BassoonBuffoon Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 woo hoo for trips around the world! That looked like a rousing good time...(too bad you didn't have Elissa) ...speaking of Elissa...I picked up on the phalice thing too...
Real Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Those buildings are beautiful. They have some awesome architecture, I love it. Great pictures, safe trip home Robb!
robbalvey Posted August 3, 2005 Author Posted August 3, 2005 I'm back at home. Jet leg is pretty sucky right now. Considering that I got on my flight at midnight HK time, I ended up sleeping for about 8-9 hours of the 13 hour flight, and landed in craptacular Los Angeles at 10pm after having a full nights sleep! Â Getting into L.A. REALLY sucked. Yet another reason why I want to get the hell out of this area. I had more difficulty communicating with people in the airport than I did in Portugal or Hong Kong! And it was for simple stuff "Where can I get a luggage kart?" Â It was such a dis-organized mess. They decided to have our bags come down TWO luggage carousels, and then without telling anyone started pulling bags off the carousels and piling them up on top of each other in a stack. So if your bag wasn't on a carousel, you needed to go to the pile and dig through it to get your bag! Â Almost an hour later, my bag finally arrived on the belt. They were coming off so slowly at one point I could just picture the one lazy guy on the other side......walk slowly to get one bag, meander over to the belt, plot the bag down, stop and think about tacos and burritos for a moment, walk back to get another bag, repeat. Â Seriously, they were coming down like one bag every 10 seconds! Â Did I encounter anything like this in Lisbon, London, or Hong Kong? Nope! *sigh* Â Anyway, we finally got home just before 1am (and my flight landed at 10!!!) and I crashed out for two hours, and here I am wide awake again at 3am. Â Oh, well, it's good to be back home, and now I'm going to start working on the BIG Europe photo update as well as a few more video segments. Â Thanks to everyone for reading the trip around the world updates! Â --Robb
Groteslurf Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 ^Good morning Robb, Â glad to read you made it home safely. Really looking forward to yr europe updates ! Benny
Ghost Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Welcome back... now this jetlag is a good thing... you can't sleep.. we get videos... its a Win-Win situation
Prendies Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Welcome home robb! Â I had a 13 hour flight back from New Zealand (to UK) a few weeks a go and the time difference is 12 hours! This means i arrive back home 1 hour after leaving, but i've been on the plane for 13 hours. Very confusing and leaves you with loads of jetlag. loodshot:
CoasterFanatic Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Good to see you made it back home, Robb. I enjoyed reading the updates (as always). Â Seriously, they were coming down like one bag every 10 seconds! Â Trust me, the airports in my neck of the woods are just as capable of this crap. PIT usually takes me 60-75 minutes to get my bags. It is just rediculous when any other airport has them on the belt in 15-20.
disneygurlz2s Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Welcome back to the good old US! You definitely have a way of finding the unusual sights!! I love it. Â HK Disney looks awesome, but is there a castle??? It must be compact like Disneyland's?? Â Shari
robbalvey Posted August 3, 2005 Author Posted August 3, 2005 ^ Yes, it's a replica of the Disneyland mini-version. So not only will it be dwarfed by the park's own mountian range, you got the real mountains of Hong Kong to help hide it too! Â Â --Robb
davidmorton Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 On the subject of airports/baggage - those of you who read my TR the other day will know that my bags were missing after a flight from Dallas-Chicago-Manchester....  ...well the update is that I finally got my bag on Saturday (5 1/2 days after I got back) - and some baggage handler had nicked a load of stuff out of it...rather random stuff at that;  My electric shaver (which was quite good, but quite old and held together with tape!!) A guide book on Texas (but they left the OTHER guide book on Texas!?!?) A mini-camera tripod (worth about £5 - and left the flash card thingy worth about £45) 10 packets of candy (using up my holiday $$$$s) And my England football top (presumably a Mexican baggage handler had nicked this as I'm sure an American would not have recognised it, nor cared about it!!!!)  Bemused!  :?
dandaman Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Am I correct in assuming you complained loudly to the luggage service?
robbalvey Posted August 3, 2005 Author Posted August 3, 2005 ^ What's the point? It's not as though yet ANOTHER obnoxious complaining American is going to do any good! I've stopped complaining about things like poor customer service, slow operations, etc. I just now choose to NOT patronize places that don't have good service whenever possible. Â Sometimes it's not avoidable, but I think it speaks louder when you stop giving your money to places than it does yelling at someone about it. Â That's my thought. Â --Robb
deathmole Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Â I had a 13 hour flight back from New Zealand (to UK) a few weeks a go and the time difference is 12 hours! This means i arrive back home 1 hour after leaving, but i've been on the plane for 13 Â Thats impressive, hats of to you mate, I went last year, and it took around eleven hours to get from Singapore to New Zealand alone, so you did really well. Â Rob and Dave, you got lucky, I had stuff nicked from my bags when they were lost (NY to UK) AND I had to go BACK to Manchester airport to collect them (via train), now THATS customer service! Â Â Sometimes it's not avoidable, but I think it speaks louder when you stop giving your money to places than it does yelling at someone about it. Â I agree, but usually I shout and then dont give them my money, petty, but it satisifes me! Â Glad you had a good trip Robb
Meteornotes Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Sometimes it's not avoidable, but I think it speaks louder when you stop giving your money to places than it does yelling at someone about it. Â Words of wisdom, indeed. This is why I stopped visiting certain parks... Â dt
dandaman Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 ^ What's the point? It's not as though yet ANOTHER obnoxious complaining American is going to do any good! I've stopped complaining about things like poor customer service, slow operations, etc. I just now choose to NOT patronize places that don't have good service whenever possible. Sometimes it's not avoidable, but I think it speaks louder when you stop giving your money to places than it does yelling at someone about it.  That's my thought.  --Robb  Hmmm... you make an excellent point... Why yell when you can boycott?
Hattuchili Posted August 3, 2005 Posted August 3, 2005 Hey Robb, glad to hear you are save back home! I really enjoyed your daily updates. Thanks for posting!  --Sören "cant wait to see your Europen Trip photos" Schomburg
smells_like_team_disney Posted August 4, 2005 Posted August 4, 2005 Well, now that I've updated myself on all the recent happenings, it's good to know you're back home safely. As always, you're photos and TRs never fail to amaze, especially the shots of Hong Kong (Bank of China... :love: ).
coasters 4 me Posted August 4, 2005 Posted August 4, 2005 Glad you got home safely Robb. I really liked the updates.
Coasterlicious Posted August 5, 2005 Posted August 5, 2005 This might be a dumb question but.. why did you have to fly to NYC .. cant you just leave from L.A and go accross the Pacific?
deathmole Posted August 5, 2005 Posted August 5, 2005 ^ I think he went to Europe first, so your thinking the wrong way round.
coasters 4 me Posted August 5, 2005 Posted August 5, 2005 ^Yeah, he went to Lisbon, Portugal first and then onto Hong Kong.
robbalvey Posted August 26, 2005 Author Posted August 26, 2005 This might be a dumb question but.. why did you have to fly to NYC .. cant you just leave from L.A and go accross the Pacific? Yes, we were in Europe first. Normally I would have flown from LAX to LHR and then onto Lisbon, but since this trip ended up being very last minute, those flights were sold out. Â It was difficult doing the route I did because it made it very difficult to get any sleep on the flights! Â I'm sure that contribued to my loopiness once I got to Lisbon! lackeye: Â --Robb "Redeye's are NOT fun!" Alvey
the sound Posted January 23, 2006 Posted January 23, 2006 i can't wait any longer to say this... Â That German porn thingie, there is a simalir one in Spain! (in Seville)
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