The Cosmopolitan Blog

In December, to get to my holiday destination, I spent over 30 continuous hours in various airports, each way. Considering the relative short distance (and the fact that we’re in the 21^st century), this was a very depressing fact…. all that to save $600 on the price of the fare.

I left before the attempted terrorist attack of December 25, 2009 (yes, the guy with the explosives in his underpants), so needless to say, airports, on my return, had become even more hectic, especially flights to, from and transiting through the US. Today, I am on my 3^rd airport. It’s been 1 security check and body search after another. And considering that my carry-on includes a laptop, an SLR camera and a purse full of “stuff”, and that on myself, I have jewellery and knee-high boots, I’m a security attendant’s worst nightmare.

As I stood in line for an hour and a half at Philadelphia immigration, I was reminded of a scene from The Godfather II. In the flashbacks, when young Vito Corleone first arrives on the ship from Sicily to Ellis Island in 1901, the immigration hall looked pretty much the same, people lining up for hours, tired and cranky. In those days, they’d just asked you your name and then checked your hair for lice. These days, there are many, many more questions, and the lice-checking has been replaced by full-body pat downs.

But now, this latest terrorist has just upped the ante, hasn’t he? Read the rest of this entry »

I’m so excited, i have my trip to Mexico coming up in less than 10 days! My boyfriend and I were looking to book this trip, while remaining on a very strict budget. Obviously, the 4-5 stars on the hotel strip where out of the question. So we looked at the hotels that were a little bit more removed, and we found this one place called the Imperial Laguna.

The great thing about this hotel was the location. It was actually ON the hotel strip, just at the very north of it, before the beaches start becoming really beautiful. Still, we would have woken up to ocean view and felt close to all the other hotels. But it was a 2 1/2 star only. And a 2 1/2 star in Mexico, well, i wasn’t really sure what that translated to.

So i decided to read up on this hotel before booking. And trust me, i think i’ve read every review that exists on this hotel. And can you believe it, out of maybe 400 reviews out there, there are about 200 people who loved it and 200 people who hated it. How can opinions differ so much? Some people told me it was clean, others dirty. Some said quiet, others noisy. I realize opinions differ, but to such extent?

I even tried to find a correlation between the time of the year, or even the year they stayed. I thought maybe the bad reviews were before renovations, or during busy seasons like Spring Break. But no, that wasn’t it either. Can you believe, people couldn’t even agree on whether or not there was an elevator in the hotel!! Most people said there wasn’t, and then there were maybe 10 reviews that said “you just didn’t know where to look for it, there was one, we used it”.

Well, finally, we booked somewhere else. Location less great, but at least all reviewers agreed on cleanliness, which, really, is my bottom line But, if anyone has an opinion on the Imperial Laguna Hotel, Quetzal N.11 Club De Golf | Boulevard Kukulcán Km. 2.5, Cancun 77500, Mexico, please comment below. Tell me also when you were there. I still want to know!! I will go and visit it while i’m there, just so i can report back!

Here are a few links to the place: Imperial Laguna – Imperial Laguna

On my recent trip to Vancouver, one of the recommended sights was to visit the town of Victoria, BC, located on Vancouver Island (this means, about 70 kms away from the city of Vancouver downtown). So as i began researching the best way to get there, all i found online was taking the pre-packaged trip: downtown Vancouver to Tsawwassen on Pacific Coach (1hr), crossing on the BC Ferries (1.5 hrs), and back on the Pacific Coach to Victoria (1hr). The total cost for this package is $86 per person. This seemed so expensive to me, but i couldn’t understand why all my google searches ONLY came up with this option. In fact, even on the ferry, the only transportation they promote is the Pacific Coach transportation, they obviously have some arrangement.

Well, i’m here to tell you that THERE IS A CHEAPER WAY TO GET FROM DOWTOWN VANCOUVER TO VICTORIA, BC. The trip took 4.5hrs instead of 3.5 but it cost $40 return per person instead!

1. Step 1: Go to any 7/11 store and buy a day pass, this will cover most of your trip.
2. Step 2: For the next 2 steps, use the BC transit system to plan your trip.
   A. You need to find your way from wherever you are in downtown Vancouver to the Ladner Exchange. The direct bus, most probably, that you will take is the 601 South that goes down Howe Street in downtown vancouver all the way to the Ladner Exchange in Delta. You can use your day pass for this part of the trip.
   B. From there, just change bus platforms (5 meters between each, and each bus waits for the next so no worries) to take the 620 from Ladner Exchange to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. You can use your day pass for this part of the trip.
3. Step 3: This part is the same for everyone, you have to take the BC Ferries from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, the cost is $13 each way (and you can only book one way, you’ll have to get your return ticket on the way back). Obviously, here, you can’t use your day pass for this.
4. Step 4: Next, as soon as you get off the ferry, right there in the Swatz Bay parking lot, you will find the Victoria local transit buse waiting for you. Get on the 70X (X is for Express, you could also take the 70B, but that would just take longer). HAVE EXACT CHANGE, cost is $2.50. The bus takes another hour and takes you to the heart of downtown Victoria.

So, $9 for the day pass, $13×2 for the ferry and $2.50 for the bus: $40! Pass on the word, if you’re on a budget, there is a cheap way to get from downtown vancouver to downtown victoria and back.

UPDATE – 3Dec09: hey y’all, it seems this is the most popular post on my  blog, so many of you from all over the wold have come here to find this info. i would love to hear from you to find out if the info here was useful. Does anyone else have tips to share, was there an even cheaper way to do this? Did you use the info in this blog? Did it help, or was it confusing?

In my job in marketing, i have to study the web traffic to our site. I’m sure at CNN they have an entire team working on analysis viewership rates… and i wonder if they’ll notice a drop in viewership today, seeing that the Lost season premiere is on. I mean, let’s face it, there’s been NOTHING on tv these days, no one sits at lunch at work the next day ooohing and aaahing over the latest developments of their favorite series… it’s very sad… well, for us… Cuz for politicians and networks like CNN, i’m thinking their viewership has never been higher, they’re by default, the best entertainment there is on TV, with political debates and all…

Hehehe… so, um, does that mean that there’s a spin doctor somewhere who orchestrated the writer’s strike so that everyone HAS to watch the politics? Hmmm…

Moral of the story: i need to learn to write shorter descriptions. I don’t think many people will read my entire posts, just like i find myself merely “skimming” my friends travel blogs, i guess it’s hard to relate to someone else’s experiences when they are not told to you vocally but simply presented in one full block of text.