I tipped an Uber driver $40 on Saturday because he didn’t cancel my ride immediately after a football game when he absolutely could have, and even spent like 10 mins on the phone with me trying to find me in a massive crowd. Dude was also weaving in and out of parking lots to get by traffic so I made my flight, A+ Uber experience!
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Mexico City next week! It’s so hard to get through the week before you go.
The bones of the trip are as follows:
Tuesday: land at 11:30 and check into our Airbnb in Condesa. The Condesa Market is on Tuesday’s so we will check that out. Taco crawl the neighborhood and then Lucha Libre at Arena Mexico at night. Head to Hanky Panky (#13 best cocktail bar).
Wednesday: Breakfast La Esquina del Chilaquiles for what I hear is a bomb torta. Walk to Chapultepec Castle and the Antheopology museum. Dinner at Contramar (maybe. I’m on the fence) cocktails at Handshake Speakeasy (#11 best cocktail bar) pretty loose day. Fossil mentioned Paseo de La Reforma. More tacos.
Thursday: Potentially a trip to Teotihuacan if we feel like it. I want to hit up Centro and specifically a mezcal bar called Bosforo at some point. Also want to visit a market. Dinner at Quintonil (9th best restaurant)
Friday: Explore Coyouacan until our flight to Puerto Vallarta at 3:30. Staying at some AI resort for a wedding until Monday.
I really wish I had 1 more day in CDMX. I know there is going to be places I want to go but won’t have time.
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I’m guessing your resort in Puerto Vallarta might be in the Hotel Zone, but you definitely need to walk the Malecón and visit Zona Romántica. ZR is also probably the best food neighborhood I’ve visited in my life. Not a ton of variety, but the seafood is cheap and delicious (coco shrimp, shrimp fajitas, fish tacos, shrimp burger were incredible).
We’re in Nuevo Vallarta. Unfortunately I doubt we have time to venture out of the resort much since we will be there with a large group.
What kind of market are you trying to get into in centro?
I’ve always been pretty enamored with the street markets that engulf colonial mansions. You can go inside a lot of them–the same old sprawling buildings that would be boutique hotels in Coyoacan or Cuernavaca are still functioning as micro-markets today. Pretty cool to explore. If you wander towards Mercado Mixcalco you should be able to find some.
I’ve always wanted to go to Tepito but never had the guts!
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I’m considering extending my spring vacation from Albania to include Lake Ohrid in North Macedonia.
However, I’m not sure if it will be worth going there in March. I suspect that going there will be a bit like when I went to Como during spring break. Sure it was nice but a lot of stuff was closed since it was still considered off season for tourism.
The other possibility was to expand into Kosovo but I’m not sure if I really want to go there. Seems like it’d be interesting but I’m not really sure.
Anybody been to either Kosovo or Ohrid, North Macedonia?
The market thought was separate from Centro. Sorry for the confusion.
I went to both back in April 2010. I had decent weather and a good time in each. Kosovo is more of an offbeat country fascination while Ohrid is a traditional tourist draw.
Prizren is a nicer town than Pristina.
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Starting off with a capsule hotel in Tokyo. You lock up your stuff and change into robes and slippers on the first floor (which is kind of annoying to keep going back down if you need to get anything valuable) and then there’s a naked hot spring/bathing area as well as a cafe/lounge with complimentary drinks, rice + miso soup and raw eggs for mixing in your rice. Hmm. The free booze comes out from 7-midnight. There’s also hundreds of anime books on the shelves which may or may not be soft core porn. All the toilets have the full set of bidet options, and I did enjoy the “flushing noises” button where you can drown out any awkward butthole noises without actually having to flush. Then you’ve got the capsules on top few floors, which were relatively quiet, so far. It’s two blocks away from Shinjuku Station, so basically right where all the action is at. Pretty good first 24 hours in Tokyo!
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Will you get to spend time in any other parts of Tokyo?
Asakusa was really fun and I have a couple recs for bars/ramen in the Ginza.
One of my biggest takeaways from Tokyo was how amazing their public transportation system is. Clean, fast, and always on time.
The whole city blew me away, really. Immaculately clean, beautifully designed, and something exciting around every corner. It showed me just how shitty US infrastructure is.
The Japanese just do everything better. If they’re doing something (literally anything) a certain way, it’s because it’s the most efficient or thoughtful way to do it. An eye opening approach to life.
I’m not totally sure what I’m doing, but Friday afternoon and Saturday morning is supposedly the only spurt of clear weather in the near future, so that’s gonna be for Mt Fuji photos (hopefully). And then when I get back from that I might spend some another day or two in east part of Tokyo, so perhaps Ginza or Asakusa?! Then off to Nagano to see those snow monkey from the nature documentaries. Although I know nothing about any other parts of Tokyo besides my current area of Shinjuku/Shibuya, so I’d be happy if you threw some recs my way!
Yup, Tokyo is great and the public transit is amazing, but god damn there’s so many lines connecting in Shinjuku and Shibuya, it’s easy to get thrown off a bit. I’m used to two directions, N-S and E-W, hmmphf! But it does put the US to shame, I’m from Chicago which is supposed to be one of the better ones in the US, which is kinda sad.
So far the only thing that kind of bothers me about Tokyo is that people don’t really wear colors. It’s black, white, and infinite shades of light brown and off-whites: beige, almond, oatmeal, cashew etc. There’s too many people here to all be wearing similar looking colors!
Gleaning what I think you’re into from your posting here, I feel that you’d really enjoy the Asukasa neighborhood. There is tons of history and old culture there, plus lots of local eating and drinking spots.
There is a big open-air market woven between a bunch of temples. I loved people watching here, did some shopping for kitschy gifts, and ate and drank plenty.
Here is the Senso-ji Temple
At the Asakusa Mameshiba Cafe, you can pet a bunch of sweet Shiba Inus while drinking coffee
The Ginza is cool, but it’s kinda upscale and fancy. I only explored it because it’s where I stayed (work trip). If you do go there, I found a great bar called Bar Lupin that made amazing cocktails. I went in for one drink and walked out several hours later, in search of ramen or tempura.
I went to Shimbashi for a day and got ramen at Ichiran, I think it’s tonkotsu. You order from a vending machine and then give them the ticket. I forgot to order an egg on top, such a gringo move.
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Nice thanks! Asukusa does certainly sound like more my style than Ginza, I’ll check it out. I stopped in a cafe today that had hedgehogs, but they’re not very comfortable hold - on account of the spikes, so I think dogs will be better!
Be careful at those capsule hotels. Once I stayed in one in Osaka and they had a bathing area, but also a small pool. There was a TV monitor facing outside the hotel toward a busy thoroughfare that showed a live feed of the pool inside.
Just as I entered the hotel and glanced at the screen, I was flabbergasted, as were a number of other passersby, when a butt-naked gaijin appeared on the screen swimming in the pool. He didn’t realize that this was not a clothing-optional area and was exposing himself for the world to see.
You might also enjoy Ueno–an older part of Tokyo with a lively street market–especially on the weekends. And if you want more color, head to Harajuku. You’ll see some creative outfits to be sure.
As mentioned above, Ginza is just the upscale area of Tokyo with lots of high-end shops. If that’s your thing, go for it. if not, there are plenty of more interesting options.
Haha thanks, this bathing area is definitely a ballsack friendly zone! If I have time I’ll check out Ueno, and I did wander around Harajuku today, quite entertaining!
One question, so last night it was pouring rain and I ran down to a ramen place two blocks away. Then when I was leaving they insisted I take an umbrella, which I thought was kind of odd. Did they expect me to return that umbrella the next day? Or do they have like a take an umbrella/leave an umbrella jar? I declined the offer, but it would have been kinda nice to have that umbrella!
That’s a good question, as I’ve never been in that situation.
But likely, the expectation from them is that they are giving it to you and you don’t need to bring it back, but if you were Japanese, you WOULD bring it back, along with a gift of a $100 melon as a show of appreciation for their consideration to you.
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Can someone explain the point of the yet again delayed Real ID requirement?
I’m just going to use my passport honestly, the realid stuff is annoying to get for me
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I was going to avoid getting a Real ID as some sort of privacy protest, but all they wanted was confirmation of information they already had so it was pointless to not get one.
