Partly inspired by Andy's recent excursion to Paris, this thread is where you can toddle along to if you've anything travel related to discuss. Planning a trip? On holiday as you browse? Or do you simply want to retell your previous travel-related anecdotes? Welcome, to The Travel Topic!

Whatever you have to share, be it advice or help, make sure you share it here.

Anyone got any trips planned? Dream destinations?

My God, I so desperately need to be in Tokyo come July 2008, it's not funny. :P

What's happening July next year may I ask?

What's happening in July 2008?

I haven't got any trips planned at the moment, but good idea for a thread :)

Haha, nothing important, but it's when my summer holiday really kicks in again, and I've got a good Japanese friend who's always asking me to visit him in Yokohama. I really wanted to go this July, but I ended up in the UK as per norm. :P

Man, I really need to get a job...

I'm hoping to go to Germany next year to see a good friend. He came over here as an exchange student half way through last year, and he was here for 12 months, and we became great mates. We're trying to plan for me to go over there for maybe a month or two or something, and travel around Europe. It'd be great!

Lol... go rail with me :lol:

I'd like to go to the USofA eventually because i've just got to see an nba game for once in my life. I'm so afraid of terrorism and shit though. Oh yeah... and the money is a slight problem too. :P

Well, I'm going on exchange to Germany from February 2008 until January 2009. I can't wait!

Off to Champs-Elysees tonight to catch up with a mate for drinks. Just visited Musee Picasso today.

I'm in Paris few another week or so, before scarpering down to Venice for a couple more.

Good topic idea, although I feel that after this one, i might have to hold off on future trips for a while. I have Japan and China in mind.

*sigh* Lucky you. I might have to stowaway in your luggage. :P

Glad you're enjoying Paris. If you haven't been up the Eiffel Tower yet, make sure to bring a spare pair of underpants for the trip up the the main elevator. :P For me, that was fear incarnate.

I'm off to L.A in just under 2 weeks, so you'll see pics when I get back. ;)

WOW, a whole year, that's going to be an amazing experience!

Holy shit, I didn't realise you were going for an entire year! Wow, that'll be awesome. I'd be too homesick though. :P

Civ, have a great time in L.A.! I've always wanted to go there. Jeez, everyone is going somewhere cool. :D

Okay... if there are any Top Gear fans here... I've got a photo for you.



It's the place where Richard Hammond got the Pagani Zonda stuck whilst trying to exit a car park.

Oh yeah. I've also climbed some tower and some arc today.

But... this is where Hammond got stuck!!!

I spent two years living in Europe, best time of my life!

Am planning a Melbourne trip early next year and a Japan trip some time mid-year.

I spent two years living in Europe, best time of my life!

Am planning a Melbourne trip early next year and a Japan trip some time mid-year.

I don't know if this is really considered as proper travel, but I MIGHT be headed down to Sydney next week for the Hillsong Youth Conference. Just for 3 or 4 days.

Terrorism is pretty much a non-issue besides a couple of countries, even then, you've got more chance of dieing in a car accident!

Here's my bad terrorism experience, last year in August, a mate and I were going to Amsterdam, however, this was about a week after that big terrorism scare when some people were actually arrested. The plane spent 1:30 on the ground, also we had to check in our bags due to the security fears so we had to waste more time when we arrived waiting for them!

I was pissed off. More than double our travel time was spent sitting in an immobile plane and waiting for luggage.

Update: I now AM heading down, yay! I booked my flights for Wednesday the 3rd Oct and Sunday the 7th Oct. Win!

Isn't that the churchy thing?

Sure is.

It came about pretty casually - I was at my church yesterday, talking to a good mate of mine who is a youth leader. He's about 23 I think. Anyways, he told me he was going by himself (maybe meeting up with someone who lives down there) and I was like dude, I should come (mostly joking). And he was like dude, you actually should!! So we thought it over more, and it seemed to be a great idea, because it's during the holidays and everything. So yeah.

My last trip was over to Perth for the BME Auscon suspension event.

Really great, laid back atmosphere with people just hanging around.

I can share a few of the less intense photos if it's something mods wouldn't object to.

What's that, Trigger?

Essentially a wide variety of folk hanging themselves from 8ga hooks - it's the sort of thing I've been raised around given a fairly unique family and childhood, but I won't go posting it directly on a public board, I'm aware that it's a practice some people are fairly uncomfortable with.

Dear God that is stupid. Why would you do that?

In light of recent developments, I have to say that's a shocking pun.

You win at life, Ali.

I'm glad someone picked up on that pun, even if it was post explanation.

In any case, bodily suspension is one of the oldest and in many contexts on of the most sacred of rituals - people perform it for spiritual, motivational, purely physical, social and even sexual reasons. I find the response of 'Dear God that is stupid' to display a fairly poor understanding of the act, the length and breadth of it's history, just how common it is around the world today or peoples reasons for undertaking it. This isn't extreme ritual mortification of the flesh with lasting damage. As a matter of fact it's quite possible to suspend a 90kg person from only 2 points with no more than 4 dots of scarring barely a few millimetres across and even without the loss of more than a few drops of blood.

Gven the intensity of the act it's something that everyone is going to perform for very personal reasons that very few 'off the shelf' (pardon my figure of speech) modern philosophies or religions are going to encompass.

In any case, I hardly think it's any more stupid than the baggage and dogma that goes with almost any religion or philosophy you care to name.

This is exactly the sort of reason I'm in the habit of broaching subjects like such as this very carefully - unless it's been seen before it's always prone to bad knee jerk reactions.

EDIT: Back to the topic, that's what my last trip was for.

Oh don't worry, I still respect you in liking it and stuff. I just honestly don't see the point, is all. :)

Like most things, it's horses for courses really - everyones got their motivations for doing the things they do :)

Oh, right. When you said people suspended themselves from hooks I thought it was people on freaking meat hooks or something.

... that's pretty much it actually.

Obviously much sharper, smoother and narrower than a meathook, but it's certainly a hook that goes through skin, muscle and fat.

Yeah, I understood that, but in my head I saw massive meathooks, you know, like in a horror film.

Generally it's between 4 and 8 gauge, depending on the number of points suspended from and the body mass of the person going up, so the general thickness of the hooks will be from 5.18mm - 3.26mm. This varies by a few hundredths of a millimetres given that a few standards exist for measuring 'standard' gauges though.

It doesn't seem like a lot of space to support ones weight from, but it's worth remembering that thicker diameters are much more traumatic to the body with regards to the piercing procedure itself, even if they're theoretically more stable with regards to the weight they can support. Recovering from 4 points at 8 gauge takes a bit of care and common sense, but its basically no worse than dealing with any nasty cut or scratch, while recovering from 2 points anywhere below 4 gauge will actually be quite difficult, as well as much harder on the body with regards to the procedure itself. This is why meathook thickness is not a good idea, the point isn't to actually hurt yourself, so big fat hooks are best left for carcasses about to be turned into glue and dog food :)

In any case, this is getting a bit off topic and moving away from the travel itself, so to swing things back I'll share that I'll be going down to Melbourne fairly shortly in order to catch up with my brother, damage a few bars and generally catch up :D

We don't get to see each other very often, so I'm really looking forward to this. While I'm there I may also be doing a radio broadcast as part of the Melbourne Egames exhibition - being on live radio is one of the most daunting things I've ever had to do - to be honest really don't look forward to it >.<

Although no one asked... here are some photos of Paris.



The cafe where Amelie worked



Roundabout at the Arc de Triomphe



Segways in Place de la Concorde



Some big red windmill thing



Notre Dame



Inside Notre Dame



Interrogation booths... um... confessionals... in Notre Dame



A shot of Claude Monet's garden



Another shot of Monet's garden



This is where Richard Hammond of Top Gear got a Pagani Zonda stuck. It's in a little alleyway one street back from Champs-Elysees.



My last photo of Paris. This is from Montemarte.

I haven't uploaded many photos of Italy and Venice yet. Too lazy

Nice pics Andy, thanks. :)

Nice pics. :D The last one, from Montematre...was that taken on the Sacre Coeur? The hostel I stayed in, in Caulaincourt, was just down a few roads from that. :)

Gawd damn that roundabout be crazy o.o

Nice pics.

Goddamn that car next to the 2 motorbikes at the roundabout is TINY! Looks like a 'Micro Machine' replica

And the roundabout itself is insane, where are the road signs and line markings?

There are none. Around the Arc de Triomphe, it's an 8-lane free-for-all. You can't get to the Arc without going underneath the road. However, Paris' street layout is fantastic. If you look out from the Eiffel Tower, you can see how they all swing round in one giant ring.

Yep, Dec. That was from near Sacre Coeur. Montemarte was great with all the artists in the street. I didn't go there at night, though.

The roundabout is crazy. As Dec said, there are no lane markings. The traffic sweeps around, and when cars come in from another street (there are about 10 roads leading into the roundabout), everyone stops to let them in and they rank up (I called it Traffic Tetris) like race cars. When the traffic stops flowing in from the side road, they all then gun it to head to their exit. I hope that made sense...

I watched in horror (and i got video footage of it) as a tow truck started at the back of the cars and weaved his way to the front - towing a car as he was doing it.

My Parisian friend said negotiating the roundabaout is basically worrying about what's in front of you and trusting whoever is behind you.

Another friend said that you can get car insurance in Paris, but once you get onto that roundabout you're on your own.