Let the truth be know, I am more nervous than excited. So many people are saying Mexico is crawling with crims and drug lords with a crime rate so high that it would make Perth seem more like a country village. I am sure it is not THAT bad, and people do tend to exaggerate and overstate things, but I did acquire a theft-proof backpack at great expense, and I hope the security features will never be tested, but as we Virgos are fond of saying, better safe than sorry. To be sure the govt "travel smart" website does give a map of Mexico showing "no go" areas for tourists, and fortunately where I will be is nowhere near these no go areas. Indeed it is said that Cancun and the Yucatan area is relatively one of the safest areas of Mexico. But being in a foreign country, well this intrepid soul is being very intrepid!!!!!!
Not to mention all those earthquakes!!!! In fact there has been THREE "severe" earthquakes (ie 6 or more on the ritcher scale" in just the past two weeks!!!! Fortunately all of them were far enough away to not affect the Yucatan area but they still would have felt them!!! And I am not sure if I would relish being in an earthquake even a relatively slight one. It was bad enough in Bali when during my stay there I did feel one slight tremor!!!! I do lead a sheltered life, we don't get earthquakes in Perth..... well the Meckering quake of 1968 notwithstanding. I don't remember much about that one but one thing I do remember is the floor suddenly beginning to shake and hearing a roar that sounded like the wind and rain. So for the next few years of my childhood I would freak out whenever there is heavy rain with wind, I would stand at the window and cry each time it rained heavily, and no one understood why. Mother would have just thought it was one of my silly childhood fears. But it wasn't the rain or even the wind that I was afraid of, it was that the house might shake again just like it did with the roaring sound that sounded like the wind and rain. Many years later I was shocked to learn that on the day of the earthquake it didn't actually rain, in fact it was quite a calm day!!!! And then it tweaked!!! The wind and rain doesn't cause the house to shake, at least not in Perth anyway!!!! Maybe a hurricane or tornado, but we don't have those in Perth!!!! The roaring sound was caused by the earthquake which shook the house. And I was no longer afraid of the weather - except when I went to America and got caught in a storm with tornados!!!!
Speaking of Bali.....
In getting ready for my trip, I thought of ways of getting to the Airport. My car battery is on its way out, indeed the windscreen wipers now takes a while before it starts up as if there's not enough power getting to them until after the engine is running, another classic sign of a battery in its death throes. The only reason why I am still able to use the car is cos I use it often enough to keep the battery charged up sufficiently. But during my trip the car will be idle for the best part of three weeks, this is likely to seal the fate of my battery. During my trips I usually book long secure term parking at the Airport and just drive in to leave my car there. However I don't relish the idea of returning from the long flights only to contend with a dead battery upon my return at an Airport parking lot!!! So pondering on alternative ways of getting to the Airport.
Enter Uber..... me being of Virgoan energies, I spent time checking out Uber, and studying exactly how it works. And then just a couple of days ago I put Uber to the test. And here is my test report......
My Virgoan Report on my first Uber ride
We Virgos does have a reputation of being very hard to please. Well it's not that we're nit picky nor fussy, we just give great attention to details. Keep that in mind as I report on my first Uber ride, a test ride to judge whether I will be taking this transportation option to the Airport next weekend.
Using the app on my tablet to book my ride was a breeze as it uses the GPS to see where I was currently located which they correctly figured to be my abode, having previously entered details of my home address when I set up the app. I then began to type in my destination, being the Mends Street jetty in South Perth, and the location came up on the list after I typed four or five characters. It then gave the route and the price, the map also gives the real time locations of current Uber vehicles.
The first snag came up when it came to the payment. I had entered Paypal as my payment option. Alas!! Paypal knocked back the payment request from Uber!! Apparently I needed to add Uber to the approved merchants list on Paypal, which I spent the next 20 minutes trying to do on the Paypal site but for the life of me I could not find any options that would allow me to add someone to the approved list!! So after being frustrated to the max, I ended up just adding one of my credit cards as a payment option on the Uber app. No reflection on Uber, just Paypal being paranoid over automated payments from an app.
Once I was able to add my credit card, the whole process of requesting a ride went very smoothly. Once the payment was successfully processed, the app gave me the make and colour of the vehicle which would be collecting me, the license plate number, and driver name with user rating which I was glad to see it was very high!! It also gave the approximate time until arrival, which was about 6 minutes or so, and I was able to follow the progress of the vehicle on the map, allowing me to relax a bit until the vehicle turned onto my street.
I recognized the vehicle immediately from the license plate, so I waved as he came into the visitors parking lot. He asked me "Uber?", I think just to make sure I was the one he was meant to be collecting. I got into the back seat as I always deliberately done so back in the days of catching a taxi. Drivers tends not to chat so much when in the back seat, and so I was able to peruse FaceBook on my device in peace while he took me to my destination.
Before we left, he confirmed with me my destination, the Mends Street Jetty. Then he asked me where it was? He first asked, is it in the city? I corrected him, South Perth. But once he checked on his GPS system, he was able to take me to Mends Street via the quickest route without any further assistance from me. Being prepaid up front and paid to the company rather than directly to the driver, they're not like the taxis who often takes you the long way around, sometimes feigning being "lost" just for the extra fares.
Once we reached the shopping strip that is Mends Street, he confirmed with me if this is where I wanted to go. And me in my Virgoan ways I just said, drop me anywhere along here. So he parked at the petrol (gasoline) station on the corner and I was about to get out, when he stopped me and asked if I wanted to be taken down to the Jetty? It was a matter of only 2 minutes walking, Mends Street is not a long street, it takes literally just two minutes to walk from one end to the other. So normally I would have just said, no need to bother! But I think Niandarah (my Goddess from Sirius, my current spirit guide) was on my case, and the driver was simply trying to do the right thing as I did specifically request my destination to be the Jetty by the river, not just "anywhere along the street". So I took up on his offer, and he drove me the short distance down to the jetty. I thanked him, and I was on my merry way without any fuss whatsoever.
So it all went very well and so much easier than catching a taxi, especially when it comes to the payment which was up front via the app, once I gotten over the Paypal issue, so no fumbling around for the change or being charged extra for daring to use a card, nor dealing with the bother of paying the driver at the end of the journey. Also it was a very late model vehicle, very clean and in excellent condition. And when a Virgo says something is very clean, then it IS very clean!!!!
My rating is 9.5 with half a point taken off cos he didn't initially know where Mends Street was located. OK he got me there without a problem once he consulted the GPS system, but hey, a Virgo wouldn't be a Virgo if he wasn't so nit picky nor fussy about things!!!!
Uber will be my transportation of choice next Sunday in getting to the Airport to catch my flights.
So that's my transportation to the Airport now all stitched up. I've gotten my last few supplies this week for my trip, and finally took out travel insurance after deciding who to go with on the insurance. It turned out to be cheaper than usual cos this one gives the option of opting out of certain coverage that I wouldn't be needing, such as car rental excess that one has to pay if involved in a car wreck. However I won't be renting a car in Cancun, I will be getting around on public transport or via tours, so I don't need the excess cover. Most insurance companies doesn't allow you to opt out of certain covers so give a flat premium rate. But being able to opt out of the car rental excess cover which I won't be needing, this makes the premium much cheaper. I do take out comprehensive insurance which covers medical expenses, emergencies, flight cancellations, lost luggage, and most of the other calamities that may befall the intrepid world traveller.
Just need to start packing and figuring out what to take with me aside from my crystals and Goddess figurines. Cancun is a tropical paradise where it is always warm, from a night low of 26 degrees to highs of 32 to 34 degrees, and the humidity to match, so safe to say I won't be needing any of my winter woollies which will leave me extra room in my luggage for other items without going over the airline weight limit!!!! Getting all my travel documentations together. And getting stuff together to prepare for those very long flights, such as music with headphones, my tablet with movies uploaded, and reading materials. Of course they do have the personal entertainment systems on the planes with vid screens on each seat but usually not the kind of movies that I like to watch, my weird sci fi movies or star seeds videos. I usually end up watching the flight tracker which tracks the progress of the current flight on a map, a twist on the classic question "Are we there yet!!!????"..... only that following the progress of the little plane icon on that very long red line representing the flight path is like watching grass grows, especially on the Sydney to LA leg of my flights!!!!!! It's that long leg of about 14-15 hours I am NOT looking forward to. I don't mind so much the 4-5 hours flight to Sydney, albeit the "red-eye" flight leaving just before midnight and arriving at dawn in Sydney, and the 7 hour flight from LA to Cancun which thankfully will be during the day, arriving in Cancun by about 6pm local time, giving me enough time to settle into my lodging prior to going to bed. Just that long flight across the Pacific will be like murder!!!! Such is life in living in the most isolated city on Earth!!!!
One of my stopovers to Cancun..... getting rather familiar with this place in recent times......
Now a public holiday tomorrow in Western Australia..... then four more days at work..... then the weekend, and by about 11PM Sunday night I will be on my merry way to the land of the Mayans.....
Follow my weird musings with pixs during my trip here.......
My Cancun Mexico Trip
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