Whenever I travel abroad, I prefer to use my Capital One card for big expense and withdraw cash using ATM because I get the best currency exchange rate via credit card and ATM.
However, this turn out not to be true in Colombia. Our hotel's exchange rate is 1 USD = 2,000 COP. Most Colombian banks charge 1% fee and at an exchange rate of 1 USD = 1,900 COP. I thought I would get better deal with my credit card and ATM (and the Locals we met told us so as well)so I paid for my expense using those cards. When I look at my credit card and bank statements today, I was sadly disappointed. Charges on credit card are at approximately 1 USD = 1,900 COP and the ATM exchange rate (including the fees)is at 1 USD = 1,822 COP. Furthermore, our hotel charged us additional 10% surcharge for using credit card.
I brought extra USD to Colombia too, I should have just exchange it at the hotel.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Surprising Things I learned About Colombia
-Colombia is NOT a place to visit for CHEAP vacation. Everything here cost about the same as in USA (hotels, food, clothing, books, etc).
-Living standard in Bogota is about the same as in USA. Food cost about the same ($4-$10 for fast food, fine dining entree are at $20-$30/plate, food in grocery store is about the same as in US).
-Living standard in Cartagena is much lower (75% live in the ghetto) BUT it is more expensive to vacation in Cartagena than in Bogota. Since it is a touristy town, all tourists are charged a much higher price (i.e. restaurants in safe area are at $20-$30/plate for crappy food. Local restaurants charged about $2-$5 for fast food but they are all in crappy area with no AC. Same souvenirs in Cartagena cost twice as much as in Bogota).
-I felt very safe in Bogota.
-Bogota and Cartagena felt like two countries. One (Bogota) that I really like and would highly recommend it, the other (Cartagena) I really don't like and would advise others not to visit (especially Asians).
-Despite all the beauties that Cartagena has to offer, the residents ruined what could have been a great vacation.
-Cartagena vendors are very blatant at ripping you off. Their aggressive pushes appalled me and led me to not buy anything in Cartagena.
-Coffee is call "Tinto" while red wine is call "Vino Rosa"
-Colombian food reminds me of Costa Rican food.
-Living standard in Bogota is about the same as in USA. Food cost about the same ($4-$10 for fast food, fine dining entree are at $20-$30/plate, food in grocery store is about the same as in US).
-Living standard in Cartagena is much lower (75% live in the ghetto) BUT it is more expensive to vacation in Cartagena than in Bogota. Since it is a touristy town, all tourists are charged a much higher price (i.e. restaurants in safe area are at $20-$30/plate for crappy food. Local restaurants charged about $2-$5 for fast food but they are all in crappy area with no AC. Same souvenirs in Cartagena cost twice as much as in Bogota).
-I felt very safe in Bogota.
-Bogota and Cartagena felt like two countries. One (Bogota) that I really like and would highly recommend it, the other (Cartagena) I really don't like and would advise others not to visit (especially Asians).
-Despite all the beauties that Cartagena has to offer, the residents ruined what could have been a great vacation.
-Cartagena vendors are very blatant at ripping you off. Their aggressive pushes appalled me and led me to not buy anything in Cartagena.
-Coffee is call "Tinto" while red wine is call "Vino Rosa"
-Colombian food reminds me of Costa Rican food.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Cartagena, Colombia
Cartagena is a beautiful city! Old town Cartagena (inside the fort wall)is very walkable and full of colorful colonial buildings from two hundreds years ago, I can imagine this being an architectural geek´s dream vacation spot. Playa Blanca is a white-sand beach, with crystal blue water, and coral reefs for snorkelings.
Walkable town, colorful buildings with lots of history, goregous beach, crystal blue water for swimming and snorkeling, what more can a vacationer ask for? And these are also the reasons that lead to us planned majority of our Colombia vacation in Cartagena.
In many ways, Cartagena would have been my ideal vacation spot. Alas, that was not the case. What could have been a perfect vacation spot was ruined by the constantly harassment from locals. Since there are no Asians here, the locals know we are tourists. The street vendors are annoyingly agressive. They would not go away even after we repeatly told them no. And when we did buy something, they jacked up the price. For example, we know a bun cost 25 US cents (because we bought it for that price before at another bakery) but most places want to charge us $1-$2 USD. We felt we are being constantly rip off. Furthermore, many local men whisper perverted phrases (in Spanish) as we walked by.
Originally, we were going to go diving here and diving requires us to not fly till 48 hours later; which is another reason why we choose to spend 4 days here. However, we decided not to go diving because from our snorkeling shows there are not that many interesting things here to see (squids were the only cool thing we saw) and it was more expensive than we thought (they are asking for $100 USD). At the end, we ended up spent majority of time walking around town and being slightly bored. I even did research online again on what to do, which leads me regretting not doing thorough research ahead of time. Most people recommended only stay here for couple days and I thoroughly agreed with them. Also, there seem to be quite a bit of prostitution in this town. At Hardrock Cafe, we saw several old men with very young women. Sad!
Anyway, with the constant harassment, the heat, and the mosquitoes, I can´t wait to get back to Bogota (the Colombians there are respectful and no one harass us).
Walkable town, colorful buildings with lots of history, goregous beach, crystal blue water for swimming and snorkeling, what more can a vacationer ask for? And these are also the reasons that lead to us planned majority of our Colombia vacation in Cartagena.
In many ways, Cartagena would have been my ideal vacation spot. Alas, that was not the case. What could have been a perfect vacation spot was ruined by the constantly harassment from locals. Since there are no Asians here, the locals know we are tourists. The street vendors are annoyingly agressive. They would not go away even after we repeatly told them no. And when we did buy something, they jacked up the price. For example, we know a bun cost 25 US cents (because we bought it for that price before at another bakery) but most places want to charge us $1-$2 USD. We felt we are being constantly rip off. Furthermore, many local men whisper perverted phrases (in Spanish) as we walked by.
Originally, we were going to go diving here and diving requires us to not fly till 48 hours later; which is another reason why we choose to spend 4 days here. However, we decided not to go diving because from our snorkeling shows there are not that many interesting things here to see (squids were the only cool thing we saw) and it was more expensive than we thought (they are asking for $100 USD). At the end, we ended up spent majority of time walking around town and being slightly bored. I even did research online again on what to do, which leads me regretting not doing thorough research ahead of time. Most people recommended only stay here for couple days and I thoroughly agreed with them. Also, there seem to be quite a bit of prostitution in this town. At Hardrock Cafe, we saw several old men with very young women. Sad!
Anyway, with the constant harassment, the heat, and the mosquitoes, I can´t wait to get back to Bogota (the Colombians there are respectful and no one harass us).
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Random Thoughs on Colombia
Bogota and Cartagena are totally different. I felt like I am visiting two different countries on this trip.
-Bogota residents are mostly whites. Cartagena residents are mostly blacks.
-Bogota feels like a major metropolitan city, Cartagena feels like a carribean town.
-Bogota is very clean and quite safe (I saw many females walking on the street at night, by themselves).
-Cartagena is not safe to walk alone. Doors to all the hotels are locked with giant lock. We have to ring and wait for someone to open doors for us.
-Drivers are crazy at both places. Seat belts are available for backseat passengers in both cities but there are no buckles for seat belt to lock into in Bogota. Taxi are cleaner in Cartagena.
-There are no mosquitos in Bogota.
-There are many mosquitos in Cartagena.
-Bogota weather (in Sept.) is cool (50-65F) in the morning, warm (60-75F)during the day, and cold (40-50F) during the night. Remind me of SF during summer.
-Cartagena is hot and humid. Water around Cartagena is dirty (looks like L.A. water but warm). Water surrounding the islands near Cartagena are crystal blue, just like those in Bahamas and all those tropical magazines.
-Fishes in Cartagena (near Playa Blanca) are not very colorful. :(
-Colombia don´t have many Asians. Thus, it was very obvious that we are tourist.
--In Bogota, people are more well off, we felt like a celebrity (most stares, the brave one talk to us and want pictures taken with us). I enjoy being Asian in Bogota.
--In Cartagena, a very touristy town and probably poorer citizens, we are constantly harassed to buy stuff. Furthermore, I felt we are constantly being rip-off. For example, my friend speaks Spanish and we agreed to pay $1,000 peso (50 cents) for one coconut. We got two coconuts and paid him $2,000 pesos, but the guy refused to leave and wanted us to pay him $4,000 pesos. We argued with him a bit, so he finally left us alone.
--People remember us. Several people we chatted sometime later told us they remember us from seeing us on the plane or other places (because we are the ONLY Asians).
-Cartagena beach is gorgeous (though many told us Playa Blanca is the best beach here so other beaches may be not as nice) but I hate the constantly harassments. I am looking forward to go back to Bogota but I am not sure if I want to visit Cartagena again. We still have 2 more days here, hopefully Friday and Saturday will change my impression.
-Cartagena is full of tourists from Latin America.
-In Cartagena, meals are very expensive in the safe part of the town (entree are around $12-$25) but very cheap in the shady part (entree are around $2).
-EVERYONE has a facebook account!
-Bogota residents are mostly whites. Cartagena residents are mostly blacks.
-Bogota feels like a major metropolitan city, Cartagena feels like a carribean town.
-Bogota is very clean and quite safe (I saw many females walking on the street at night, by themselves).
-Cartagena is not safe to walk alone. Doors to all the hotels are locked with giant lock. We have to ring and wait for someone to open doors for us.
-Drivers are crazy at both places. Seat belts are available for backseat passengers in both cities but there are no buckles for seat belt to lock into in Bogota. Taxi are cleaner in Cartagena.
-There are no mosquitos in Bogota.
-There are many mosquitos in Cartagena.
-Bogota weather (in Sept.) is cool (50-65F) in the morning, warm (60-75F)during the day, and cold (40-50F) during the night. Remind me of SF during summer.
-Cartagena is hot and humid. Water around Cartagena is dirty (looks like L.A. water but warm). Water surrounding the islands near Cartagena are crystal blue, just like those in Bahamas and all those tropical magazines.
-Fishes in Cartagena (near Playa Blanca) are not very colorful. :(
-Colombia don´t have many Asians. Thus, it was very obvious that we are tourist.
--In Bogota, people are more well off, we felt like a celebrity (most stares, the brave one talk to us and want pictures taken with us). I enjoy being Asian in Bogota.
--In Cartagena, a very touristy town and probably poorer citizens, we are constantly harassed to buy stuff. Furthermore, I felt we are constantly being rip-off. For example, my friend speaks Spanish and we agreed to pay $1,000 peso (50 cents) for one coconut. We got two coconuts and paid him $2,000 pesos, but the guy refused to leave and wanted us to pay him $4,000 pesos. We argued with him a bit, so he finally left us alone.
--People remember us. Several people we chatted sometime later told us they remember us from seeing us on the plane or other places (because we are the ONLY Asians).
-Cartagena beach is gorgeous (though many told us Playa Blanca is the best beach here so other beaches may be not as nice) but I hate the constantly harassments. I am looking forward to go back to Bogota but I am not sure if I want to visit Cartagena again. We still have 2 more days here, hopefully Friday and Saturday will change my impression.
-Cartagena is full of tourists from Latin America.
-In Cartagena, meals are very expensive in the safe part of the town (entree are around $12-$25) but very cheap in the shady part (entree are around $2).
-EVERYONE has a facebook account!
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Bogota, Colombia
Bogota is nothing like I have imagined.
Bogota turns out to be just like any major metropolitan city. There are tall skyscrappers, men and women dressed in nice suits, the city is pretty clean, the residential areas are nice, there are many luxurious aparment complexes and western malls (selling stuff like D&G), and there are many street vendors like in NYC. If someone drop me off here and tell me this is a US city, I´d believe them (aside from the fact that everyone speaks Spanish and there are no Asian).
Colombian are tall and look European. Since there are very few Asian here, we became an attraction for the Colombians. Everyone stare at us as we walked by, little kids come up to us and want to take pictures with us, teenager boys try to flirt with us and want our numbers(no, we didn´t gave it to them).... It was an interesting experience; I´d imagine this is probably pretty similar to what my tall white friends felt when they visited remote areas in Asia.
Majority of tourists here are from nearby Latin America countries. If you don´t speak Spanish here, you are screw. I don´t speak Spanish, luckily I´m traveling with a native Spanish speaker. Everyone here are very friendly and very helpful to us, even though we stuck out like a sore thumbs.
So far, Colombia is great.
Bogota turns out to be just like any major metropolitan city. There are tall skyscrappers, men and women dressed in nice suits, the city is pretty clean, the residential areas are nice, there are many luxurious aparment complexes and western malls (selling stuff like D&G), and there are many street vendors like in NYC. If someone drop me off here and tell me this is a US city, I´d believe them (aside from the fact that everyone speaks Spanish and there are no Asian).
Colombian are tall and look European. Since there are very few Asian here, we became an attraction for the Colombians. Everyone stare at us as we walked by, little kids come up to us and want to take pictures with us, teenager boys try to flirt with us and want our numbers(no, we didn´t gave it to them).... It was an interesting experience; I´d imagine this is probably pretty similar to what my tall white friends felt when they visited remote areas in Asia.
Majority of tourists here are from nearby Latin America countries. If you don´t speak Spanish here, you are screw. I don´t speak Spanish, luckily I´m traveling with a native Spanish speaker. Everyone here are very friendly and very helpful to us, even though we stuck out like a sore thumbs.
So far, Colombia is great.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Random Thoughts about Canada (Niagara Falls & Canada)
• Toronto reminds me of NYC.
○ Big metropolitan city with great public transportation. But Toronto is cleaner (did not see rats running around the subway in Toronto).
• Majority of people dress in black.
• Majority of people seem to be in a hurry.
• Vancouver seem to be more like California, everyone is more chilled. I wonder if it's a cities are more similar to each other if they are on the same coast, regardless of what countries they are in.
• Toronto is similar to L.A. in such that Chinese food in Chinatown are horrible and expensive. For good Chinese food, go to the suburb. The Chinese food in Toronto suburb are much cheaper than in L.A.; many entrée are only $4-$6 CAD.
• On the Chinese food quality, it's comparable for L.A. and Toronto.
• The background for Toronto highway number is the Queen's crown
○ http://www.thekingshighway.ca/signs2.htm
• In Toronto, dotted-lines are drew all the way to the end and connect to the left lane for the on-ramp merger. This is different from L.A., where the dotted-lines stop good 50 feet prior to the lanes merger.
• CN Tower is the tallest tower in the world, but CN Tower does not look very tall.
• The elevator ride in CN Tower is more scary than many rollercoaster I ever went on. Do NOT ride in this elevator if you are afraid of height.
• Public announcements are in both English and French. Does that mean all public officials speak both of these languages?
• Niagara Falls reminds me of Old Town Las Vegas, except Niagara Falls seem more empty and depressed.
• Niagara Falls is like a big amusement park, where every restaurant offers average to crappy quality food but cost an arm and a leg.
• All the public toilet stalls in Niagara and Toronto do not provide toilet seat covers.
• Drivers in Toronto are very inconsiderate. Cars randomly park on the right lane of roads. Cars change lane without signal lights. A lot of honking.
• In Asian restaurants, they give you a pen and a piece of paper. You wrote the dishes you want (the # on the menu) on that piece of paper. Very efficient!
• The electronic highway signs give driving tips.
• Toronto Chinese cafés do not add sugar to the milk tea and it has too much cream. Yuck! I like LA milk tea much better.
[Written on the flight to LA, posted in LA]
○ Big metropolitan city with great public transportation. But Toronto is cleaner (did not see rats running around the subway in Toronto).
• Majority of people dress in black.
• Majority of people seem to be in a hurry.
• Vancouver seem to be more like California, everyone is more chilled. I wonder if it's a cities are more similar to each other if they are on the same coast, regardless of what countries they are in.
• Toronto is similar to L.A. in such that Chinese food in Chinatown are horrible and expensive. For good Chinese food, go to the suburb. The Chinese food in Toronto suburb are much cheaper than in L.A.; many entrée are only $4-$6 CAD.
• On the Chinese food quality, it's comparable for L.A. and Toronto.
• The background for Toronto highway number is the Queen's crown
○ http://www.thekingshighway.ca/signs2.htm
• In Toronto, dotted-lines are drew all the way to the end and connect to the left lane for the on-ramp merger. This is different from L.A., where the dotted-lines stop good 50 feet prior to the lanes merger.
• CN Tower is the tallest tower in the world, but CN Tower does not look very tall.
• The elevator ride in CN Tower is more scary than many rollercoaster I ever went on. Do NOT ride in this elevator if you are afraid of height.
• Public announcements are in both English and French. Does that mean all public officials speak both of these languages?
• Niagara Falls reminds me of Old Town Las Vegas, except Niagara Falls seem more empty and depressed.
• Niagara Falls is like a big amusement park, where every restaurant offers average to crappy quality food but cost an arm and a leg.
• All the public toilet stalls in Niagara and Toronto do not provide toilet seat covers.
• Drivers in Toronto are very inconsiderate. Cars randomly park on the right lane of roads. Cars change lane without signal lights. A lot of honking.
• In Asian restaurants, they give you a pen and a piece of paper. You wrote the dishes you want (the # on the menu) on that piece of paper. Very efficient!
• The electronic highway signs give driving tips.
• Toronto Chinese cafés do not add sugar to the milk tea and it has too much cream. Yuck! I like LA milk tea much better.
[Written on the flight to LA, posted in LA]
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The Charm Life
I just got back from the Pink Martini Concert at Hollywood Bowl! It was awesome, totally worth the 6+ hours flight back. I have such a fun time that I vow to try my best to attend all their shows whenever they are in town.
At the concert, with delicious wine & food, good friends, I feel very lucky. I have a job that I love and also allows me to work from whereever I want. I got JetBlue's "All You Can Jet" pass that allows me to fly back just for this concert.
Gawd, how did I get so lucky?
However I end up here, I am very very grateful and very very happy!
2009 has been very good to me and it still got another quarter to go. :)
At the concert, with delicious wine & food, good friends, I feel very lucky. I have a job that I love and also allows me to work from whereever I want. I got JetBlue's "All You Can Jet" pass that allows me to fly back just for this concert.
Gawd, how did I get so lucky?
However I end up here, I am very very grateful and very very happy!
2009 has been very good to me and it still got another quarter to go. :)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Washington, District of Colombia
Thanks to my friend, my first visit to D.C. was action-packed!
I just showed up and he took me all over the places. In one weekend, I visited all the big tourist spots, three states, and even volunteered in a half-marathon (though waking up at 5am was painful). Furthermore, all the meals were delicious and the weather was pleasant the entire weekend. D.C.
I think D.C. would be a wonderful place to live (if you don’t mind snow) and to play (great food and the museums are free!).
Tourist spots that I visited and can check-off: Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, National Garden, Battle of Antietam Park
Tourist spots that I pass by and will check-off: Washington Monument, The White House, The Capitol, The U.S. Supreme Court building, Library of Congress, National Archive Museum, The Reflecting pool
States I visited: Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia
D.C. Extras:
•Saw a political protest about health care (but there are also quite a few Palin for President and white supremacy signs. The latter remind me of the scene from “The Fifth Element,” where Leeloo is disillusioned and unwilling to perform her role to destroy the Great Evil because from her observation, humans seem compelled to destroy themselves with wars and crimes, in spite of all efforts that were made to save humans. Considering this is 2009 and we have a black President, it is quite depressing to see people would still hate others just because of their skin color).
•Went to a house party. The houses here are very nice.
•Went to a farm.
•Then eat the food from that farm for dinner.
(Written at IAD, JetBlue Terminal. Posted at Toronto, ON)
I just showed up and he took me all over the places. In one weekend, I visited all the big tourist spots, three states, and even volunteered in a half-marathon (though waking up at 5am was painful). Furthermore, all the meals were delicious and the weather was pleasant the entire weekend. D.C.
I think D.C. would be a wonderful place to live (if you don’t mind snow) and to play (great food and the museums are free!).
Tourist spots that I visited and can check-off: Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, FDR Memorial, National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, National Garden, Battle of Antietam Park
Tourist spots that I pass by and will check-off: Washington Monument, The White House, The Capitol, The U.S. Supreme Court building, Library of Congress, National Archive Museum, The Reflecting pool
States I visited: Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia
D.C. Extras:
•Saw a political protest about health care (but there are also quite a few Palin for President and white supremacy signs. The latter remind me of the scene from “The Fifth Element,” where Leeloo is disillusioned and unwilling to perform her role to destroy the Great Evil because from her observation, humans seem compelled to destroy themselves with wars and crimes, in spite of all efforts that were made to save humans. Considering this is 2009 and we have a black President, it is quite depressing to see people would still hate others just because of their skin color).
•Went to a house party. The houses here are very nice.
•Went to a farm.
•Then eat the food from that farm for dinner.
(Written at IAD, JetBlue Terminal. Posted at Toronto, ON)
Friday, September 11, 2009
Hotels
Colombia is a developing nation and everything there cost much cheaper.
Canada is a developed nation and everything there cost about the same.
The travel information to Colombia is pretty limited because not many people have visited Colombia. Also, with the safety issue, I'm pretty conservative in term of booking my hotels.
However, because Canada is a developed country and speak the same language, I feel more comfortable traveling there and able to find more travel information. I will be renting a car, so I am also ok with staying at places that are not in the downtown. Hence, I was able to use Priceline and Hotwire to find crazy hotel deals.
In the end, our hotel cost in Colombia is twice as much our hotel cost in Canada (and the hotels in Canada are probably nicer).
Canada is a developed nation and everything there cost about the same.
The travel information to Colombia is pretty limited because not many people have visited Colombia. Also, with the safety issue, I'm pretty conservative in term of booking my hotels.
However, because Canada is a developed country and speak the same language, I feel more comfortable traveling there and able to find more travel information. I will be renting a car, so I am also ok with staying at places that are not in the downtown. Hence, I was able to use Priceline and Hotwire to find crazy hotel deals.
In the end, our hotel cost in Colombia is twice as much our hotel cost in Canada (and the hotels in Canada are probably nicer).
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