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| A Road Trip was held and was a great success; see [[PlanN]]
| | [[Animu]] and other planning. |
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| See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patellar_dislocation
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| == Plan N+1 ==
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| === Location ===
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| ==== In order to avoid forkbombing ourselves, I (Smith) move that we shortlist three options and pursue them. Proposing: Plan Japan, Plan Foxy (one of the train-based epics outlined below) and Plan Aztlan (Ed's Mesoamerican jaunt) ====
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| * Japan?
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| ** It is probable that I (Smith) can provide a bilingual guide and possibly limited accomodation in Osaka
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| *** I would furthermore suggest that we do perhaps two major places (say Osaka and Tokyo) with a simple and painless transition between them
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| **** Not necessarily convinced - I rather liked the flying visit approach of the previous trip - but in practice I guess there're not so many places in Japan. I would want to see Kyoto at least, but that's a perfectly reasonable excursion from Osaka. --Lmm
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| **** I (Smith) move that we at least start in Osaka, because that way I can get there a week in advance and then meet you chaps
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| * dash it all what *is* it that you see in japan
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| ** When you look into the abyss, &c
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| *** ... you see only ethnic underage girls being forced to offer themselves for sexual services; i object to at least some of that
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| **** Specifically, the qualifier "ethnic"?
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| **** now now, i do not approve of the forcing either; it is important to keep the "gentleman" part of "gentleman pervert"
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| * The Trans-Siberian Railway has been proposed with varying levels of seriousness
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| ** I meant it entirely seriously, but thought it would be best combined with the above (especially since I expect few people other than me to be interested) --Lmm
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| *** Apparently it is not as time-consuming as I (Smith) thought
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| *** six days four hours on the actual train, moscow to vladivostok (this is not allowing for touring time)
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| **** I (Smith) have also discovered a train called the Sibirjak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sibirjak) that goes from Berlin to many interesting places: Novosibirsk, Kazan, Astana and the Russian-Abkhaz border to name a few options
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| ***** Alas, it runs weekly, so pick only one interesting place. (My vote would be Astana)
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| ****** Yeah, that's what I was trying to clarify by referring to options. Perhaps I should have been more perfectly clear
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| * Soviet Central Asia, China and Mongolia are also interesting places if we wish to go somewhere exotic
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| ** Combining this and the above, I (Smith) note that one can go from Moscow to Beijing by starting out on the Trans-Siberian and changing at Tarskaya, and that this is in fact substantially shorter than going all the way to Vladivostok (a city that appears to have almost exactly the same level of merit as a destination in its own right as the Snowdon Summit Restaurant)
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| *** ...and it is even possible to do this '''via Ulan Baator''' (http://www.seat61.com/Trans-Siberian.htm#Moscow - Beijing), but that is well over 10Mm
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| * Could do a road trip 2.0 to Istanbul now that we know about Kompas car rental; a Croatia/Serbia/Romania/Bulgaria/Turkey/Greece/Macedona/Albania/Kosovo/Bosnia route would actually have very little overlap with the previous effort
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| ** i rather like this idea
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| * We could potentially hire '''in''' Istanbul, from where we can turn either West or East
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| ** possible but less likely to be nice about where we can go than kompas; also what is actually in anatolia/bithynia et pontus that makes it worth going east?
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| *** Probably precious little, but then what was there on the Adriatic coast? Not much. Personally I (Smith) feel the point of going East would be to get to somewhere excitingly exotic like Georgia or Armenia or Iraqi Kurdist-NO BAD SMITH
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| * All wildly optimistic, assuming another 16 day plan.
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| * Israel, Palestine and perhaps some neighbouring countries would be interesting (and likely cheaper than venturing further afield), but I (Smith - who else, ololol) expect the Kosovo Passport Issue returns with a vengeance if we do this
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| ** and i expect that the "swathes of desert punctuated by terrorists" issue rears its ugly head
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| * Mesoamerica (i am saying this due to, as is well known, being a fanboy of mayincatec remains, languages, etc.)
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| ** It is expensive and time-consuming to get there
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| *** could be worse, could be china (i recall it not being *too* expensive?)
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| **** China is attainable by train, which while of course slower than an aircraft is more interesting and probably less draining than a long-haul flight
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| ** I don't think it would be substantially more expensive to get to than other places listed, and (done right) I suspect cost of living would be low. I would be for a not-very-ambitious tour of one (or two) countries there.
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| *** I see your Palestinian terrorists above and raise you South American bandits
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| * South Sudan
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| ** Probably a great place for budget safaris, but basically no way to plan ahead. Cities surprisingly expensive because everything is catering to oil companies.
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| * A different African country
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| ** nominate Madagascar
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| * Somewhere much nearer home, with a view to doing it on a camping basis (eg perhaps the Shetlands in summer)
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| * This will probably be of no interest to anyone else but me (Smith), but a radical alternative would be to find a language immersion course and go on it as a group - either in the UK or overseas
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| === Dates ===
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| * A year after the previous one?
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| ** Good for purposes of holiday allowance
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| * At Comiket time?
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| * Setting aside the holiday-allowance issue for a moment, I (Smith) submit the following:
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| ** If we go for somewhere hot, then going in the winter might be an option
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| ** Conversely the Trans-Siberian and/or its branch lines might best be done in fairly high summer
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| === Things to bear in mind ===
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| * There is a significant danger that this will become hilariously expensive
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| * On a scale of ''n'' to ''m'', how attached are we to the idea of road-tripping as a method of transport?
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| ** road trip = trip by interesting transport (boat? (delian league, etc.)) = defined-tickboxy train trip (trans-siberian railway) > train trip > excursions from a hub by road > excursions from a hub by train
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| ** For my part, I (Smith) feel a train trip would not need to be a famous proper noun in order to compare favourably with a road trip; it would need merely to be sufficiently epic in scope (viz., Moscow-Beijing, Moscow-Ulan Baator-Beijing, Berlin-Novosibirsk etc). I think a boat trip would be risky indeed, as we do not know how all participants would fare over extended periods on the ocean wave
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| * It has been suggested that we either go somewhere we speak-a the lingo, or make an effort to learn-a the lingo, in an effort to avoid going out in the metaphorical noonday sun
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| === Attendees ===
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| * Lmm
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| * Smith
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| * mr edward a. heaney (probably)
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| === ARCHIVED CRAP ===
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| [[ARCHIVED CRAP]]
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