Tourist Advice: Thank you for not coming

Tourist Advice: Thank you for not coming

With the advent of cheaper airfares across the world, there has been an explosion in tourism, an added factor being the throngs of the Chinese now able to travel as the other middle class in developing countries join them.

Lately there has been news that certain countries, mainly Thailand and Philippines are considering giving some of their beach resorts “a holiday from the tourists”, Boracay now is closed for tourists in Philippines, affecting flights to Kalibo.

For people who have been perennially travelling, these mass temporary migrations of tourists have only brought on headaches. I am so glad they are travelling but they are also ruining a lot and leave a trail of trash, plastic bottles and destruction while they return to their homelands. I am certain that the majority of the tourists from India or China have no thoughts about the destruction caused by their weight (it is becoming literally too, as both Chinese and Indians are becoming fat).

I can only write about how this has affected me personally. I will concentrate on the city that I “live” in and also the airports and flights and airfares.

(at home in Havana, Cuba)

Havana Cuba used to get relatively small number of tourists until Americans were allowed to come (don’t get me wrong, they are welcome). American government usually vitriolic in their pronouncements about their humble neighbor, did not stop cruise ships or flights proliferating while thundering propaganda put fear into Americans coming to the island.

Cruise ships that were a rare sight before the Americans began appearing at the legendary wharf of Havana on a regular basis as berthed whales taking a break while 4000 tourists were put down for few hours to wander through the oldest of the Spanish colonial cities of the continent, 500 years. On occasions there would be two cruise ships and the trouble is doubled.

I no longer venture into Old Havana where the majority of the tourists congregate while the enterprising Cubans hover over them like a skulk of foxes, sucking the last of the dollar possible.

When foreigners are visiting me, on their first visit, I may take them for a short visit to the Old Havana area, and point out the relevant architectural or historic gems but spirit them away to the tranquility of other Havana sights, spared of the selfie-mad crowd.

On their second visit, I will not go or encourage my friends to go to the following sites:

Old Havana

Vinales full of tourist traps including people dressed as Indians

Varadero, beautiful beach but with the usual tourist traps

Trinidad, a colonial town now a colossal thief

Cuba is a large island with thousands of little gems of villages and natural sites, but tourists like the doomed moths attracted to light, gather at these very same sites, to the glee of my cunning Cuban brothers and sisters.

(Minnesota Mon Amour)

May May Beach in Thailand receive 4000 visitors a day, the attraction? De Caprio was there? Is that a reason for such a deluge?

Many of the beach resorts in Thailand are in danger of overcrowding and I advise you to avoid them. Phuket Pattaya Hoi An anything starting with KO, cities where the main airlines flying into are Low Cost ones such as Larnaca in Cyprus… my own prejudices I suppose.

(an occasional cigar with my american indian friends)

In the rich countries the places in danger are fragile places like Venice or Florence.

One list that I keenly follow is any that begins with:

Ten Best places to visit in 2018

Lonely Planets List of places to visit

Must see places

And then carefully avoid them

Fortunately my favourite places are in no danger of being over run by tourists because of lack of interest or budget such as Rapa Nui (I wish the Chileans wont come and stay but go home to their country!), parts of South America such as the Amazon River basin and of course I have Cuba with its private places.

(staff at Bristow's Bistro Fort Cochin)

Fort Cochin is not going to be overcrowded, would be nice if the Kashmiri Muslims would pack their pashminas and leave. Even Malaysia is not crowded with tourists and is one of the best places to visit in SE Asia. India and Indonesia are both too crowded for me and I know that Japan would always welcome me.

Whenever someone says OFF THE BEATEN TRACK, you know they are innocent buyers of some Lonely Planet propaganda. You don’t have to search for the track OFF; the track is very close to where you are.

In Havana, we say, you can walk along the streets and miss every thing if you don’t keep your eyes open, because Life is happening right in front of you.

Enough of ranting and raving!

(my favourite seat  1K on Qatar Airways)

Flying to get to places has become easier but the comfort level has decreased. The old mantra is extricating yourself from the crowds: find ways of flying comfortably and ensconce yourself in lounges at airports.

My favourite airline without doubt is Qatar Airways and the Lounges that I enjoy on a regular basis are, in no particular order

Al Mourjan Lounge Doha

Flagship Lounge MIA JFK ORD DFW

Centurion Lounge MIA SFO PHL 

I am happy to be in a Lounge at an airport whether Bogota or Brussels (Latam in Bogota and Brussels Airlines Lounge in Bruselas)

Lately I have come to enjoy hotels and sometimes some of them have become destinations to relax, it is nice to be pampered by staff that you have known for a while.

Bristow Bungalow Fort Cochin

Double Tree by Hilton in KL

Beyond Yangon in Siem Reap

Amazon BnB in Leticia, Colombia

This photo of Hotel Amazon Bed & Breakfast is courtesy of TripAdvisor

Marriott Marquis in Doha

(Guest Relations Manager at Marriott Marquis)

 (a friend from Kyrgyzstan in Doha)

(view from the Executive Lounge at Hilton Hotel in Doha)

In 2007 I had published even though it was written a decade earlier about Maqroll El Gaviero Judio   the vagrant Jew

On receiving a note from the Malabar coast that home of an aging Jew was about to be passed on to him, he imagined himself ensconced there, waited on by thin Malabari Moslems who questioned their faith, with his traveling companion, the Prince of Palms and the little girl who loved him so much that she continually adoringly attached herself to other lovers in faraway lands she dreamt of visiting with him. Making vagrancy a profession young people all over the world could aspire to, he plans to convert the 700 year old synagogue, when it is not in use, of course, into a Museum of Vagrant Peoples where others may find refuge from the restriction imposed upon them by their fear of being alive

(sleeping on my way to Narita)

Yes my aspiration in life seems to have come to fruition

Now ensconced in various lounges and aircraft cabins around the world, learning a taste for Champagne as well as Teh Tahrek, I have settled into a peripatetic life of vagrancy

I have no home

But I have rooms in the hearts of many people around the world.

Tourists are not among  of those People

 (Billecart-Salmon and cabin crew from Sao Paolo)

Qatar Airways is my favourite airline, with friendliest cabin crews from around the world, she is from South Korea.

dear friends

I am enjoying SLOW TRAVEL ..no agenda no itineraries and no destination either..

I will leave in KL in a couple of days, I think?

58 HOURS FROM MIAMI FOR A JOURNEY TO THE EAST ENDING UP IN KUALA LUMPUR

only dedicated travel fans would understand why it took me 52 hours to go from Miami to Kuala Lumpur. There are multiple one stop journeys to KL from Miami: British Airways combining with Malaysian airlines; Turkish Airlines connecting in Istanbul, Qatar connecting in Doha, Emirates from Fort Lauderdale connecting in Dubai, all of them around 30 hours of flying and waiting.
I wanted to fly the non stop SQ Singapore airlines flight from SFO to SIN one of the longest flights in the world, clocking in just under 17 hours. 
I was able to get a ticket on SQ , SFO to SIN in their new A350-900 aircraft, in a very private section of the aircraft. They left mid morning from SFO and the only way I could connect would be to take a late evening flight from Miami to San Francisco, a 6 hour flight, leaving Miami at 9 pm and arriving around 1 am in the morning at SFO.

 The Flagship lounge of American Airlines is a notch above the usual Airlines Lounges of USA

 It is a sad commentary when the Lounges are offering better food than in the air! I had my dinner knowing full well that the food on the plane would be rather bland, which it turned out to be.

 The FF status guarantees you a nice seat and I had a fairly private area with no one near me.

The food offered was rather pathetic but I did enjoy the drop of wine: a sauvignon blanc
What shall I do until the flight leaves for SIN? Most of the hotels within reach were outrageously expensive and the shuttles stopped running at 1 am, you are left to the mercy of taxi drivers or Uber. I decided to stay at the airport, which was eery and haunted at that hour. The centurion club at Terminal 3 opened at 5 am, at which time I was able to get in and have  a shower and enjoy the breakfast and go over to the International Terminal in time to enjoy the United First Class Lounge and board the flight.

 The airports in the USA tend to be abandoned after certain hours of the night as they are not 24 hour airports like the ones in Asia. SIN airport is open 24 hours and the lounges are too, so you can rest regardless of what time you arrive.

 The Centurion Club had a nice shower which I enjoyed as well as a nice array of breakfast dishes 

 I like this display of luggage from 1950s and 1960s artistically displayed 

 The problem with Centurion Club is that it can get easily overcrowded, so I decided to move to the United International First Lounge where it was nice to have a flute of Moet et Chandon

 My favourite meal has to include Salmon. The lounge was spacious but rather dull in decoration. I noticed that the staff was not overtly friendly even though I said Hello and smiled at them. Then again, they have a tough and unappreciated job!

Many flights to China!
An Anthropological observation: most people in the lounge were Chinese bound to their homeland or White Americans travellers who looked either retired or business types. I did notice there were a couple of East Indians. Later on it occurred to me that lots of East Indians living in this part of California could reach India especially the south eastern part quickly with SQ flights via SIN. 

To this day I marvel at this technological advance of being able to fly long distances up in the air.. 

The 17 hour flight was remarkably smooth and it was interesting to follow the route taken, going straight to ASIA at its shortest crossing on the way to Singapore, took us above Hawaiian Islands, past Midway and Wake Islands and making landfall in the Philippines Archipelago and then going south. On arrival there was a thunderstorm waiting to greet us so we had to wait 15 minutes for it to pass

I used to enjoy watching movies on long flights but lately I have not had the patience to do so. It is a good time to reflect and think about friends and other lovers. I wrote a little bit and read both New York Times an Le Monde and also followed some airline news on The Business Traveller

 The short 40 minute flight on SILK AIR was remarkably good with excellent attention and very pleasant Cabin Crew.

 Malaysia to me means the extraordinary people I have met over the 10 years I have been visiting this country on a regular basis. The previous Malaysian Ambassador to Cuba picked me up at the airport and it was nice to talk about Cuba in Malaysian Soil and also catch up on the latest political happening in this most incongruous country of Asia, but I am fond of it otherwise why should I come here so often for over 10 years!
The welcome at Double Tree Hotel where I usually stay was touching and after saluting my old friends at the Executive Lounge at 34 Floor  Dat, Brian got to meet the new manager Jini (who did a short stint at Sheraton at Doha)
Dat made sure that my room was just a few steps away from the Lounge.

It was 5 pm Friday  when I checked in at the Lounge
ie 5 am Miami time, i had left at 9 pm on Tuesday night (by the way I was working at the Everglades all day that day)
56 hours later.. a long and arduous journey
Within half an hour after arrival it was time for wine and social hour at the Lounge 
Even though I felt very tired and without much appetite I enjoyed the busy atmosphere of the Lounge 
Wishing my friends around the world SHABBAT SHALOM, it was time to rest in this comfortable and friendly hotel in 
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia ..

KRISFLYER BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE IN SINGAPORE CHANGI WHAT A LOVELY AIRPORT

SINGAPORE CHANGI airport consistently wins all awards for being the best Airport in the world, a distinction it holds on to, even after these many years.
USA is far behind when it comes to conveniences for the travelling public: the foo offerings are very seldom healthy unless you are in some special airports such as Portland, Oregon. The Lounges are getting better but nothing to hold a candle to when it comes to the conveniences to the travelling public in Asia.
The two best airports in the world are in Asia: Changi and Doha's Hamad International. Most of the best airlines in the world are in Asia (even though they are not in China or India two large countries in terms of population)
Qatar Singapore Cathay Pacific Japan are considered the best airlines even though I hear good things about Garuda and I have a soft spot for Malaysian. an also for their lounge in the satellite at KLIA.
My personal list of good airports 
Hamad in Doha, Changi in Singapore and KLIA in Malaysia. When it comes to lounges it has to be Al Mourjan in Doha and today I will  write about the Krisflyer lounge in Changi Terminal 2
I often wonder why USA fliers who number the largest proportion of flying public put up with such incredibly bad service on their home based airlines, with poor attitudes of Flight Attendants to inedible food and just being treated badly by the staff.. when they are paying such good cash.. No wonder that the entire USA aviation industry is sinking down to a low level of No Service No Frills 
Most airlines in the world will serve you a hot meal on a flight longer than one hour or so, but in the USA you can expect to get a drink and packaged nuts, even in journeys up to 3 hours long.
I arrived at Changi Airport after a 17 hour non stop flight from San Francisco on Singapore Airlines. The hard product: seat and the cabin etc was superb but the service by FAs couldnt be compared to Qatar.
My flight was supposed to leave at 1245 pm and I was at the airport at 8 am having slept in the airport hotel. The airline wouldnt put me on an earlier flight even though there were seats available. Here is the difference with USA: the staff on the ground and on line are usually very helpful. In the USA, I would have been able to leave on an earlier flight. But I was looking forward to enjoying the lounge of Singapore Airlines in Terminal 2

 The Congee was so tasty. There was such a variety of food that I wanted to try all, and just took nips at it. Most of the chinese food had pork in it so couldnt taste them

 Walking around Changi airport is a pleasure, like Hamad it is almost a destination in itself but more so. It is one of the airports where arriving early to enjoy the airport is advised

It was good to observe that at SIN airport, many of the less strenuous jobs were being done by retired people, men and women and immigrants were doing more strenuous jobs. What a change from USA airports where the Flight Attendants are grandmothers and the lounge jobs are almost exclusively done young immigrants.

I enjoyed my stay at the lounge, quiet and hardly any peronal interactions (I prefer the USA lounges for this because you tend to chat with the attendants especially like those who work at the Centurion Lounge in Miami).

I am looking forward to MH Lounge at KLIA
Al Mourjan at Doha 
and the Israeli cuisine at the Centurion Lounge at PHL in the next one week.