botwerks

tyler brule has a great writeup in the FT regarding the hassle that’s associated with IAD as part of a larger gripe about travel hassle within the US and a need to invest in .  while things have improved pretty dramatically over the past year or so at dulles, with the advent of the trains between a few of the terminals, if you’re flying united you still need to deal with the incredibly afterthought-ish mobile lounges.

i took an acela train from DC to penn station a couple of months back.  i couldn’t agree more.  high-speed trains with quiet cars (oh. my. god. what a great development) and wifi makes for a phenomenal travel experience.  i don’t share the misgivings that tyler does regarding lighting.  though, i suspect i’m not as picky on that front.  as someone who spends far too much time in airports dealing with a host of travel hassles, i would love to see some development on this front in the US.

it’s just a back of the envelope type of calculation, but if i were to look at the driving distance between minneapolis and san francisco (a pretty common travel destination for me) and round it up to 2000 miles (about 25% overage) and factor in an improvement over TGV speeds (bump it up ~ 25% to 250mph) you can make it to san francisco easily overnight including stops in other cities.  given that a trip to SFO typically takes me about 6 hours flight + airport hass, this would definitely make me think 2x about flying vs. taking a train.  as it sits now, to take amtrak is pretty inefficient.

further most of them are written by rank amateur travelers.  perhaps the most egregious offenders here are “mens interest” magazines.  i realize that their raison d’être is to pimp stupid stuff. e.g.: dopp kits.   we’ll get to dopp kits later, but first it’s likely worth laying a few ground rules out.  if you’re allegedly a jet setter, a fashionista, someone for whom style is of primary importance, you should really be on your own private jet.  what?  you didn’t renew your NetJets membership for this year or your pilot is on holiday?  well that’s truly unfortunate,  you’re going to have suffer along with us, the masses.

now, let’s come back to that concept of the dopp kit. this is the first sign of a clue-fucked fashionista article. dear author, where the hell have you been for the last 8 years?  how on earth did you miss the whole 3-1-1 thing?  what? you’re checking luggage? move along amateur.   there are two kinds of luggage; carry-on and lost.  if you can’t fit your kit into your reasonable allocation of the overhead bin and under the seat in front of you, you have no business wasting my time with a packing article.

luggage

if you recommend a hard sided case on wheels and you’re not european and checking that thing (or like a coworker of mine from south america and you’ve been forced to hermetically seal it in one of those saran wrap winder machines at the airport) this is a sign your article is pretty much worthless.  every time i see some asshat trying to wedge one of these things into an overhead bin i engage in a small mental escape where this thing slides back and knocks them unconscious so they can free up space for folks who have more practical perspectives on sharing the precious space that is the overhead bin.  hard sided luggage is for sensitive equipment and belongs in the hold.  only poseurs and idiots (but i repeat myself) bring that shit on as carry-on.  compressibility and the size are key purchasing criterion here.  if you’re on a regular sized jet and you can’t fit your bag in with the small side visible, you’ve messed up.  do us all a favor get something that is durable, squishy and fits in the small dimension.  oh, and be come less precious about the contents of the luggage.

it doesn’t have to be expensive, but if you’re traveling a lot, durable luggage with quality handles and shoulder straps are a huge plus.  personally, i’m not a huge fan of the tag-along (it’s tough to run to the next flight with them), but they certainly have their place and sized appropriately i can appreciate the appeal.  lots of dangling straps and such will be guaranteed to wrap around every protrusion you run across.  pull those massive open loops closed a bit. please.  how about including a little something in packing articles that has people cutting off or pulling in all of the protrusions apt to catch on whatever isn’t sanded smooth on their luggage? please?

3-1-1 

it’s just the situation in our fear addled country, suck it up and get a durable baggie.  put it in an outside pocket and make it readily accessible.  if you have meds, do us all a favor and make sure they’re clearly marked and packaged appropriately.  the TSA folks will get hung up on the dumbest stuff and we all have to wait for you.  your designer dopp kit is not going to impress anyone and it doesn’t work for the TSA folks.  don’t subject us to some photo spread of dopp kits.  life sucks at times. i know ziplocs aren’t fashionable but we need you to keep your fabulous ass moving.  lose the dopp kit.

make peace with the iron in the hotel

seriously, your stuff’s going to get wrinkled,  use the time you spend in the hotel in the AM to iron your stuff.  if you’re stuck traveling with a suit, hang it up immediately in the bathroom and figure out the steamer option on that iron.  if you’re endorsing carrying along a steamer in your luggage, your article sucks.

i’m behind on organizing pictures and notes from our recent trip to peru.  but when i was running through some video, i ran across this little nugget of annoyance.

imagine, if you will, that you’ve spent the better part of the last 3 days hiking 30 miles in the andes and you haven’t had a shower.  you’ve traipsed around machu picchu and you’re dog tired.  more than anything, you’re really looking forward to getting some sleep and chilling on a train on your way back home.

as a slight aside, i should point out that some folks who’ve hiked the inca trail and arrive at machu picchu to be confronted by, “we took a bus here” tourists get their teeth set on edge. when confronted by these tourists complaining about having to walk up and down stairs at a wonder of the world the last thing you want to do is have to put up with them on a train.

the company that runs the trains from aguas calientes is (justifiably) loathe to miss a marketing opportunity and after they’ve given you some light snacks and tea proceed to bust out the sales cart and the pulsating techno.  when you want to sleep and politely ignore the couple sitting 18 inches across the aisle from  you this is not helping things.  in retrospect i’m of mixed opinion and irritation on the matter.  on one hand, it’s really irritating to have someone sashaying down the aisle to blaring music.  on the other hand, these folks are just trying to make a living and i certainly can’t fault them for that.

a note of advice – if you’ve going to do the inca trail and you’re making a decision as to which train you’re going to take back to cusco, or wherever it is you’re going back to, stick with your peeps.  you want to be with worn out fellow hikers and folks who aren’t going to be drunkenly whipping out their visa/amex/mc to purchase alpaca wool sweaters and shawls.  as a brutal aside, you probably don’t want to be dealing with some marketing techno while you smell like ass.

30-november, 2009 – 4th day of inca trail

3:30a comes way too fast and i’m deeply asleep.  the porters wak us and as a group we do surprisingly well getting ourselves going.  we really only were running about 10-15 minutes behind the blistering pace that alex (our guide) had laid out for us the night before.

a comment about breakfast – cake.  seriously, it was cake, with frosting.  the porters and the cook are quite pleased with themselves, but i think everyone had the same reaction when they were introduced to the cake at 3:45a.  muted surprise and not as well muted disappointment.  still it’s a nice touch and kudos to the crew for doing it.

breakfast is short.  we collected our stuff and prepped for the trail.  in all of the hustle and bustle; elise falls from the tent terrace to the cooking / dining tent terrace.  this was about an 8-12 foot drop.  fortunately, she’s unhurt and what could have been a very bad situation is mercifully a minor bump.  she and her husband (josh) were understandably peeved by the relative ambivalence expressed by the guide and the porters to what was potentially a nasty situation.  still, kathy and i were impressed at the level of calm josh and elise seemed to have about the whole situation.

as a group we have to hustle to make it to the sun gate (intipunku) check point.  the check point opens at 5:30a and we’re almost the first ones in line.  all the groups queue up here.  the early morning rise was worth it.

it’s at this point that i develop a particularly strong appreciation for our group.  as i overhear the banality of our neighbors.  the whining brand-oriented 20-somethings w/very little daypacks.  daddy hired them porters for their makeup.

we get through the checkpoint and we haul ass.  i mean we seriously haul ass to the sun gate.  our group was passing the group ahead of us and it was a very brisk pace uphill to the sun gate.  from here, you have an amazing view of machu picchu.  more importantly, from this point, it’s a relatively short (and surprisingly modestly sloped) descent to machu picchu.  when we got down to machu picchu and looked back it was apparent that we seriously motored through that distance.  the distance between the sun gate and the funeral rock is a respectable amount and it took us no time to cover that distance.

finally, we’d made it to machu picchu.