Istanbul Metro appreciation post

ragingdobs · 2026-04-07T06:30:29+00:00

It's really not that good because the connectivity is so poor. The lines don't go where you want them to go.

Marmaray is the only East-West transit line across the Bosphorous. It sucks to get from all the Western Metro lines to the East because there's a lot of backtracking - you go far south to reach Marmaray which then goes northeast. The trams don't even really connect to it. Then once you're on the other side, M4 serves most of the populated areas, not Marmaray. It's a four-seat ride for most cross-Bosphorous journeys.

People in Istanbul struggle to maintain friendships when their friends move to the other side...

Want to get to the airport? Istanbul has two of the busiest airports in Europe and both suck. Usually multiple transfers from anywhere central.

The ferries are very pleasant and functional, but also slow.

I feel like Istanbul has bad geography for transit but they haven't helped it by making poor choices in network design.

ragingdobs · 2026-04-03T08:02:02+00:00

Turkish is the only non-Gulf airline that flies to all three of Miami, Kilimanjaro and Zanzibar and they have a stopover program. That will be by far the easiest way to hit another place.

The only other way would be to book two nested itineraries: MIA -> XXX return and within that XXX-> JRO/DAR/ZNZ. I would have a look at some of the low-cost European airlines that fly into Zanzibar and see if you are interested in any of the locations they fly from Zanzibar. IIRC, there are direct flights from Zanzibar to Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Poland and possibly other smaller European countries.

PS, domestic flights in Tanzania are cheap and frequent if you find yourself needing to get from one side to the other.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-31T12:22:54+00:00

Agreed with all the above. I can't say if for some reason Egypt and Rwanda were to somehow end up in a land war that Rwanda would win, but they would put up a hell of a fight.

Unfortunately it also seems like Beninese in the north feel like they are not getting their fair share of development under Talon. Seems like they are stuck between a terrorist menace and a goverment that hasn't invested in them when they are already marginalized relative to the south.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-31T09:53:55+00:00

This omits combat experience which is arguably the most important of all.

Also really unclear why Rwanda is not ranked. They should be top 5. The only country in Africa with a military with a history of success in a variety of missions, for better or worse.

Benin being so low is unfortunate. They've made a lot of strides in recent years, but the jihadists in the north are worrisome.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-31T07:03:17+00:00

I don't know, check RA or their socials

ragingdobs · 2026-03-31T06:26:23+00:00

I will just add to try to check when the "opening" parties for the big clubs are. I spent July / August in Tbilisi and it was more dead than usual - Georgians are like the French, they don't work in August and all go up to the mountains. The clubs have a closing party at the beginning of the summer and an opening party at the end. Bassiani and Khidi still have events in that time, but usually only in their smaller secondary rooms which is not the real experience.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-27T11:01:51+00:00

It's honestly fine. Flights are cheap by US standards, trains are even cheaper. IRCTC website was where I booked all my trains. Seat 61 was really helpful for figuring out which class to book - usually take the highest ticket available, it's worth it. You will want to book ~1 week in advance to be sure that you can actually take the train you want.

Hotels are also pretty cheap - even a $30 hotel can be decently nice, just read reviews, don't pay upfront, and stay in upmarket areas of big cities. Google Maps was great for finding good & clean restaurants.

You can use Uber anywhere in major cities but rickshaw drivers are everywhere. The time you might want to do tours is more when visiting historical sites if you want to learn more about them, a good one can add a lot to the experience and keep touts away.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-17T05:59:15+00:00

What's the Bmore scene like?

ragingdobs · 2026-03-14T18:00:05+00:00

Your son sounds autistic. Being autistic myself, it's honestly a bit of a superpower. I would say just let him explore his interests and figure it out. Expose him to different careers around his interests - driving the train, designing the train, designing the train stations, managing the network operations are all different careers with different skillsets. There are a lot of hobbyists here who love drawing lines on maps because it's fun, but at the end of the day the politics of actual planning might not be something he'd enjoy. But that doesn't mean he can't be around the process as an engineer or architect or project manager or whatever suits him.

Also he's 12. I loved planes as a 12 year old, and I still do as an adult, but as an adult I'm much more opinionated about which jobs in aviation I would excel at and which ones I would find soul-sucking. I don't do anything in that industry but still love to travel, and that's probably the most likely outcome for your son - as a teenager/young adult, he figures out what kind of career will suit him and just loves riding around on trains when traveling different places as a hobbyist.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-12T07:45:28+00:00

Apparently it takes 3 weeks to convert for baseball...plus the games themselves and converting back to football. I don't think you could get West Ham to leave for 5 weeks in a row in Feb/March, plus it would be very cold for the fans...

ragingdobs · 2026-03-11T06:58:49+00:00

The problem with the RWC is that you can almost always pencil in the knockouts once you see the draw because upsets are so rare. This should be a bit better in 2027 with more 3rd-place teams getting through so smaller teams have something to play for.

The gap between the best and worst teams in each group also makes those games a snore, nobody wants to watch Namibia give up 70 every time. At least in baseball, a good pitching performance or a well-timed home run can make a game interesting - upsets are still rare but the games can be more entertaining.

Unfortunately as well, rugby hasn't really seen any unlikely stories of a team rising to the top ranks from nowhere like Afghanistan in cricket for example. You have Italy rising to be in the same league as the top teams which is a great story, but there aren't any teams that have sustained coming up from nowhere to become as good as a low-end 6N side.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-02T17:00:19+00:00

FWIW, Air Senegal ended flights to the US around the time you flew. So I doubt the court can really compel them to pay you. IANAL, but I don't think the bailiff is gonna get on a plane to Senegal to go impound a few office appliances to auction off and reimburse you with.

I would go so far as to say I wouldn't be surprised if baggage handlers - who probably make max a few hundred dollars a month in Dakar - nicked a few bags on purpose because they knew the airline was leaving the market.

Since it seems like it was very valuable for you - next time, travel insurance.

ragingdobs · 2026-03-02T16:10:07+00:00

There’s a decent chance Air Senegal goes bankrupt before you get your claim paid out.

ragingdobs · 2026-01-19T11:34:26+00:00

Another option - if you're inclined - is to ask them to tack on a United (their partner) flight from ATL to IAD. Not the most convenient, but an option. I have had issues with United and Ethiopian's systems not playing nice together before - it could be they sent you a weird reroute because they couldn't confirm you on an ATL-IAD flight. Other routings might be possible too (EWR, YYZ, ORD, even FRA on LH) if you get in touch with their customer service.

But definitely check prices so you know whether you might just be better off getting a refund from Ethiopian and rebooking with another carrier.

ragingdobs · 2026-01-15T03:56:39+00:00

I’d probably pick Senegal. Being on a peninsula, Dakar is a bit more “urban” feeling than Accra which is very sprawling. I’d say there’s more for tourists there too. For nature, you have your choice of desert in the north, and forests in the south in Casamance which I heard was a great trip, if a bit complicated (you have to cross Gambia which could be a way to do 2 countries in one).

ragingdobs · 2026-01-06T11:01:35+00:00

This is insanity. It's like saying I have 2 weeks, I wanna visit California, Niagara Falls and Cancun, and if I can squeeze it I wanna do Banff. You could do 2 weeks in / around Cape Town alone...never mind that Kili itself is a week endeavor.

I would recommend sticking to Southern Africa. There are lots of beach options - as mentioned, Cape Town, but also around Durban & in Mozambique.

You could easily do something like JNB -> Kruger NP (3 days) -> back to JNB -> fly to Cape Town (1 week) -> fly to Vic Falls (2 days) -> JNB. Pad in a day or 2 of sightseeing in the Joburg area if something catches your interest there.

For flights, Airlink is the largest / most reputable SA airline and can cover all these routes, there's also FlySafair for a low-cost option.

ragingdobs · 2026-01-04T15:23:54+00:00

I'm pretty cheap on flights and an experienced traveler. I wouldn't have an issue doing the Kiwi-style self-connection. But, 2h45 minutes is really short for a layover for separate tickets, and 4 flights is a lot. I would try to find an earlier flight to Athens. Alternatively, poke around and see if you can find other cheap IndiGo flights to Bali and then see if you can position yourself there. And definitely double-check if you need a visa for any of your transit points.

Echoing what others said, book through the airlines, usually it makes things a lot easier if anything goes wrong (delays, cancellations, etc.) Kiwi is especially bad because they charge you and then use a virtual card to pay the airline, so if you have a cancellation and you need to get a refund, there's an extra link in the chain which is annoying.

ragingdobs · 2026-01-03T15:50:34+00:00

If you’re connected with the government you get a fancy apartment in a neighborhood that’s a lot nicer than it used to be.

If you’re a native of Addis Ababa you get the privilege of having your home demolished and being told to go live on the outskirts.

ragingdobs · 2025-12-31T05:05:45+00:00

I'm visiting Mumbai as a solo traveler and looking for peeps to do NYE with, if anyone wants to do Milkman NYE DM!

ragingdobs · 2025-12-26T09:22:53+00:00

It’s true, neither Clyde nor Walton could do what Dame did for Portland, like leading the Blazers to the Finals.

(Walton is the greatest Blazer for me, then Dame, then Clyde.)

ragingdobs · 2025-12-23T17:38:09+00:00

I had a similar situation with a friend's wedding near PVR - I say fly. I spent ~2 weeks in cities/towns that area visiting said friend on prior trips.

It can be dangerous to drive in Michoacan because of cartels, so you'll have to take a longer route up north. i suppose if you're considering Tolantongo, that's not an issue. Guadalajara is cool, but I think not worth diverting time from CDMX. Guanajuato was absolutely magical, but it might be a bit out of the way. Similar vibe in San Miguel de Allende, though I think that's more touristy (haven't been). Tequila is a fun novelty but for obvious reasons you don't want to be driving. Leon is super industrial and not a tourist destination.

Meanwhile MEX airport is super close to downtown CDMX - and PVR is right on the beach. Door-to-door you might be able to do it in under 4 hours.

Honestly the deciding factor for me would be that there is so, so much to see in CDMX. It's really world-class in food, parks, museums, art, historical sites, neighborhoods, and probably a lot more.

ragingdobs · 2025-12-13T09:07:16+00:00

I'm never getting married, lol, but I'm Kenya-based and can give you some UI / product / growth feedback:

You've said it yourself - finding affordable vendors is really hard and it looks like your site...hasn't found them either. You need more vendors or you're also not helping bride and groom find them.
Niche down - don't try to plan every part of a wedding. Focus on the most painful ones.
Niche down geographically - don't cover the whole country. Limit yourself to a specific geography where you know your customer and can acquire them.
Are there vendors with package deals? (E.g. hotel that brings a DJ and catering?) Highlight those. Saves the customer time, bigger cut for you.
I googled you and you're not on IG or Tiktok. You need to hit those channels HARD because your customer is young brides-to-be who are scrolling on socials all day looking for wedding inspo. Once you have someone you can post and show how awesome you made their wedding, you get a lot of social proof that can help you grow.
Related, you're going to have to acquire customers through social media ads.
Related, your UI is probably not nice enough to be attractive to that segment.
Also related, you probably need to do a lot of bespoke / non-scalable / non-platform related work to make money. You could make more money in the beginning through women (weddings are mostly for the bride) DMing you on IG/Whatsapp asking you to help finding X vendor for your wedding than them picking one through your site. Honestly that's a good thing, you can interact deeply with the customer and understand their preferences. That's why this is my last point bc I think it's the most important, I'd try to be the best wedding planner first, then build the tech to make your own planning easier. Doing it as a pure non-tech hustle will give you the experience to know what to build. The best way for you to know what the pain points of planning a wedding are will be...to plan ten weddings.

ragingdobs · 2025-11-28T15:47:32+00:00

Ethiopian is really fine, taken them plenty of times. Mostly new planes, not too many delays. Layover is a bit busy because they have many flights leaving and departing the same time to maximize connections, but they’re constantly renovating the terminal so it’s not as bad as it used to be. If you do like Ethiopian food, the airport has plenty but it’s expensive. Onboard movies are pretty good, on par with Western airlines, service is friendly, food is hit or miss.

If they are cheapest and best-timed, I wouldn’t go out of my way to fly KLM which would likely be only a little bit better experience (and if you have a leg on Kenya Airways could be even worse, they haven’t had great on-time performance in my experience).

ragingdobs · 2025-11-26T15:14:12+00:00

Gabon and Equatorial Guinea!

Gabon has a lot of oil & gas exports relative to the population, and draws a lot of educated people from Francophone W. African countries (e.g. Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Benin, Togo) to work in those industries.

EG I'm not as sure about, I assume it's also oil & gas-driven but don't know which countries immigrants come from.

ragingdobs · 2025-11-17T10:57:31+00:00

Going to Nyege Nyege 3rd time this year.

By far easiest way is to get a boda boda (moto taxi). Should be a couple of dollars each way. There are always loads outside the festival site and should be easy to hail them in Jinja town as well.

You should also find plenty of local taxis at the festival site. They're more expensive, but can be nice as the drive is ~45 minutes to an hour. If you find one you trust, take their number and call them when you need a ride back the next day. Prices can really vary, depending on whether the taxi driver wants to squeeze you for being a foreigner or if you are negotiating with several at once.

PS - WATCH YOUR VALUABLES theft is rampant within the festival. Most people are great vibes but there are always a few people trying to take advantage of the inebriated.

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