World Traditions

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While playing GeoGuessr, after several completely remote locations, I suddenly landed in Kota Bunga near Jakarta, Indonesia, and honestly got amazed by how beautiful this neighborhood looks.

The streets are full of colorful villas, artistic pavement, statues, perfectly maintained gardens, different kind of statues and rich flora everywhere. The whole place almost feels like a movieset.

Later I realized a much larger area nearby is build in a very similar style.

So now I'm curious is there interesting story behind this place, or this kind of style.
Is it mainly tourist resort area since there is a lot of hotels and rentable villas or do wealthy Indonesians actually live here?

Location: Kota Bunga, Jalan Raya Puncak - Cianjur, Ciloto, Cimacan, Kec. Cipanas, Kabupaten Cianjur, Jawa Barat

Hey everyone,

​I’m 19 and planning my very first major solo backpacking trip this August. I’ve decided on Pakistan for about 3 to 4 weeks.

​My basic plan is to fly into Karachi, head up through Lahore and Islamabad, and then spend the absolute bulk of my time deep in the far north (Hunza Valley and going completely off-grid into remote offshoot areas like the Shimshal Valley for high-altitude hikes).

​I’m totally fine with roughing it, basic infrastructure, long transit days, and being completely disconnected in the mountains. I also know August is going to be intensely hot down south, but it’s the only time window I have to make this trip happen.

Because this is my first time doing a proper solo trip, I want a realistic assessment from people who know the country:

-​Is jumping straight into Pakistan for a first solo trip too intense, or is it manageable if you have decent common sense and adapt quickly?

-​Is trying to link the extreme south (Karachi) all the way to the far north (Hunza/Shimshal) too punishing or chaotic for a first-timer in a 3-4 week frame?

-​How difficult is it to navigate the logistics (intercity buses, local flights, mountain jeeps, and regional SIM cards) entirely on your own out there?

Would love to hear some honest perspective or reality checks. Cheers

I’m heading to Central Europe soon—around the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Do you have any safety tips for these places?
I heard charity scams and pickpockets are pretty
common.
BeforeI arrive, I want to be aware of other things
to watch out for.

I feel so stupid. I booked this flight through edreams thinking that it was all okay, my flight can already be seen in the airline’s booking so I know that my flight is actually real. However my issue is the prime subscription, they said that they will start charging me monthly starting this coming June 15 and I want to cancel it. I decided to add a card number of my bank that is no longer in use and tried to remove the card number of the my current bank but no matter how many times I click on delete it doesnt delete my current card. Should I just contact my bank to have this solved ?

Edit:
I just wanna know if its safe for me to go to my bank and have them block edreams from my bank account.

Will this put my flight at risk for cancellation if they find out i blocked them from charging me before my flight ?

Does anyone have experience with cheap Primark luggage for checking in on a transatlantic flight? I will be flying home to the US from Europe for the long-term and I’m thinking about buying a cheap luggage from Primark in order to carry anything additional as well as gifts. The cheapest one is a hard case for €25.

As I don’t plan on doing any significant travel for a while thereafter, I don’t mind if this doesn’t hold up on subsequent trips, but it would be good if it didn’t break on this one flight back.

Any opinions?

I don't know where else I could post this.

OK, I realise "impressive" and "easily accessible" are quite subjective.

Let's say we use quantitative measures such as those based on angle-reduced height (like jut and rut), or on more complex functions like ORS/RORS/DRS. (So no "I'm from this place and my local hill looks really impressive to me".)

And let's define "accessible" as in you don't need to charter a plane/helicopter or mount an expedition to get pretty close: in the base area according to jut or in the peak-rut area, inside the domain with high DRS, or anyway somewhere you could reasonably call the base of the mountain or a similarly impressive close-up viewpoint. Bonus points if you don't need to drive a vehicle (nor have a member of your party drive it).

What comes out on top?

Looking at the list of mountains with the highest jut, there's a bunch of mountains in the Himalaya (and Karakoram and Hindu Kush) and in Alaska that are pretty inaccessible if you want to get up close. Annapurna (Fang) in Nepal and Nanga Parbat in Pakistan, the two highest-jut mountains, and other Himalayan mountains are actually reasonably accessible, in that you can join a guided tour to the base camp with no mountaineering experience, but it's still multi-day hiking and camping at high elevations in a place with limited healthcare access. Denali in Alaska is a national park and relatively accessible, but getting up close requires getting on a flight or mountaineering over glacier, as far as I can tell, and Alaska in general is a bit remote.

Mount Robson in Canada is the first mountain on the list of mountains by descending jut that I could find to be easily reachable: fly (in a developed, peaceful country no less), rent a car, drive to the visitor centre, walk a few km to the base. (But you do need to be able to drive and rent a car, as far as I can tell.)

The Alps (especially the Swiss and Italian Alps) have a lot of quite high-jut mountains that are extremely easy to access, with road and, notably, rail/bus access to the base, which makes them an outstanding destination, but nothing has a similar or higher jut than Robson.

Is there some mountain I'm missing? Is there any place that stands out if you use other objective measures like ORS or DRS?

Hello everyone,

I have a question that has been stressing me for a while, and I hope someone with immigration or airport experience can help.

I was deported from Turkey back to my country. During the process, we were separated from regular travelers and taken through a different procedure where our passports were checked and stamped before departure.

The stamp itself does not mention deportation and looks like a normal Turkish exit stamp, similar to those used for regular travelers.

What confuses me is that the Turkish officer stamped a very specific page in my passport (page 5), even though there were many other empty pages available. When I arrived back in my country, the authorities stamped the last page of my passport.

I may be overthinking this, but I am planning to apply for a Schengen student visa and I am wondering:

• Can passport stamp placement itself carry any special meaning?
• Could immigration officers from another country recognize some hidden indication from the stamp or its location?
• Or are such things mainly stored in electronic immigration systems rather than the passport itself?

I know this may sound like a strange question, but the specific page placement has made me wonder if there is some practice or procedure I’m unaware of.

If anyone works in immigration, airport operations, or had a similar experience, I’d really appreciate your thoughts. Thank you!!

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I’m very interested in seeing these countries. I was wondering how many I might be able to reasonably fit into a week long trip.

I saw that there is a ferry from Helsinki and the other countries are connected by bus/ plane mostly. although I would prefer to travel by train.

also if you’ve been do you have any recommendations to do in the cities? which cities were nicest? also has anyone spent time outside the cities in cabins, beaches or camping? thanks

Long story short I’m a big animal lover. I went to Thailand and did not ride the elephants. Refused to ride any camels in Egypt. No Central Park horses in New York. Now, the people of Turkey have been some of the kindest, welcoming individuals and the hotel I’m staying at has a horseback riding tour. I would love to do it, but I definitely don’t want to partake in an activity that is not ethical with animal treatment. Does anyone have any experience or any knowledge as to whether this would be a safe bet? Thank you!

I know this is gonna be a weird post, but do you guys think they will make me throw away an electric pressure pan if I take it in my hand luggage through the Frankfurt airport? (I only have a connection there to another European country, but it’s my first Schengen airport coming from South America - I am an European citizen) thanks!