#any place i live has to be walkable this is my standard and i will not settle for lesser qualities of living
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I like your vision for cities but how is something like that achieved practically speaking?
oh boy. here we go...
zoning reform: more mixed-use zoning. japan's zoning model is one i particularly like. but i also think there are some european cities to look to. would like for there to be some national agency that sets some standards but i know that's a longshot.
land value tax: will incentivize denser development and more efficient use of land. this, aside from zoning reform, will probably make the biggest difference.
carbon tax: decrease pollution and discourage cars.
congestion pricing: decreases traffic
build more pedestrian-friendly streets: wider sidewalks (and thus smaller streets, probably with lower speed limits but of course it will be situational), well-lit, more greenery, designate certain streets as pedestrian-only, etc.
encourage and invest in public transportation: buses (especially brt), trains, subways, trolleys, monorails, funiculars, etc. this includes intra-city transit but also transit to outlying suburbs (and ideally those suburbs would follow similar policies as discussed here -- like the streetcar suburbs of old). i also don't think it should be free, at least not at first. though maybe subsidized. i think it should cost /something/ though (i also like the idea of making lots of ways to get discounts so it gives the appearance of being high-value while also being accessible). and importantly we need to make sure it is clean and safe. which brings me to my next couple points.
law and order: police. we need more and better police. for a lot of people this is a hard pill to swallow but it's the truth. we need to be cracking down on crime and getting homeless off the street. this is probably the third most important thing after the land-value tax.
cleanliness: i think there should be some kind of public jobs program for cities where they hire people to do some basic low-skill janitorial work throughout the city. like a whole ass street cleaning corps.
beautification: incentivize businesses to build more beautiful buildings in pedestrian-heavy areas and build more public monuments and parks and plants more trees and flowers.
encourage urban gardens: not because this is going to solve any food shortages or anything but mostly as a means of fostering community.
build more diverse housing: not just high-rise apartments and single family homes (though i think they both definitely have a place). there's a range of other options; low-rise and mid-rise apartments, townhouses, multiplexes (duplex, triplex, fourplex, etc), courtyard apartments, bungalow courts, 5-over-1s, get single family homes to build accessory dwelling units, live-work homes, etc. also encourage more housing co-ops.
i do also want to mention suburbs again. like i said, i think a lot of the above principles should be applied to suburbs too. i think they should be more dense. not necessarily "high-density" like a downtown urban area but medium-density for sure. if big cities have an "urban core" i think suburbs should also act as "suburban cores" with walkable city centers where there are lots of jobs and entertainment and so on. we used to have streetcar suburbs and we should strive to revive this.
suburbs get a lot of flak and a lot of the criticisms are valid but i don't think suburbs are inherently bad. the cookie-cutter urban sprawl in the sunbelt is pretty bad. but i live in a suburban town just outside of los angeles and it's really lovely. it's full of character and community and it's walkable and has a lively and charming downtown area. suburbs can be good. we just need more suburbs that have a medium-density walkable "small town" vibes than the soulless cookie cutter stuff you see people rail against all the time.
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Its my revolutionary act to refuse to learn how to drive you cant fucking make me
#i love being 25 w no license not even a learners permit 🥰#cars can fuck off and die#any place i live has to be walkable this is my standard and i will not settle for lesser qualities of living#not like i have that now but I’ll manifest it :)
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Car dependency does suck. What's your thoughts on rail systems?
I think there should be a hell of a lot more of them and they should be better-funded, that’s for sure.
I’m fortunate enough to live near a station with regular service and I take advantage of it when I can but therein lies the problem-unless I’m going into NYC (something I rarely have a need to do) it almost never makes sense for me to take it. And while I personally believe there are good reasons to take transit over a personal vehicle whenever possible, it’s pretty hard to sell most of my friends on spending more money and more time on a train when a car trip would be quicker and cheaper.
You see this US High Speed Rail meme map get tossed around a lot and while it’s fun to imagine (why yes, I do think it would be dope if I could hop on an Amtrak train and be in Cleveland in 3 hours), is it really what we need? I’d be overjoyed just to have access to a well-developed regional rail system where I could show up at a station with no planning, wait 5 minutes, and take a cheap trip a few towns over to go to work or to visit friends and family. I look at a 99-year-old railroad map of my delightful home state and think, “What the hell happened? Where did this all go?” A century later and it feels like our infrastructure has completely regressed.
To be totally honest though, I’m not so much a rail/transit nerd as I am just continually frustrated by how the US has gone beyond car-dependency and arrived at complete car-centrality. My experience growing up in New Jersey is that it is almost impossible for you to walk so much as one town over or even more than a couple miles in any direction without running a non-negligible risk of being mowed down by traffic. Strictly speaking, I guess you could take the D&R canal towpath from Princeton to New Brunswick but it’s pretty clearly only intended to be used for recreation and not as a serious piece of infrastructure.
These days I live in a beautiful (in my opinion), walkable (by US standards), town with multiple transit connections but it’s still completely dominated by the automobile. There’s a hard border of multi-lane highways on three sides and on the fourth a gradual shift to post-war single-family housing developments, then strip malls, big box stores, and parking lots. The sidewalks come to an end precisely at the town border. I live at a corner lot on a busy intersection- since the beginning of 2022 I’ve witnessed three car crashes right outside my front door. My next-door neighbor is an elderly woman who, upon my first meeting her, spoke unprompted about what a shame it is since they paved the road back in the day and how it’s never been quiet since. I need only to step outside to be assaulted by the noise she’s talking about- accompanied by the smell of exhaust. And keep in mind this is still a place that I love and consider a huge step up from most other American towns I’ve been to. But this is all I’ve ever known whereas my neighbor is just old enough to have seen every street turned into a strip of heat-absorbing asphalt, rigidly separating houses, businesses, people. Rivers of tar, non-places where you can cross furtively but never ever stand still.
I’m not writing this all out to be a downer or to complain. I want to talk about this because for the longest time I didn’t have an understanding of why this upset me. I grew up in the ‘burbs and knew nothing else so how could I put into words what I found so unsettling about this? I thought it was just the way things are.
It doesn’t have to be like this. I think it’s important to keep in mind that all this has occurred over the last century and really only after World War II. The hopelessly car-centric environment, hostile to people, nature, and common sense, that has been built up around us is a historical aberration that’s only been around for about as long as our grandparents. It doesn’t need to be like this and historically it hasn’t been. I think it’s important that people know that things can be better than 100 million miles of stroads.
Pictured above- Amsterdam's transition from walkable to car-centric and back again over the last century or so. Wanted to end this on a positive note.
#fuck cars#urbanism#car dependence#americaposting#send more asks about things upon which im definitely not qualified to ruminate
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Worldbuilding 101
Hello! It’s your girl— @thecomfywriter — back with another post. Today, I’m going to describe worldbuilding as a general concept to you guys. Specifically, how I like to go about it. As always, if you enjoy this post, make sure to like and reblog, comment any suggestions or specific topics, and if you want to repost (though no one ever does), my insta is @tovwriter and my tumblr is @thecomfywriter. Now without further ado, let’s jump straight in.
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Aside from character building (which I can also make a post on, if you would like?), worldbuilding is the basis of creating your story. It's the creation of a setting, a culture, a language, a system in which your story exists. It's the explanation to your character’s behaviours, the reason why everything in your story takes place. Without worldbuilding, your story cannot exist because there is nothing for it to exist for.
Worldbuilding can range from simple to complex, with intermediate hanging out somewhere in the middle. It’s alright if your worldbuilding is simple; it will grow naturally as your characters interact with the world around them. For now, let's start off with each level:
Simple Worldbuilding
This is the first base of worldbuilding. The framework for your entire story relies on NAILING this. You want to create strong foundations so that you can later expand on them if you choose. Solidifying your simple worldbuilding also prevents plot holes in your story.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Setting: Where the hell is this world located? What is like there? Generally describe the setting. This includes location, time, atmosphere and even climate
What I like to do is make a general map for my world. That way, I can plot out certain things about the geography that make sense to the area, as well as plan the weather accordingly
Northern kingdoms probably have harsher climates and more extreme winters; depending on the ocean currents and how the rocks have been forged, they might even have canyons, or if they are in an earthquake prone area, mountain ranges
I use the website Inkarnate to do this. It helps you create fantasy world maps
Culture: This is broad as hell, I realize, but generally answer questions like,
What culture do your characters belong to?
What is their ethnicity?
What language(s) do they speak?
Is it a monocultural area, or multicultural?
How do they express their culture? This can include art, music, literature, religion, architecture, history, warriors, monuments, etc
Values: I personally like to put this in the simple worldbuilding section because I think it is important to highlight the values of your world, so you can base the values of your characters around the environment they grew up in.
For example, what are things your culture values?
In my book, art and music is put at the top-most value due to their religion stresses these as the expression of Maadh (their main goddess); meanwhile, written literature isn’t stressed at all since stories are told orally, or through song and art
This simple value sets up so much about the society and who is considered important / higher class (artists, dancers, musicians, priests) in comparison to the middle / lower class (scientists, scholars, scribes, clerks, librarians)
See? Simple worldbuilding is actually quite easy and subconscious. You’re probably already in intermediate worldbuilding without even realizing it. Speaking of which, let’s expand on that.
Intermediate Worldbuilding
Aight, boys and girls (and others), time for details :)
Setting
Key Locations: Where are some important locations in your world. This includes places that are frequently visited or where the story takes place most often. You can add these locations on your map with stars or another key symbol
i.e. where do your main characters live? How is it like there? What is that close to? How do you get there?
Where does the majority of the story take place? What are some descriptions/characteristics of this location? Is it indoors or outdoors? What can you do here? Why would they go here? Is it crowded?
What are some special spots for your characters? A romantic getaway if you will. Or a secret location meant just for them (and their best friend?)
Weather: look at your key locations and the geography of them. Where is it located? Cool, now how is the weather there like? Is it rainy a lot, or super sunny, or is it cloudy but warm, or bright and chilly?
What are the four seasons like? (unless you have more or less than four, then describe it!)
Temperature ranges for each season [i.e. winter = (-4) - (5)*C ]
Characteristics of each season (i.e. rainy and muddy in spring, thunderstorms and heavy humidity in the summer, dry and chilly in autumn, heavy snow and icy in the winter)
Population: Is it a city? A town? A village? A hamlet? A tribe? How many people live there? How crowded are the neighbourhoods? Is it easy to navigate? Walkable?
Transport: how do people get around? Do they walk? Bike? Magic? Fly a dragon? Horse back? Carriages? Palanquins? Bus? Car? Plane?
Now explain why.
Culture
Arts: What art style does your culture have? What medium do they use? Why?
What is considered art in this culture?
How is art regarded? Is it important to culture and highly respected, or is it looked down upon as an inferior practice/career choice?
What emotions does the art illicit?
What does the art often depict?
Music: is it considered an art? Why or why not? How does it sound? What style do they use? What instruments? Is it lyrical or instrumental, or neither? How many people sing? Do people sing at all?
What is the purpose of music in this culture?
Sciences: what is being studied? Why? How does this help the culture advance? Is the culture advanced because of the sciences?
Is science a respected field, or is it seen as an opposition to religion/magic?
[if your world has magic] how does magic and science interact? How does magic and religion interact?
What role does science play in the technology of your world
Technology: how advanced is the technology in your world? What is it used for? How does it ease the lives of people? Is it uncommon for people to use technology? Is it accessible? Is it considered important or necessary to daily life?
Values:
Religion: does it exist in your world? How does it work? Is it a monotheistic or polytheistic?
What role does religion play on the history of your culture? What role does it play on the current society
How important is religion in your society?
How many different religions are there in your world? Do they clash? What is the outcome of those clashes?
How does religion influence the government of your society?
How does it influence morality and ethical standards?
Mythologies surrounding this religion (if any).
Refer to my mythology post for guidance on how to create a mythological system
Government: I’m putting this here for now because I will go fully in-depth with the government in the second part of this post, which is the COMPLEX worldbuilding (aka what I always find myself doing because i daydream wayyy too much). But for now, some general points:
What type of government?
Role of religion / magic on government
General rights and freedoms of citizens
Values of government (economy / human rights / conquership / power / magic dominance, etc)
How is the economy managed? (value of money? High or low? Currency type or existence? Trade v.s currency?)
How respected is the government?
OKAY! I’m fried lol. I have a shit ton more to say, so I will definitely make a part two. But that’s all for now folks.
Happy Writing! :)
#wip#books#writers#fantasy#writing#worldbuilding#magic#writers blog#writerblr#writing community#writers tips#advice#writers on tumblr#writings on instagram#world#novel#author
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Trip to Chinatown
Entering the third week of class excursions, I was able to tour one of Chicago’s most historic and ethnic neighborhoods, Chinatown. The location of the city’s Chinatown was not always located on the south side. Originally Chinese immigrants arrived in Chicago only after the completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad, with the influence of harsh ethnic violence found on the west coast of the United States (Kiang, 1992). Enclaves were initially formed in Chicago’s Loop, with a quarter of the Chinese population residing there; slowly the newly migrated Chinese found acceptance from their new neighbors and Chinese business sprouted throughout the city (Kiang, 1992). Although the Chinese were experiencing success in the booming industry center of Chicago, renewal of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1892 amplified discrimination to the Chinese communities. Due to the increasing and frightening racism, the Chinese communities fled south of the loop near Armour Square. This push to the south side was aided by the oppressive taxes applied to Chinese land and business owners; even Chinese homeowners felt the economic impact of the governance targeted against them (Ling, 1956)
What is now considered, ‘New Chinatown’ is the southern haven Chinese immigrants were able to build and grow. The neighborhood is relatively small and walkable, being bounded to the northwest by the southern branch of the Chicago river. Running from its northernmost point on 18th Street, south to the Stevenson Expressway along 26th Street. It stretches from its easternmost claim running along the redline of the ‘L’ rail lines to the west being bordered by the Dan Ryan Expressway. The neighborhood, although minute in size, is rich in activities for visitors to enjoy. On my trip to Chinatown I was able to visit the New Chinatown Library, explore Ping Tom Memorial Park, walk through the Chinatown Square and mall, tour the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, and enjoy the numerous artistic and architectural landmarks scattered throughout the neighborhood.
Nine Dragon Wall, 158 W. Cermak Rd
Although this new Chinatown has been standing decades, the inevitable development and gentrifying nature of cities endanger the culturally authentic neighborhood. Pressured by McCormick Place from the east, new hotels and entertainment functions raise the living standards of the area (Ecker, 2019). Rising rents in the adjacent neighborhood to the west of Pilsen also intensify increasing wealth gaps. Most salient to the neighborhood is the newly acquired sixty-two acre plot of riverfront land located just north of Chinatown. This land was purchased for seven billion dollars, with intentions for a development project to emplace ten-thousand new residential units (Ecker, 2019). What is most concerning for this existing population is the lack of wealth accumulated in the neighborhood. A majority of the household incomes in Chinatown earn less than fifty-thousand dollars a year. With increasing interest in Chinatown from outside investment as a potential new key sector connecting the periphery neighborhoods to the central business district and loop; existing residents must recognize and prepare for the looming increase in economic activity to come.
One exemplary model of the neighborhood’s ability to combat against external development is the construction of the New Chinatown Library. Designed by the same architects who created the One World Trade Center in New York City, and the Centennial Tower in San Francisco, the library is renowned for its beauty and design, as well as, the sustainable architecture embedded in its arrangement (Clark, 2016). The building was designed with community input in mind, utilizing the principles of the Chinese design style of feng shui (Clark, 2016). Upon first entrance of the building, I was astounded by the design and function of the library. Incredibly different from the library I am accustomed to at home or even found on my campus, the building allows bountiful amounts of sunlight to enter. The books are organized as in a traditional library, but many of the books found on the shelves of this library were published in Chinese languages. When walking up to the second floor, you are overwhelmed by the view of the city’s skyline. The library displays a large ornate mural, filled with traditional Chinese designs, and gorgeous coloring detail. Also displayed in the library are pictures illustrating significant Chinese accomplishments in the city of Chicago. One note about the library was I imagined the building to be quite larger inside, because grandness of the building from the outside, but the internal space was underwhelming.
Inside the second story of the Chinatown Library, 2100 S. Wentworth Ave
After my exploration of the library, I ventured north in the neighborhood to explore Ping Tom Memorial Park. Along my walk to the Ping Tom Park I encountered the Chinatown Square and Mall. In the square Chinese zodiac figures are littered, displaying birth years and traits of persons belonging to a certain zodiac. After a brief search of my birth year, I was able to find my Chinese zodiac sign, the dragon. The dragon as depicted in the description, is the most mythical of the zodiac signs, with dragon people being characterized as confident and enthusiastic individuals. They are perceived to have reputations of loud mouths, but in actuality are soft-hearted and intelligent. It is noted that dragon individuals excel at right brain activities such as artistry and writing. Also located in the square is a large stage for performances to be held for the community (Kennedy, 2002). On the opposite side of the stage along Archer Street one can locate the large Immigration Mosaic. The mosaic depicts illustrations of Chinese immigration, with ships representing the trip across the Pacific Ocean for many immigrants, as well as, images of trains to symbolize the honorable work of the Chinese immigrants who constructed the transcontinental railroad.
Immigration Mosaic in Chinatown Square, 2169B S China Pl.
The mall was something quite unique and a foreign concept to my understanding of stripmalls. In the Chinatown Mall a two story system is utilized with catwalks along the second floor, for customer access to business. Numerous businesses and economic functions practice out of the mall; dining, leisure, and exercise sites are just a few of the businesses one can find. The mall is a refreshing break from the city. It incorporates plenty of greenery through the use of trees and flowers along the business fronts. The Chinatown Square and Mall provide much needed promotion of cultural retention in the neighborhood, while simultaneously stimulating the local neighborhood economy.
Chinatown Mall, 2169B S China Pl.
Finally, after the brief detour through the square, I headed on my way towards Ping Tom Memorial Park. Originally the site was utilized as a Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad yard, and was not acquired by the Chicago Park district until late in the twentieth century (Chicago Park District, 2020). During the period of time prior to attainment of the land Chinatown was plagued by a complete lack of open green space and recreational functions for the community. The ultimate tragedy that stemmed from this lack of park space was two entire generations of children and families in Chinatown had zero access to a neighborhood facility (Chicago Park District, 2020).
Beginning in 1998, the Chicago Park District transformed the once harsh, industrial landscape to the inviting, green space that stands today. The park incorporates a playground for small children, as well as community gathering areas. Tom Ping park also offers immaculate views of the city’s skyline, and has cemented many walking trails for visitors to enjoy. The park emphasizes the cultural value of the Chinese community and integrates Chinese design elements throughout the park. Even a few intricate artistic murals can be spotted in the park as well.
Mural located beneath highway in Tom Ping Memorial Park
The name of the park remembers and honors the man who pressured and advocated for the need of the recreational commons, Ping Tom; who passed away shortly before the opening of the site. Tom who spent his life living in Chinatown was the formulator of the Chinese American Development Corporation, this private firm created the previously regarded Chinatown Square (Chicago Park District, 2020). On top of his development works, Ping Tom was an active civic and cultural leader to the neighborhood; he engaged and fostered relationships, even acting as an advisor to U.S. senators, Illinois governors, and mayors of the city.
Ping Tom bust in Ping Tom Memorial Park, 1700 S. Wentworth Ave
In full honesty the entrance to the park was anything like I had ever seen before. Prior to entering the park you are encountered with railroad tracks that one must cross prior to entrance. It is important to be aware of your surroundings during this crossing, as the train line remains active for trade and commerce. Upon entrance of the park all patrons will be greeted by the large pagado-style pavilion found near the park’s river edge, along with the imposing bronze bust of Ping Tom. Walking north along the river located underneath the highway two large murals are painted along the supporting beams. The murals depict traditional Chinese artworks illustrating natural landscapes and ornate flowers. In person the murals are massive and quite detailed, they provide a refreshing renovation to the blighted highway that cuts through the park. Continuing just north of the murals a uninterrupted view of the city’s skyline can be seen.
Pagoda pavilion in Ping Tom Memorial Park
The Ping Tom park was truly a hidden gem and a pleasant escape from the industrial and urban environment Chicago creates. Although the entrance is a bit peculiar, any person attending the park will undoubtedly experience the beauty in the park. To note as well, was how surprisingly quiet the park was. Despite being surrounded by industrial infrastructure, the highway and rail line had a negligible impact on the park, but I must admit, on my first attempt at exiting the park I was prohibited from doing so due to a train.
To end my trip around the neighborhood I headed towards the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago to learn more about the origins of the neighborhood. Along my way I was able to see the Chinatown Gate, which symbolizes the entrance to Chinatown. The gate was constructed in 1975, designed to reflect similar characteristics to gates found in Beijing. The Chinese characters displayed atop the gate translate to mean, “the world belongs to the commonwealth” (Male, 2020). Chinatown Gate was implemented in order to promote increased unity and intensified cultural exchange in the neighborhood. The gate is quite spectacular and provides a grand entrance to Chinatown, a worthy entrance to a community full of rich culture and trade.
Chinatown Gate, 2206 S Wentworth Ave
Passing the gate, I arrived at the museum. The Chinese-American Museum mission preaches for the appreciation of Chinese-American culture by means of education and through exhibitions. The museum aims to preserve the history of the culture, as well as, the future (Chinese American Museum of Chicago, 2020). The museum was compiled on two floors. On the first floor, pictures, decorations, clothing, jewelry, and many other traditional Chinese artifacts were presented. What stood out to me most significantly were the wooden carvings hung along the walls. Traditionally known as the folk craft of Guangdong, carving styles illustrate flowery, layered scenes depicting generally historical events and legend. The Guangdong carvings located in the museum were massive, and it was apparent the laboring efforts required to create such a work of art.
Guangdong carving in Chinese-American Museum, 238 W. 23rd St
On the second floor of the museum, a theatre can be located; in which a brief informational video is presented showcasing staple Chinese cultures and customs, along with discussing the historical founding of the neighborhood. The video was illuminating and educational, presenting the history of Chinatown quite well. Found on the second floor as well are depictions of successful Chinese-owned businesses. Early in their settlement to Chicago, the Chinese population discovered laundry services and facilities required little capital to start and the skills required were easy to learn. Because of these two factors within a span of fifty years the number of Chinese operated laundromats from two, in 1872, to nearly five-hundred, by 1926 (Chinese American Museum of Chicago, 2020). Displayed in the museum’s laundry are a manual cash register, a business license from 1959, as well as, typical laundry accessories, such as irons, sprayers, a darning machine, and spindles of twine.
Chinese laundry located in Chinese-American Museum
Beginning my trip I was unsure of what impression Chinatown would leave me with, after my first thorough visit. Initially I imagined Chinatown to be noisy and busy, with highways circling the neighborhood, and the red line ‘L’ track running on its boundary; but this was not my lasting memory of the neighborhood. As I explored more I was able to recognize the escape that Chinatown provides from Chicago. The New Chinatown Library provides excellent educational resources to the community, while also promoting the use of sustainable infrastructure in further development of the neighborhood. Chinatown Square and Mall stimulates the local economy for the neighborhood, simultaneously providing a gathering place for its residents. The implementation of Ping Tom Memorial Park was a much dire need for the community, providing green space and recreation. The Ping Tom park in my opinion provides the greatest experience of any park I have visited in Chicago. Chinatown is a deeply cultural neighborhood and this is extremely important and apparent as one walks through the neighborhood. As the pressures of gentrification and city development continue to trouble the existing community, it is crucial steps be taken to preserve the neighborhood. Although this is much to ask and prevent, small actions, like supporting a small business or leaving a donation at the Chinese-American Museum, can go to support the community and uphold the culture built in Chinatown.
Sources:
Chicago Park District. (2020). Ping Tom Memorial Park. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parks-facilities/tom-ping-memorial-park
Chinese American Museum of Chicago. (2020). History and Mission. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://ccamuseum.org/
Clark, A. (2016, February 22). The Unlikely Boom of Chicago's Chinatown. Retrieved October 8, 2020, from https://classroom.google.com/u/1/c/MTMwNzA5NjA3MDI0/a/MTcwMDU0NDEzMTc5/details
Ecker, D. (2019, May 10). The Battle for Chinatown's Future. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://drive.google.com/file/d/18pHBWRIsCneO6W04YBN1wJeWvXoIv7nS/vie
Kennedy, K. (2002, January 20). Chinatown returns to center stage. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-01-20-0201200041-story.html
Kiang, Y. (1992). Chinatown. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/284.html
Ling, H. (1956). Chinese Chicago: Race, Transnational Migration, and Community Since 1870. Stanford, California. ISBN 0-8047-8336-5
Male, M. (2020). Chinatown Gate, Chicago. Retrieved October 08, 2020, from https://www.gpsmycity.com/attractions/chinatown-gate-10226.html
Photos:
All of the photos illustrated throughout the blog were taken by me except for the following images:
Ping Tom bust:
https://slakingfool.blogspot.com/2010_09_01_archive.html
Chinatown Gate:
https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/chicago-chinatown-gate-picture-id558935993
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Hi B! I’m going to be taking my mom to NYC (I think you live there) for her 60th birthday (and my 35th 😱). We’re from Montreal, so as much as we’ll most likely be doing a lot of the standard tourist things, we’d like ourselves a good walkable neighbourhood for where we’ll be staying. Any thoughts on what area you’d stay in? It doesn’t have to be Manhattan, we’re good with taking the subway. I was thinking somewhere in Brooklyn? but I know nothing. Thank you!
ahhh yay!!! Will this be your first time in the city? What time of year will you be here? depending on those things my answers my differ!
Ok! if it IS your first time, while I know you said no manhattan, but my first thought would be Hell’s Kitchen. it’s super centrally located and you can walk to all the major tourist attractions, and there’s a TON of great restaurants and bars. plus there are a bunch of different train lines that go there so you can easily get anywhere (including Brooklyn!).
As for Brooklyn, there are so many cute places with completely different vibes. My first thought is Williamsburg. Again, wonderful restaurants and bars. Great shops and cafes. Super cute, super walkable. Although be careful if you’re coming after April. the main train line there is not COMPLETELY shutting down like they originally planned, but it’s probably going to get messy.
As for the rest of Brooklyn...so tough! Brooklyn heights, Dumbo, Downtown Brooklyn are all super cute. Some of my favorite bars are in Gowanus. Bushwick can have some shady pockets, but it also has GORGEOUS street art (seriously wander around and take yourself on a street art tour there!) and lots of great places to eat and drink.
Also don’ t rule out queens! It may not be as ~cool as Brooklyn, but I’m not sure what time of year you’re coming, but if it’s during warmer weather definitely check out Long Island City. it’s right on the water with killer views of manhattan and again, tons of great bars and restaurants. Also Astoria- there’s the museum of moving image there, cute little shops, and (a common theme) great bars and restaurants, particularly the Broadway stop off the N and further north from there up until Ditmars!
Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have more specific questions!
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The Rambling Man Travel Review: Athens, GA
The Rambling Man. Travel Review: Athens, Ga The Classic City!
It is like going back in time, my personal portal to the past. Yes, it is a trip back to the college town I called home for 4 plus years. But, Athens will always be a place that conjures up life’s best feelings: love, passion, soul, heartache, and be so much more than a weekend getaway.
I arrive Friday November 9th, landing at Atlanta / Hartsfield International Airport. Athens is 50-60 miles Northeast of Hot Lanta, so I have a Hertz Rental Car in my future. Yep, I am rocking a white Ford Fusion to embark on this trip. I hop on 85 North, hit the 316 East, and I arrive in Athens in no time. As I approach my past, my present rolls down the window. My first test upon arriving into any new town, I must take a smell test of any city. I gulp in the air, and the South in general, but Athens specifically has its own smell. It is late fall, the air still warm. I smell water, soil, humid days, and the trees. You can see the many plants, you can smell the many trees. The many plants again near hibernation, a yearly tradition renewed as Fall turns to Winter.
And that could be the theme, a ritual renewed, of this weekend getaway. I have rambled into and out of Athens many times. I ramble into a town where every street light reveals a picture in reverse, to quote the great REM. Athens own REM… I am rambling into a weekend ritual renewed.
Where to start? How about an early afternoon stroll of campus? My accommodations at the Hilton Garden Inn, on E. Washington St. in downtown Athens, make the walk over to the University of Georgia campus darn right easy. My destination is North Campus, adjacent to Broad St. and directly South of downtown and Broad St. You will see the entrance to campus, and will be greeted by The Arch. But be for warned, Georgia Bulldog lore has it that only graduates can walk under the arch, those who dare walk under The Arch without a degree will suffer great sexual dysfunction. This may be a rumor, but, hey now, don’t mess with Southern Folklore if you ask me, especially when considering The Arch was molded in 1857. The University of Georgia, it is an old place, established in 1785. And, to me in my humble opinion, helps to explain my theme…. Because going to Athens, it is a tradition unlike any other, a ritual renewed.
Talk about walkability… North Campus on the campus of the University of Georgia is absolutely fantastic, offering young, hopeful faces, vintage buildings, historic sights, and sounds of hope hovering all around. After the flight, the walk gets my heart pumping. I play some REM, Widespread Panic, and Futurebirds to take in some of Athens Music royalty on my walk. Well, they are not quite all royalty yet, but I am taking in a concert tonight at the Athens historic legend itself, The Georgia Theatre. And, hum baby, I get a chance to see the band Futurebirds. Oddly, and without notice, I am in touch with my 19-year old former self. I am traveling in time tonight?
So hungry, I start to chew on my Red and Black ball cap. Food is right around the bend, but I have a few errands to run prior to catching a meal on the Rooftop Bar and the Futurebirds show at the Georgia Theatre.
It has been a long travel day, and if I did not get in the walk, I would have never been able to jump back into the rental car. It is a quick errand, a brief drive. I stop by the Package Store, somehow this is terminology for a place to buy liquor in the South. I pick up a bottle of Jim Beam and a 2 Liter bottle of Coke. The only thing missing… Picking up a copy of Leonard’s Losers. Leonard Postero was a native of Athens, Georgia, known for his syndicated radio show, Leonard's Losers. He was a 1943 graduate of the University of Georgia and served as an aviator in the United States Navy from 1943–45.
Leonard handicapped football games and provided a pamphlet, at the time. one could pick up at the Package Store. I picked up a copy quite often late on Friday’s in the Fall, and it 20-years later brings motivation and joy as I, in a similar vain of the great Leonard, pick my own Loser’s through my Las Vegas Larry’s Losers Podcast. Check it out… But remember, nobody does it like Leonard, a true Athens legend. We miss ya..
My errands continue, a stop at the Old Apartment. I am literally living a Barenaked Ladies song, The Old Apartment. Yes, this is where we used to live… Not much has changed, maybe some new paint. It is as if time stands still. I walk up the stairs to the outdoor patio, my eyes see what we used to see. The pine trees willow softly under the soft November sun. My car is still running, it may have been two minutes of my time, but the drive by of the old apartment is priceless.
I ramble on, rambling back to the hotel, a fiv- minute drive back East towards campus and downtown. I grab ice on my way up to my room, I drink two tall glasses of Jim Beam and coke. The TV is kept quiet, as I sit in silence. The perspective of life, ever changing. Travel can bring emotions, so can going back in time, but I don’t have time to think. I have a quick walk over to the Georgia Theatre for dinner!! I bark out loud in a weird ritual almost getting in some practice prior to barking all day tomorrow for the big game in town.
It is sweatshirt weather, a crisp fall night. I sit upon a most perfect sunset and spectacular views of Athens. The lights of space fuse to the Rooftop Bar, as I order the Pimento Cheese appetizer and a Purple Haze cold beer. I fold one beer to the next, before eventually heading down to the music venue which sits just beneath my feet.
The Band starts to play, and all is right in the world. It’s Friday night…. And a Friday night in Athens, by almost any definition features live music.
Stars were still coming from my eyes as dawn broke. It is a football Saturday morning in the Fall in Athens Georgia. But, hot dog, what a great show last night. I pull myself out of bed, quickly rotating my head in every direction to locate my water bottle. I see the leftover food I picked up after the show, Little Italy Pizzeria on Lumpkin. Little Italy Pizzeria is Athens in a pizza box. Let us not forget, Athens is a college town. And, late night cheezy, gooy pizza is just what the Professor orders after some live music and some beers at the Georgia Theatre.
The game is in a few hours, and my schedule is a bit tight, so I improvise a walk that is efficient on time. I start my walk from the hotel and walk South on Milledge Ave. The sidewalk below my running shoes has seen many footprints over the years, the traffic is moderate, and the sights and sounds are fantastic. To a degree, Milledge Ave., despite being a fairly major North / South thoroughfare, is the home to many college sororities. The antebellum homes turned Sorority Row is fairly intense and full of viewing pleasure, especially on a game day. And, frankly, this is what I mean by getting to know a city on an intimate level by walking its city streets. This walk is Southern Tradition, beauty, tradition, excitement, and a nice flat walk with a sidewalk to keep you safe.
I meet up with a few old pals that made the trip into town for the game, Mike, Wayne, and Mark. Wayne has a friend with a tailgate, so we plan on experiencing one of the best possible experiences known to man, a tailgate prior to a football game in Athens. GA. This is quintessential Classic City, college town, out of this world unique to Athens, and a must activity to truly understand why Athens is one of America’s premier cities and college towns.
We grill out and feast on Pork Shoulder with a white BBQ sauce. Some chicken chili was in the Crock Pot, and a big bucket of boiled shrimp and cocktail sauce sit on a table full of tailgate treats. I sip on another Jim Beam and coke, we talk football and get loud.
\The Georgia Bulldogs beat the Auburn Tigers, my friends and I ring the bell on North Campus, we then bar hop in downtown. The town is happy, winning big SEC football games in November over one of it’s biggest rivals can do that to a town in the South, and the happiness is obvious. This makes for a raucous and fun night of celebration. At times, yes, this old cowboy felt like the oldest cowboy in the room, but beating one of these young Millennials in a game of darts had me feeling spry. Bar games, what a country? Give me shuffle board, darts, corn hole, billiards… Downtown Athens can accommodate your inner bar game enthusiasm. And the late, late night scene… That scene can get you in trouble….
I wake up early Sunday to catch the early Service at Friendship Presbyterian Church. I would be remiss to leave out that the South is the Bible Belt for a reason. And, the glory of a Sunday Service in the South is a most unique experience and education. Regardless of faith, something good exists in the feeling one gets upon leaving church on a Sunday morning.
I grab breakfast at the Last Resort Grill, a must see event visit into A-Town. This place is so spectacular I would live in Athens full time just to go to the Last Resort every Sunday for brunch after church. I eat the Sunday Standard, two eggs any way you like ‘em, served with grilled new potatoes, crispy applewood-smoked bacon & one of their homemade scones. For the grand sum of $8.95 cents plus tip, I eat like a king in the company of scholars and the kind hearted. What a country to ramble city sidewalks and midnight streets, Athens is a true one of a kind college town.
I head South in my Rental Car on Milledge Ave to the State Botanical Garden of Georgia and I walk the picturesque landscape lost in thought and music. The Botanical Gardens are huge and make up several hundred acres, so it was most east to get lost in the beauty of a Sunday.
I arrive back at the hotel, tired. I turn on a movie in my hotel room, and I order takeout from Donna Chang’s before I hit the shower. The shower’s warm water brings me back to the future, I have a long trip home tomorrow.
But it truly did not matter where I was, what I was eating or drinking at this point. I was happy, most content. The stars of Athens Georgia again are overhead, as I dream a little dream on a Sunday night in mid-November, a ritual renewed.
What is the soul of Athens, Georgia? It is the whispers of REM, Widespread Panic, the B 52’s, Drive by Truckers, Dayroom, Futurebirds keeping you comfortable every step of the way. It is tailgating prior to a Big Game. It is the ghosts on North Campus hiding in the past. It is going to church on Sunday. It is a cocktail and a night out at the Georgia Theatre. It is the people who make the Last Resort EPIC. It is, however, a place where you can be who you truly are without judgement or prejudice. It is the Classic City!!
Scores: Walkability: 9 of 10 Drinkability: 9 of 10 Eatability: 9 of 10 Dudeability: 8 of 10
Can you catch a fish near or close to Athens? Yes, several bass lakes, creeks, rivers to fish. Can you hunt? Yes, area well known for deer hunting, bird hunting.
We Ramble On… Next Week, Santa Cruz, CA… We head to the beach bro…
To note, pictures. We want to share some pictures… Heck Yes…
We post some pics of the places, people, cities we Podcast and Blog about. Check them out on Tumblr or on our Twitter Feed, @BarkmanPete
Thank you for lending an ear, happiness starts today. The rambling man is part of The Pete Barkman Show and the How to live a Happy Life Series, this Segment: The Rambling Man. Travel Review: Athens, GA
The Pete Barkman Show has other segments to consider: Las Vegas Larry’s Losers, each football season see Larry pick the losers for any given week.
The Rambling Man, travel review. Enjoy unique travel experiences detailing the walbability, drinkability, Eatability, and the Dudeability of cities across the county.
The How to Live a Happy and Healthy Life Series, we have covered suicide, trauma, journaling for positive mental health, Is Happiness Possible, All Change is Self-Change with more episodes coming as we move further into 2019.
The Pete Barkman Show has covered the following news topics: Mollie Tibbetts, Judge Kavanaugh, Does God Exist?, Great Rivalries, MLB, Tiger Woods, Colin Kaepernick, and Urban Meyer. We podcast on relevant stories, breaking news, historical sports moments and record breakers.
This is the Pete Barkman Show, podcasting News, Sport, Opinion. Home of Las Vegas Larry’s Losers and The Rambling Man. Check us out…. Thank you.. Until next time…
#Travel#Athens#Georgia#travelreview#Food#Eat#men#menshealth#football#collegefootball#Walkability#Drinkability#Eatability#Dudeability#TheRamblingMan#music#GeorgiaTheatre#podcast#thepetebarkmanshow
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The Margin Loan: How to Make a $400,000 Impulse Purchase
So, I kind of just bought the house next door to me.
We’ve already gotten straight into the renovations with a symbolic first step: a new front door.
This is already somewhat amazing, for a small-town boy who refuses to even buy himself a new car. But even stranger are the details that surround this deal:
I’m not moving into it.
I don’t really need or want a second house.
I have no long-term plans to be a landlord.
I made the decision on a whim, and the whole transaction only took about 45 minutes of actual work.
I paid “cash” for the house, avoiding the hassle of getting a mortgage – while not having to accumulate an entire house price worth of cash.
And most importantly to you, I used a financial trick that I only recently learned about, but upon further study is an incredibly useful thing to have at your disposal (as long as you use it responsibly).
The real story is this:
About two months ago, I learned through the grapevine that the house next door would soon be on the market. There was a cryptic “for sale by owner” entry on Zillow with a $400k asking price, but no pictures and no information on how to contact the sellers. In response to the information vacuum, Zillow had just automatically sucked in a really ugly Google Street View picture of the house.
Figure 1: Just(in) listed
In my area, we are in the middle of an insane housing boom. Every new property that comes to market, no matter how modest, is treated like Justin Timberlake stepping onto the stage of a dazzling arena of adoring fans.
This has left several friends who arrived more recently searching fruitlessly and losing the inevitable bidding war for each uninspiring property, over and over again.
And my little street happens to tick a lot of boxes for our type of shoppers: a walkable and bikeable central location which also backs onto open space and features newer (1990s) houses with a layout that can easily be split into two units with separate entrances. All at lower prices than the older houses without views and without house-hacking potential, just up the hill.
Figure 2: Actual scenes from my back yard(!)
So I knew this place was a good deal and a good investment, and sure enough several friends were interested. The only problem was, so was everybody else: a bidding war was already bubbling up and we only had a few days at most to lock it in.
And my most interested friend was self-employed, and in the middle of a year-end business boom – both factors that would delay her ability to get a mortgage. How could we secure this house, so she would get an amazing deal and I would get to live next to a really great group of friends (and continue my plan to gradually take over more of the street) rather than rolling the dice with a random set of new neighbors?
The solution: we made a deal where I would make an all-cash offer to buy the house, with very quick and friendly terms to the seller so we could beat the other offers. Then my friend would take her time to get a mortgage, and buy the place from me at a more leisurely pace – effectively just leasing it from me in the meantime.
The problem: I didn’t have anywhere near $400,000 sitting in my checking account, and I did not want to sell a bunch of shares and trigger capital gains taxes (which in my case would be at least $60,000), just for this short term project. I’m a good friend, but not that good.
The Ultimate Solution: Learning from a friend who has been doing this for years, I transferred some of my existing investments out of Etrade and into a new brokerage firm (Interactive Brokers), which has an unusually good Margin Loan capability.
This let me borrow money against my own shares, at an interest rate of about one percent (1%!), without selling any of them.
So end result for me is like a very flexible mortgage, but at less than half the interest rate, and with a virtually-overnight origination speed. And I am the CEO of the bank!
Introducing the Margin Loan
Let’s start with an example of what I did, although with fictional rounded numbers just to make it simple.
The way a margin account can work, if you’re careful.
You may have already heard about the often-risky practice of “buying stocks on margin”, along with its notorious darkside, the possibility of a “margin call”. But there’s also a big potential advantage, which is why people do it. Let’s summarize both of them so we can see how to do it right.
In the best case, a margin account allows you to do things like this:
Put in $100,000 of your own money and buy, say, some shares of the VTI index fund.
Use that as collateral to borrow an additional $100,000 to buy more shares (VTI or otherwise).
You end up with $200,000 invested.
If the stock goes up by 10% per year ($10,000) and you are borrowing the money at only 2% (which costs you $2000), you get $8000 every year for “free”.
The downside is that this can happen:
You invest your $100k, borrow that second $100k, and buy the same $200k of shares.
COVID hits and your shares suddenly go down 50% (total value is now $100k)
BUT, that $100,000 margin loan you took out hasn’t changed. In other words, you still owe the brokerage $100k, and your account value is now only $100,000. The total value of your account is now zero.
Even worse, the brokerage is not cool with this situation, because they require a 50% “maintenance margin”.
They automatically sell half of your shares in order to reduce the loan balance to $50k.
You’ve just lost 100% of your money (because you own 50k of shares and owe the brokerage 50k), and you were forced to sell the shares at the worst possible time, shutting you out of the possibility of a rapid rebound (like we saw just after the 2020 Coronacrash).
Note: if the stock drops fast enough, you can even lose more than all your money.
So, margin is a powerful tool that can multiply your profits or your losses. However, since the stock market tends to rise over time, it can still be a valuable option, as long as you use it with great caution.
So why, and how, am I using a margin loan?
Although the basic idea (and risks) are the same, I am using my margin loan a bit differently, to withdraw cash instead of buying more shares. And I am keeping my borrowing well under that 50% threshold in the example above, in order to reduce the risk of trouble in the case of another market crash. Here is what I did:
I created a new account for myself at Interactive Brokers, selecting the “IBKR Pro” account type to get the lower margin rates, and set it up as a “margin” account versus the unnecessarily complex “portfolio margin” option.
I transferred a relatively large amount of shares of stable, diversified companies (mostly the VTI index fund and some Berkshire Hathaway) into this new account.
With a securities transfer, your actual shares move between from your old brokerage to the new one, rather than being sold on one side and re-bought on the other. This avoids triggering unnecessary capital gains taxes. I was able to make this part happen entirely online – no phone calls required.
Then, since my account was new, I had to sit and wait for 30 days, to clear the security lockup period. This is a good reason to plan in advance by setting up an account when you aren’t rushing to buy a house. But the deal still worked out, and I’m even more prepared for next time.
After that I was able to withdraw cash using the margin loan feature. The brokerage lets me go all the way up to 50%, but I kept mine to a lower percentage.
Now, when I go to make a withdrawal from my account, I see a screen like this one:
Although I already have some money borrowed on margin (a negative cash balance), the system calculates how much extra I could still borrow based on the current value of my shares.
As I pay off this loan, the green number will grow and eventually the red number will rise above zero as well.
This money simply went immediately to my checking account. I used a wire transfer, which the brokerage did for free.
Within less than an hour of that money hitting my checking account, I was able to wire it right back out to the title company, and buy the house.
Technical note: In this case, I did already have a portion of the house price ($140k) available in cash. This allowed me to borrow a smaller amount ($260k) using the margin loan, which made it possible to stay within a conservative borrowing range without requiring millions of dollars in shares.
The Real Magic: Ludicrously Low Interest Rates
For a brokerage, a margin loan is an easy and automated way to safely make money off of their clients, because they are really just lending you a portion of your own money.
So as long as they set the rules conservatively, they have your shares as guaranteed collateral and can sell them instantly if needed. This means they can offer rates barely above the prime rate. And Interactive Brokers is particularly aggressive, offering the rates below at the time of writing.
(Interactive Broker Margin rates as of Jan 2021. Note: you can always check the current rates on their website here)
For comparison, Robinhood offers margin loans at 2.5% and Etrade is something silly like 7.95% and up as I write this. Even the low-fee standard Vanguard is in the 7% range. So, Interactive Brokers is truly unique for now – which is why I created my account.
Cool Implications of This New Trick
1: Staying fully invested without fear
In recent years, I have found myself disobeying my own advice and holding more cash in checking accounts than I should have. By foregoing the returns I would have earned if I left this money in the stock market, I have cost myself many thousands of dollars.
But I was holding back due to a range of fearful excuses like, “What if there’s a stock market crash and I want to get some shares on sale? What if my income tax bill is higher than expected? What if a house comes up on the market and I want to be able to spring on it quickly?”, and so on.
With the margin loan option now in place, all of these fears disappear. I can now safely remain fully invested, and in the unlikely event of one of those “emergencies” above, I can just pull out any amount of money I might desire. No delays, and no taxes.
2: Being able to buy houses on short notice (or even become a mortgage company for your friends)
In my situation, I was able to lock in a good deal on a house due to the power of the “cash offer”, which benefits my friend who will eventually buy it from me to become the final owner. After buying several properties with actual money rather than a mortgage, I have found that the benefits are huge:
By offering cash (and providing proof of funds as needed), you show the seller that you are serious, and that you can actually afford the house. In a hot market, many buyers make offers on houses that they can’t truly afford. Several weeks later, they find that the financing falls apart, leaving the seller hanging and needing to re-start the sale process. A cash buyer is thus much more reliable
Mortgage companies can be very slow, taking a wise but extensive list of steps before they hand over the money. It can be 6-8 weeks between offer and closing. With your cash, it happens at your own pace (it could be as fast as one day, but 3-4 weeks is reasonable if you are doing inspections and other due diligence.
With a cash offer, you can make your own decisions about how to handle the inspection, or even perform your own (if you happen to be qualified as I am). You also don’t need to pay an appraiser $600 to take a random dartboard guess at the value of the house you are choosing to pay. As an advanced buyer, you presumably know the value better than anyone else.
Finally, with cash you eliminate any loan origination fees and you can choose your own insurance coverage and deductible, since you are the only one at risk.
Although this arrangement is unconventional, it doesn’t feel too risky for me, because the house is solely in my name. If my friend changed her mind or otherwise could not complete the deal, I still own the house, which could be sold at a small profit or rented out. From a legal and accounting perspective, all I’ve done is bought a house as an investment.
For those with sufficient savings (and who are not prone to worry), this “Cash Buyer Vigilante” idea could become a valuable service for other friends, or even a sort of business: you help your clients to make cash offers to buy houses, which gets you a better deal in a competitive market, and you collect a fee for the service. You may also earn a small spread on the difference between the mortgage rate and your broker’s margin interest rate.
3: Avoiding unnecessary taxes
If you never have to sell your shares, you can keep those gains on paper instead of out in the real world – perhaps even for your entire lifetime.
As long as you’re comfortable with the margin loan interest rate (which will not always be as low as it is today but should in general remain cheaper than a mortgage), you can borrow against your growing pool of investments for everyday living expenses, house purchases, and even charitable contributions.
And if you borrow to make additional taxable investments (which is exactly what I have done for the house next door) , the interest itself may be tax deductible as well. For example, consider the following hack, just one of many:
You have millions of dollars of appreciated Apple and Tesla stock, and want to tax-efficiently fund a nice lifestyle forever. You could
Use a margin loan against these shares to buy a solid multi-unit apartment building (preferably with a high yield and a hands-off management company to manage it for you)
Collect the considerable rent, while taking any allowable depreciation deductions
With a good property, the surplus after all of these expenses will more than pay for your margin loan interest and your own pleasant lifestyle. Groceries, household expenses, kids, travel, whatever you like. And you still own your original investments and haven’t paid capital gains taxes on anything.
You do have to be careful, of course. My rule of thumb is to be more than prepared for the worst stock market decline that has ever happened, and even then have a backup plan beyond that. So, my primary house will never be at risk, and only a small portion of my total investments will be subject to margin borrowing.
But if you do it right, I believe this trick allows you to trade a very small amount of risk for a rather large increase in life options and satisfaction – in other words, fun.
So I look forward to sharing more stories of how this neighborly arrangement works out, and the intriguing adventures I have with this new margin account after that.
In the comments: if you have more experience and/or questions about margin loans, please share them, and I will update this article so we can make it more comprehensive.
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A note on Interactive Brokers: I chose this firm based on advice from some friends who are established investors, followed by some online research. I am happy with the results so far, and I received great customer service when setting up the account and going through the learning process of the margin loan (which is really easy). But, like everything in life, I still view it as an experiment. I have lots left to learn.
The company has a nice “online-university” style explanations of all sorts of things, with nicely formatted pages and video lessons – including more advanced forms of trading that I don’t plan to get into. But in the case of the margin loan, I found this guide to be useful.
IB also offers a referral program. If you establish an account and like the results enough to recommend it, you can share it with your friends. As the program currently stands, you will get $200 for each new customer, and your friend will get up to $1000 (1% of the value of the assets they use to fund it) – payable in the form of IBKR shares, which is kind of a novel way to pay a bonus.
If you are thinking of signing up and need a referral link to get your own 1%, you are welcome to use mine here – which will of course benefit the MMM blog so thanks if you do!
from Finance https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2021/01/29/margin-loan-ibkr-review/
via http://www.rssmix.com/
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Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi
Why look for any other hotel in downtown Abu Dhabi, when you have Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi. If you are on a staycation just for the purpose of touring with acceptable facilities strand hotel should be your choice. It is close by near all tourist attractions and also provides shuttle service to and forth Abu Dhabi International Airport.
Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi Contact & Location
It is located in the heart of Abu Dhabi making everything, from malls to shops to cafes to public parks, EVERYTHING just within walking distance. That’s not all they have four branches in downtown so you can select the area you want to stay in. You can reach them on the following:
Location – Ramee Royal Hotel Apts, Abu Dhabi, Muroor Road
– Ramee Rose Hotel Apts, Abu Dhabi, Near Taha Medical Centre, Al Falah
– Garden Hotel Apts, Abu Dhabi, New Airport Rd, Passport Rd Strand Hotel, Abu Dhabi, Salam St, Tourist Club Contact 026925333
026932777
026428333
026799000Website https://www.rameehotels.com/ Social Media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strand.abudhabi/
Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi Rooms & Rates
Rooms Rates with Breakfast Standard AED 600/- Business double room AED 600/- Deluxe twin room AED 720/- Executive room AED 960/- Suite AED 1180/-
Strand Hotel Special Offers
They have exciting offers all-inclusive of free breakfast, Wi-Fi, and 10% off on Bar. If you stay between Mondays to Thursday you get 30% off on the entire stay. If you book over the weekend you get 25% off. Further, if you book a 3-night package you get a free tour of Abu Dhabi. Along with this, they provide offers for people doing a stopover in Abu Dhabi. You can check more on their offers and book your room by visiting:
https://www.rameehotels.com/abu-dhabi-uae/strand-hotel-abu-dhabi/offer
Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi Restaurants
They have lots of clubs and restaurants built in the hotel that is a must-try.
High Kerala Cafe – This is a casual dining south Indian Restaurant costing AED125 for two people.
Bollywood Café – it is a rooftop club delivering only drinks costing approximately AED300 for two people.
Abissinia Night Club – Another club promising a wild night costing only AED350 for two people.
Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi Guest Reviews
Hooray H
“The infamous Strand Hotel has been an Icon for enjoyment for a long time. Recently renovated & with a nightclub on each floor this place is stunning. My favorite is the Ethiopian Night Club. It gets lively at around 1.30 pm. Excellent service & french fries.”
Xoy123
“I stayed in this hotel for 1 night. The staff at the reception was so slow. She wants to keep my ID. After I asked to return my ID back she gave me. No smile… no eye contact.”
jogesh33
“Well located and very convenient for transportation as well as for food, all types of food at walkable distances.”
Alternative Hotels
The other options for you in that area are:
City season, Al Hamra Hotel
Rooms Rates with Breakfast Premium Twin Room AED 342.75/- Junior suite AED 463.75/- Executive Suite AED 584.75/- Club Suite AED 627.10/- Deluxe Family Suite AED 705.75/-
*The amounts are inclusive of tax and one night
Pearl Rotana Capital Centre
Rooms Rates With Breakfast Premium Twin Room AED 409.30/- Club Rotana Room, twin bed AED 629.52/- One-bedroom Suite, King bed AED 932.02/-
*The amounts are inclusive of tax and one night
The post Strand Hotel Abu Dhabi appeared first on Rafeeg App.
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11 of the best places to stay
As someone who has lived the majority of my life working in hotels and restaurants in the lovely market town of Bury St Edmunds, I thought I would share with you some of my experience and insights. In this post, I will recommend some of the best hotels in Bury St Edmunds so you can make the right choice for your visit.
Bury St Edmunds is a lovely market town in the heart of the Suffolk countryside. Some of the town highlights include the Abbey Gardens, Greene King Brewery, St James; Cathedral and the bi-weekly market held every Wednesday and Saturday. There are also two playhouses in the town, the historic theatre royal and the modern Apex that boasts some of the best acoustics in the world.
If you would like to read more about what to do in the town, be sure to check out my other post, 19 things to do in Bury St Edmunds, as in this post, we will be focusing on where you can stay in the town.
Note: The links in this post point to Booking.com, if you book a room using the link, then I will make a small commission at zero cost to yourself. The reason chose to recommend Booking.com is because it is the hotel booking platform that I prefer to use myself. I often find it offers the best price and I love the fact it offers free cancellation on many hotels up until 24 hours before your arrival.
My top three Hotels in Bury St Edmunds
Best value rooms: The Fox Inn
Best Overall if money isn’t a consideration: One of the better rooms in The Angel Hotel
Best budget accommodation: Premier Inn Bury St Edmunds
All three of these options are within what I would consider the historic core of the town centre, so let’s take a closer look at each of them.
With regard to my rating system, just to be clear, we all like to save money right? So when it comes to price, the more stars, the cheaper it is, less stars means expnsive.
The Fox Inn
The Fox Inn is a lovely 15th-century coaching inn, and I can honestly say these are some of the most delightful rooms you will find in Bury at an affordable price. I actually worked in The Fox Inn when the rooms were first opened and know how much painstaking work went into finding quality room furnishings all from local suppliers. From the wooden floors made from reclaimed timber to the locally made iron door handles, every detail was sourced locally and ethically.
Recently The Fox Inn has changed hands and is now run by Greene King, the towns local brewery, so the attached restaurant has gone from quality gastropub to your standard Green King chain pub menu, but the rooms are still lovely. If you do stay here, I’d recommend wandering into the town and finding one of the many tempting restaurants on offer.
It will take you a few minutes to walk to Angel Hill and the cathedral and about 10-15 minutes to walk to The Apex.
Price-wise, as with all hotels these days, the price will vary depending on demand, you can expect to pay between £100-£150 for 2 people per night.
Perfect for: The Abbey Gardens, The Cathedral, Theatre Royal
My Rating
Location:
(4 / 5)Price:
(4 / 5)Service:
(4 / 5)Overall Value:
(4 / 5)
The Angel Hotel
The Angel Hotel dominates Angel Hill
The Angel is an iconic hotel in the town centre and has been home to many famous faces throughout the years. Waaay back, Charles Dickens was a resident at the hotel, he loved it so much he even included it in his book The Pickwick Paper. More recently famous faces have included Royalty, TV personalities, and even Hollywood superstars, I delivered popcorn to Angelina Jolie three times in one night. Who knew she loved popcorn that much. I like to think she just wanted to see me again
The rooms in the Angel Hotel vary a lot if you can try to book a forward-facing room as the hotel looks out over The Angel Hill onto The Abbey Gate and the cathedral. Some of the older rooms are a little small, so if you can afford it, I would spend a bit more for a nicer room.
Aside from rooms, the Angel has a lovely large lounge where you can enjoy afternoon tea and an atmospheric cocktail bar in the vaults, part of a network of underground tunnels that used to link various places together in the days of the abbey.
Overall I can comfortably say this is the best hotel in Bury St Edmunds, location, facilities, and service will all back this up. However, it does carry the price tag to match.
Great for – It’s located smack bang in the centre, great for anything in Bury St Edmunds town centre.
My Rating
Location:
(5.0 / 5)Price:
(2.0 / 5)Service:
(5.0 / 5)Overall Value:
(4.5 / 5)
Premier Inn Bury St Edmunds
This tends to be the first place I will check every time I visit Bury St Edmunds as it is possible to find a bargain. The rates fluctuate quite a lot, but I have been able to find a room there for £35 per night, which is of outstanding value. However, I’m pretty sure that was the exception rather than the rule, but anything round £70 per night is excellent. I have seen them as high as £120 before, at that price I’d be tempted to look elsewhere.
The rooms in the Premier Inn Bury St Edmunds are fantastic. They are spacious, and the beds certainly live up to the Premier Inn guarantee. There are TVs and tea coffee facilities in the room as well as shower gel available, but don’t expect it to be a luxury product.
There is a bar and a restaurant on-site, and while breakfast is OK, I wouldn’t recommend staying for dinner unless you are feeling super lazy. There are many dining options, just a short walk away.
Ideal for – Abbey Gardens, Theatre Royal, Greene King Brewery
My Rating
Location:
(4 / 5)Price:
(5 / 5)Service:
(3 / 5)Overall Value:
(4 / 5)
Other hotels in Bury St Edmunds Town Centre
The centre of the town It is quite compact and offers a few options for accommodation. All of these hotels are within easy walking distance of all of the towns main attractions.
The Dog & Partridge
A lovely little pub with rooms next to the Greene King Brewery. The pub offers good pub food, the atmosphere is excellent, and the beer is always top-notch.
Great for – Green King Brewery, Theatre Royal, Cathedral and Abbey Gardens
My Rating
Location:
(5.0 / 5)Price:
(4.0 / 5)Service:
(3.0 / 5)Overall Value:
(3.5 / 5)
The Chantry Hotel
A small privately-owned hotel tucked away on a small side road. If you don’t know the Bury St Edmunds one-way system, this could be a little tricky to find, and you can easily miss it, but when you get there, a warm welcome awaits.
Great for – Green King Brewery, Theatre Royal, Cathedral and Abbey Gardens
My Rating
Location:
(4 / 5)Price:
(4 / 5)Service:
(4 / 5)Overall Value:
(4 / 5)
Hotels on the fringe of Bury St Edmunds
These hotels are a little further away from the town centre, but still walkable.
Best Western Priory Hotel
It’s been a little while since I have visited The Priory Hotel, but I don’t have any reason to believe much has changed. It is a nice place with a lovely garden to relax and enjoy a drink in after a days sightseeing.
If The Priory Hotel were located a little closer to the town centre then it would probably get a better score, but it is just on the edge of what I would consider a comfortable walk. But not only that, the path itself is not really pleasant, there is not much to see.
Great for – Weddings and events
My Rating
Location:
(2 / 5)Price:
(3 / 5)Service:
(4 / 5)Overall Value :
(3 / 5)
Travelodge Bury St Edmunds
I have to be honest and say that I haven’t actually stayed here, but I have stayed in loads of other Travelodge’s in the past couple of years, so I’m pretty sure I know what to expect, a good room with no frills but a cheap nights sleep with room rates usually between £50 – £70 per night.
Great for – Train Station, Sugar Beet Factory, A14 access
My Rating
Location:
(3.0 / 5)Price:
(5.0 / 5)Service:
(3.0 / 5)Overall Value:
(4.0 / 5)
The Abbey Hotel
The Abbey Hotel is a warm, family-run B&B on the fringes of the town centre, not too far away from the Greene King Brewery and the Theatre Royal. There aren’t many rooms, but the ones that are there are fine, and the breakfast is tasty.
Great for – Theatre Royal, Greene King Brewery
My Rating
Location:
(4.0 / 5)Price:
(2.0 / 5)Service:
(5.0 / 5)Overall Value:
(4.0 / 5)
Hotels in Bury St Edmunds area
There are a few hotels and B&Bs a little further out, but these will require a car to get in and out of the town centre comfortably. As these are a little further out and offer more than just accommodation and food, I have not added my rating.
The Ickworth Hotel
Set in 1,800 acres of beautiful parkland, on the edge of the National Trust Property of Ickworth House, this is a luxurious hotel that is perfect for romantic getaways and also welcomes families. If you are looking for a place to get away from everything, this could be a great option. The on-site spa offers relaxing treatments, and the fine dining restaurant is one of the best in the area.
Ravenwood Hall
The Ravenwood is another country house hotel which is often used for extravagant weddings and celebrations. The on-site dining room offers excellent local produce, and the rooms are comfortable.
All Saints Hotel, Golf Club and Spa
I stayed in the All Saint Hotel recently when back in my home town on work-related business. The room was huge and very modern, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it. What I loved most, though, was the views from the restaurant. As the name suggests, All Saints is also a golf club, and the restaurant has been designed to overlook the well-manicured greens. Sitting there, enjoying a well-prepared breakfast was a lovely way to spend my mornings … before having to go to work.
Final thoughts on accommodation in Bury St Edmunds
The above suggestions are a place I have visited (unless stated) and would happily recommend to any of my friends an family. If you choose any of them to spend your stay in my town, you will be making the right choice. That’s not to say the places I haven’t mentioned aren’t worth staying in. A couple of honorable mentions should also go to the Old Cannon Brewery and The Bushell, two other lovely pubs with rooms.
More accommodation in Bury St Edmunds
Booking.com
Have you ever visited Bury St Edmunds? If so, where did you stay, and what did you think? Let others know by telling us in the comments.
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#NoMoreFreeways, Induced Demand, and the destruction of a neighborhood (again).
Last week, record store Beacon Sound posted a batch of stickers on their instagram. The stickers read “Someone tell Ted Wheeler that you can’t be a ‘climate mayor’ and expand I-5 at the same time.”
In 2017, the Oregon Department of Transportation proposed the addition of “auxiliary lanes” on a section of I-5 as it runs through North Portland. Since that time, they have been trying to sell the public on the benefits of this expansion. They write: “Three Interstates (I-5, I-84, and I-405) intersect in the short distance between the Morrison Bridge and the Fremont Bridge, creating the biggest bottleneck in the state of Oregon… With a new ramp-to-ramp lane in each direction on I-5 from I-84 to I-405, drivers will experience a safer, more reliable trip with less potential for crashes… Adding these upgrades is expected to reduce crashes up to 50 percent on I-5, save over 2.5 million hours of travel time each year, and result in $732 million in economic benefits while staying within ODOT’s existing property.”
[source]
Portland isn’t buying it. Writing in the Willamette Weekly, Rachel Monahan called the proposal’s public comment phase a “flaming wreck” In fact, when I first began my research for this article, I imagined I would find a heated debate between oppositional viewpoints. Not so. As it turns out, everyone hates this project. It was difficult, really, to find voices in support of the project, with a few notable exceptions: ODOT, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, and most of the city council.
I’ll discuss the anomaly of ODOT and Wheeler’s support later. First, I’d like to explain some of the arguments that have been brought against the project. First off, highway expansions have been proven, time and time again, to be self-defeating projects. The phenomenon of induced demand explains that as highways increase supply by expanding the number of lanes, they end up generating an equal amount of demand, meaning that after a short time, the new highway becomes just as congested as the old one used to be. Citylab explains that our default assumption is that traffic behaves like a liquid, flowing through the available space. Instead, we ought to think of traffic more like a gas, “expanding to fill up all the space it is allowed.”
In a review of academic studies about the phenomenon of induced demand, California’s Department of Transportation concluded that “a 10 percent increase in road capacity yields a 3 to 6 percent increase in vehicle miles travelled in the short term and 6 to 10 percent in the long term.” More lanes: More traffic. Other studies show that induced traffic fills in all of the new available space within a period of 3 to 6 years. Highway expansion projects are a waste of money and time. At their best, they relieve congestion for a few years. At their worst, they actually generate more vehicle miles traveled.
Second, this particular freeway expansion raises a number of environmental justice concerns. If you read my last post, you’ll know that the Albina neighborhood was the only place in Portland where black residents and refugees from Vanport were able to live. Is it a coincidence that when I-5 was constructed, it cut a straight line through the heart of Albina?
The construction of I-5 in Portland. From a City Observatory Post where Cortright talks about construction and displacement in Albina. He writes: “In the two decades following construction of the I-5 freeway through lower Albina, more than 1,700 persons were displaced from this neighborhood.”
I-5’s trajectory narrowly missed Harriet Tubman Middle School. Portland Public Schools was forced to close Tubman in 2009 due to budget cuts, but is finally ready to re-open the school this fall. In response to the freeway expansion proposal, Portland State University scientists produced a 66-page report on air quality at the school, whose playground is a literal stone’s throw from the freeway. “It found levels of arsenic and three petroleum byproducts—acrolein, benzene and naphthalene—that come from vehicle exhausts well in excess of local safety guidelines. Arsenic readings were more than four times Oregon's ambient benchmark concentrations and naphthalene's were six times.” They began their recommendations section with this: "student outdoor activities [should] be limited at Harriet Tubman Middle School, especially during high traffic periods.” Adding lanes to highway I-5 would make this problem even more concerning.
The building right next to the freeway here is Harriet Tubman Middle School. The baseball diamond is part of their schoolyard.
To review: It’s unlikely that adding additional lanes to I-5 in North Portland would reduce congestion. Thanks to the phenomenon of induced demand, any reduction in congestion will be short lived (3-6 years). Further, any faster travel times will be at the direct expense of Middle School students at a historically black school. In the face of these concerns, why do ODOT, Wheeler, and the City Council still support the project?
In writing this article, I spent weeks trying to find a coherent reason why Wheeler might support the freeway expansion. The only sensible explanation I found came from this article in the Mercury, where Dirk VanderHart debunks Wheeler’s arguments. It seems as though Wheeler has uncritically accepted ODOT’s claims, even though these claims have been proven false by multiple independent, third-party researchers. Portland-based journalist and activist Joe Cortright [from City Observatory and No More Freeways] featured this succinct and hard-hitting call-out on his blog:
“Objectively, the conduct of the Oregon Department of Transportation has failed to conform to the most minimal expectations of professional conduct. This agency produced an environmental assessment with no data on average daily traffic (ADT) the most fundamental and widely used measure of traffic volumes; essentially the equivalent of presenting a financial report with no dollar figures. This agency concealed the assumption that its traffic projections assumed that the region would build the $3 billion Columbia River Crossing (in 2015). The agency denied its was widening the freeway, but engineered a 126-foot wide right of way, sufficient for an eight-lane freeway. The agency denied it had any engineering plans for the project, and was subsequently forced to release 33 gigabytes of such plans. The agency made false claims that this freeway was the number one crash location in Oregon, when other ODOT roadways in Portland have higher crash rates and fatalities. These are not random or isolated acts; they’re part of a pattern and practice of concealing, obscuring and distorting essential facts. If Oregon is to make a reasoned decision on a half-billion dollar investment, it needs a more honest, transparent state Department of Transportation.”
In his book Walkable City, Jeff Speck writes “The profession of traffic planning is so desperately in need of a course correction that the most productive approach would seem to be to shame them mercilessly.” Engaging this directive, here’s a quote from Jane Jacobs (in 2004’s Dark Age Ahead):
“It is popularly assumed that when universities give science degrees in traffic engineering, as they do, they are recognizing aboveboard, expert knowledge. But they aren’t. They are perpetrating a fraud upon students and upon the public when they award credentials in this supposed expertise. I thought sadly: ‘Here they are, another generation of nice, miseducated young men, about to waste their careers in a fake science that cares nothing about evidence; that doesn’t ask a fruitful question in the first place and that, when unexpected evidence turns up anyhow, doesn’t pursue it… … This incurious profession pulls its conclusions about the meaning of evidence out of thin air- sheer guesswork- even when it does deign to notice evidence… In the meantime, each year students have poured forth from universities, a clear, harmful case of education surrendered to credentialism.”
There’s a few related things I’d like to pull out of Cortright, Speck, and Jacob’s arguments here. First, I’d like to focus in on the idea that traffic engineering “doesn’t ask a fruitful question in the first place.” Of course, the point of widening the I-5 corridor is to reduce traffic congestion. However, what the phenomenon of induced demand shows us is that there will always be congestion. What if slow-moving traffic isn’t a problem? What if congestion is just the reality of living in a place where many thousands of people are trying to get to many thousands of different places at similar times?
Portland freeway “Traffic Monsters,” as seen on social media.
Second, I want to bring attention to Cortright’s main argument in his blog post. ODOT’s failure to conduct themselves in a way that even approaches scientific rigor is disappointing, but the I-5 expansion highlights the near-complete lack of democratic, citizen checks on ODOT’s power. ODOT is run by a citizen board of commissioners. However, these citizen commissioners have failed to “insist on basic standards of openness and truthfulness from their staff.” Given that the public comment period was a “flaming wreck,” given that I struggled to find any citizen or neighborhood groups that are in favor of this project, given that the overwhelming evidence suggests that such a project will have zero effect on traffic and a negative effect on the environment: if it is successfully built, it will represent a complete breakdown in democratic procedure for ODOT.
ODOT’s board of Citizen Commissioners.
Finally: I think we ought to take environmental justice claims seriously. I am not willing to argue that ODOT is intentionally targeting Middle School students. However, their refusal to take these concerns seriously exposes the seriously limited visionary scope of traffic engineers. Speck writes: “ while all traffic engineers can be trouble, state engineers are the toughest because they have no obligation to listen to a local mayor or citizens. They answer to a higher authority, which is ultimately the god of Traffic Flow.” ODOT’s narrow focus on the pseudo-problem of highway congestion is dangerous. We should not only hold our sate traffic engineers to more rigorous scientific standards, we ought to insist that the develop a more holistic set of goals that includes, for example, the health and safety of middle school students, and protecting their right to play outside.
On Tuesday, March 12th of 2019, ODOT held one three-hour meeting in order to hear public concerns about the $500 Million Dollar project. This was the only meeting they held during the whole of the public comment phase. One young student from Harriet Tubman Middle School spoke to the citizen board and said: “I respect your choice,” (!!!) “but know that this will affect students today and students in the future.”
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Heading to Bali soon? I don’t blame you. Bali, Indonesia is one of my favorite places in the world; I still have a lot to see, but I live in Hawaii, have traveled to France, Dominican Republic, and Tahiti, so Bali had some tough competition. What I love about traveling to Bali is that as a young female traveler, solo at times, I always feel 100% safe there. The culture is extremely rich in Hinduism and it is evident through their frequent ceremonies, parades, daily prayers and offerings, and overall treatment towards others. What I love most about Bali though is the people. Bali is living, breathing proof that happiness does not come from financial gain, but through a way of life and a state of being. it’s no wonder why so many people (like myself) go to Bali seeking out ways to immerse in this type of lifestyle.
Before traveling to Bali, you should know that just like any other tourist destination, there are many different ways to experience Bali. Some people prefer to stay in big chain hotels due to reasons of comfort, accountability, and professional standards, but I personally find that there are much better, and more cost efficient options. However, Staying in these big chain hotels does usually mean being surrounded by big companies for shopping, fancier restaurants, and sometimes more maintained roads and walkways, which some people might prefer; Just something worth keeping in mind.
Below are some of my personal favorite spots in Bali for accommodations, plus a complete list of pros & cons from each location. Feel free to leave any additional tips, or suggestions I may have left out in the comment section to help others exploring their Bali travel options.
If you’re interested in reading about my favorite dining and nightlife experiences in Bali, subscribe at the bottom of this page and you will be the first to know when those go live.
Places to stay
Own Villas – Canggu
Being one of the smaller villas, Own Villas is at the top of my recommendations for places to stay in Canggu for couples. I enjoy that the location has an emphasis on nature and there is a great story behind the architecture of the huts, done by the owner. Overall, Own Villa is sure to be a great experience for couples, or anyone who loves a quiet escape from Canggu’s busy energy.
Pros:
Beautiful & clean accommodations
Great Customer Service
Complimentary Breakfast
pool
TV
Luxury service
Highly recommended for couples
AMAZING meal options
Quiet area
Cons:
Not recommended for big groups since they can only sleep few.
The Chillhouse Bali – Canggu
If you are staying in Canggu and want to be surrounded by a lot of fun, vibrant, positive energy, I highly suggest checking out The Chillhouse. This location attracts a lot of yogis, surfers, bloggers, and other likeminded people. Every cottage there is themes with its own color and are all adorable.
Pros:
Clean & Cute Accommodations
Great Customer Service
Complimentary Breakfast
2 pools
Yoga
Cassava, the in house cafe, is amazing with tons of fresh juices!
Great environment for yogis + surfers
Great for retreats
Cons:
Wifi is exceptionally better in the Cafe, so if you’re a blogger or work from your computer expect to be spending a lot of your work time there.
Bathroom lighting could be brighter for the ladies getting ready for a night out.
Jungleroom Bali – Canggu
I have stayed at The Jungleroom in Canggu multiple times, and loved my stay there every time. This hideout is tucked away from the hustle and bustle from the main roads, but is still a short drive to get to the most popular spots in the area. Another surfer / yoga style vibe here, and also great for couples.
I have stayed at The Jungleroom Bali in Canggu multiple times, and loved my stay there every time. This hideout is tucked away from the hustle and bustle from the main roads, but is still a short drive to get to the most popular spots in the area. Another surfer / yoga style vibe here, and also great for couples.
Pros:
Complimentary Breakfast with delicious options
Beautiful boho balinese / surf style aesthetics
Cleanliness
Friendly staff
Good for small retreats
Wifi
Eden Estate – Ubud
Formerly known as Hotel Indigo, Eden Estate is a true taste of luxury tucked away in the rice fields of Ubud. There is a complimentary shuttle that takes you to and from Ubud’s center which is really convenient and is offered multiple times throughout the day. Transport was even provided for us at no additional cost when we missed the shuttle and called the hotel.
Pros:
Breakfast Included
Complimentary shuttle to Ubud Center
Multiple Pools on location
In house cafe
Clean, visually aesthetic rooms
Surrounded by nature
Luxury standards
Awesome yoga shala
Wifi
Cons:
The walls are a little thin, so we could hear the guests next to us.
Not walkable distance to shopping + dining
Wifi was much better by the pool and dining area
Dragonfly Village – Ubud
This village is a great location in the ricefields of ubud. I love the cafes that surround the pathway the village is on and the hotels cafe is also really good. There is a back entrance to the ricefields which was great for getting some richfield photos without having to go to the touristy terraces. By far the most unique thing about dragonfly is the Sauna nights that they have. Very great accommodations for yogis and retreats.
Pros:
Sauna nights
pool
Ricefield access (great for photos)
Awesome yoga shala
Cute designed huts
They provide natural bug repellant
Great for retreats
Cons:
A bit pricier than most of the surrounding places.
You have to walk or motorbike a good ways to get to the main road, not ideal for anyone who doesn’t like walking or has trouble walking for long periods of time.
Lots of lizards, insects and critters around (we didn’t mind, but a few other people did).
The wifi was nearly non-existent, but the nearby cafes have great wifi.
Soo Bali Villas – Seminyak
Tucked away in the heart of Seminyak, this location is perfect for anyone wanting to party at night, while still enjoying some sunshine by the pool during the day. This is a great spot to hang out by the pool, while still being close enough to catch a taxi to the beach, or walk down the road for some shopping. My favorite part about this spot was how close it is to so many places to eat. My trips pretty much revolve around when and what i’m eating so this was a big perk for us!
Pros:
Lots of food options
Clean and great aesthetics / design
Professional + great customer service
Several bars and nearby nightlife options
Tucked away from the street bustle
TV + speaker
Pool
Wifi
Cons:
The area is generally a much more expensive area compared to the rest of Bali
High tourism
Other locations worth checking out:
Blue Coco Guesthouse – Keramas
Beji Ubud Resort – Ubud
Hideout Bali – Sideman (central/east Bali)
Hanging Gardens Bali – Central Bali
Hotel Komune – Keramas
The Edge Bali – Uluwatu
Uluwatu Surf Villas – Uluwatu
Sumberkima Hill – Northern Bali
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Bali Guide To Hotel Accommodations Heading to Bali soon? I don't blame you. Bali, Indonesia is one of my favorite places in the world; I still have a lot to see, but I live in Hawaii, have traveled to France, Dominican Republic, and Tahiti, so Bali had some tough competition.
#Bali#bali guide#bali hotel guide#bali hotels#bali retreat#bali retreat locations#bali retreats#bali surf villas#best hotels in bali#best of bali#canggu#canggu hotels#hotels in bali#keramas#places to stay in bali#places to stay in canggu#places to stay in ubud#things to do in bali#ubud#ubud accommodations#uluwatu#where to stay in bali#where to stay in ubud
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CITY RATINGS BY AIRPORT AND PUBLIC TRANSIT
EDINBURGH (EDI)
intensely walkable! buses are p easy to navigate. no subway. not sure what i would think as a 3-day tourist or living in a less convenient area.
has a good buses app
i live here and getting to the airport was the first time i’ve used public transportation
public transit: ??/5
airport: many comfy chairs, outlets, food that isn't HYPER-hyper-inflated in price. ideal.
airport: 5/5
MUNICH (MUC)
signs v easy to understand, as are the transit lines & maps! tickets either for trip or for day. gotta remember to validate ticket.
they were not SUPER prepared for the s-bahn to have a "fire emergency" and need to send everyone to the U5 instead but it still worked out fine
google maps understands it
public transit: 4/5
approx. 1 outlet per 2 gates, v little comfy seating. does not have a store where one can purchase a granola bar as opposed to straight-up chocolate.
well-organized
airport: 3/5
BERLIN (SXF)
rules for ticketing are VERY confusing: 2 hours per ticket but you need a new ticket if you want to go back the way you came? or something? also has zones. as in munich, must validate ticket.
however! provide 'welcome card' option, which can be purchased as all-zone 72-hour any-direction ticket ideal for confused tourists doing a lot of transit-ing
two of the kreuzberg stops mysteriously closed right before i wanted to go back to the hostel & stayed closed all that trip, so had to remember to plan for that extra walk to the next station over. never found out why.
google maps took until the last day to start suggesting train LINES instead of INDIVIDUAL TRAINS. pretty easy to figure out the line regardless. harder for buses but still feasible.
free wifi in stations
public transit: 4/5, would be 3 but wifi
there are no outlets. there are no granola bars. no water bottle is under 3 euros. all food is overpriced far beyond even airport standard.
gate easy to find but only because it was right near the main section
airport: 1/5
COPENHAGEN (CPH)
you tell it where you're going and it gives you the ticket
still not entirely sure how this one worked. thank you hannah for making sure we got to the airport? apparently they tend to target confused tourists for fining
comfy seats, but slightly intimidatingly nice -- felt more like a train than a subway
i hear there's a good app
public transit: 3/5
has special smaller-than-everyone-else liquids bag, but only care if they have to actually check your bag for some other reason
could purchase protein bars and an apple
honestly it was a late flight and i don’t remember a lot.
-airport: 3/5 for terrible liquids allowance
MADRID (MAD)
I think there were buses but we did not interact
signage is good, metro lines are well-labled and easy to understands!
3 euro extra to get to the airport which you pay on arrival, which is interesting
public transit: 4/5
many outlets, both at general departure area and at gates
very long distance but moving sidewalks are good
did not examine food potentialities besides the existence of coffeeshops
interestingly shaped roof
airport: 4/5
LONDON (LGW)
i can tell it my destination and it will give me my ticket options
did not utilize much
seems like there are a lot of options, confusing both me and google
things are organized a great deal by line/provider which is confusing, especially when a train is two things ex. thameslink also counts as southern
public transit: 2/5 for making me pay attention
many USB charge points did not function but some did, and at least USB charge points EXISTED
many places to buy granola bars/water/coffee so you blink enough your contacts don’t fall out/etc
makes you walk all through the duty free shopping zone to reach gates :\
the absolute fastest security check even though i think it did facial analysis to confirm i was the same person boarding as had gone through security
airport: 5/5 because i really needed to charge my phone and USB charge points saved my mobile boarding pass
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Nuthin’, Zer-matt-er with you?
Couldn’t resist.
The train was 90% windows to give you the full due of the landscape – it climbed murkily up the Alps, the clouds filtering a moody light on the Swiss countryside. My face was glued to the windows, half afraid the glass would disappear a-la-harry potter and I would find myself tumbling down into the craggy cliffs below. A little black yak poked its head up over the edge of the tracks, chewing with its mouth open.
“You alright?” the standard Brit greeting by Aleks, who met us at the station at 3pm with a grin. She’d lived here for two years, teaching skiing in the winter months with her (now long-distance) boyfriend Fede. She’s now one of my closest friends in London. We’d left at 4am, but arriving in the village of Zermatt (the meadow), with the Matterhorn (meadow-horn, or Zermatt’s peak) looming in the background, the crisp Alpine air swirling around us, we were re-energized.
It was a steep uphill climb to our airbnb - in the middle of the village was a silky turquoise stream, covered in ice and snow, and the town swung upwards in both directions from there. The altitude winded you with any physical exertion, gasping for air.
Everywhere you went, you could see the Matterhorn looming in the distance - Sauron, all-seeing-eye of Zermatt. The menacing jaunt of the Matterhorn, all elbows, unravels into the lush white village - carless, carefree, somehow held in time. Notoriously dangerous to scale, the first guy who did it lost four comrades in the ascent in 1865, and over 500 people have died trying to climb it. The first thing to know about this range is to respect it - this isn’t the Poconos, or even the Rockies. The peak is so high you could see clouds breaking against the ancient glacier, suddenly I’m reminded of Titanic. Zermatt is at the very south of the country, which has an interesting feature - the only ski-lift in the world where you start off in one country (Switzerland) and arrive in another (Italy). In fact, you can take a day and ski in Italy if you wanted, though it’s a pretty long gondola ride.
2/4 of us had skied once in our lives, and Aleks was kind enough to give us private lessons, something she used to provide only for high-profile clients - by far the best instructions I’ve ever had, and I’ve been skiing since I was 5. I didn’t mind waiting, with this view. And by day two, she had all four of us skiing on Reds (Blacks back in the US).
One of the best trips yet. It's been two days since we left and I'm still thinking about this view. Check out @afed1123 (yellow pants at the end) killing it on his second day on a slope ever! Actually a little angry about how quickly he picked it up considering how long it took me to learn as a kid 🤦🏻♀️
A post shared by Marcia (@marciayl) on Mar 8, 2017 at 12:01pm PST
We didn’t realize that a storm was coming in, however, and by the second day, only 3/52 slopes were open on the entire mountain. With only 2 full days in Zermatt, we went for it anyways. The conditions were pretty scary, but still worth it.
You can see some videos of day 2 snow-storm skiing here:
1) a snow storm came in today, meaning only 3/52 trails were open. The wind at the top of the only open train was 55 km/hr, and you could barely see in front of you. ➡️ 2) once you got past the crazy steep bits, the trail closes to this scenic, meandering path that just coasts slowly into town, with plenty of apres ski pubs along the way. Whoever invented the go pro is a genius because I nearly approached ledge in this video trying to film with my phone at the same time.A post shared by Marcia (@marciayl) on Mar 4, 2017 at 8:54am PST
We spent most of the last sunny day just wandering around town before the 8.5 hour journey home - there are so many charming hotels and cabins in town, including this lopsided shed.
Spotted: sticks on rocks. Actually it's an old school storage shed, raised on stilts so the grains and seeds stored over winter would be less accessible to mice and other critters. One of the few left standing in the otherwise posh village of zermatt. To the left is an electric-motor taxi in the car-free town.
A post shared by Marcia (@marciayl) on Mar 7, 2017 at 12:00pm PST
If I had more time, I wish I could’ve done a few hikes and obviously skied more. The town feels suspended in time - I imagine it looked more or less the same 50 years ago, and will probably look and feel quite similar in the next 50. Being there felt a world away, everywhere you stood you were sort of in awe of the landscape, with the sharp cliffs and mountains so jarringly close and so intimidatingly high. Also being there made me aware of how out of shape I was - it’d be difficult enough hauling pounds of ski gear around town, but the altitude was exhausting. The two weeks I put in at the gym was not enough to prepare me for it.
Food in Zermatt:
CHEESE: obviously Swiss cheese, and fondue is the standard apres ski fare. When you’re burning so many calories a day, eating straight up cheese as a main course is kind of forgiven.
BEER: lots of chalets sprinkled throughout the mountain begging you to stop by for a drink, and once again, something American slopes should be allowed to have if people don’t abuse it
ROSTI: potato pancakes, enough said. Topped with cheese and ham, or with a side of sausage. Actually there’s just a lot of potato in general.
Overall, food is expensive (see points below). We mostly picked up groceries from the Migros and Co-op and cooked at home, but if you have the budget, there are supposed to be a high number of Michelin restaurants in the village.
Things to know about Zermatt if you’re visiting:
It’s a long trek to get there – there are several ways, flying in through Zurich, Geneva or Basel (like we did), but regardless you’ll be spending at least three hours on a train before you arrive in Zermatt. Don’t despair, it’s a beautiful journey, and also it’s the only way to get there because…
There are no cars in the village – the closest parking lot is in the neighbouring town, though there are electric taxis you can rent that will putt you around town. Again, not cheap. But the whole village is walkable, and takes about 40 minutes to cross the full diameter.
It’s one of the more expensive European ski towns – our cheapest meal was a $22 burger, and even the groceries were astonishingly expensive. Our Airbnb was one of the last under the $200/night range, and then the prices jumped to $750. Book early and with a group.
There are two main slope access points - Sunnegga, which gives you access to the Gornergrat and Rothorn, with easy to advanced range of slopes, and the Zermatt Furi train, which takes you to the direction of the Matterhorn, where there’s a number of advanced and off-piste slopes at Klein Matterhorn and Schwarzsee. Even in Sunnegga, you can find plenty of reds and blacks, including Obere National, which is the main run for World Ski competitions.
Where we went:
Rentals: Glacier Sport, in town on the main high street. About $120 for two days
Lift tickets: Zermatt Tourism office in town on the high street. $146 for two days. Return your card pass for a $5 rebate.
The Brown Cow for delicious burgers
The Sport Pavillon for easy Rosti brunch and the view
Airbnb here, on the northern part of town. About a 15 min walk from the high street
Sunning during our Sport Pavillon lunch
I don’t think i’ve ever been in such a beautiful place to ski, and it’s one of our favorite Europe trips to date. The skiing and landscape was just unbelievable. We will definitely be coming back!!
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A First Date
Here’s a story I’ve been telling a lot lately.
Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app, and as with all modern dating apps, it comes with little gimmicks. For CMB (that’s what its veterans call it), a chat line between a matched pair lasts for only 7 days. This time limit is used to instill a sense of urgency to trade other contact info, grab a date, and presumably sprint to the altar.
In one such chat line, I had matched with a consultant currently residing in San Francisco. Conversation was sparse but interesting and I got the feeling she genuinely wanted to trade words as opposed to simply answering questions. I get a notification on my phone reminding me that the chat line is about to expire and make a mental note to ask for her personal contact info soon and go back to playing video games (probably).
And so of course, I forget, and the chat line expires. I desperately try to find some sort of loophole in the app to reopen the conversation, but those devs at CMB aren’t bluffing. When they say 7 days they mean it.
After about a week, I decide to Google the only things I knew about her from her profile: her first name, her job and her location. First result was her LinkedIn profile. For those not in the know, LinkedIn is basically a social network for people who really care about their jobs and also comes with a paid premium option to unlock special abilities. One of those social network super powers is to message someone without having added them as a connection. “I’m not going to add her on f-ing LinkedIn” and so I move on with my life.
Two weeks later I add her on LinkedIn.
To accompany my invitation, LinkedIn graciously allows users to add a 500 character limit message. Here is that message:
Okay I know how creepy this looks but I was bummed we didn't trade more info before the chat line expired. I figured what the hell and just searched "(her name) san francisco consulting" and you were first. This is probably the absolute worst way to connect so if you want to ignore this, I totally get it
She accepts my request a few hours later and responds, “nice sleuthing”
I ask her if she’d like to meet up (for professional purposes, obviously). She says she does, but unfortunately she’s out of town for the next couple weeks for a business trip. I ask her if she would like to trade alternative contact info and she politely declines, and states she’s enjoying chatting through a social network for built for professionals. Oddly enough, I don’t mind either. I’m a sucker for quirky stuff like this. Over the next two weeks, conversation remains sparse. All throughout the days I refresh my LinkedIn homepage hoping to see a new message in my inbox and find myself cursing this “quirky” website.
After two weeks, she’s returning back home so I ask if she’s free that coming Saturday. Indeed she is, and asks me where I’d like to go. I’m not really much into the fine dining scene and ask her if there’s any place she’s been wanting to try. She eventually decides for us to meet at Burma Star at 5:30. And on that Friday before the day of the meeting she finally sends me her phone number. “Big milestone,” she says.
I take the train to my office a few hours before the date. The office is empty, save for Jonathon (who’s always there for God knows what) and Mitch, who’s live-streaming a new game called Nioh. I have a Sunday School lesson to prepare for the next day so I take a seat at my desk. Suddenly, I smell something awful. I had smelled it earlier on the train but had just assumed it was someone else with bad B.O. But now as I sat alone, I knew it had to be me. I take off a shoe and take a strong whiff. Bad move. But at least now I’d found the culprit. I then realized I had been wearing the same socks that I had worn the day before and had slept in all night. And boy, my feet sweat. So I head over to a window and place my shoes on the sill and outstretch my socks over a houseplant. Maybe airing them out for a while will get rid of the embedded smell. I wet some paper towels in the kitchen and wipe my feet down to get rid of any residual stench.
I take a seat next to the window and realize this process is not going fast enough; it was now an hour a half or so until the date. I couldn’t solve this problem by just waiting around, I had to take action. Then I remembered I had found a healthy orange off the street a few days prior and had kept it at my desk as a snack should I ever need it. But I wasn’t hungry. I was desperate. I peel the orange and place the peels inside my shoes. I take a few pieces and place them on top of the peels. I take another piece and rub down my socks with them, hoping to create some sort of citrus filter.
It was a fruitless effort (insert pun acknowledgement here) and deep down I knew there was no way this smell was going away without washing them. But there wasn’t enough time to dry them. Then I remembered my company had handed out dozens of free socks a few months prior and I kept a pair in my bag for any sock emergency I might ever have. This was that moment. I reach into my bag to pull out the fresh pair of socks and thank the Lord for my gift of foresight.
It was just about time to go and I take one last sniff test for the three troublemakers. My feet smelled decent, my new socks smelled like nothing, and my shoes smelled like someone sprayed orange zest in a tennis player’s gym bag. But hey, two for three ain’t bad.
My office is in the SoMa district of the city and the restaurant is in the Mission. I take a quick look at the map and find out it’s a walkable distance. I’m always fine with walking especially if it’s a great day in the city. I had been paying for Ubers all week and didn’t want to do more needless spending. And besides, I needed a way to work off my first-date nerves.
Right outside the office, I run into another coworker, Oblanca, who asks me “You know it’s Saturday right?” I put in my headphones and start listening to Elbow’s newest album for the first time. I check Maps to see when Google estimates I’d arrive at the destination. 5:50 P.M. Not good. I text her, “Hey, it’d be super cool if you’re also going to be late.” She asks how late we’re talking here and I reply 15 minutes. Immediately I realize that 15 minutes is a little too late to be late for a first date. And so I start running. After half a mile (yes, really. I just checked on Google Maps) I realize how sweaty I’m getting. This was everything I sought to avoid. So I cave and hail an Uber and text her that I’m actually going to be right on time. “Great, now I’m going to be 10 minutes late,” she responds.
I actually see her walk into the restaurant about a minute before me. I take off the baseball cap that I had been wearing all day to hold my hair back and stick it in my jacket pocket as I enter the restaurant. She doesn’t see me enter so I approach her and she smiles and gets up to give me a hug. Her smile lights up her whole face. She’s wearing a thin black turtleneck. It complements her long black hair.
As it turns out, exercise does not help to get rid of nerves. The adrenaline from the run is only adding to it. I’d also never had Burmese food before (except a Burmese food truck that shows up outside our office sometimes) and there were a thousand things on the menu that I couldn’t decide between. I start talking about the VR project I had been working on and I can tell by her face that she doesn’t care. But I can’t just leave the story unfinished so I painfully finish the boring tale of the technical problems we’re encountering with the project. I’m rambling. I’m not making eye contact. She’s much prettier in person. I look and sound like a moron.
She recommends the fermented tea leaf salad, a Burmese staple. And we each order another dish; her, the garlic noodles with duck and I, the “Tofu Tower.” I get a beer and she orders a whiskey cocktail. Alcohol finally settles my nerves a little and we’re able to get into typical light-hearted first date conversation topics, like politics and religion. She’s very intelligent and well-spoken and extremely charming and surprisingly witty. I don’t fake my laughs or smiles.
She asks me of bad habit that I have. “No stupid answers like, ‘I’m a perfectionist.’” The first thing that comes to my mind is that I don’t brush my teeth at night. (Yes, I know this sounds really gross. It started off as laziness in college but I’ve never had a cavity in my life. So hey, the proof is in the pudding.) But I’m not going to tell her that on a first date for obvious reasons. The first time I had told my previous girlfriend about it, we got into a straight up argument. So I say bad posture. She’s not pleased with the answer and we both know it’s a lame response. So I start off with another disclaimer, stating that what I’m about to say may be a potential dealbreaker and confess my dirty little secret. To my surprise, she laughs. Laughs harder than she has all night. I ask why she found it so hilarious, but she’s not entirely sure. She suspects it was because the long disclaimer made her expect some really bad habit, like hard drugs, but it turned out to be so innocent yet still gross. She says my answer is now the gold standard for every time she asks the question. I finally feel like I’m over my nerves and settle into a groove, like when you finally find the perfect rhythm to a song you’d been trying to write for weeks.
Let me preface the rest of this by saying there’s a pattern that occurs throughout this whole date. I’ll do something really dumb or say something really stupid and then offset it later by something really smooth. And then screw it up later with something else.
So I ask her what’s her bad habit and she doesn’t have an answer. “How do you not have an answer to your own question?” I ask. She tells me I’m supposed to come up with a new one. “That’s not how it works,” I say, “for example, my go-to icebreaker question is what’s your best poop story?” “What’s a poop story?” “You know, some funny story about pooping your pants.” I can tell by her face this was not resonating well with her and I had made a big mistake by bringing up poop on a first date. So I say that I actually have another icebreaker question that I like to ask. But I pause, and say that I’m realizing there’s a theme to icebreaker questions. She asks what it is, so I tell her, “Let’s say, hypothetically, there’s a technology that will allow you to never need to pee again. What is your price ceiling on a monthly subscription to that sort of service? What if #2 was part of the deal?” But she actually answers seriously and it starts another solid conversation.
Prior to the date, she had told me that she was going to a concert that night with her friend and that the latest she could leave was 8. I hadn’t been checking the time all night, so when she gets up to go to the bathroom, I’m assuming the date is coming to an end. I stop her as she passes by and say, “Hey, you know for $10/month, you could still be sitting here.” She gives me a laugh and playfully hits me on the shoulder as she leaves.
When she gets back to her seat, she proposes a new plan. Let’s pay for the food now and head somewhere nearby for drinks. I ask her about her show and she says it turns out the doors open at 8 but the band she wants to see doesn’t come on until 9:30 or 10. I happily agree to this new plan. And so the check comes and we both throw our cards in without a word about it. She finds a bar nearby on her phone and when we get the to-go bag, she says “Let’s motor” and we head out.
The night is brisk but bearable and the cold, quiet air is a welcome relief from the stuffy, noisy restaurant. She asks if she can ask a personal question. “Go ahead.” “Why did you break up with your ex?” It’s at this point I realized that I had been mentioning my ex quite a bit throughout dinner. Even in purely unromantic anecdotes. I still can’t say why I did. Usually when I tell those stories, I’ll refer to her as my friend. But for some reason that night I kept mentioning her as my ex. “I talked about her a lot didn’t I?” “Yeah, you did,” she says with a smile. I answer the question and we head into the crappy little dive bar, never to say a word about my past relationships again.
We agree for her to grab the first round and I’ll grab the second. She orders a whiskey ginger and I order an old fashioned. She changes her mind and orders the same thing. When asked if there was a specific whiskey we wanted in it she asks for Bulleit.
The bar is dark but quiet, aside from a few fans watching the basketball game on TV. The Warriors are playing in OKC for the first time this season and the game is coming to an end. Golden State is about to win. She’s a basketball fan but doesn’t follow a specific team, if she did, she’d follow the Pistons. I inquire why and she says she likes their coach, “Pop...Popolitch...?”“Popovich?” “That’s him!” “He coaches the Spurs.” “Oh yeah the Spurs! I really like them.” I agree, and we talk about Kawhi Leonard for a bit.
I grab the second round and drop the drinks off at our table before heading to the bathroom to pee. The room is narrow and dimly lit. There’s graffiti all over the walls and a hole in the door where a lock used to be. I try flushing but the toilet is busted. I wash my hands and head out, stopping by the bar to tell the bartender about the toilet. When I return to the table I rest my elbows on it with my hands clasped together. She reaches out to touch my hand for the first time and in surprise I look at her and ask what she’s doing. “Just making sure you washed your hands,” she says with a sly smile.
She continues to be as charming as ever. We talk about our terrible eyesight, television shows and stereotypes associated with our ethnicities. She’s Korean but I ask to hear her Vietnamese accent because I know every Asian does one. She refuses, but as a Vietnamese person, I open the floor for her, telling her I won’t consider any of it racist. She does it on the condition I do mine first so I do. Hers is mostly an impression of the Phở waiter at the restaurant she frequented in college. It’s oddly guttural but still funny.
She asks why I had asked her how long she’d been on CMB (she’d been on it for about 6 months). I shrug and say it was just an icebreaker. She tells me it was a pretty loaded question and I ask her to explain. “Well, if I had said something like a month, you might think I had just gotten off a relationship and that you’re just a rebound. Or if I said something like two years, you’d think ‘How has this chick been on the app for two years and not found anyone yet?’” “Good point, I’ll keep that in mind for the next date I go on.” I give her a smile and she laughs.
I ask her if she honestly thought it was creepy that I found her on LinkedIn. Without hesitation she says no and in fact thought it was quite endearing. I ask her if she’s told anyone that she’s meeting a dude that she met off LinkedIn and she says no. I didn’t know how to feel about having told a dozen people about her already.
We head out to walk to her show and I plan to take a car back to the office from there with the leftover food. The night’s colder now but I’m also drunker now and therefore run a little more warm blooded. She walks up from my left and links her arm beneath mine. “So Josh. Did you have a good time tonight?” she asks. I tell her I did. It didn’t sound genuine when it came out of my mouth, but I really did. She points up at the moon and says, “Look at that, it’s a full moon. Are you going to turn into a werewolf?” I didn’t have anything witty to say, so I awkwardly let out a, “haha....yeaaaah.”
I really need to pee during the walk and kick myself for not just going at the bar (that hypothetical technology would be really convenient right now). I tell her and she feels the same way but at least she’s going to be at a place with the proper facilities soon. She starts shivering and chattering her teeth. So I slowly start pulling off my jacket, stating that she’s left me no choice. She refuses and we both acknowledge how cheesy the whole thing is but I do it anyway, saying that I get warm when I drink.
We cross a street and stop at a corner for her to check her phone to see how far away the venue is. “It’s about a block away.” “Cool, when’s your friend going to be there?” “About five minutes.” “Cool.” She stands about three feet away from me, looks at me and says,
“So...you can kiss me now or later.”
Keep in mind here that I was not looking to kiss anyone that night. I was going into this date with the expectation of not getting any, and that was completely fine with me. I wasn’t even going into the date with the intent of getting a second date, I just wanted to not look like a total freak. So with that mindset, I was completely caught off guard. Not to mention I still really needed to pee. So I panicked.
“Uh...later, I guess.”
And I keep heading towards the venue, not even staying long enough to see her reaction to getting rejected. I even left her behind as I walked ahead of her.
But now I had time. Now that the door was open, I could mentally prepare myself for the moment. Now the plan was to kiss her in front of the venue before her friend got there and before I ventured off into the night back to the office.
We get to the venue and I call my Uber; it’s about five minutes away. I ask her when her friend is showing up and she says about two minutes. “Okay Josh, you got two minutes to do this,” I tell myself.
About fifteen seconds later her friend shows up. We introduce ourselves and shake hands. I welcome her to our little LinkedIn event and look towards my date to see if she caught my joke since I knew her friend didn’t. She’s smiling and gives me a wink. She admits that she actually did tell someone about meeting someone off LinkedIn and that person was standing right in front of me. It was her best friend, she tells her everything. So, we have light small talk for a bit and laugh and I’m dying inside and it’s time for them to head to the show. I hug her goodbye and jump in my Uber. I get back to the office and finally pee at a urinal. I felt like I could fill a milk jug.
Jonathon is unsurprisingly still at the office and I debrief him on the whole ordeal. I decide to text her, “So, I’m going to blame not kissing you on my very burdening need to pee. But I should have anyway.” “Yes you should have!” she responds, “But that’s okay, next time I’ll turn you down and we’ll be even.”
Second date’s next week and I’ll probably still be extremely nervous.
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Thoughts on Bangalore
Sometimes people call Chennai the Detroit of India. After visiting Bangalore, I think it might be more like the Birmingham, Alabama to Balngalore’s Atlanta. Chennai feels like a southern city with one foot in the traditional past and one foot in India’s new economy future. Bangalore on the other hand, feels like a city that has simply jumped forward towards commerce, towards technology, and it must be said, towards the west.
Bangalore is landlocked so it’s a bit less humid than Mumbai and Chennai on either coast. It’s a bit cooler, too, and the streets tend to have a gentle slope to them as the city weaves up and down hills. The sidewalks are wide and walkable (mostly) and at a few intersections near St. Mark’s Road, I even encountered audible crossing signals for the blind.
Bangalore features a happening food and bar scene, where if you have the money to spend, you can treat yourself or your pals to fancy cuisine, locally brewed beers, and chic interior design. It offers no shortage of fun spaces for special event dinners or first dates.
This is great for tourists and visitors and special occasions, but even for the local IT crowd, much of it seems expensive by Indian standards. Interspersed with restaurants that feature valet parking are the typical local joints serving biriyani and dosai, but it’s easy to see how those places are losing favor with the ever-image conscious young Indian professionals. No one is impressed with a selfie in front of the local mess.
I saw my first Lamborghini showroom in Bangalore. Two branches of the Entertainment Store featured the same Diamond Select action figures and Funko vinyl toys that you can find at any comic book store or Spencer’s in the US, but the import fees made the already expensive $20 Iron Man toys the equivalent of $30 in Rupees. I can imagine that to the tech workers who have spent some time at offices in the US surrounded by Game of Thrones bobbleheads, these seem like a cool thing to own but they are perversely expensive at local rates.
What Bangalore lacks in temples and traditional south Indian sightseeing opportunities, it makes up for with green spaces. Several parks and botanical gardens give people a still and shaded place to enjoy. The Cubbon Park serves as a huge green space in the city’s center, and while it’s not as clean or well-maintained as a similar park would be in Europe or the US, it’s a nice place for an early morning stroll.
I only spent 36 hours in Bangalore, so I’m sure that I missed a lot. I visited Indiranagar, Koramangala, and the city center. But my overwhelming impression is that it’s a great place to visit if you want to experience a cosmopolitan Indian city. Fancy shopping, great food, cafes, nightclubs, and even pubs make this feel nearly a world apart from Chennai. The start up culture is alive here, from IT companies making apps to goofy themed-restaurants like the Crime Cafe (where milkshakes are named after famous criminals)--people are just giving things a shot! If I was going to stay in India for another extended stint, Bangalore might be a good option as there are parts of it that don’t feel so far from home.
But as I wind up my year long stay here in India, something about the friction between the “common man” and the consumerist vision of tomorrow’s India that Bangalore exhibits rubs me the wrong way. The income divide is stark. Driving between posh parts of town, you see the homes made of old movie banners, thatched bamboo, and crumbling concrete. I can’t help but wonder what the millions of low-to-middle income people who live here think when they walk by a store selling plastic American toys for 3000 Rupees a pop. I want for Bangalore and indeed every city and village in India to grow into the kind of place where clean water, public safety, proper sanitation, plentiful food, and opportunities to thrive are non-issues. Parts seem to be making slow progress there while other parts are barreling towards Lamborghinis.
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