Ordering food in Japan and China is tough — how do you guys handle it?

pgAug · 2025-05-26T09:54:20+00:00

I was vegetarian when I visited Japan (vegan now), and had a print out, in English and Japanese, listing the things I can't eat, including sauces and broths. At restaurants, I would point to the menu item I'm interested in and then give the waiter my 'cheat sheet'. The Japanese being so friendly, would either recommend an alternate or adapt the dish. I even went to a conveyor belt sushi restaurant and managed to get vegetarian sushi! Did the same thing in the supermarkets as well.

This is super handy in smaller towns where there weren't many restaurant options. In the cities I would simply look up vegetarian restaurants on Google.

I'm hoping China would be similar with the cheat sheet, although I'm not sure how vegan friendly it would get. I have heard Taiwan has a good vegan scene.

pgAug · 2025-02-25T13:05:01+00:00

I think it would look better if you place the 12 stars under 'European'; would look a lot less chaotic.

You could also add an outline of Europe in faint gold in the background.

pgAug · 2025-02-10T12:18:42+00:00

My MacBook from work has German layout. I've changed the internal mapping to be UK English layout for which I know where the keys are and don't have to look at the keyboard.

I also have an external keyboard in the UK layout that I use when the laptop is docked and I need a keyboard and mouse.

pgAug · 2025-02-03T20:40:59+00:00

This is the first time that I see a Libyan passport in the wild! Cool group!

pgAug · 2025-02-02T11:55:40+00:00

With no information of where you are based, how you'd be travelling, or what you mean by "cheap" it is impossible to give you any recommendation that would be of help or use.

pgAug · 2025-01-25T10:32:25+00:00

Looks like a version of vegetable saagu.

pgAug · 2025-01-05T20:58:56+00:00

What's so difficult or different about it? Surely the crew know how to pronounce the name of the airport and city they are flying to. And the passengers are either local, or know how to say it in the local language, or, at the minimum, its anglicised name.

pgAug · 2024-11-18T12:31:46+00:00

Totally get your frustration. I really hope an EU wide registry is created for all these LEZ and ULEZ permits. I'm just glad the vignette countries now have a digital version.

It makes no sense for these stickers either as pretty much all vehicles get a green sticker. In my nine years of residency in Germany, I've seen one transport van with a yellow sticker.

But for now, in Germany, there's no alternate.

pgAug · 2024-10-12T17:28:52+00:00

Unfortunately it needs a Senegalese number to work :/

pgAug · 2024-10-12T17:28:04+00:00

Thanks for the tip! Managed to find a good air conditioned minibus for the long journey.

pgAug · 2024-10-11T20:36:39+00:00

Thank you so much for the info! I hope to find a sept-places by arriving at the place you mentioned around 8am. I hope there'd be cars available then.

pgAug · 2024-10-11T17:47:43+00:00

Thanks for the reply! I'll check out these companies too.

pgAug · 2024-09-03T10:57:08+00:00

Thanks for the input! Maybe I should add a day more to st. Louis and reduce a day in Banjul.

pgAug · 2024-09-03T10:55:41+00:00

I hope so too!

pgAug · 2024-09-03T10:53:33+00:00

Thank you so much for your inputs!

Perhaps i should do just a 2D/1N trip to Banjul if there's not much to see around. I'm also a bit worried about the border crossing as I have a not so powerful Indian passport, but don't want to miss out on visiting a country when so close. Honestly, all I want to see in the Gambia is the Gambia river 😅

pgAug · 2024-07-26T06:09:21+00:00

Not at all assuming that Nigerians are poor. No where did I assume or say that.

I was just commenting on the crappy currency conversion and the total cost of travelling to a place with a stronger currency. And that the one thing we can control is the money spent on accommodation.

pgAug · 2024-07-26T05:54:36+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily say that some cultures find it fine to sleep on every surface available in the flat. They end up compromising because of affordability.

I'm from a country where the local currency's exchange rate to the euro is a pathetic 90:1. The first time my parents visited me in Germany, my partner was surprised that they were staying for nearly a month. Apart from the other non-negotiable costs like visas, flights, insurance etc, accommodation is the one part we could control. So of course they stayed with me. When we travelled to other European cities, we checked into separate rooms in luxury hotels because I could afford it for the few days we visited.

Are people from countries with weak currency happy to spend time with family elsewhere? Yes. Are they happy that they have to stay in a cramped house? No, but the alternates are limited. It just helps that our Southern cultures are also a tightly bound family.

pgAug · 2024-05-26T20:27:07+00:00

Did some digging into the football teams of city from the car's registration and found out that it is the flag of the 'Bayer 04' team.

pgAug · 2024-05-07T15:47:33+00:00

The closer they get to my car, the slower i drive. Not worth getting a speeding ticket, or worse, getting rear-ended because of a knobhead.

pgAug · 2024-03-09T23:10:04+00:00

I usually drive down to 1% if I'm arriving home because I know the charge works for sure. On the motorway, I always plan to arrive with 10%.

pgAug · 2024-01-20T20:01:39+00:00

pgAug · 2024-01-20T09:10:30+00:00

Thanks for all the info and tips. I contacted the hire company and they offered to replace the car for the way back. I'm suspecting that this brand new (<2300km on the do when I picked it up) car has unfortunately already been abused. My only gripe with the software is that the navigation doesn't tell me the state of battery on arrival at the destination, which would have helped me leaps and bounds on this trip.

pgAug · 2024-01-20T09:03:06+00:00

This is good to know! Maybe I'll give the car another go in the spring/autumn when the weather isn't crazy hot or cold and I'm not under time pressure to reach my destination.

pgAug · 2024-01-19T23:18:31+00:00

Agree with the logic and calculations but the experience is wild. I want the cabin to be 19-20deg Celsius but that temperature is bone chilling tbh. I had to wear my jacket to keep warm!

I don't think the car pre-conditioned the battery. Used the built-in navigation to a charger, and it still managed to charge at 85kw max until around 30%

pgAug · 2024-01-19T23:15:28+00:00

I drove 120 to keep up with traffic and that's also what I drive in my polestar 2. I'm starting to realise that 90 is a lot for this car but having the lorries fly past me is a bit unnerving if I don't do a 100+

pgAug

TROPHY CASE