No Mt. Fuji for Me

Remember where I said I don’t plan? Yeah, it’s now bit me in the ass — the Mt. Fuji tour for today is packed, and I could not get on it. The sad thing is, I didn’t even know they did tours like that until last night, and so it was already too late. The worst part is that I woke up early just for this, and couldn’t go back to sleep.

Vending | by Samer Farha

I guess I’ll go wander the subway or maybe down by the water. It’s already 80° here with really high humidity. Luckily I have a pocket full of change to use in those vending machines that will get me bottled water. At least I think there’s water in those things.

Plan B

I don’t like to plan. I’m pretty averse to it, actually. I like to have a goal and then somewhere along the line everything falls into place and it happens. But to actually sit down and say, “I need to do steps 1, 2, 3…,” well, that’s not for me.

Having said that, I almost always try and have a loose “plan B.” Today’s lesson is why having a plan B is important.

Normally when I travel, I don’t think about money. I take what I have on me, confident in the knowledge that my ATM and Visa card will get me the local currency at reasonable rates. A few years ago, while traveling across Europe, I got a call from my bank saying they were worried about activity on my card. This year, I decided to tell them up front that I was going to be overseas. Either they screwed it up or the Visa vendor did, but they seem to have turned off my card, not insured that it would still be working!

So my plan B was to have some carrying around US dollars, “just in case.” In this case, it means I’ve got about $300 I can convert into ¥32,000. Coupled with my Amex, it should keep me through the weekend. Now to find a place to do the conversion on a Sunday!

Train Travel

End of the Tunnel by Samer Farha on Flickr

I like traveling by train, and I try to do so whenever I have the opportunity. A few years back, I flew out to San Francisco and the took the train, stopping along the way, up the coast to Vancouver. At the time, there wasn’t any first class service for me. This time, though, it’s different.

I’ll be taking several train trips as part of my world travels. The first and the most daunting is going to be the twenty-four-and-a-half hour ride from Hong Kong to Beijing. The train ticket is going to cost about half as much as a flight would, and it will take eight times as long. As you might have guessed, this isn’t about cost.

There’s something utterly romantic about taking the train. It’s a throwback. A mode of travel that still, when you splurge, can live up to the “olden days.” It lets you relax and look out the window at a world whizzing past frightfully fast. And yet, it is serene. Something about the rhythmic clack-clack-clack just gets into your body and relaxes you.

I’ve decided to take the nice berth on this and all trains, this time around. I want to experience that old time service and class. In Germany, I’ll be traveling first class from Frankfurt to Berlin, and again from Berlin to Brussels. In Belgium, I’ll get to take the more modest first class cabin up to Bruges. But the train I’m most looking forward to riding it the Eurostar.

I’m booked on a two hour high-speed hurtle through the countryside of Belgium and France and finally through the Chunnel. This train runs for over 31 miles under the sea! Again, here, I’m not skimping. It’s first class, all the way. Of course, it appears that there’s a “premium” first class that gets you a three course meal on your two hour trip, and while I’m sure that meal is excellent, I chose not to cough up $300 more for it. That’s the price of an iPhone, for crying out loud!