Vacations and big poppas adventures

[PrivatePilot]

Russia was fine. Not the worst place in the world we've been to. By far!

But my wife is Slavic and we have friends there, so maybe we had a bit of an insiders scoop...

Was that since the war started though?

Pre war, maybe. Since? Hard no. The politics of making examples out of people from some countries has intensified it seems.

 

[bigpoppa]

If we got back together, id go tomorrow, or maybe we'd meet up on another tropical island again or neutral country

Requesting the mods change username to 001

 

[Lightcycle]

Was that since the war started though?

Pre war, maybe. Since? Hard no. The politics of making examples out of people from some countries has intensified it seems.

Pre-war, but my friend in Russia says it's not that bad at ground level. If you can get a tourist visa, foreigners aren't being hassled. More locals being rounded up because of the protests.

I think, like most things, things get sensationalized and isolated events get blown out of proportion. Especially in the west, as there is an anti-Russia propaganda machine at work on our side of the veil.

Our next-door neighbour is Russian and he married a Ukrainian girl. They have lots of stories to tell - stories that are much different than what you see and read on the news.

 

[PrivatePilot]

think, like most things, things get sensationalized and isolated events get blown out of proportion. Especially in the west,

I don’t doubt that’s the case, but I’ll not only err on the side of caution, but will also not spend a dime of my tourist money in a country that has acted like Russia has with Ukraine.

Hopefully if Ukraine is still Ukraine when this is all over, it is a place I’d like to visit and spend tourist money in however.

 

[Lightcycle]

I don’t doubt that’s the case, but I’ll not only err on the side of caution, but will also not spend a dime of my tourist money in a country that has acted like Russia has with Ukraine.

Hopefully if Ukraine is still Ukraine when this is all over, it is a place I’d like to visit and spend tourist money in however.

Fair. But there are people struggling to make ends meet over there and they are suffering because of policies and decisions made at a much higher level than street-level shop-keepers and restaurant owners.

If you have a business here in Canada and some guy in Belgium said he wouldn't spend a dime in your store because of how the federal government has mistreated the indigenous here, how would you feel?

 

[PrivatePilot]

If you have a business here in Canada and some guy in Belgium said he wouldn't spend a dime in your store because of how the federal government has mistreated the indigenous here, how would you feel?

I’d say that’s his prerogative, but comparing the indigenous situation here to the Russia/Ukraine thing is leaning pretty heavily into apples and oranges in my opinion. The indigenous situation here is disgraceful (and much of it is in the past now), but at least the current government has made some efforts to try to mend things and address it. Russia however is actively in the midst of an unjustified and unprompted invasion of another sovereign nation.

There’s quite a difference.

I get it and respect the fact that the average person in Russia may not support this and are hurting as a result, but a lot of the population *do* support it, albeit that percentage is dropping as what was supposed to be a weeks or months type thing has dragged into years, but that’s another story.

So my point stands.

 

[Lightcycle]

I’d say that’s his prerogative, but comparing the indigenous situation here to the Russia/Ukraine thing is leaning pretty heavily into apples and oranges in my opinion. The indigenous situation here is disgraceful (and much of it is in the past now), but at least the current government has made some efforts to try to mend things and address it. Russia however is actively in the midst of an unjustified and unprompted invasion of another sovereign nation.

There’s quite a difference.

I get it and respect the fact that the average person in Russia may not support this and are hurting as a result, but a lot of the population *do* support it, albeit that percentage is dropping as what was supposed to be a weeks or months type thing has dragged into years, but that’s another story.

So my point stands.

Not to belabour the point, but the US has committed its fair share of atrocities against other sovereign nations, like the unjustified invasion of Iraq, yet tourism to the States remained largely unaffected due to its control of media.

But you're right, everyone's free to pick and choose which nations to punish and reward based on their personal convictions and feelings. Just be aware of how those convictions are shaped by where you live and what you're shown in the carefully curated media that you're allowed to consume.

 

[PrivatePilot]

what you're shown in the carefully curated media that you're allowed to consume

The wise don't consume only one flavour or source of media. The wise read things from a lot of sources and draw their own conclusions based on all of the information they gathered. I am not like the person who only watches Newsmax or Fox News and forms my entire identify and every decision in life around what I'm spoon fed, I am the type of person who gathers info from a lot of different sources on both sides of the political fence and then forms an educated opinion based on such.

That being said, 90% of this decision for me however is the reality that it was an unwarranted, unjustified, and unprovoked invasion against a soverign democratic country. A good portion of the rest really doesn't matter much in the decision making process to me anymore when this is fact #1.

 

[Lightcycle]

That being said, 90% of this decision for me however is the reality that it was an unwarranted, unjustified, and unprovoked invasion against a soverign democratic country. A good portion of the rest really doesn't matter much in the decision making process to me anymore when this is fact #1.

Did you travel to the US around 2003?

 

[POWERMAN]

'Anyone else get 'You go alone?" from non riders when you mention a long ride/tour you're planning or have done..?

I met this guy, Damian, at a Canadian tire parking lot a few months ago.
Single guy in his 50s, no family/kids. Sold his house, quit his job and has been riding for the past year or so.
Told me life is way to short to keep pushing out dreams...makes me think about what he said whenever I come across comments like this.

 

[Lightcycle]

Single guy in his 50s, no family/kids. Sold his house, quit his job and has been riding for the past year or so.

Sounds to me like he's a little bit cuckoo in the head...

 

[PrivatePilot]

Did you travel to the US around 2003?

I see where you're going with this, but for the record, we travelled very little to the USA for about a decade around the at time. Visited family and came home on Y2K eve, and then really didn't visit much at all until 2011 when we started cruising, and even then it was simply to get to/from a cruise port, not actually actively touring the country and spending money along the way. The only exception was 2008 when we came home across the USA from an RV trip to Vancouver.

It's really only been in the last 10 years that we've started actively touring again and spending significant amounts of money as part of that.

And I've already expressed my opinions in other threads about how much less we'll probably visit the USA in the next 4 years if you know who actually does all of the reprehensible crap he says he plans to do, but that's another story.

But we'd best move on from the politics otherwise the thread will get punted to Trash Talk, however... We'll have to agree to disagree on things.

 

[Lightcycle]

But we'd best move on from the politics otherwise the thread will get punted to Trash Talk, however... We'll have to agree to disagree on things.

Agree. Let's talk about those yummy steaks of yours!

 

[PrivatePilot]

Agree. Let's talk about those yummy steaks of yours!

I think those were Halenda's. Every now and then I go full YOLO, just want a giant slab of meat, and just don't care about the price.

(Wait, that was another thread, people gonna be confused lol)

 

[Lightcycle]

I think those were Halenda's. Every now and then I go full YOLO, just want a giant slab of meat, and just don't care about the price.

Certainly a lot less than $200...?

 

[Evoex]

Deciding vacations on what the destination country has/is currently doing domestically/internationally or otherwise...that dog don't hunt.

Your right to choose, but you would probably be hard pressed to find a worthy destination that hasn't done some shady business at one point in their modern history. e.g. Ukraine has not been kind to it's Russian speaking population...even though said Russo/Ukrainians they have done everything in their power to be a nuisance to the rest of Ukraine. And that's not my opinion, that's from my best friend who was born in Kyiv.

I do agree with @PrivatePilot, Russia is best avoided simply because of the current domestic political situation. Sometimes you need to let things settle down a bit in the region before travelling safely makes sense. Hopefully 'it' will still be there when the situation moves on.

I think as long as the focus of the topic is centered on vacation and not geopolitics it's fine to merge the 2 conversations.

 

[Lightcycle]

But we'd best move on from the politics otherwise the thread will get punted to Trash Talk, however...

I think as long as the focus of the topic is centered on vacation and not geopolitics it's fine to merge the 2 conversations.

I would very much like to a see a dogfight between a "staff member" and a "moderator". Would it be a mad dash to see who hits the banhammer button first?

 

[mimico_polak]

Deciding vacations on what the destination country has/is currently doing domestically/internationally or otherwise...that dog don't hunt.

Your right to choose, but you would probably be hard pressed to find a worthy destination that hasn't done some shady business at one point in their modern history. e.g. Ukraine has not been kind to it's Russian speaking population...even though said Russo/Ukrainians they have done everything in their power to be a nuisance to the rest of Ukraine. And that's not my opinion, that's from my best friend who was born in Kyiv.

I do agree with @PrivatePilot, Russia is best avoided simply because of the current domestic political situation. Sometimes you need to let things settle down a bit in the region before travelling safely makes sense. Hopefully 'it' will still be there when the situation moves on.

I think as long as the focus of the topic is centered on vacation and not geopolitics it's fine to merge the 2 conversations.

Don’t look into how the Ukrainians treated the Polaks during WWII.

Vast majority of countries have at times been horrifying to their neighbours or weaker members of their population.

Canada, US, Australia, Poland, Ukraine, France, Germany, and the list goes on and on and on.

If the criteria is to go to a country with a clean past…it’ll be a very short list of destinations.

 

[Evoex]

I would very much like to a see a dogfight between a "staff member" and a "moderator". Would it be a mad dash to see who hits the banhammer button first?

I assume he has far more 'powers' then I do, wouldn't be much of a fight.

But I think I know him well enough by now to believe he's more then happy to leave the thread cleanup/monitoring to the mods while he works on the 'back end stuff'. Because once he falls into the moderation rabbit hole there's no getting out.

Until then he can just and go to bed happy everynight.

 

[PrivatePilot]

I would very much like to a see a dogfight between a "staff member" and a "moderator". Would it be a mad dash to see who hits the banhammer button first?

Good thing we’re all professionals.

And what @Evoex said.