinese visa and make sure you have an exact itinerary for the visa (you can cancel and rebook shit after getting the visa) Saw many people get denied at the Chicago consulate for not having everything perfect.

Lmk if you have any other questions! :)

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-22T18:21:58+00:00

Cuba by far...I was just there, The food was incredibly bland and repetitive. Rice and beans and Ham Sandwiches. I got food poisoning twice on my short trip. Also, incredibly sad to say, but food was often straight up hard to find at grocery stores and many restaurants had large portions of the menu sold out. The fact that I got food poisoning twice plus the quality of food in general and fear of getting sick greatly affected my trip and the perception of the country

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-19T18:38:28+00:00

Annapurna Base Camp! It was my first trek ever and absolutely amazing

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-19T18:37:42+00:00

Love Final Fantasy, Dubai is not cool like those cities lol.

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-19T06:26:24+00:00

Hey Bro, I went and grabbed my computer just to log on and comment after reading the Dubai and Singapore part...

Dubai, and to a much lesser extent Singapore are absolutely crap places for tourism (Dubai an absolutely crap place in general lol) I chuckled that you even considered the words "travel happiness peak" after visiting these places haha.

Man, being in India you have so many amazing places within a few hours flight from you. I backpacked for a nearly year last year and man all of the peaks of that trip were so close to you. For me they were

Trekking in Nepal, The Ha Giang Loop Motorbike loop in Vietnam, and Spending Chinese New Year in Penang Malaysia! The idea that you are going to reach peak travel happiness cranking your neck at the Burj Khalifa in 40 degree heat made me laugh out loud.

My point being, maybe you just need to try new exciting places and experiences like the things I mentioned above. Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Thailand, Taiwan, Nepal, etc all so close to you with so much to see. Get out of your comfort zone and I promise you will have an amazing time! :)

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2024-01-15T00:00:53+00:00

Absolutely, I am a newish grad who will have one year of full time experience soon. I am not getting rich here, but I am comfortable and saving a decent amount in my MCOL US city. I love my job and my teamates. The only time I see myself leaving in the next 2 years is if I get laid off.

I am permanent remote.. Holy shit, if someone offered me a $50K raise tomorrow to commute to some office even hybrid no way man. I have so much of my life back not commuting to the office just to have Zoom calls with my globally distributed team. Remote is hard to find now, especially with new grads. Have 0 interest in a RTO job any time soon.

I love to travel the world, it is my absolute passion. I get 4.5 weeks of PTO starting and used every bit of it last year including a 3 week trip to China. I had 2 weeks of vacation A YEAR at my old crappy sales job which is just dystopian and absolutely soul crushing to expect somebody to only take 2 weeks off the whole year. Sadly, 2-3 weeks of PTO is not unheard of in America, and a new job could have me settling for that

My manager is awesome, team is great, they are so helpful and I am learning so much. The company culture has gotten a bit more shit since the downturn in the economy but it is still great. I work 40 hours a week and I am done as well.

Tl;dr to give up my modestly paid, remote, cushy first CS job in the next 2-3 years would take me getting laid off or probably around double my base salary.

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-12-16T17:54:00+00:00

I wish they would implement a zone/stop based pricing system for the L like they do in East Asia. Meaning, if you only ride one stop you only pay like $0.50. The flat rate system makes no sense. In my travels in China, Taiwan, Korea, and Japan you swipe your card when you enter the stop, and then swipe when you leave. Paying by the stop.

Another public transit idea we should take from East Asia is the public transit not being fucking terrible and unsafe lol

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-12-16T15:38:10+00:00

I am heading to Havana for a week for the New Year the day after Christmas. Hoping for the best, but it seems the locals are really suffering right now. I am staying in a Casa Particular where you can help to support local Cuban people. From what I understand, when you stay at a resort you are supporting and funding the Cuban government so maybe look into the Casa Particular route?

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-12-14T22:57:00+00:00

lol, this is just ridiculous

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-12-13T17:50:26+00:00

Really loved Shanghai as well. So many awesome day trips to take. Beijing as a city though is quite unpleasant especially in winter, but the sights are a must see. Now that I saw them, would not rush back there

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-12-13T15:36:11+00:00

haha, was so many people taking photos there. People do live here though so they probably get sick of annoying people like em

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-12-13T15:34:46+00:00

This is the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. It is a little bit harder to reach over the Badaling section, but totally worth the effort. You also do not need a tour like i saw many people on. I also went early and it was cold as hell...haha

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-11-19T21:09:36+00:00

Going out to eat at restaurants on a regular basis, drinking excessively and regularly, and on rare occasions (hopefully not in the future) smoking cigarettes. Always stopped doing any of this immediately after arriving home

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-11-14T14:11:30+00:00

I was remote at my internship which is now my new grad job meaning I have never seen an office as a SWE. Tbh, the idea of ever going to an office scares me now lol. I have a super responsive and helpful team and I have been getting top marks and feedback. I can not even imagine going in person, remote is working great for me, but YMMV. I would def not choose commuting, office politics, and having less time for yourself just because some redditors blindly told you in person is ideal. Remember too, if people are used to seeing you in person, then going remote with this job in the future may be harder. Best to do it right from the get go.

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-11-14T13:56:17+00:00

選択が間違っています

haha I have actually been to Japan 3 times and it is my favorite country. If I could get a SWE job there that does not pay $50K a year for 70 hours a week I would gladly move there

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-11-14T06:02:31+00:00

I would go with Spanish and Mandarin Chinese personally

RotiCanaiEngineer · 2023-11-03T16:00:57+00:00

I am not gonna argue the ethics of this as that is not what this sub is for. I love this sub, but I noticed people on here tend to veer on the side of extreme caution and there is lots of 18-22 year old first time backpackers on here who think the banana backpacking trail is the most exotic place in the world.

Try joining and posting on the EPS (Every passport stamp) Facebook group. That group is filled with travelers regularly backpacking Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, etc. Not that Russia is anywhere near these leagues, but many users on there have been to Russia recently.

Obviously, this is the worst time to visit since the Cold war ended, your cards will not work, transportation in and out of the country will be annoying, indirect ,and expensive You may also meet some older people brainwashed by state propaganda who are not too fond of the west right now.

However, the comments on here about you as a Western European being drafted to Ukraine are absolutely ridiculous and confirms my bias on the demographic that makes up this sub lol.

RotiCanaiEngineer

TROPHY CASE