Jaunted - Tag: Jaunted Field Trips

St. Petersburg: The Big One: You Cant Leave Without Visiting the Hermitage

kate winick — 2009-08-21T17:03:59-05:00

While it's hot here in the States, our special contributor Kate Winick is headed to the cold country of Russia. To St. Petersburg to be more specific, and all this week she'll be sending dispatches from the shadow of many onion domes.

Any reasonably worldly-minded person has probably heard the warning that you can’t see the Louvre or the Hermitage Museum in one day. And well—you can’t. Don’t try. There are several special exhibitions going at any one time, although they’re not always well-advertised, and it’s best to just pick one or two sections of interest so you have time to enjoy the art and the interiors themselves—it’s a combination of grand baroque and spooky decay that just about sums up the indefinable nature of modern Russia.

Pakse: Chase Temple Ruins And Hammock Lounging With A Cold Laotian Beer

ced138 — 2009-08-21T15:24:38-05:00

Even though the recession has hampered exotic travel, there are still those intrepid explorers going all out. All this week, our Cambodian embed Claire will share experiences from her trip to Laos.

Southern Laos more closely resembles its neighbors, with a flatter, rice-paddy covered landscape. Here, main attractions include Wat Phu Champasak, temple ruins in a stunning setting and Si Phan Don, the 4,000 islands, a mid-river delta in the Mekong.

Wat Phu Champasak, an ancient Angkorian temple built into a hillside, is about two hours south of Pakse by sangtheaw. The infrastructure here, and the tourism machine, deteriorates slightly, leaving more options for independent travel alongside Lao people. We rode in a truck with a week’s supply of produce and several old ladies who helped us understand prices and figure out our route, all without any ability to truly speak to each other.

St. Petersburg: Dining In St. Petersburg: The Best Spots For Caviar, Vodka And Borscht

JetSetCD — 2009-08-20T16:53:33-05:00

"Pectopah" is the one word you need to know if you’re hungry in St. Petersburg. It’s pronounced “restoran,” like “restaurant” with a twist, and is displayed prominently on almost every eating establishment in St. Petersburg.

The cuisine available varies from Moroccan to European to Japanese (sushi is the latest craze with the younger set), but for traditional Russian fare, there are a few experiences a cut above the rest. Three restaurants in particular stand out:

Vientiane: Stopping By 'Pha That Luang,' Like the Eiffel Tower Of Laos

ced138 — 2009-08-20T15:59:38-05:00

Vientiane, the capital on the Thai border, resembles a small, riverside town with wide, empty sidewalks and open boulevards that starkly contrast with the crowded madness of the region’s other capitals in Hanoi, Phnom Penh, and Bangkok. Even the waterfront remains curiously green and serene, with a few food stalls set up serving drinks and food to customers sitting on floor rugs along the river.

The main attraction in Vientiane is Pha That Luang, which symbolizes Laos like Angkor Wat symbolizes Cambodia, the Eiffel Tour symbolizes France or McDonalds’ golden arches symbolize the United States. The curved, golden building shaped like a lotus bud was actually only built in 1931, because Thai and French imperialism destroyed both previous incarnations dating back to 1566.

Vang Vieng: Won't You Come Try Laos' Special 'Magic Mushroom Shakes?'

ced138 — 2009-08-19T17:02:26-05:00

Veng Vieng, a backpacker ghetto seven hours south of Luang Prabang by bus, is probably the seediest place along the travelers’ route, yet it can be easily skipped by people who don’t consider drinking whiskey and floating down river on an inner tube fun. Nonetheless, it's much beloved by those who do.

As I'm still in my twenties,I feel quite young, but not in Veng Vieng. The town exists for and because of 19-year-old English kids in body paint, faux-hawks and tank tops, so my similarly aged friends and I, when we left Veng Viang all with various illnesses, learned our bodies no longer have the capacity to handle spring break.

The adventure began when the bus from Luang Prabang dropped us off in the middle of the night on an abandoned road outside town. The noise of our conversation awoke angry dogs in warehouses as we walked past in the direction—we believed—of town. Heat lightning struck, knocking out the lights from occasional streetlamps. An hour or so later, we found the town and a guesthouse with an insomniac owner who could let us in.

St. Petersburg: Our Beat-The-Jet-Lag Walking Tour Of St. Petersburg

JetSetCD — 2009-08-19T13:59:37-05:00

So what do you do first in a country where you don't speak the language and you're still slightly suffering from jet lag? We took a cab into the St. Petersburg city center, down Nevsky Prospect, and this is the best place to start leisurely exploring. As the main street in St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect is marked by the Admiralty building with its tall gold spire on the north end (although there are several of these around, it’s the only one you’ll see at the end of the street) and the Nevsky Monastery to the south.

Worth stopping for a look outside are the Kazan Cathedral, the Dom Knigi bookstore (an Art Deco confection that formerly housed the Singer sewing maching company), the Russian National Library, monuments to Catherine the Great and more field marshals than you can shake a stick at, and the Anichkov Bridge, with its four famed equestrian statues. It’s also the central street for shopping, restaurants, etc., with the Gostiny Dvor, the city’s largest department store, on one side of the street, across from the Grand Palace luxury complex.

Even though Russia is no known for its love of luxury, St. Petersburg isn’t a shopping city—high prices and limited selection means that most wealthy Russians do their shopping on vacations in the rest of Europe or America.

St. Petersburg: Negotiating A Flight From The US To St. Petersburg, And We Mean Russia

JetSetCD — 2009-08-18T16:59:37-05:00

You’ll have to pick your poison flying from the United States to St. Petersburg—direct flights are available mainly to Moscow, although finding a connection there is simple. On the other hand, you’ll get to pass through a hub that isn’t Atlanta. Finnair connects through Helsinki, KLM through Amsterdam, Alitalia through Rome, etc.

We chose to fly Lufthansa’s business class through Frankfurt, and were grateful to have the option of a lounge in which to pass out at 5:30 in the morning, after a not-long-enough rest on the flat seats.