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The Future Travel for a World in Lockdown


duke007

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15 minutes ago, Quietguy said:

I usually stayed in Holguin when I went before and would go there again.

The season is very much like Thailand , nice area and great places for walking too. I like the look of this area QG.

https://www.tripcentral.ca/blog/holguin-travel-guide/

Holguin weather: when to visit

Dry season takes place from November to April and wet season is May to October. January sees average temperatures of 22C while June through September sees temperatures average 27C.

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You aren't likely to meet ts girls in Cuba, apart maybe from Havana which is apparently still closed to tourists. Cubans had a Hispanic machismo attitude to gays and ts. I was told that any male who looked at all feminine would be likely to have stones thrown at them in the street. At one time the Cuban Government treated homosexuality as an illness and gays were sent to an island camp for 're-education'. 

Things are changing now. The government is trying to change public attitudes, there is an annual Gay Pride Parade, though apparently it was officially banned last year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/12/cubas-gay-rights-activists-take-to-the-streets-defiant-and-proud

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1 hour ago, Pdoggg said:

Perhaps one attached to a travesti Cubana. :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

My thoughts exactly. Can you imagine the sizes! Dios mio!

1 hour ago, Quietguy said:

You aren't likely to meet ts girls in Cuba

I'll find em. Just need to brush up my espanol. Honestly, we don't go to Patts for the beaches, do we? I go for 2 reasons, seeing my friends is the other reason.

Thanks for the info on Cuba, muchas gracias, QG.

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5 hours ago, Quietguy said:

I visited Cuba many times. The first was after the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc collapsed. I wanted to see Cuba before it was destroyed by the US. I went on the May Day parade in Havana. It was amazing to see the numbers of people on the march, around one million. The police and armed forces contingents were on bicycles as there was shortages of fuel. I saw Castro on the platform the march passed.

I might well go to Cuba in January as an alternative to Thailand. 

Why would you go? I thought Cuba was destroyed by the USA?:yahoo:

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In 1994 I headed for Cuba. Marvellous. Beautiful black girls. I arranged to meet one that night and waited for her on Rue Jose Marti (the Cuban poet who wrote Guantanemara). Not the best lit street - i thought i saw my date heading towards me waving. A pretty thing in a white party dress. About a yard away I spotted it was a bloke in a frock! A brave bloke too - this sort of behaviour in Cuba would cost him 20 years in the chokey if caught. My girl did arrive and we went to her parents shack. A 2 storey shed. As we climbed the ladder upstairs her father turned the radio up loud. I gave her Yankee Dollars - she gave me Scabies!

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On 10/13/2020 at 6:44 PM, seven said:

 

I'll find em. Just need to brush up my espanol. Honestly, we don't go to Patts for the beaches, do we? I go for 2 reasons, seeing my friends is the other reason.

Thanks for the info on Cuba, muchas gracias, QG.

I looked at the TUI website last night. Holiday charter flights are now allowed into Varadero Airport from yesterday 15 October. So holidays available in Varadero and Jibacoa with flights from Gatwick London. 

Varadero is a 20 mile long beach, about 90 miles outside Havana, lined with tourist hotels. When I went there on my first trip which would have been around 1986 there wasn't much else there. Cubans were only allowed in if they worked in the tourist hotels. I found it boring, though ok if you just want to sit or walk along a nice beach.

I almost booked a two week stay in a Jibcoa hotel, for £1700 including £295 Covid insurance, but didn't as the insurance is likely to cost me more as I have pre-existing medical conditions. I think I'll ring the insurance company to find out how much extra I would have to pay.

I haven't seen anything here about the Cuban Government opening up other parts of Cuba - apart from Varadero Airport from 15 October. Maybe other parts will be open later.

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1 hour ago, Quietguy said:

I almost booked a two week stay in a Jibcoa hotel, for £1700 including £295 Covid insurance, but didn't as the insurance is likely to cost me more as I have pre-existing medical conditions. I think I'll ring the insurance company to find out how much extra I would have to pay

I rang the insurance company and my premium for medical conditions would be £64, so a total of £360 for 2 weeks travel insurance! But I suppose that is what it is now with coronavirus.

I have booked and paid for the two weeks in January - £1500 after discounts. I think that's quite good for flights and 2 weeks all inclusive - nothing to spend there except tips. I have to get visa from Cuban Embassy here which costs £49.

I'll have a look round online to see if I can get covid cover insurance for less anywhere else, otherwise I'll take the travel company's insurance. 

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On 10/14/2020 at 2:00 AM, Quietguy said:

Despite the best efforts of US governments (including 638 assassination attempts by the CIA on Castro) they didn't succeed. Cuba is still standing.

No.

You say you wanted to visit "Before the USA destroyed Cuba." In reality you mean it's in your selfish interests for Cuba to remain undeveloped so you would enjoy a cheap vacation. You are disguising your hatred of the USA so you feel good about visiting.  If Cuba is a paradise, why are people voting with their feet and leaving?

But you have other prospects; Venezuela is one of Castros besties and the people there are living the dream. I've never heard of a Venezuelan leaving that workers paradise:yahoo:

 

 

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lance buddy, unless you're a trumper, you really think you should praise the US right now? Seriously? The whole world is astonished how fucked up the US is now.

 

John Kerry Is Mad as Hell

The former senator, presidential nominee, and Secretary of State on the “nincompoop” in the White House, the decimation of America’s reputation abroad, and what needs to be done to restore it

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/john-kerry-interview-donald-trump-foreign-policy-international-standing-1073973/

Kerry is so riled up over Trump’s incompetence that he can barely articulate himself.

“He is a totally insensitive, unaware, unhinged, brawling nincompoop who has no governor for his brain, and who lies and lies and lies because he creates his own reality,” Kerry says. He paused for a good 12 seconds before arriving at “brawling nincompoop.”

Kerry is a firm believer in America’s role as the leader of the free world, which includes a responsibility to put forth a dependable image to the international community. He’s been watching President Trump trample over that image for nearly four years now — trashing allies, hobnobbing with autocrats, and callously discarding key multilateral agreements. He’s had enough. Trump is an “ignorant boor who doesn’t do his homework,” Kerry continues, now in a groove. “He is narcissistic to the point of distraction, easily manipulatable, and completely untrustworthy.” A few minutes later, his attention turns to the climate crisis, where Trump is “a one-man lying wrecking crew, walking around destroying relationships, years of effort, and people’s belief in science and in American values.”

“You put all that together and you’ve got a doozy of a presidency to present to the world,” Kerry says with equal parts dismay and disgust.

America’s image to the rest of the world hasn’t always been so flattering, especially this century. The 2003 invasion of Iraq precipitated a prolonged series of failures throughout the Middle East, leading to a decline in international favorability. According to the Pew Research Center, confidence in America’s president to do the right thing plummeted from 2003 to 2008. But it skyrocketed throughout President Obama’s time in office, as did a commitment to multilateralism which Trump promptly abandoned. Confidence once again plummeted before all-but-bottoming out in response to America’s failure to control the coronavirus. A Pew study released in September found that among 13 of America’s key allies, trust in Trump was only at 16 percent, while favorability toward the U.S. was less than half of what it was four years ago.

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12 hours ago, lance2546 said:

You say you wanted to visit "Before the USA destroyed Cuba." In reality you mean it's in your selfish interests for Cuba to remain undeveloped so you would enjoy a cheap vacation. You are disguising your hatred of the USA so you feel good about visiting.  If Cuba is a paradise, why are people voting with their feet and leaving?

I wanted to visit Cuba because I had admired Che Guevara, Fidel Castro and ordinary Cubans in overthrowing the corrupt Batista regime, which was backed by the US. And the US had been hostile to Cuba sine the Cuban Revolution.

Cuba had been known as 'America's Whorehouse' with bars, brothels and casinos mainly run by the American Mafia.

I don't hate the USA, I don't like some of it's politics and politicians. I have been on holiday to the US too, and may do so again after Trump goes.

It wasn't a cheap vacation. I like to get away from the UK winter which means a long haul flight - Cuba was the first long haul holiday I'd been on. I didn't have much money for holidays in those days.  Cuba was actually more expensive as a holiday destination then than most other long haul destinations as they discouraged tourism and didn't have much of a tourist infrastructure. To get there I had to fly on an old Russian Aeroflot plane via Newfoundland. 

Do you go to Thailand for a cheap vacation in an undeveloped country?

Cuba was, and is, comparatively well developed in comparison with many Caribbean islands. Certainly in terms of education, health and welfare services. Look at it's neighbour Haiti. 

Where did I say Cuba is a paradise? Some people, mainly younger Cubans, do leave because of the shortages and difficult living conditions  which are mainly due to the US sanctions. Older Cubans remember life before the Revolution and are glad about the improvements to their lives. People also leave other countries including the US.

Anyway this is derailing this thread (apologies to the op). If you want to discuss Cuba maybe you can start another thread. 

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1 hour ago, Quietguy said:

I got an email from Kuoni today advertising holidays in Koh Samui and Phuket from March 2021. They do say these holiday dates can be changed, but I wonder if this is when they believe that UK tourists can return to those islands.

I would say it's more a ploy of simply getting your cash into their funds, QG  I am getting atleast 3 to 4 emails from Qatar Airways per week giving me unbelievable deals on return air fare from Cardiff to Bangkok the latest one was 420 pounds return. Both of our companies sending these notifications are highly reputable but they are also in need of our custom by any means at this time.

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6 minutes ago, BigTel said:

I would say it's more a ploy of simply getting your cash into their funds, QG  I am getting atleast 3 to 4 emails from Qatar Airways per week giving me unbelievable deals on return air fare from Cardiff to Bangkok the latest one was 420 pounds return. Both of our companies sending these notifications are highly reputable but they are also in need of our custom by any means at this time.

Yes I'm not going to book. I just thought it meant Kuoni must have been given some indication by the Thai authorities that they could resume bookings from March.

These are the two islands which have already been opened to tourists from China and Scandinavia from 25 October.

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4 minutes ago, BigTel said:

I would say it's more a ploy of simply getting your cash into their funds

 

3 minutes ago, Quietguy said:

This is what they are saying:

 

I was able to cancel two flights, one on Scoot and one on Cebu Air.  Scoot gave me a hard time saying I couldn't cancel but when I persisted they cancelled and I got my refund in a couple weeks although at first they debited my card instead of crediting it, resulting in being charged twice,  but I was able to sort it.

A very pleasant Filipina readily complied with my refund request but said it would take 4 billing cycles.  About 5 months later, I got an email saying they are still working on April refunds.

So it appears that saying they will refund your money is no guarantee of a prompt refund or a certain refund.  The amount is small only around 3000 baht but I can think of a few things I'd rather do with that money.  :biggrin:

 

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7 minutes ago, Quietguy said:

Kuoni

I wonder if booking through a 3rd party means it is more likely or less likely that you'll get a refund?   I've generally booked direct with the airline figuring it would be easier to sort things out if there is a problem although years ago I used a Chinatown wholesaler to book a couple of China Air flights.

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Yes I book flights directly  with airlines rather than through agencies/bucket shops. The agencies aren't always cheaper, and usually not much cheaper than the airline.

If you book through an agency you can't usually get a refund or change your booking. Also the agencies usually sell the worst seats at the back section of the plane.

Booking a package holiday with travel companies like Kuoni the advantage is that if you pay with a credit card you can get a refund from ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) or from your credit card company, if the travel company goes bust. 

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Last week I used airasia from Udon to U-Tapao and return .

  at both airports in the departure lounge it was very strict with only one person aloud on a 3 seater ( regardless of airline ) , even family's could not sit together . When it was time to board , we all had our assigned seat that meant both ways I had people next to me as though there was no Covid . The silly thing was there was many seats empty , you would think they would have spaced us out .       

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