steve kwan user experience designer

Back from Mexico

(November 3rd, 2007 - 4:39AM)

I'm home!

Mexico was fantastic, and a well-needed rest. Ten days is about the perfect length for a vacation. Let me summarize the trip briefly.

I like boats.

I took a ten-day cruise with my family along the west coast of Mexico. Among the attractions were Puerto Vallarta and La Paz.

The problem with cruises is that you don't get the authentic local experience, as most of your time is spent on a boat (a floating slice of America) and your off-boat time tends to be spent at little towns specifically geared to cater to cruise ship disembarkers.

All the same, the boats are luxurious and relaxing, and I'm well rested and well fed.

The streak is over.

Friends know that I'd been going to the gym every day to see how long I could keep the streak up. Well, it's over at 156 days.

The first day of the trip, I decided to go to the on-boat gym after dinner and found out that it closes at 9:00PM. You might be asking yourself what kind of gym closes that early. I'll tell you: a gym that caters to old people. Which brings me to my next point.

I hate old people.

The cruise we took was part of the Holland America line. We didn't know this ahead of time, but it seems that the boat we took (the Ryndam) caters specifically to the elderly. The average passenger age on the boat must have been about 70. Jerry Lewis was on the boat, so you know it's an old person's boat. (PS: Jerry Lewis seems like a nice guy.)

The first sign of trouble was when a passenger had to be carted off in an ambulance before even boarding the boat. Pretty soon onboard, we realized that something was amiss. The entire boat basically shut down at 9:00PM, and if you've ever cruised, you know that's unusual. There was a special chair in the swimming pool that allowed people with limited mobility to be dropped slowly into the pool. So obviously, a twenty-something such as myself was out of place.

I remember at one point my brother Matt and I were sitting outside of the sauna when an elderly fellow walked by. Matt asked him how he was doing, and he replied, "I don't know."

Mexico is itchy.

A few days into the trip, I broke out with a rash which spread all over my body. I don't know what caused it (current theories are laundry detergent, sun, heat, bug bites, gym cleaning fluid and more). In fact, I've been home for several days and I'm still itchy. Although I enjoyed Mexico, I'm glad I'm back home and less itchy.

I bricked my iPod.

I like to tan. Turns out iPods don't. About halfway through the trip, I was sitting out in the sun and my iPod crapped out on me. That left me without an iPod for about five days. If you know how much I use the thing, you know how painful that was.

Perhaps my iPod knew about my plans to replace it and decided to teach me a lesson.

I want to buy a Creative Zen, but the 16GB model isn't in stores yet. I'm not going to be happy getting the 4GB or 8GB models. The iPod was under extended warranty, so I returned it to Future Shop and they'll either fix it or give me a new one. I'm borrowing my parents' iPod while mine is in the shop.

I have bling.

Most cruise ships have onboard shopping, and you can get a lot of good deals there. In particular, jewelry tends to be very reasonable. I bought a titanium ring and two new watches.

Corona is cheap.

Everyone already knows this about Mexico, but it bears mentioning. I'm not even sure how much Corona I drank while I was down there.

I only took a few photos.

I'm a minimalist, and I believe that in many cases, less is more. I took a que from my friend Beth, who only showed me a few photos from her trip to Cambodia. I've decided that it's better to take a few good photos than a hundred mediocre ones. So I only shot a few photos in Mexico, and to be honest none of them were that great. I'll upload them soon - probably to Flickr.

I recommend Mexico.

Overall, Mexico was a lot of fun and a much-needed rest. Although it wasn't as fun and beautiful as my 2006 trip to Hawai'i, it's much more reasonably priced and still a good time.