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3 hours ago

Review Icon thediverdriver reviewed Maldives in Countries:
I heard about all the buzz about the Maldives, how its so beautiful and also expensive. Got really interested and needed a vacation snappy! So I went for it and booked an entire week for me and my wife. At first I was worried because we all know how advertising can stretch the truth nowadays.

Upon arriving at the Maldives airport. I really got excited upon seeing the luxury speedboat they my resort was talking about. The ride from the airport to my resort was spectacular, everywhere you look was wonderful. Its ironic on how all those shades of blue can soothe all your blues away. The lagoons were in a turquoise like color and I was told that the scuba diving experience here is the best in the world.

At the resort, I treated myself to the ambrosial seafood and spent a lazy afternoon sinking in the soft powder like sand. At night you could relax with kickin tropical cocktails that believe it or not, really tasted a lot better than the ones back home. Excursions to other islands and the romantic private dinners are all so the thing to do for me in the Maldives. The Maldives made me realize that there is so much beauty out there just waiting to be experienced. I'm going back next year!
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10 hours ago

Review Icon obby reviewed Italy in Countries:
If I could I'd give it less than a star

-LOUD PEOPLE
-IGNORANT PEOPLE
-DIRTY CITIES
-INFRAESTRUCTURE IS TOTAL SHIT
-MOST CITIES OUTSIDE OF THE TOURISTY PARTS LOOK LIKE THIRD WORLD DUMPS
-THIEVES
-HIGHWAY ROBBERIES
-ANNOYING AMERICAN TOURISTS EVERY WHERE
-ANNOYING ITALIAN PEOPLE EVERY WHERE

THEY SHOULD RENAME THIS COUNTRY GYPSITALY.........
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10 hours ago

Review Icon obby reviewed Spain in Countries:
RACIST: they are so not politically correct, it's shocking to be in a so called rich developed western european country and hear people in the bus talking openly about how such and such race are all degenerates, lazy, thieves, hookers etc.......... and think this is just normal and should be accepted.

OVERRATED: the food is greasy, the beaches are poluted and overdeveloped, the landscape is brown, dry and boring............ the only people that think this place is fantastic is the hordes of working class brits and germans who flock here every summer by the millions looking to get wasted and to have a cheap fuck somewhere.

CHAUVINIST ARROGANT PEOPLE: I have yet to encounter a people more proud, chauvinistic and arrogant than the spaniards, some times the French look so nice next to them......... spaniards are convinced their country is the best thing that happened to mankind.

UNEMPLOYMENT: lots of it because of corrupted politicians and an overall buble economy dependant on tourism and contruction....... spaniards blame tourist, immigrants, gays, gypsies, latin americans, british, arabs, blacks, jews, the european union etc. etc. but themselves for their own economic problems!!!!

It's ok to go and be there a week or two, go to barcelona, madrid, seville and then GET THE FUCK OUT.
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10 hours ago

Review Icon obby reviewed Canada in Countries:
A continuation of the United States and its plastic society, its politically correct bullshit, its materialistic ignorant society, its fat lazy prejudice people etc.

Canada should be renamed Canadian United States of America .

Canada is like Texas but a lot more cold!!!
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10 hours ago

Review Icon obby reviewed United States of America in Countries:
Too racist for my taste........... every one is race obssesed and segregated unoficially from every one who is not racially like them.

The average person is a fat uneducated moron without a clue of anything concerning anything at all if it has nothing to do with their lives.

most cities are a neverending suburbia nightmare without much to do, unless of course you're in a major city like NYC or LA or chicago.... but if you are in about 95% of the country then there is not much to do other than drive around to the mall, or go to the local steakhouse and watch tv and just...... drive? (oh i mentioned that one already)

most people are not interested enough to be approachable, every one is so inward looking and with their heads so stuck up their owns asses that they simply do not care about the other, the human connection doesnt exist much

lack of public transportation in about 95% of the cities........... u pretty much need a car if u wanna live and work there............ is not like u can just hop on a bus and chill and go to work, u need a car like it or not in pretty much most cities outside of boston, NYC or chicago.

a gigantic amount of poor uneducated immigrants from just about everywhere on this planet, the immigrant part is not bad, I like cosmopolitan....... the sucky part is their children (first generation americans who brag all damn day about how italian,mexican,irish,chinese,philipino,african,etc . etc) they are to the point of making you sick of them u'll wanna beat them up, the bad part is they are often uneducated and suffering from an identity crisis, become racist from living in once again a very segregated racial society.

too much violent agressive people

women are snobby on average and think they are god's gift to men, in reality most arent pretty, rather fat, loud, lazy and spoiled.... of course in america they think they are IT, outside of america in places like south america or europe, american girls sort of become secondary and they just step into the back aftrer seeing they cant compete with overseas females.

every one is obssesed with the mall
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2 days ago

Review Icon jedi58 reviewed Machu Picchu in UNESCO World Heritage/Cultural Sites:
The main purpose of my trip to Peru was to see the amazing Inca city of Machu Picchu. Anything else I got to see in Peru was just a bonus (of which there was a lot of other things we saw as we travelled all around the country).

The journey to Machu Picchu started at 4:30am in Cusco due to having to be ready and at the San Pedro train station for a 6am departure so we could make it to Aguas Calientes (spanish for "warm water") as early as possible. We actually made it to the train station with time to spare despite the hotels promise of a 5am breakfast arriving at 5:20am with no time to eat it.

The train we took to Aguas Calientes was a little different to British trains - it was called a Vistadome as it had windows in the roof too. PeruRail use these trains so that tourists can see everything around them on the 4 hour train journey. As the trains are short on space, all we could take were our backpacks - our luggage had to be left at the Samay hotel in Cusco for a couple of days until we got back. Despite the tiredness from yet another early start it was an enjoyable trip getting to see many views of the valley and the Inca trail, whilst getting to eat a small breakfast on board.

When we arrived, we didn't get to check in to the hotel (the Hanaqpacha Inn) so I took my backpack with lenses and cameras up Machu Picchu to the ruins without being able to empty what I didn't need. We didn't climb Machu Picchu (that's the name of the mountain and not the ruins on it), we instead took the bus up to the top which took around 25 minutes. It's the easy way to do it and doesn't really give the same experience - but it meant we could spend more time looking around the extensive site of ruins. Besides, if you know how much camera equipment I lug around you'd understand why it was better to catch the bus.



Machu Picchu is both a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a UNESCO World Cultural site with it's very distinctive ruins, and the nearby Huayna Picchu which features in almost every photograph people take at Machu Picchu. The best observation point for the ruins is where we headed first - to the guard house. It was from around this point that most of the "famous" views of Machu Picchu have been taken due to how amazing it looks to have the ruins offset by Huayna Picchu behind them; photos really don't do the place justice. From there we gradually worked our way around the ruins taking a phenomenal number of photographs. I apologise in advance for the number of photographs you'll encounter in this review as I found it hard to narrow down which ones I wanted to post here.








For a couple of hours we were led around by our tour guide who was making sure we found the right places to satisfy our need to take photographs. By 13:00 our guide had left us to explore by ourselves; it was a good thing really as she commented on the rocks (their size and shape) almost continuously. We took this opportunity to go around taking more photographs and to sit around admiring the view for a while. One of the places we visited during this time was the "Inca bridge". It was a reasonable walk round to it, but along a precarious path that was less than a metre wide in places with an extremely large drop at the edge of the path. It's not like England where we insist on putting barriers up everywhere to keep people safe - if you got too close to the edge you'd be plummeting quite some distance. I'm serious too - one wrong step on the narrow path round to the bridge and you'll be plummeting to your death. After finally making it round to the Inca bridge there wasn't much to see - just a huge gap in the path with a few planks of wood stretched across.



A few hours of walking around, we'd done at Machu Picchu and went back down the mountain to Aguas Calientes to look around the market we'd passed earlier that day. It was quite a large market and took us a few hours to look around buying souvenirs to take back home. Other than a statue of Timu I'd bought for $30 in Nazca I hadn't really bought much up until then, so I bought a Machu Picchu t-shirt, a couple of ornaments of Machu Picchu, an Incan Cross fridge magnet, and a couple of animals carved from the local stone. The souvenirs in the market are quite cheap and there is a good variety of local made goods, but mostly similar to ones sold in other places such as the Indian market in Pisaq.

As we hadn't bothered with lunch due to not wanting to lose any time up in the ruins, and because it was starting to get quite late we decided to see what restaurants there were. Most of them were pizzerias, but we went with a small restaurant called Julio's where I tried a peppered Alpaca steak and a strawberry pancake - both were absolute delicious. If you've not tried Alpaca before then it tastes like beef, only sweeter. If you're not sure what an Alpaca is, it's kind of like a llama (see my review of Cusco for a pic of a baby alpaca). One thing to note about the steak that in addition to the vegetables it came with the customary fries and rice which is a staple of all Peruvian meals it seems.

The following morning we had another 4:30am start so that we could get to the top of Machu Picchu before sunrise. Unfortunately our guide insisted on coming with us despite the fact it said on our itinerary that we would have a free day to roam Machu Picchu. The early morning was very cloudy and it seemed strange to be sitting above them waiting for them to clear. By the time the clouds began to fade the sun had already been up for a couple of hours and as the clouds parted it started to give the place an eerie atmosphere that was almost enchanting. We waited until about 7am to get some decent shots from where we had been waiting, but we gave up and let our tour guide finish her tour which only lasted until 9:30am anyway. We didn't really see much new this day, but we did see a pair of Condors circling the ruins which justified out decision not to go to Arequipa especially to see them. We also managed to get some photos we didn't get the day before to help give a better overview of what the place was like.











Back down in Aguas Calientes we still had a bit of extra time to waste so we wandered around to see what the town had to offer and found a Plaza de Armas with a couple of statues to take pictures of before returning to the Hanaqpacha Inn for a quick meal. Whilst waiting around in the hotel to pass time before our train back to Cusco we got talking to some Australians who had been touring South America and were working their way up. They'd been evacuated from Chile into Peru after the volcano erupted.



On one of the two days (I forget which), I also managed to creep up very slowly on a small rodent that looked like a cross between a squirrel and a rabbit which is called a "Northern Viscacha" (Lagidium peruanum). I do mean very close too - I was sitting less than a metre away when I finally took a picture of it!



I'm not sure how much entry or travel to Machu Picchu costs as it was part of a package deal I paid for that covered touring of the whole country but I would imagine it wouldn't be that much. To be honest I don't think I can really stress enough how amazing this place is - if you ever get the chance to go there you really should go.
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2 days ago

Review Icon irishgit reviewed Historic District of Old Quebec in UNESCO World Heritage/Cultural Sites:
Quebec City is a fascinating place, and is the last surviving example of a fortified colonial town in North America north of Mexico. The setting on the bluffs above the St. Lawrence is spectacular, the fortifications, Citadel and other features are intriguing, and the city itself is a lot of fun, provided you at least try to speak French.
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2 days ago

Review Icon blueadventure reviewed Maldives in Countries:
Went to the Maldives with the whole family, everyone had a blast. Our villa had its own beach and pool which drove everyone crazy. Our room had so much space, we spent long days under the sun, lounging around and having drinks at night underneath the stars. The view was outrageous, the clear blue water and the stretch of white sand beach was just perfect. Will definitely go back again, next time it's going to be just me and my husband.
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2 days ago

Review Icon jedi58 reviewed Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata in UNESCO World Heritage/Cultural Sites:
We made our way over to the Garibaldi train station in Napoli and was able to get tickets to Pompeii very easily from the ticket office. The thing to remember here is that the tickets are actually in the direction of Salerno and that they have two types of train which go there. It was a bit confusing trying to follow the directions we were given to get to the correct platform. Eventually we found someone on one of the underground platforms who was able to translate directions from a guard for us. So we followed his directions and got down off the platform and crossed the railway track onto the platform on the other side just as we'd been told to. Sure enough when a train pulled in it said Salerno on it, so we were confident we were about embark in the correct direction.

We were a bit dubious as to whether or not the train was the correct one, it seemed a bit too run-down and empty for it to be the main way of getting to Pompeii from Naples. It's a strange journey when you're constantly looking out for signs to try and figure out whether or not it's the right train after you've already boarded it. It took about 3 stops to finally find one which we could find on the map in my tour book - I did have a feeling we were heading in the right direction before that but it's always a relief to know for sure. The train followed the coastline around avoiding most the settlements and took around 40 minutes to get us to the Pompeii Scavi stop.

When you get off the train at the stop we did you'd be fooled into thinking that the ruins of ancient Pompeii aren't important to the locals. We wandered around the town looking for the ruins and we found a tourism place, however it was closed. By some miracle it wasn't that long until we found an entrance into the ruins. It costs €11 to get inside the ruins, and at the time we were led to believe that it also included Herculaneum. The first thing you can see from the Piazza Anfiteatro entrance into the ancient city is an amphitheatre (which is anfiteatro in Italian which is where the name for the entrance comes from). As it seemed fairly empty around this area we decided to move fast and get as many photographs as we could which were clear of tourists so we turned west down Necropoli di Porta Nocera which is lined with tombs.







On the way from the entrance to the main road through Pompeii (which leads to the Forum) we had a reason to pause - I noticed an Italian wall lizard scurrying along one of the walls so had to pause for photographs and some video. It's amazing how fast they move, and whilst watching them we managed to see two chasing each other and fighting in the middle of the "road". Unfortunately the ones we saw didn't stay still much either so it was hard to get really close up photographs of them but I did the best I could. From here we continued on to Via dell'Abbondanza which led directly to the forum. This area of Pompeii always seems to be filled with tourists making it so incredibly hard to take good shots clear of other people. Around this area there is also a number of bodies covered in ash, which has effectively frozen them in time so you can see what they were doing at the time of the catastrophe. One of the bodies here is squatting, suggesting that the poor victim knew the futility of running and instead cowered in fear. They're not really bodies inside though - when they excavated at Pompeii they created plastercast moulds from the empty air pockets where the bodies had been before decomposing.











From the forum it's not far down Via dell Tombe to the Villa dei Misteri where there is another body, one which looks like his or her last moments were sheer agony from the look on their face. It's hard to imagine what these people must have been thinking and how they reacted to their impending doom. From the few bodies on display in Pompeii we can at least guess that not everyone acted the same way; it wasn't like a Hollywood disaster movie.





By this time it was getting close to mid-afternoon so we headed in the direction of the amphitheatre back near where we'd started so we'd done a full lap of Pompeii and had lunch. There is a restaurant near the port entrance to the ruins, however I'm not sure what it's like (though I expect it to be expensive) as I instead got some food from a supermarket in Napoli and made sandwiches.

The ramp leading down into the Amphitheatre is actually quite steep so I'd recommend wearing sensible footwear. When we left, we did so via the Porta Marina exit which actually comes out at another train station, the circumvesuviana which is what we should have used on the way to Pompeii. We didn't take the train all the way back to Naples as we wanted to go up the volcano which caused the devastation all those years ago, Vesuvius.



We were told the best place to go up there from was Ercalano so we got off at Ercalano Scavi and almost immediately after leaving the train station we found a tourist place that did bus trips up the volcano. The bus ride up cost €16.50 each, and it was lucky we'd gotten there when we did - the last bus up was at 15:50. Whilst waiting in the tourism place we started talking to a couple of American girls from Dallas (Texas) though I forget their names now. They were on the homeward stretch of their own journey which had started in Paris and had continued from the top of Italy, working their way down from city to city. Of course it was kind of similar to what we'd just started doing, just in reverse and with a different starting country. The bus ride zigzags up the side of the volcano and is reminiscent of the bus journey up Machu Picchu from Agua Callientes the previous year; except this time it was safer as there were barriers to stop you going over the edge should you find yourself needing to swerve. When the bus stops it is still not the top. We were given until 17:10 to reach the summit, look around, and get back. So we wandered up with the two American girlss, talking about the differences between British and American culture and of what we'd seen so far.



When we reached the crater I think the reaction my friend gave is the same sort of reaction many people seem to give when visiting a volcano and that is to wonder where all the lava is. Some people don't seem to realise that an active volcano can be plugged - which in face most are except for the most active of them (or those which are about to blow). In hindsight it probably wasn't the cleverest of ideas, but after we had finished at the summit of the volcano we decided to run back down it to make sure we weren't late. If you've ever run down steep sides where the floor beneath you is loose then you'll realise how bad an idea it actually is. There were various points where the running wasn't just running but more of a slide as we had to try and get round corners. Normally you'd slow down for a corner when you're running or driving, but when the ground is so loose you can't actually slow yourself down it is not particularly easy. The thing about Italy was that it was so much hotter than Berlin as well, we were well into the 30's (Celsius) and after running it only makes you feel hotter.

After Vesuvius we headed to the ruins of Herculaneum in Ercalano with the Americans. Unfortunately we couldn't actually enter the ruins as the tickets we were led to believe at the kiosk in Pompeii would cover Herculaneum as well did not. So we said farewell to the Americans and wished them well for the remainder of their holiday as we made our way back to the Ercalano Scavi train station. Once more we had a bit of trouble with the trains in that our tickets were refusing to validate, however one of the locals who was about to get the same train was able to help us by fooling the machine into thinking it was a different ticket. The amusing thing here though is that it was the ticket attendants idea for the lady helping us to try that!



The train ride back was a little interesting to say the least. Normally it would be safe to say that if you are on a moving train that the doors would be closed. Right? Wrong! Locals were hanging out of the doors of the speeding train to keep cool in the searing summer heat. I can only imagine what would have happened if we'd passed another train too closely. I'm only guessing here, but I think they would have regretted it. As I'd been standing near the doors due to the busyness of the train I opted to sit on the floor instead as it seemed like the safer option.

When we were back at the Napoli Garibaldi station we were a little worried whether or not our tickets would work on the barriers considering our tickets wouldn't validate properly despite having bought them from the ticket office. Fortunately we never got to find out as the barriers were open - but once through we realised where we'd made the mistake in the morning. The person at the ticket office had told us our platform was at the end of the station and to turn right there - which we thought we had. As it turned out there was a little entrance just past the one we'd taken in the morning which led to the Napoli Metropolitane.

I think personally I'd recommend visitors to Pompeii to skip Napoli and to only use it as a waypoint as it's not worth stopping there. However, visiting Pompeii is highly recommended. I saw that most people went there as part of a tour group, but I really don't think it's necessary as you get a map on entering anyway.
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2 days ago

Review Icon Djahuti reviewed Stonehenge in UNESCO World Heritage/Cultural Sites:
The English countryside on the way there was spectacular 30 years or so ago when I was lucky enough to visit this ancient and mysterious site.One could still walk among the megaliths then and the "vibes" were sure heavy.Sadly,there was graffitti and some walking turds had chipped away pieces of the huge stones.Today,thanks to such arseholes it is all fenced off.Still,if you know the right people you can get in.Friends of mine spent the full moon night of one of the pagan holy days there a few years back and came home grinning ear to ear.
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