A bucket list trip

[joe552]

In 3 years time, my small private pension will kick in. It includes a lump sum payment of a couple of thousand Euro. I'm dreaming about a bucket list trip (see, NIrish, I'm looking to the future!). So far I have 3 ideas. The Trans Siberian Railway to Beijing, a safari in Africa, or a train journey from somewhere like St. Louis to Los Angeles.

What would your trip look like?

[latintopxxx]

...im not waiting until Im too fucking old to walk unaided and need bucket load of meds on a daily basis..and my trip would have to include sex..otherwise I may as well sit at home and watch travel programmes on my humumgus flat screen..

[bobsaigon2]

The Trans Siberian Railway to Beijing: means spending very long hours/days in close confinement with very sociable, hard drinking people (I guess). Would not be my first choice.

a safari in Africa: Africa has a way of being unpredictable though I suppose one could expect on a rewarding trip when under the tutelage of professional guides (expensive).

or a train journey from somewhere like St. Louis to Los Angeles: Speaking as an America, I would advise that tourists avoid the country entirely. Not living there now, just going by what I see in the news, anywhere in the country has the potential of being a deadly experience.

Canada? Yes, I think that would be a serious contender in my list.

[arsenal]

I would advise you to go on a coach holiday with Scottish taking in the not too strenuous sites of Europe. My suggested itinerary is below.

Depart from Gorbals bus station after a breakfast of deep fried everything and drive to Holland.
Look at some tulips and eat some of their ridiculous Edam cheese with cinnamon. (don't eat the red bit)
Drive to Germany for some Black Forest gateaux and a bit of Bratwurst. No mustard as it gives people of your age wind.
Drive to Switzerland and buy a cuckoo clock souvenir. Dip cubes of bread in melted cheese for dinner. Absurd, I know.
Drive to Italy and have something coloured red, green and yellow as everything looks the same.
Drive into France and meet Francois for a bloody good moan. Eat some garlic tasting anything. Not big on food the French.
Drive into Spain and ask them where to see a donkey being pushed off a cliff. Eat some calamari or chew on a pencil rubber.
Back into France for another moaning session with Francois but let him decide which topics are to be discussed. Eat some frogs and tortured goose offal.
Drive to Gorbals bus station.
Go home.

[joe552]

I like your idea, arsenal. I've already sent SG a PM to see if he's up for it.

bob, you make some valid, if a bit over dramatic, points. As for Canada, I have family there, and lived in BC for a year. I hitch-hiked from Toronto to Vancouver one time (well about 100 miles east of Vancouver) to visit a friend there. So I feel I know it reasonably well. To me, a bucket list trip is one that's outside of your normal travel destinations.

[Nirish guy]

I would advise you to go on a coach holiday with Scottish .......

To be fair I'm getting to be such a lazy sod I'd probably book that !

[Nirish guy]

...... spending very long hours/days in close confinement with very sociable, hard drinking people.

It's a holiday he wants Bob, what you've just described is a fairly typical day in most Dublin pubs !

[bobsaigon2]

Yes, but in most Dublin pubs they're all speaking English, not Russian or Chinese. Advantage or disadvantage?

[joe552]

Ah bob, there's bound to at least one person on the train who speaks a bit of English (tho' with my luck it will be a woman!) A week drinking vodka, with people who don't understand a word I say? Perfect.

[Nirish guy]

A week drinking vodka, with people who don't understand a word I say?.

And so again a fairly typical day in most Dublin pubs I suspect ! :)

[joe552]

You might not believe this but my last time in a pub was a few months ago. My friend is going through chemo at the moment. His daughter and grandson came to visit from the States. He asked me to take the grandson on a bit of a tour of Dublin, which I was more than happy to do - he was 18 and not bad looking. We ended up in a pub (no really), and had a good time. Haven't been in a pub since. Drinking at home (anyone's home) has become more popular now than it was.

[colmx]

How about the train from Singapore to Chiang Mai?
(Note the Eastern & Orient Express costs around €3000 for Singapore to Bkk... in this case I am advising taking the regular commuter trains at probably 5% of that cost!)

Fly into Singapore and spend a few days, cross over the border into Malaysia and take the train from Johar Bahru to Kuala Lumpur via the Unesco World heritage site at Melaka.

After a few days in KL, head by train to Butterworth and cross the bridge to Penang and visit the next World heritage site in Georgetown

Next take the train to Phuket for a few days before heading on to Bkk... before your final leg to Chiang Mai

[joe552]

Wow, colmx, that sounds like a fantastic trip. I'm a huge fan of trains. I didn't know Phuket had trains going there. Your route sounds just like what I was after. Definitely going to look more into it. Thanks, appreciate that. Mind you, I haven't heard of half the places you mention - and that's the attraction.

[joe552]

Just another quick question, colmx, how long would you allow for that trip? In my head, I'm thinking 6-8 weeks. What do you think?

[colmx]

I didn't know Phuket had trains going there.

Actually it seems that there is no train to Phuket!
So you would need to take train to Langawi (another Malaysian Island north of Penang) and take the ferry to Phuket
Or take the train to Surat Thani from Butterworth and a bus to Phuket...
Or fly to Phuket from Penang

Seeing as Surat Thani is the Gateway to Koh Samui and Koh Pha Ngan - it might be better to go to those instead of Phuket?

as for time:
3 days Singapore
1 day train to Melaka
3 days Melaka
1 day Malaka to KL
3 days KL
1 day train to Butterworth
3 days in penang
1 day train to Surat Thai
(optional 3 day stopover in Langkawi)
(Optional 2 day stopover in Hat Yai)
4 days in Samui/Phuket
(Optional 3 days stopover in Krabi)
1 day train to Bkk
3 days in Bkk
1 day Train to Chiang mai
3 days in CM

So I make that 4 weeks...
Book your travel as you go, that way you can extend or shorten each location depending on how you like them
Can also take night trains if so disposed

PS. I did this exact trip back in 2001, but got waylaid in Pattaya and never made the Bkk-Chiang mai leg!

[joe552]

colmx, who knows who you might be with if you'd made that last trip to Chiang Mai? Anyway, you've already given me a ready made itinerary - that's great! I would try to avoid flying on this trip, so trains and ferries would be my preference.

I just spoke with my sister, and her plan when she retires in 2 years is a month in Tenerife. I like my 5 or so days in Tenerife, but a month? She sounded really envious of my plans.

To be honest, I wasn't sure where exactly Singapore was, but looking at the map, the route you picked seems perfect. Thanks again for all your help.

Sorry for being a pain, but one last question. How could I save the itinerary you posted, so I don't have to come back in 2 years searching for it?

[joe552]

Re: saving the itinerary. I've found a way, which involves a pen and paper. You youngsters can Google that if you don't understand.

I've often wondered about Butterworth, hardly a Malay name? I presume it comes from the British occupation. So spending some time will be great - I'm a real history buff.

[colmx]

I found this book very useful on my travels (Left mine in Le cafe royale - wonder is it still there!)
http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/asia/southeast-asia-on-a-shoestring-travel-guide-18/

You will probably find it in Easons if you want to spend a few hours perusing for free!

It doesn't necessarily give just the cheapest option... plenty of 3/4* options too

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Well, Joe, I am always fantasizing about future travels, both likely and unlikely. If I see anything interesting on boards like this, or blogs, I just copy and paste and save to Google Drive. You have to have a Gmail account to have it, but it’s free. I have various folders for things like Chang Mai, Cambodia etc.

Or a simple option is to email it to yourself and save it in a folder in your email. Call the folder "bucket list" and anyting interesting you see over the next two years just email it to yourself and save to "bucket list" then in two years time you could look at your emails and you’ll be able to see all the ideas you have saved.

[joe552]

Ya see, this is what tech savvy people do - they skip the first essential step.

Ronan, how would I email colmx's itinerary to myself from where it is?

[RonanTheBarbarian]

Well, have you an online email account like gmail or hotmail or yahoo?

If you have just copy and paste Colmx's itinerary into an email and email it toyourself.

A lot of people dont realise that you can email to yourself in these email accounts...so for instance, if your email account was a yahoo account like, say, joe552@yahoo.ie, you could just enter joe552@yahoo.ie in the "too" box and paste what you want in, and hit send.

It will pop up in your inbox and then you can save it to a folder in your email account.

If you dont know about email folders , just google "creating a folder in yahoo", or hotmail, or whatever

[joe552]

Sorry Ronan, I only half read your post. I've now copied and pasted colmx's itinerary into a folder. I know, sometimes it's like dealing with a child. Although I imagine most children are more tech savvy than I am.

[jfs]

Joe, since you've expressed a fondness for Vancouver BC, and you like the idea of train rides...I suggest The Rocky Mountaineer Train
from Vancouver to Banff.
https://www.canadianrockiestrains.com/rocky-mountaineer-train-vancouver-to-banff

[RonanTheBarbarian]

as for time:
3 days Singapore
1 day train to Melaka
3 days Melaka
1 day Malaka to KL
3 days KL
1 day train to Butterworth
3 days in penang
1 day train to Surat Thai
(optional 3 day stopover in Langkawi)
(Optional 2 day stopover in Hat Yai)
4 days in Samui/Phuket
(Optional 3 days stopover in Krabi)
1 day train to Bkk
3 days in Bkk
1 day Train to Chiang mai
3 days in CM



And, by the way, to get back the main point of the thread, that sounds like a brilliant itinerary colmx!

I would be tempted to do it if I came in to a bit of money and could take four or six weeks off (or maybe when i get my gratuity, if I live that long).

By the time I get my gratuity, I suspect that the Chinese Rail company will have a line that will whisk you from Luang Prabang to Bangkok in about four hours, which will be efficient, but take the romance out of it.

The big advantage of your itinerary compared to doing the rails from St. Louis to LA, or the Trans-Siberian railway, is that there would be not any very long (two or three day) segments that would be pretty samey and monotonous, watching thousands of miles of prairie or Siberian forest pass along..

[joe552]

Thanks, jfs, that is indeed a train journey I want to make some day. But Canada would feel a bit too familiar.


colmx's suggestion is the ideal trip - and now I don't have to think about a route. It's just filling in the details;

[a447]

I'm a rev-head - I love cars and race them from time to time as a hobby.

So my bucket list would be :

A. Hire a car for some trackwork at the Nurburgring in Germany.

B. Fly to Los Angeles, hire a Corvette and travel Route 66 across America to Chicago.

I'd travel with one of my friends who is also into cars and sometimes joins me on the track.

The problem is time because although we are both retired, we are quite busy and have different commitments.

But one of these days we'll definitely do it.

[Dalewood]

Take the train Denver to San Francisco (do it westbound--you will still get the great scenery if the train is delayed). Then San Francisco to Vancouver. Then Vancouver to Edmonton. If funds permit, you can start in Chicago and end in Toronto. Do it as close to June 21st as possible to get maximum daylight.

[christianpfc]

I'm interested in architecture, especially art nouveau, some day I want to go to Barcelona and Brussels.

[Yraen]

or a train journey from somewhere like St. Louis to Los Angeles: Speaking as an America, I would advise that tourists avoid the country entirely. Not living there now, just going by what I see in the news, anywhere in the country has the potential of being a deadly experience.

Canada? Yes, I think that would be a serious contender in my list.

With a President who lives with his head inside his mobile phone, I have to agree with Bob - avoid the US like you could get plague. The head-in-phone syndrome may be contagious.

Joe, the moment you posed your question, 4 choices came to me.
1. The Trans-Canada rail trip from west to east.
2. The Inside Passage boat trip from Vancouver to Alaska.
3. The Indian-Pacific rail trip across the bottom of Australia.
4. The Eastern & Oriental Express rail from Singapore to Bangkok.

There are lots of other options. :)

[Yraen]

Colmx said, "So you would need to take train to Langawi (another Malaysian Island north of Penang) and take the ferry to Phuket"

There is no train to Langkawi - it is an off-shore island. So it would probably be train to Butterworth, bus to Alor Setar, ferry to Langkawi Is, then ferry to Phuket.

Joe, as you are into train trips, this is one heck of a diversion for a train line that runs straight (?) up the peninsula from KL to Bangkok. Though, Penang Island and Langkawi Island are both worth a visit of several days.

[Yraen]

Re: saving the itinerary. I've found a way, which involves a pen and paper. You youngsters can Google that if you don't understand.

I've often wondered about Butterworth, hardly a Malay name? I presume it comes from the British occupation. So spending some time will be great - I'm a real history buff.

Here Joe - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterworth,_Penang

The history buff will take you to Penang (in Malay, Pinang - pronounced Pee-nang) Island.

[joe552]

That's very interesting Yraen - thanks for posting

[dinagam]

To add to the colonial history, Georgetown is on the island (Pulau Pinang), whereas Butterworth is located on the mainland ( Province Wellesley). Google Georgetown Pulau Pinang and Butterworth to see some interesting images, data, etc.