Author Topic: circling the globe  (Read 16954 times)

Offline m65

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circling the globe
« on: March 12, 2020, 05:23:10 PM »
I have been wanting to write a TR about my trip around the world in November, practically since i came back. Time constraints have prevented me from doing so, but since the corona-virus has gotten out of hand, and business is weak or nonexistent, i have some extra time for it.

DISCLAIMER: 
if you are waiting to hear a report on first class travel, suites in 5 star hotels, and multi course meals in fancy restaurants, this TR is not for you. This trip was the peanut butter jelly sandwich, tuna cans, crackers, joe's motel type of trip. We went on a budget, and scheduled the night flights (in cattle class) in order to save $ and to maximize time at the destinations. We spent 1-3 days at each destination, i dont dare to claim that i covered all there was to do in each place, or even close to that. We were trying to get a taste of each place, and to experience the feel of what was for us very exotic destinations, things that we had grown up hearing about, but had never come close to seeing. Last but not least, we went to come back with cool pictures of faraway lands. in my parents generation thats quite an embarrassing thing to say, but today i dont think i am such a sore thumb.

INTRO:
the route was TLV-AMM-AUH-PEK-PVG-SYD-HNL-ANC-SEA-NYC-HEL-TLV. We landed back in TLV 15 days after we had left, but actually had a 16 day trip due to crossing the dateline and having 2 november 17's. it was all booked using AA miles, on an account with 350k that was unaccesible thru the online system because it was being audited by AA, and shortly after our trip commenced i got that email saying that my account was being shut down due to violations of T&C's, and that the remaining 0.5k miles were being confiscated. ;) all in all we got great value for my miles, especially considering the above mentioned account termination.

so after all the blabbering here we go....

PART 1-

TLV-AMM-AUH-PEK 25k AA miles per person

nov 10 had us in TLV for a flight to AMM on RJ @6pm, a 2 hour stop and a connection on RJ to AUH. We each had almost 35kg in our bags, and about 20kg in our hand luggage, (all the above mentioned tuna cans peanut butters and cold cuts etc.), and were praying with great fervor. turns out the israeli RJ desk agent was so blown away to see 2 white shirt black pants beard & tzitzis flying charedis going to UAE that he just sent us straight thru w/o issue, including tagging our bags straight to PEK w/o having to take them in AUH for the 20 hours we would be there.
we got to AUH at 1:30 am and went to the budget desk to get our car, we couldnt help noticing (oy vey) the local policewomen in the airport. police are the only arabs in the airport, all other workers are foreign labor. the budget desk agent and the one who gets the car were breaking their teeth in English to each other, being that they were from different countries.we headed out straight for dubai, where we slept at the aloft city centre deira (17.5k marriott points).
we got up, davened ate and headed out. we parked near the gold souk, and went into a store to buy some local attire. we then spent some time in the gold shops gawking at these larger than life gold necklaces, and seeing wealthy locals and their wives pulling out cash stuffed envelopes to pay for them. we actually tried on a 15kg gold necklace, and asked the dealer to put it aside till we come back with the cash עד אשר אבוא אל אדוני שעירה.... i had never experienced the feeling of window shopping before. we then took a few minutes to visit a local iranian spice shop, the mixture of strong smells were truly amazing. we then headed out to the burj khalifa tower, we didnt bother going inside but spent plenty of time marveling and taking pictures from the outside.
we then drove to abu dhabi to the Ferrari museum, most of the rides were closed but we had a grand time posing in a setup Bedouin tent as sheikhs, and trying to see which of the other tourists actually believed we were local sheikhs and which ones called the costumes. most thought we were locals.
we then headed towards the grand mosque in abu dhabi to catch mincha before shkia. it is truly an amazing sight to behold, my uncle wouldnt go in ("theyre on the other team") but i didnt care for his semantics, so i went in myself. in order to pass security u have to print out a ticket with a barcode. the machine asks u a million questions including what country u are from. of course i put in USA, but after i got my barcode i couldnt restrain the urge, so i printed out another one with citizenship marked as israeli and then quickly tossed the second one in the trash bin. when i got the the screening i heard a couple of the guards taking to each other about "israilia" , i couldnt make out any of the other words, but they kept on repeating "israilia" over and over. i hope they still arent waiting for the israeli guy to come....
we then headed for our hotel, the EY 9:20pm flight from AUH to PEK.
at the gate, they asked to see my visa to china. as u might know, to get a chinese visa for US citizens in the consulate in tel aviv u have to pay 550 shekels, israelis only pay 100 shekels, so i had my visa on my israeli passport. i was uncomfortable showing my israeli passport, so i tried telling him that "i have a visa... dont worry... just let me board..." it didnt work. with no other choice i showed it to him, after a long 5 minutes he gave me back my boarding passes, and quipped "i marked u down as visa w/o passport". i didnt know exactly what he meant, and i dont know if that is official policy or his own policy, but i didnt feel like waiting around to find out. we then boarded and went to sleep for the night.
to be continued....

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #1 on: March 12, 2020, 05:26:28 PM »
pics1

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #2 on: March 12, 2020, 05:29:55 PM »
pics2

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #3 on: March 12, 2020, 05:30:32 PM »
pics3

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #4 on: March 12, 2020, 05:32:27 PM »
pics4

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2020, 05:34:08 PM »
pics5

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2020, 05:36:13 PM »
pics6

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2020, 05:38:22 PM »
pics7

Offline mme

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2020, 09:02:23 PM »
wow good start to what sounds like a good TR!

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #9 on: March 14, 2020, 09:07:22 PM »
PART 2-
after a comfortable night sleep on etihad's boeing 787, davening and snacking, we landed in PEK at about 9 am on tues nov 12th. passport control was long and tedious. so was changing money and getting a taxi. b"h at least our luggage was waiting for us there after the 2 stopovers. we finally got to our hotel (if u can call it that) and had to spend another half hour checking in, the language barrier is miserable, almost noone speaks english. we put our stuff down, and got a driver from the local chabad house. he took us on the 1.5 hour drive to the great wall of china at Mutianyu. on the way we drove thru fascinating chinese villages, exactly as we had always heard about and seen in pictures. curved red roofs and all. it was quite interesting just watching from the window. our driver/guide helped us buy tickets to the cable car, even though he didnt speak english either, his presence seemed to help somehow. tickets were dirt cheap compared to western standards, even though im sure they were quite pricey on chinese standards. we went up and enjoyed the stunning views of the wall, it is hard to imagine that human beings built this so many years ago. just thinking how they shlepped up the stones and bricks for such a big project up that huge mountain boggles the mind. we took our time walking on the wall and taking pics of course, then we davened mincha and took the last cable car down. on the bottom there were all these cute little stands selling all kinds of tourist trinkets. we checked them out and bought some stuff for the wife and kids. i got a stone stamp with my wifes name chiseled out on the spot in english and in chinese, a pretty cool souvenir, but not very useful. i bargained the guy down from about $20 to about $5, that itself is plenty fun! the ride back was was bumper to bumper, and when we got back we were exhausted. we had some supper and called it a night.
we woke up on wed nov 13, davened shacharis in the local chabad, nice place. we then ate and took a taxi to the Beijing main railway station where for a couple of bucks we stored our luggage for the day. we then headed by taxi to the fake market. wow, so much fake stuff for pennies. cameras, tablets, glasses, basically anything. of course all with the original samsung/canon etc. sticker on it. at least the guy selling rolex watches for $5 was willing to admit that they werent real rolex's :) . there were quite a few booths where the seller spoke a pretty decent hebrew! one guy told me he took a 6 month course in hebrew because of the volume of israelis visiting the market, and that it was well worth his efforts. the sellers are relentless, and even after u say no, they chase after u and lower the price yet again. they beg cry, yell, grab u, and what not in order to get u to close the deal.
we then took a taxi to Tienanmen square. as a note, when taking a street taxi, u should make sure he has a meter installed in his car, and not a meter on his phone, which is likely rigged. security line was long and tiring. we spent a couple of hours over there looking around and taking photos, including a shop where for about 2-3 dollars they dress u up in a full costume of the chinese emperors and take your photo. 
we then took another taxi back to the train station to get our tickets to the overnite train to shanghai. it is a long and weary process to convert your ticket reservation (yes, bought and paid for in advance) into an actual boarding card to the train. after going thru the whole process, we realized that they actually put us on a different train than we had reserved, but because we didnt have the energy to redo the whole thing, we just took the train they gave us.
the train was a 12 hour overnite train. we booked 2 beds in a four bed sleeper, the other 2 beds were occupied by an older couple. as a hotel thats pretty weird, but as a train it was quite fine actually. the bullet trains can do the trip in about 4.5 hours, but we chose the longer train as it served as a hotel as well, and didnt cost any touring time because of the nite hours. they advertise that there is free internet on the train, but that, just like in the hotel means chinese internet, which basically excludes everything. so u just have to use your non chinese carrier to get vpn internet. 
we woke up thurs nov 14 with about an hour left to spare, just enough time to daven and grab a bite. at about 9 oclock we got off the train ready to start our day in shanghai.we took a taxi to the chabad house run by rabbi greenberg. a real great guy. the food there was delicious, and he gives everyone a real great feeling. we left our suitcases there, and took a taxi to the old town of shanghai. really interesting ancient chinese houses and gardens, although i dont know how many of them were really ancient and how many were built special for the tourist's cameras. it was cool, but it didnt feel as authentic as the villages on the way to mutianyu. 
we then walked to the outdoor market and walked up and down the allyways picking up little trinkets here and there, and really just enjoying the chinese old market atmosphere.
after the market we taxied back over to the beit chabad, took our suitcases and headed over to the ohel moshe synagogue/jewish museam. we put our suitcases in the luggage storage there and spent about 1.5 hours there. nothing too interesting, and not up my alley, but in the lack of anything else left from the WW2 jewish community there, we figured we would do this. 
we then took our suitcases and taxied to PVG for our overnite flight/hotel on quantas to SYD (30k aa miles each). security and checkin in PVG was a misery. they fought with us about being overweight, it didnt help that we were allowed 2 suitcases each. they made us take out a duffel bag from one of the suitcases and fill it up with stuff until all suitcases were 23kg. one of them was 23.5 kg, and they made us rearrange everything again so that it would be under 23.00 kg. chinese in the four cornered box way of thinking. after they sent our suitcases we were both called over to security where they proceeded to yell at us for sending a cigarette lighter under which was promptly confiscated.
the flight was 10 hours and 30 minutes, which gave us much time to sleep and rest up for our weekend in sydney.
to be continued...

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #10 on: March 14, 2020, 09:08:11 PM »
beijing pics

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #11 on: March 14, 2020, 09:09:41 PM »
shanghai pics

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #12 on: March 14, 2020, 09:12:50 PM »
more shanghai pics

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #13 on: March 15, 2020, 07:20:38 AM »
PART 3-
we landed in SYD at 9:40 am on friday nov 15th. being that we were planning on leaving on sunday nite, we had gotten only a transfer visa, which is for stays of less than 72 hours. at passport control they were a little surprised that we would be there for less than 72 hours and they asked us quite a few questions. i guess its not quite common for people to show up in the southern hemisphere for 2.5 days. after a few minutes we were free to go, but we first wanted stamps on our passports saying sydney on them. it took a couple of minutes to find someone with a stamp. when we finally found her i asked her "can i please have a stamp on my passport", her reply was "did they not teach u manners where u were raised??!!" in that overdrawn austraaaaaaaalian accent. i wasnt sure exactly what i had said wrong, but being quite ignorant in austrailian mannerisms, i just profusely apologized for my extreme rudeness, and said it must have been the long flight etc. etc. 2 minutes later, stamps in hand we stepped out into the november summer. shkia was supposed to be about 7:30 pm so we had plenty of time to spare. it was quite a weather shock to go from the freezing chinese winter straight into the summer.
we picked up our rental from budget, and ever so slowly and carefully started driving on the wrong side of the road. NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED! it was very scary. every single turn i was constantly reminding my self the rules of driving on the wrong side."left is close, right is far". it became a camp chant for the next 3 days. "left is close, right is far". i felt exactly how i would imagine my little sister felt the first time my father gave her the car and said, the right pedal is gas the left is brakes, just drive. whats the big deal? it was a big dose of bringing down my male alpha confidence. with all my chanting and singing i made quite a few mistakes, especially when trying to make yellow lights etc, when i just automatically turned into the normal regular sensible lane where every normal citizen of planet earth turns into. they should have a sign to put on the back window like we have for new drivers saying something like "driver from rest of planet earth".
somehow we made it in one piece to the city. we parked right outside the city because street parking wasnt to be found and the garages were an arm and a leg, and walked a few minutes to the sydney tower eye. we did the imax, and then went up to the observation deck. quite nice views, except for one direction which was blurred by the smoke of those wild fires. nice, but absolutely nothing to write home about. we the headed to woolloomooloo bay, yes u have read correctly, it is not a spelling mistake. the name is probably derived from someone who came from planet earth and started driving, when he saw tens of cars coming straight at him, something sounding like woolloomooloo escaped his mouth, hence the name.
the bay was gorgeous with tens of big beautiful ships and sail boats coming and going. the water was quite nice as well. after spending some time there we headed to the local jewish community where we would be staying for shabbos. we were put up by a sweet local family who regularly hosts meshulachim, and we had to convince them that we were just travelers and not looking to get checks. they gave us a comfortable room and great food and we were very grateful for the change after a whole week of sleeping and eating as described above. luckily walking to shul on shabbos was no where nearly as complicated as driving, they do not walk backwards over there, but u do have to make sure to check the wrong side of the street for cars before crossing.
sunday morning nov 17th we went to see the sydney opera house and harbour bridge, quite nice but not that much to do. there is some type of rappelling that u can do on the bridge, which actually looked like much fun, but u had to reserve in advance and it is very expensive. we then went to the sydney harbour national park which has really stunning views of sydney and the ocean dotted with hundreds of sail boats, and made some sort of picnic.
now here comes the highlight of sydney for crazy me. according to many poskim, the halachic dateline is by the eastern coast of australia. meaning that standing on the dry land on sunday u can look at the water and see shabbos. i dont know why, but for 2 months i was infatuated with the idea of standing right next to the waves a couple of inches away from shabboss. dont try to understand the rationale, its just that for months i was planning this moment. i had chosen the beach at Manly as an ideal spot to have this experience. we drove down to manly, walked up to the beach and got as close to the waves as we could get, and stared straight ahead and breathed the air of shabbos on sunday. i know i am crazy. my uncle actually had me video him of walking into the water, making kiddush (w/o shem hashem) and walking out and making havdala. if u understand such pleasures fine, if not just continue on with life.

we then went back to the city, walked around the malls etc. and headed back to SYD for our sunday night hotel on the 10 hour hawaiin airlines flight 452 to HNL (37.5k aa miles). we actually picked that later flight even though quantas flight 3 would have gotten us in to hawaii with much better timing, because as soon as u leave australia in the direction of hawaii as mentioned u cross the dateline. being that in australia it was sunday that would have meant flying straight into shabbos, we therefore preferred to wait to take off after "rabeinu tam" on sunday night, to insure we would not be travelling at all on shabbos. (im not saying halachicaly it is wrong to do so, i dont know either way, im just saying what we preferred).
to be continued....

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #14 on: March 15, 2020, 07:21:35 AM »
sunday in sydney

Offline mgoldhammer18

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #15 on: March 16, 2020, 04:10:36 PM »
very nice

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2020, 04:47:38 PM »
as u may have understood from my previous posts, being part of an exotic phenomenon, as well known as it may be, gives me my fix. so was the double sunday nov 17 for me. to have a full sunday of activity, go to sleep by night, and wake up on sunday morning, is an experience i will never forget. davening shachris on the second sunday, by the שיר של יום, i contemplated saying היום יום ראשון השני בשבת. an 8 day week, a jewish calendar month of 31 days. as i said about the manly beach experience, if u understand it, enjoy it, if not continue on, u just may be normal.
after we landed we went to customs and were admitted. it took a few minutes to find the guy who has the stamp stating port of entry as hawaii, but we eventually found him. its the same exact stamp that they used to give in new york it just says HHW on it instead of NYC. anyone know what exactly it stands for? i dont. maybe honolulu hawaii? google claims its Household Hazardous Waste.
as to the next 2 days spent in hawaii on the main island, the main thing i learned is that i wish i could spend 2 months there exploring everything all the islands have to offer. less than that wont suffice. the place is absolutely gorgeous. no words or pictures can describe it. there is a feeling in the air of no day, night, or time zone. hawaii is a whole different pace than everywhere else. society as we know it absolutely stops in hawaii. people walk around as if they wouldnt give a nickel for the whole world, yes even the ones that dont smoke weed. to sum it up i would say כל הדר מחוץ להוואי אין לו "aloha".
we picked up a red convertible jeep and headed over to the open market by aloha stadium, where we bought hawaii style clothing and coconuts filled with coconut milk. those coconuts and straws are a must have for the hawaii pics. after checking in to the very dinky Pagoda Waikiki motel, we headed over to pay our respects at the USS Arizona Memorial. thanx @Dan  for the wonderful post on how to get the very quick to sell out tickets. https://www.dansdeals.com/points-travel/hawaii/honolulus-uss-arizona-memorial-pearl-harbor-reopens/ i actually grabbed them as soon as they opened up, not a moment too soon, as the next day all the reservations for that day were booked. just as the master says.
the memorial was built very well, and actually gives u quite a feeling for what happened on dec 7 1941. parts of the original warships can still be seen in the water, and there is actually still oil rising from the sunken ships. it was quite a somber experience. the great US of A really knows how to memorialize their fallen. for me it was especially somber when contemplating the fact that the mistake of the Japs in forcing the US into the war was actually the salvation of my grandparents and the rest of european jewry. if not for that day, who knows what would have been left by the time the war would have ended. the virtual reality exhibit was extremely cool, i found it hard to breathe "under the water", and only my continued self assurances that it isnt for real kept me from drowning.
after having some trouble opening and closing the roof of the convertible we went back to the airport (a 5 min drive) to switch the car. they gave us instead a ford mustang, which although it wasnt red or yellow, it for sure gave us the full hawaii feeling. only later did we realize that a mustang is an absolute must have for the complete hawaii photo op.
we then found a quiet spot near Haleʻiwa Beach Park, where we took many gorgeous pics, enjoyed the water, and watched the stunning hawaiin sunset. the feeling of the end of the world is amazing. we watched the waves and some kids riding the waves for an unknown amount of time, i dont think they sell watches in hawaii. probably not calendars either. at some point we realized that the 1 smartphone we had was missing. in any other of the destinations on this trip we would have been extremely stressed. no waze, no pictures, no way of communication. but right there at that moment, for some reason, the thought of just staying on that beach for the rest of my life wasnt that disturbing. eventually some obviously local kid (by his polenisian looks and perfect english) came and said is this phone yours? he told us that some random guy found it a short distance away and told him to go find the jews because according to the pics on the phone its theirs. a real kiddush hawaii. he then offered us to come join his family bbq a few minutes walk away. we did just that and found the locals to be quite interesting ppl. i would have loved to make a hamoitizi hawaii and taste those steaks, but too bad. u know if we werent so obviously jewish he might have never found us, and then we wouldnt have been by the bbq anyways.
eventually we picked up and went back to waikiki, where we strolled along Kalakaua Avenue and the boardwalk. there were allot of interesting stores and ppl, including a tesla showroom where they let us take pictures in some nice new teslas and check them out. there were a few really weird street shows with different types of acrobatics and music. they ask u after the performance to give them a few bucks but no one makes u feel uncomfortable if u dont. we then headed back to hotel to eat and hit the sack.
we woke up monday morning nov 18 after the longest break ever between shaboss and monday (i know, im obsessed). we davened in the local chabad, ate, loaded our baggage onto the mustang, and headed out. the plan was to circle the island along the coast starting in waikiki along the south, then along the east, north, and back to the west towards the airport. we did just that and it was amazing. every few minutes we had to stop and find parking, because there was another one of those once in a lifetime views. their are endless amounts of observation spots, piers, beaches and whatever else u need to just stare out at those beautiful sights. the little rock islands are really stunning. the sky is stunning, the mountains are stunning. it is almost like a dream. pictures are nice but they dont capture a fraction of the beauty. we rented some snorkeling gear at Pupukea, and found a relatively deserted spot to go snorkeling. i dont know how it compares to other coral reefs, but for me it was a mind blowing experience. the fish are so colorful, the water is clean and clear, and the feeling of swimming together with the fish in and out of the reefs is amazing. u get so close to the fish u feel u can just reach out and grab them. of course after about twenty tries u realize its not possible, although i did touch quite a few. after snorkeling till we could no more, we came out and within 5 minutes were totally dry. we drove a little further, picked a spot, and sat down to daven mincha and watch the second most beautiful sunset in the world. the first being of course yesterdays sunset. right around sunset is when the waves are highest, and all the surfers come for the party. the backdrop of the sunset, the palm trees, the huge waves, and the surfers is an experience which captures the eyes and the mind and puts u in a trance.
as sad as it was, we had to leave. we tore ourselves away from planet hawaii and headed out towards HNL for our night flight/hotel on alaskan airlines to ANC (25k aa miles per person).
to be continued....
« Last Edit: March 22, 2020, 05:02:27 PM by m65 »

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2020, 04:49:23 PM »
hawaii pics

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #18 on: March 22, 2020, 04:50:34 PM »
more hawaii pics

Offline m65

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Re: circling the globe
« Reply #19 on: March 22, 2020, 04:51:15 PM »
some more hawaii