Tulum, Mexico

We spent 10 days in Mexico as part of our my Uncles 50th birthday celebrations. We spent the first 3 days in the village of Tulum and then 7 days in the Crowne Palace Hotel in Cancun. Yip, thats right. The place where all the American youngsters flock to for the warm weather, huge parties and the main reason which is the drinking age is 18 instead of 21 as it is in the US.

Before I get started, take a look at the picture of the Gov and I on the front page. Who looks more dodgy and possibly suspicious? I think I win that comparison hands down. Clearly the yanks have had an influx of petit, innocent looking girls trying to get up to mischief in their country. Through our groups journey in and out of the states, the Gov was "randomly" selected and searched three times on different days. Work that one out!

We landed at the airport and organised a hire van to get our crowd down to Tulum which is about 2 hours south of the Airport. After avoiding a few scams from various shady locals we set off on our trip which is always fun with a car full of people who have never driven on the right side of the road before.

Le Nuestro Petit Hotel.

Tulum is a great little town. Its fairly rustic, especially when compared to Cancun and so was our accommodation at Le Nuestro Petit Hotel. You can't drink the water in the village and we were encouraged by the russian manager to not throw anything into the toilet, even toilet paper after its intended use. We should rather use the bin next to the toilet instead. Needless to say that none of us could actually bring ourselves to do this so we flushed the dodgy paper and left dummy pieces of clean toilet paper in the little bins. (Apologies to the hotel owner if she ever reads this.)

We were also asked to only run our airconditioners when we were in the rooms. This idea, too, did not last very long and pretty soon we had our own private fridges to sleep in while in the sweltering heat of Mexico.

You can walk around the village all day and all night long visiting bars, restaurants and various shops. Things are reasonably priced and a few late nights were enjoyed by all. In the morning we would have our free continental breakfast at our little hotel which was more like a B&B actually. Please note the "continental breakfast" in Mexico means a toasted roll with jam on it and some paw paw. The tea is weak and the coffee is so strong that it is probably used as engine cleaner if not consumed.

The main reason we used Tulum as our base was because the very next day we were all going to Xelha. (Pronounced Shelha.)

Xelha

This was a natural, supersized water park and for a certain amount you arrived at 8:30am and left at 6pm. You only wore your baggies, water shoes or slops and a rash vest if you had any hope of sleeping that night. It also included all your meals and drinks and you could borrow flippers and goggles there. Some of the crew also bought tickets to swim with dolphins which they really enjoyed.

The Gov and Flipper

After some greasy American and Mexican food and a few Corona's and Margarita's we tackled the Cliff of Courage" which was nothing more than a 4 metre drop into the river, we drifted down the river on tubes and stopped along the way to ride various slides and rope walks etc. Once at the end we topped up our drinks at one of the numerous Corona draught machines which were situated everywhere and climbed into some hammocks for an afternoon siesta.

The place to go after one too many Corona's.

A few water rides later and even more attempts to catch one of the numerous Iquanas that littered the place we made our way home. Back at the hotel I spotted the owner playing a guitar for his family and felt it only right to thank them for their hospitality with a South African love song. I snatched his guitar and proceeded to give my best rendition of Ryperd. The scary thing is that I dont know how to play Ryperd but these are minor details, it was the effort that mattered. An unimpressed owner claimed his beloved guitar back with a growl. I could have sworn that my coffee tasted a little more funky than usual the next morning.

Next we went to the Mayan ruins in Tulum and this was an incredible site even today long after the Spaniards had done their damage. We were encouraged to hire a guide as, we were assured, this would add to our experience as the Mayans were ahead of their time and super smart astrologists or something along those lines. In the end we got some short little old man who had a big head and even bigger ears and rambled so softly that we couldn't understand him. We named him Yoda for his size, his ears and for the way he constructed his sentences with complete disregard for the laws of the english language.

Yoda, in all his greatness.

As I said, the ruins were excellent but completely overrun by tourists. I dont think I have a single photo without a group of people in it.

Tulum Ruins

Our next stop was at the Grande Cenote. Now these puppies are natural underground caves filled with the cleanest and clearest water you have ever seen. You walk down some stairs, throw on your goggles and flippers and slowly make your way underground as far as you dare, swimming into the blackness. It is an eery yet breathtaking experience and my brother in law and I had to do our best to coax our respective Gov's into the caves.

We commented on the Scuba divers that we could see 10 or 12 metres below us who were swimming off into the kilometres of underground caves, to which someone said that it was just the other day that 5 went in and only 4 came out. Eish!

Top view of the entrance to Grande Cenote

With the rustic part of our Mexico trip completed we packed up and headed to Cancun and our stay at the Crown Palace Hotel.To be continued...

New York you biscuit!

The gov, my wife, and I recently went on a trip to New York as part of a family vacation. We were fortunate enough to get some voyager miles from the family which meant all our flights were taken care of. All we had to do was pay for the hotel and all the odds and ends. So we broke open the piggy bank, counted our pennies and booked a special that Expedia had on offer to the New York Palace.

A long flight later and with very little sleep we arrived at JFK airport and caught a shuttle to our hotel.

WOW!!!

We arrived at the hotel and were immediately upgraded to a better room by the guy at the front desk as it was our first and probably last visit to the hotel and to New York. The view left us speechless...

St Patricks Cathedral

Eager to pound the pavement, we dumped our bags and headed straight across the road to the Cathedral for a look inside. The beauty of the place was absolutely incredible. When I looked across at the gov, she was actually crying. Naturally I apologised for whatever I must have done wrong but she was simply caught up in the place.

We probably averaged 10 to 15km day and night. Apparently there are places to avoid late at night but we never found them and walked around, quite happily, at midnight. By using the subway we covered most of the island in four days. We went to the Rockefeller Centre which lets you know, very quickly, how big and busy New York actually is.

The view of Central Park from the Top of the Rock.

We watched the Phantom of the Opera, the longest running show on Broadway, from front row seats after the Gov batted her eyelids at the cashier who promptly gave us 50% off. We walked Central Park which can easily take an entire day to get around. Visited the Raging Bull in Wall Street and the Twin towers site. We walked through Times Square at night which is a site to behold! There's enough advertising there to make a life long vegetarian head straight to Mickey D's!

Times Square

We took the Statten Island Ferry which goes past the Statue of Liberty and gave us some great pictures. Its free and fitted into my Scottish budget very well. For those who are travelling with their wives, girlfriends and/or secretaries do you best to avoid a place called Macy's. This place is like Gateway Shopping Centre on Steroids! 3 hours later, an extremely happy gov emerged followed by myself lugging plenty of shopping bags. A good place for some bargain shopping though.

We witnessed New York turn green as they celebrated St Patricks Day. We watched the parade for hours until our feet started to hurt. As the saying goes, you're either Irish or you wish you were Irish!

New York's finest on parade

We learnt the hard way that they don't include Vat in their advertised prices which is roughly 10%. Now, when you add this to the fact that waiters expect 15 - 20% tips on the bill, this means that you can add 25 - 30% to the price of everything when you eat out.

If you enjoy a beer or two your in for a bit of a shock. A beer at the bar at our hotel was going for $10 ex Vat which certainly did not fit into my Scottish budget. The best option I found was to buy them at the Smileys Deli where they went for $2.20 which is roughly R15.

Food is bit more expensive and they are crafty about getting a few extra dollars out of you. We sat at a burger restaurant and ordered a "Traditional American Cheeseburger" which was advertised at $5. I could only raise my eyebrow at what arrived. A roll, patty and a slice of cheese. When I inquired about the tomato, lettuce, onion etc I was then told that these were $1 each and when you added some fries too the meal, it came to about $10 each. Then add Vat and the tip which came to $12.50 a meal. Sneaky Russians!

One thing I must add is the overall friendliness of the New York people. Sure there were a few cheeky/rude bartenders and waiters which we had read about on Tripadvisor but every time we stopped on the street to check our map, someone would come up to us and ask if we needed assistance. Being from South Africa we naturally grabbed our backpack and wallets and prepared to be mugged but no. Just genuinely friendly people just wanting to help. Respect.
Prices aside it was unbelievable trip and we would go back tomorrow. Someone said to me that you can never describe New York to a person who hasn't been there. You have to go. He was quite right.

All work and no play.

"What is the meaning of life?" What is your answer to the age old question? Now, before you roll your eyes back for a closer inspection of your brain, give me a moment. This is simply asking some questions about our everyday lives and the way in which we live them.

Personally, I want my life to be fulfilling. I want to smile and be happy and do the things that make me happy 24/7. But how easy is it to achieve this simple idea in the current day and age? Lets look at the average week in our lives. The majority of us spend a third of a week at work which we don't enjoy, the second third sleeping which is a necessity and the final third we have to ourselves to do as we please. Now, reduce this final third to a fifth or 20%, if you will, as we are still driving, shopping, mowing, cooking, cleaning and all the other chores that we all have to do and that leaves us with 20% of enjoyment time. Think about it. How often are you happy or enjoying yourselves? 

So that's it? 20%? I'm not sure about you but that seems a little wrong to me. I want... no, no... I DEMAND more enjoyment time! But where do we find this extra time? I know that we all require different amounts of sleep. Take my wife for example. She has single handedly turned sleeping into an Olympic sport and she is the world record holder. The point is that we all need to sleep and this cannot be changed. Chores are chores, they rank right up there with death and taxes and unless you're at at the very top of the food chain you will need to do most these yourself. So that leaves us to explore our work.

Do you enjoy your work? Do you enjoy the people you work with? Does your job and your daily achievements better the human race in anyway? Are you happy with your salary? Do you wake up excited for work? Are you still smiling driving home from work? If the answer is "yes" to all then you are either one of the select 0.001% of the human race or you simply took one too many of your prescribed medication this morning. I reckon you could be satisfied if you said "yes" to half of the questions. Unfortunately, the most common answer to these questions is a resounding "no"! We could all think of better places to be and things to be doing but, alas, we have to work. We don't have a choice. The costs involved with being alive are ever present. 

"Do what you love" I hear you say and I couldn't agree with you more. Personally, I love animals and would love to work with animals, wild or domestic. I also love playing the guitar and would love to earn a salary writing music but a gifted Muso I am not. Neither, for that matter, will I ever be sharp enough to be a vet or famous wildlife filmmaker. Have you ever asked the average game ranger what they earn? Most people working for animal rescue places rely on donations to survive and often don't earn a salary and have to hold down a second job to pay their bills. I would love to work at the SPCA. I would find it immensely rewarding and would go home every day convinced that I have done some good. But the truth is, I simply cant afford to. Its sad that the people who work so selflessly to better mankind, wildlife and the planet are rewarded the least.

The world is moving quicker and its also getting smaller. Technology is rapidly improving every day. We can have face to face meetings with people across the world via our handheld device while we ride the bus from one meeting to another. Can you remember that twenty years ago the first cellular phone came out? Wow! How did we survive back then? You made calls on your land line and if the person was not there you left a message on a piece of paper and simply waited for them to return. Nowadays, if someone does not answer their cell phone, which is generally considered unacceptable, they are expected to get your voice mail and reply within the hour. We have to work longer hours so that our company can release a product sooner than our competitors. Nevermind if it does not work. Quality is out the window. Just get it out there first. Overtime is the norm. 

I don't know how our parents did it. Everyone had a house, two children, 2 dogs, 2 cats and a goldfish, of course. All of this while one of them stayed at home! Nowadays, only CEO's and your top managers can achieve this type of lifestyle. I haven't had children of my own yet but judging by how much my wife and I work, there would be very little time in our lives to watch them grow up.

While we marvel at the achievements of the human race have we forgotten to be human? Is 20% enough? How can we change it? Can the world move to a four day working week? How about we all go to work at 8am and then all get up and leave at 1pm? They cant fire the whole world can they? Go to http://www.2oceansvibe.com/ to see how seriously some people are pushing for no work on Friday afternoons. (What a great idea!)

We seem to be working more and more as every year goes by. If the average person lives 80 years and you apply the 20% rule, that leaves you with 16 years of your life to do what YOU want to do. Why not simply work as a waiter some evenings as you leave school to earn enough money to pay for cheap rent and food and party the rest away. 16 years later you would be 34 and you would have had your allotted fun time. Any extra is simply a bonus. Seriously, I know a guy who is 43 and still doing this! He's enjoyed almost every single day of his life so far and is quite aware, and happy, with the fact that he probably wont make it to old age.

Unfortunately this rant doesn't offer many solutions but simply asks that you look at yourself, your life and the way you work and ask yourself "What is important to me?" There's no right or wrong answer.