The most popular posts this week
Fix: Blogger Dynamic Views Fails to Load Properly
Installing Windows 7 on Dell Vostro 14 5000 Series Laptop
Travelling in Victoria, Australia
Are we guests or tourists?
We have been told a few times in travel-related Internet discussion forums that when we travel outside Finland, we are guests. Therefore we must refrain from expressing any opinions on that country or its people unless our view is positive. Criticism and especially trying to right wrongs is not seen as acceptable behaviour of a guest. Are we guests or tourists? Let us consider a bit more deeply the concept of ‘guest’. Traditionally it refers to a person who is invited to a country or a home by a host. How many people have actually been invited to visit a country? Certainly diplomats, visiting governors of other nations, some sportsmen and other celebrities. But what about regular tourists on their holiday?
Trans-Siberian Railway, Russia
Travelling the trans-siberian railway all the way from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok, Russia. And visiting Voguls on the way. We started our Trans-Siberian railway ride from Kuokkaniemi, a small village situated near Sortavala and Finnish border in Karelia. The trip ended in Vladivostok near Japan and Korea totaling well over 10.000 kilometres. It would have been possible to do the trip in about eleven days, but we wanted to stop every once in a while and look around. We bought our tickets one by one, just to the next destination, and got this way a lot of experience of Russian bureaucracy, despotism of the police (militsiya), and the lack of any kind of logic in Russia. We knew right away that our Experiment would at least be challenging. In Santeri’s words: Russia should be avoided at any cost.
Airlines, Online Travel Agents & Cruise Lines Steal Refunds
Recent hostilities in the Middle-East have led to millions of passengers to miss their hotel bookings , flights and cruises. Carriers and online travel agencies ( OTA ) are exploiting the situation. When a refund is carried out, both OTA and the carrier lose money. They deliberately sabotage refunds so that customers give up their money.
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