Uncategorized – dpeeps

Ocho Rios Trip

While the winter has been pretty easy, it was pretty easily annoying me. I quickly grew tired of any amount of cold and gray skies for days so I decided it was time for a trip. My choice this time was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. My flight out was early, 5am departure, so I woke up at about 1:30am. On the flight I was able to get another couple extra hours of sleep. The pilot had told us that we’d have to fly around some weather so that would slow us down a little but I had a couple of hours for a layover so I didn’t worry much. Then as it got to be time close to landing the pilot came on again. We would not be able to land due to a VIP. I would later learn than this was Trump and that if Air Force One is on the tarmac nobody lands or does any work out on the tarmac or in any of the planes until the VIP has left. Suddenly though, I was worried about my connecting flight which I ended up missing by about 10-15 minutes. Now I had to figure out a new way to get to Jamaica and it wouldn’t likely be a flight to Ocho Rios as it’s just a small airport with infrequent flights. I worked with the woman and the counter and I felt so bad for her. She was not familiar with having to reroute someone like this and it took about an hour. Finally she had me booked on a 945pm flight to Charlotte (opposite direction than I’m trying to go) where I’d stay overnight and catch a 7am flight to Montego Bay. A few hours later my flight details changed and the flight to Charlotte would not leave until 5am which meant I was now staying the night in Miami airport. It also meant though that I couldn’t catch the same flight to Montego Bay. Luckily the guy that helped me this time got me on a later Montego Bay flight. Sleeping in the airport went about as well as one would expect but my flights all happened and I finally got to Montego Bay. Going through customs there was not too bad though there were hundreds of people trying to go through. The last thing was to make it to Ocho Rios. I got a shuttle van and embarked on a 1:45 drive down the coast.

While there, I decided to go on a few excursions. The first one I went to was Bob Marley’s mausoleum in Nine Mile. This is the house where his grandmother lived and several family members are buried there on the property. From what they say, Bob went there on occasion to meditate. Another excursion was the Dunn’s River Falls. This is a beautiful spot. You start at the beach and then do quite a bit of climbing up the falls. It was challenging at times to say the least. The last excursion I did was a bamboo raft float. I was a little disappointed in this one. It was shorter than I expected but was relaxing. When driving back the driver showed me where the raft used to be which seemed to go inline with pics I saw.

The food was all really good. I can’t complain about any of it. They do have patties (like empanadas) and I guess those were not all that but for just something to grab and go they work. I ate jerk chicken a couple of times and loved it so much. I went to a pretty famous place, Miss T’s, and had some garlic shrimp dish which was delish. I also had this pork chop plate and it was really good. The mixed veggies on that plate were worth getting seconds of.

I didn’t go too crazy on the drinking. I had some rum drinks but they’d kind of mess with my stomach so I mostly just stuck with the Red Stripe after that. I did try one of their flavored beers Red Strip Sorrel. I’m not sure how many i’d be able to drink but it was ok, definitely refreshing

The area I stayed in was in town, I didn’t stay in a resort. All of the resorts were away from town so it would be necessary to taxi to town if you wanted. I did like this but it did make me wish I’d scheduled another excursion or 2 on my last day. Walking around everyone is trying to get your attention to sell you souvenirs, or offer a taxi, or offer weed/drugs. I was pretty good at ignoring people and just walking on past them but kind of messed with my vibe at times.

On my last day my taxi showed up pretty early and took me to the airport. This must have just been my airport fun trip. This time, in Ocho Rios, TSA selected me for a secondary search. They pulled me in a room and emptied my backpack and went through it all and patted me down. I watch a lot of border patrol shows so I think it’s because i flew into Montego Bay and then flew out of Ocho Rios and it was just a few days between. Who knows though. Everyone on the plane was like “what did you dooooo”. Before making it back to Austin I couldn’t go without waiting at the gate in Miami and being told we’ll board shortly only for the other plane to never move out of the spot. Eventually they changed our gate to one at the other end of the Miami airport which will definitely up your step count.

Where should I go next? I think I want Asia again next.

dolls

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A hop, skip, and a jump to Malaysia

I arrived at the airport on time, parked in the long term parking and jumped on the shuttle bus. As the bus drove away after a few seconds I realized I didn’t have my phone on me. Thankfully I was the only person on the bus and the driver gladly turned back around for me. There my phone was, still in the holder. Once it was time for the plane to leave there was a problem with the plane. After boarding and then deplaning they told us there there was a problem with the temps around the fuel tank. I went ahead and got on another plan. I ended up flying to Atlanta and then to LA. This may sound like a pain, but on the up side it meant no 16 hour layover in LA. Luckily my bag got there with me too. Finallly, at 12:45am, it was time to fly to Taipei. This meant it would very soon be Friday and Thursday will have been a very short day. I found out that on China Airlines, OJ and apple juice look the same in a paper white cup. A few couples around me that ordered each had to ask which was which very consistently. On the descent into Taipei I had a strange pain in the area of my eye. It made my eye painful to the touch even. I would experience the same descending into Penang but it went way both times and I didn’t experience it flying back at all. I think I got about 5 hours of sleep on LA to Taipei but that’s about it. I arrived to Penang on Friday afternoon and seeing Erika waving her arms made my day. You might be wondering who Erika is. Well, in the past few years Erika and I have become best friends and she means the world to me. Can’t even imagine a world she is not part of. Here are some pictures from Friday. Most of these are from the Taipei airport. They had themed gates. There’s also a few from my hotel and the meal we had that Erika and I had. They’re in slideshow just to not take up so much room but if you click the picture it will have arrows so you can navigate the pictures.

Saturday started off mostly a relaxed day since I caught up on some sleep. We had a fun day though. We went grocery shopping so Erika could make me lasagna and we also went to a fire show, got some dinner and went to George Town to a bar. By night time, every day I was there, I was beat. I wish I could feel the same at home. At the bar there were a couple of dogs so we were making friends. Other items of interest, the number 4 is bad luck for Chinese (notice on the elevator..no 4, no 14, no 24), it was the Chinese ghost festival while I was there so they were burning fires everywhere.

I only have a couple of pictures for Sunday. On Sunday we went to Escape water park. I didn’t make too big of a deal about this even thought I know one key fact. Erika can’t swim. For the most part this didn’t create a problem until Erika got it in her head she wan’t to go onto the “Banana Flip” slide that ends in the diving pool they have…yes, 15 feet deep. The worker was just like “ah no big deal that’s why we have the lifeguards”. so I went down there and waited. FInally she went and the guy got her out with the pole. Let’s just say my opinion holds a little more wait after her expecting to be able to touch the bottom like at the rest of the park. No experience like the real thing. It did worry the hell out of me though. Glad she survived, indeed! Oh yeah, we also saw monkeys along the road just hanging out.

Monday proved to be a very busy day. First we met with 2 of my teammates for a hike. We hiked to a cafe for breakfast and then to a very old Chinese temple. The whole way there was uphill and took easily an hour one way. Along the way I must have seen 5-6 different kind of fruit trees. At one point the girls were all trying to steal some fruit but there was little success. This would also be the day I learned to drive on the wrong side of the road and I was the driver from that point forward. I did pretty well except for the time I almost turned into the wrong way and the time i side swiped a bush and the time i took a turn to sharp and bottomed out the left side. It’s very different driving over there. I feel like driving in the US is much safer (more signs and such to make it more clear what you should do). Monday evening we met up with all my teammates and a few others for dinner at a Thai restaurant. I felt so special that they would all take time out of their day for me just to hang out and talk and have a meal. Not only was it very special but the food was probably my favorite meal of the time.

On Tuesday I got quite a bit of driving experience in. I drove all the way to the mainland and back. The biggest thing we did was go to the Buddhist temples. One was the Burmese temple and the other was the Thai reclining buddha temple. This was so amazing to me and beautiful. The whole thing was very spiritual. We got the monk to tie bracelets on our wrists and say a prayer over us. If we’re not married we’re definitely spiritually bonded. They also have these moving bowls that you can toss coins in like a wishing well. We both were successful at this on a couple of throws. I got ‘success’ and ‘good luck’. Erika got 3 or 4, she’s got skills. We also chose this day to celebrate our birthdays together. It was very special to sing to each other and make wishes.

The last day went by so fast. I wish there was a way I could have just stayed longer. Here’s some pictures of my last meal though and also of Erika and I and a couple of my teammates. My teammates surprised me and came down to the airport to say goodbye. I’m pretty sure I’m not even deserving of these people, i swear. I am pretty damn lucky. Oh yeah, as a side note, I found the worlds shortest escalator in the Taipei airport this time!

Now I’m home safe and happy to see Luna and just trying to get back on a US schedule.

Long Memorial Day weekend

Here are some pics from Memorial Day weekend. A trip out to San Diego included family time, a baseball game, some exploring, and some good food. Luna was boarded and she had a good time too. I didn’t get as many pics as I could have but here we go. Most of the pics of Luna are from the daycare. I think they’re just trying to sell the more expensive package next time, which includes pictures. They were really cool to see though.

bloody mary flight

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la jolla

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boarding 1

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5 day cruise to Mexico

I went on a 5 day cruise to Costa Maya (not the real name as every Mexican will tell you) and Cozumel (even though I spent the whole time mainland).

These photos are from day 1. We had a coast guard escort until we were out in the strait. I guess maybe someone might want to jump in the water and swim to the ship and then try to scale the side of it or maybe someone last minute might change their mind about going on a cruise. Who knows. I did see some dolphins during this time but the video i took wasn’t good enough to share/keep and I didn’t take pictures. Around the time I saw them the ship started to turn around which muddied up all the water. I got a cabin with a balcony so that was pretty nice and I did spend some time on it reading. Also there’s a lot of art onboard. They have a couple of art auctions, even. For an afternoon snack I had a chocolate nutella donut that weighed a pound. I had sushi for dinner.

Coast Guard 2

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Day 2 was just a day at sea. I didn’t do much, eat, read, check out the view. I did have a delicious dinner at the steakhouse onboard, though. Oh yeah, I went to the PG comedy show. It was pretty funny for the most part.

dog? baby rhino? not sure

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On Day 3 we stopped in Costa Maya (really Mahahual). I did an excursion and went to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins. It was pretty interesting as there’s a lot unknown about these particular ruins. They were only discovered in the the 70s and the local people had been living around them in the jungle for many hundreds of years. There hasn’t ever been any drawings/writings found but the Mayans were a huge population spanning a long period of time. It was also hot and humid out in the jungle with little breeze. I also saw these trees growing around other palm type trees and even got to see some spider monkeys. Also, I guess when things are going bad always be glad you didn’t park your sailboat on shore. This night I opted for the Italian restaurant. It was good but it was definitely not the steakhouse.

sunrise

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Day 4 was a stop in Cozumel. I didn’t stay in Cozumel. I hopped on a ferry into Playa Del Carmen and then took a bus to the Ancient City of Tunlum (we’re going with the Mayan name). This was pretty cool. The ruins were more massive here and there was a bit more known about them. I walked around for a bit and got some photos but it was once again hot & humid. I wandered back to a little restaurant recommended by the guide where I ordered some al pastor tacos and cold cold beers. I killed off about 4 of those cold beers. They were even kind enough to bring me a shot of mezcal and of tequila. For dinner I ate in one of the main dining areas and it was a pretty good dinner.

where'd everyone go

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Day 5 was another day at sea. I didn’t really do much. I ate at the steakhouse. Also, I didn’t mention that I played in the casino every day. I played with $600 total and while I didn’t win overall, I did come up with half of it back in my pocket. Not too bad.

ummmm what?

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so you want to cancel that account, huh?

today, and over the last few years i’ve learned something interesting about the credit card industry. let’s pretend that during covid you sign up for a service to help keep you entertained (no, it’s not porn, ok). you sign up for a year subscription. before that year is up you go to the web site and you cancel your subscription and delete your account. then, around the time for the year to be up you see your credit card billed for the subscription rate. you call the credit card company and dispute the charge. they take away the charge and you think nothing of it. a year goes by. suddenly, you see that same charge pop up again. you try to login to the web page and you can’t, it says no account. you fill out their contact form. no response. you call the credit card company again. this time they dispute the charge but they also send you a new credit card. a year goes by. you don’t even notice it for over 2 months because you never use that card under normal circumstances but you happen to notice a charge. what could it be? you download statements. sure enough, 2 months prior there’s a charge from that same company. this is where you learn something interesting. what the company is doing isn’t even fraud. they’re gaming the credit card system. see, when you get a new card from the bank, that card is still associated to the same account as the old card. any company that you’ve done business for something like a subscription with can then just use services from mastercard/visa to grab whatever new card is associated with that account and it’s fine. the only way i will be able to deal with this is go down to the credit union and have them fully close the credit account and then create me an entirely new account.