Hi, I was wondering if anyone here has ever booked flight tickets through a travel agency without it being part of a package. And if so, did the agency mention that when they book for you, it’s them who has to pay the government tax or other taxes—I can’t remember—and then they charge you for those taxes afterward? Or maybe this is specific to Quebec...

We're planning a trip to Vietnam with La Palanche, a travel agency in Hanoi. If anyone here has used them, could you share your experience with this agency, please? Thanks

Hello, Happy to see VoyageForum "back in action" again, and even though I know my post is a bit off-topic, I’ll give it a shot anyway: We’re a group of four looking to take an organized trip to Canada at the end of September/beginning of October 2025, starting from Quebec. These kinds of tours exist, but our main issue is that local agencies don’t handle pre-routing from France, which is a deal-breaker for us. Of course, we’re not at all opposed to traveling in a (small) group. Thanks for your replies and any leads you might have.

Hi, I’m not sure if this belongs here. The videos aren’t mine—they’re from a YouTuber.

I find his trip mind-blowing and totally different from what we see on TV!

So far, two 1-hour-12-minute videos have been released, but there’ll be at least one more!

Some French journalists and politicians have been tearing him apart lately. At the same time, the guy put in insane work without any funding...

Personally, I’m really impressed by what he’s done...

Here are the links. Sorry if this feels like an ad, but I genuinely think his trip is great—and most importantly, judgment-free. The only other thing I’d seen from him was his trip to Transnistria.

I Lived 10 Days with the Taliban 🇦🇫

Under Taliban Sharia in Afghanistan 🇦🇫

Hi, I’d love to know if there’s a website that gives a rough idea of how much time you should spend visiting a particular city or country. I know my question is super general, but it’d be really great if such a site existed.

Thanks in advance for your help. Take care and happy travels.

Régine

Be careful if you're in Konstanz—your phone might connect to a Swiss carrier in certain spots (for me, it was a parking lot near Switzerland and on Mainau Island). You could be charged at least 30 € for roaming if your phone stays connected. I'm with Poste Mobile.

For those in France near the Swiss border, don’t stay in roaming mode. For those like me in Germany, turn off mobile data or get a Swiss plan for 15 €.

Hi there, Everything’s in the title. For those who’ve already been to South Africa, I was wondering if our French type C plugs work with the sockets you’ve encountered in your accommodations there. Apparently, South Africa uses types D, M, and N, and type C plugs are only compatible with type N sockets. Do accommodations mostly have type N sockets? Or are they mostly D and M, which would mean buying an adapter? Thanks for your replies!

Hi there, I need to be transported on Tuesday, October 7th, from Blaise Diagne Airport to Diass (address of my accommodation near the gendarmerie). I’ll be leaving the airport around 3 PM. It’s about 2 or 3 km max. Any contacts with fair prices? Thanks

Hello, We found an English-speaking guide, but do you happen to know a French-speaking one? He’s offering 6 days for $1,700/day per person. There’s just the two of us.

Thanks so much! Planned for July/August 2025 LesBretonsdu56

Je n'arrive plus à accéder aux rubriques " derniers messages " ou " dernières discussions " , on m'affiche " désolé , votre recherche n'a donné aucun résultat " .

Et si je veux voir les messages d'un membre du forum je n'ai accès qu'aux (très ) anciens messages , pas aux plus récents.

Même constat , pour moi aussi . C'est la faute à la chaleur, ou peut être à nos gouvernants ... 😏

Salutations

Bonjour ,

Je n'arrive plus à accéder aux rubriques " derniers messages " ou " dernières discussions " , on m'affiche " désolé , votre recherche n'a donné aucun résultat " .

Et si je veux voir les messages d'un membre du forum je n'ai accès qu'aux (très ) anciens messages , pas aux plus récents.

Bonjour, j'ai eu le même problème depuis mercredi. C'est résolu depuis ce matin, peut-être grâce à votre signalement !

Hi there,

I’m planning a 3-week trip to Japan in May with Voyage Privé. The package includes a 5 GB eSIM, but my phone isn’t new enough to support it. VP told me I could buy a SIM card when I arrive at the airport. Sure enough, I’ve seen online that this is possible with different providers. I only need it for checking routes, looking up addresses, train schedules, etc.—basically using Google Maps, TripAdvisor, and similar apps. No heavy downloads or major internet use. All hotels should provide free Wi-Fi for that, right? Has anyone got any tips for me on this? What have you tried, and how much did it cost? Thanks for your help!

Hi there! I have to leave Ivato/Antananarivo on December 16th. I have a lot of ariary that I’d like to exchange for euros since I might not be coming back to Madagascar (after this 21st trip). I think the exchange office at Ivato also buys ariary back. If any of you have seen the rate for this buyback in advance, thanks a million!

Hi there, This might seem a bit out of the blue, but I really need some info, insights, and advice—especially tips! I’d love to go volunteer in countries that need help. Thanks, and please keep any negative comments to yourself

Currently a developer, I need to hear from digital nomads who are freelancers. What jobs allow you to work as a freelancer? What kind of clients do you have (mostly professionals—big or small companies—or individuals?)

I’m sure I’m not the only one asking this question, so thanks in advance!! :)

Imagination or reality, fiction or true story. Everything blends together, and if the characters really existed, if their story is partly true, I freely transcribed what Surya told me in her English as precarious as mine. Have I already posted this on vf? I can't find it. Maybe on the small forum Wapiti created to continue our wild stories that went on for pages and pages and no longer pleased anyone on vf.

No matter.

I heard from Bavani—life is crazy, isn’t it?

That’s why I’m bringing her story back.

I’m settling into the -miscellaneous- section; I like being away from the noise.

When the house is overrun with running feet, laughter, arguments, and music, I go to the barn turned into a honey house. It’s cool, it smells of wax and honey, and among the disorder of hive frames, supers, and stacked jars, I refocus.

Here, in -miscellaneous-, no one rants. I can let my fingers glide over the keyboard in peace.

Alright, enough digressions. At the end of the notebook, I’ll tell you what became of this little girl.

Bavani

“Bavani, stop daydreaming, work.”

I’m not daydreaming, I’m thinking.

My teacher is Surya, and she asked us to write a story. She doesn’t like us—I heard her talking to the teacher in the little kids’ class. She said: I stay here because the white people pay better than in government schools, but it’s a shame to teach gypsies. Filthy street urchins.

I’m not a gypsy, I’m a Narikuravar. Grandmother told me: you’re going to this school, you’ll learn English well, and when you come back, you’ll be richer than the others because you’ll beg better from the tourists. Grandmother makes necklaces and sells them, but often she sells nothing at all.

There are lots of tourists in my town, Tiruvannamalai. Before, I lived behind the temple with dad and mom. We had our spot and were happy, especially when mom cooked rice on the brazier. Then we’d lie down, and I’d press my back against mom’s huge belly, and it would move inside. One day, mom told me: stay here, I’ll be back very soon. I waited a long time, and neither dad nor mom came back. After a long time, dad came, and we went to Salem to my grandmother, who’s dad’s mom.

I asked: where’s mom? “Shut up, two was too many.” “Two what? He didn’t say.”

So I went to Salem to grandmother’s hut, and there was no rice, and Muriga came to get me with his minibus. Now I live here. We eat several times a day—yellow rice, then white rice to digest, and eggs and bananas.

And we have to study.

Papom *

.../...

Papom: in common language, it’s the equivalent of -see ya-

I seem to remember that the earthquake was located around there. Is the road from Marrakech to Taroudant via Tizi n'Test in good condition?

Hi, Without changing anything in "my settings," I no longer receive email notifications when a PM arrives or when one of my public posts gets a reply. (I don’t have any followed threads)

Is this a temporary glitch or has the feature been removed?

Hi, I can't seem to sign up for the trip to Madagascar contest? It keeps saying "an error occurred." Has anyone else run into the same problem? Thanks

I left my heart’s country eight days ago and returned to my adopted one—or was it the other way around? Scotland-Morvan, Morvan-Scotland, I’m not quite sure anymore.

After a quarter without dragging my slippers around here, even though I’d loudly declared I had no interest left in this site, here I am again!

My imagination never stays fallow for long. Just enough time for my inner land to rest. It gets overgrown with fresh nettles, the kind you can pick without getting stung. Then, it’s time to till the fragrant earth and let the story grow.

I hesitated over where to set this story. Maybe the Highlands, maybe the Hebrides, maybe the Orkney Islands, maybe the Shetland Islands. All of Scotland is myth—easy to embroider. But in the end, no. I’d almost be too afraid to bare my soul.

The story will take place at home. Simple, practical.

1)

This morning, I was up well before dawn, feeling a bit grumpy, but nothing a bowl of coffee won’t fix. I love my bowl, and no one dares take it. It’s porcelain, edged with intertwined blue flowers. On the bottom, it says "Revol." The factory has existed long before the Revolution. It was my great-grandmother’s bowl. She drank roasted barley from it during the war, then her Leroux chicory.

Last year, a little guy dropped it. My bowl broke into three pieces. A black anger vibrated deep inside me. The little boy was so upset, on the verge of tears. How could I scold him!

I picked up the three pieces and took Little Boy in my arms. His hair smelled of the light, sweet sweat of toddlers. A gentle hug that healed—his budding sorrow and my anger—everything vanished, and time carried on.

Today, my bowl is even prettier. Man fixed it using the traditional kintsugi technique, except he didn’t use gold powder or lacquer but superglue, and he delicately painted the cracks with woad blue. And my bowl is even more beautiful now.

I’m lingering, I can tell—it’s just that a story wraps itself in life, and life can’t be told in the snap of a finger. Life is long. Like in architecture, you start with a rough sketch, called a "sous-cul" (the initial pencil drawing), then you make a tracing, which is the work itself, the one you later carefully roll up in a wooden tube. Life is like that: you erase, you start over, you use the nub of the pencil until it’s tiny, but you keep going—dreaming, loving.

"Living is a full-time occupation, a unique adventure. Always a surprise and a wonder, which sometimes turns into astonishment. And, from time to time, happiness."*

Alright, enough digressing—this introduction is definitely too long. Tomorrow, I’ll get to the heart of the matter. (I hate that expression; it feels like I’m cutting into someone’s skin.)

*Jean d’Ormesson

2)

Hi, I’m landing in Quebec and then heading to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. I’d like to rent a pick-up. My question is: does this vehicle come with a cover and is it secure enough to store luggage in? I’ve heard two conflicting opinions. Thanks

hi there I’d love to get some opinions—I’ve never used Airbnb before. They’re offering a key handover via lockbox. Any tips or advice? Is it reliable? Best,

Hi, I’d like to know where we can buy beer or wine in Chefchaouen and around Merzouga. We’ll be doing a circuit and staying at the Parador Hotel in Chefchaouen and in a bivouac in Merzouga. Thanks for any info you can share!

Hi everyone,

Facebook is giving me a hard time trying to access the Chiang Mai Marketplace from France. I’ve tried using a VPN, clearing my browsing data, and even using a browser not linked to an account—but no luck. The app is even worse since it checks the phone’s location data.

Any tips on how to get around this?

Thanks in advance! Olivier

Hi everyone. We’ve been feeling like there’s a big drop in activity on our forum... Probably due to the current situation... Have any of you canceled or postponed your upcoming trips? The forum is also facing competition from social media like Facebook and others, which play a big role in the political situation but are pretty limited when it comes to planning an individual trip. The mandatory ads for new members on the forum are also a major turn-off that should be removed. As for the current situation, I’m in Nosy Be, and there’s no problem here. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the future. I feel like this crisis is different this time and could lead to real change. Hope I’m not wrong! Thanks for your replies!

Hi everyone, I recently noticed that when you "mark as read" a discussion, the bullet point next to it stays "green" as if it hadn’t been "marked." I tested marking all discussions as read, and they all still show up as "unread!" Nothing major, but I was wondering if it’s just "my computer"!

Hi there, I have a question about the eSIM card: I bought an eSIM from Saily for my trip to Japan in 5 days. What should I do with my Samsung smartphone? What should I do with my current SIM card: deactivate/remove it? It says activation in Japan is automatic—what does that mean exactly?

Hi everyone,

I was in Delhi for work and decided to leave my suitcase there so I could enjoy the rest of my vacation in Southeast Asia. However, my flight from Bangkok to Delhi, scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday, October 5th), was rescheduled, and I’ll miss my connection to Paris. When I looked at flights, I realized that the Bangkok-Paris flight costs half as much as the new Bangkok-Delhi flight (with a different airline).

So here’s my question (a shot in the dark): Is anyone traveling between Delhi and Paris in the next few days? Would it be possible to pick up my suitcase in Delhi’s hold (I’ll pay the extra fee) and bring it to Paris?

I thought about having it shipped, but I need it fairly quickly, and I don’t trust the delivery times. Plus, the costs are outrageous.

Thank you so much in advance!

Have a wonderful day,

Sacha

Hi, We’re leaving for South Africa soon (on 10/9) and I was wondering if there’s a need for things like paracetamol, since we can bring some! And if so, how should we go about it—can we drop them off at a private lodge, in Kruger, in Cape Town...? Thanks for any tips or experiences you can share—quickly, since we’re leaving soon! 😉

It’s happening today 🧐 https://www.leparisien.fr/faits-divers/crash-rio-paris-air-france-et-airbus-juges-en-appel-ce-lundi-16-ans-apres-la-catastrophe-29-09-2025-DREB6EOWRRC6HOIY6DZWRMWWMU.php?at_variant=photo&at_creation=Le%20Parisien%20Faits%20Divers&at_campaign=Partage%20Facebook%20CM&at_medium=Social%20media