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E-cigs for Travellers

April 25, 2012 tikus No comments

I booked my accomodation via agoda.com and Booking.com

Since I have replaced smoking cigarettes with electronic cigarettes, travelling is now no longer such a stressful event. In the past, I used to worry and stress over not being able to get my nicotine hit in airports, trains and hotels but now this is a thing of the past. With electronic cigarettes, I can basically get my nicotine hit whenever and wherever I like. I just make sure that people do not see the vapor I exhale whilst vapping (vapping is the process of ‘smoking’ an electronic cigarette). When vapping, there is no smoke, ashes or smell. The only tell-tale sign is the ‘steam’ that is exhaled from me which is not harmful or irritable to the people around me. In airplanes, I just blow the ‘steam’ into my blanket/coverlet or just go into the toilet for a few minutes to get my ‘hit’. It’s even better now in hotels since I don’t have to make sure to book into a room with a balcony or easy access outside. I just vap to my heart’s content in the room and nobody knows any better nor do they care.

If you do not know what e-cigs are or would like to get started on it, please go to:
heaven-gifts.com
so that I can get a referral fee.:) My referrer username is ‘jefflai’.
I started off with the Joye ego starter kit (US$50) from that website. And added extra nicotine juice (18 mg). Apart from the starter kit and nicotine juice, you may need spares. I’ve got spare batteries (900mAh), spare atomizers (Joye eGo cone shaped mega atomizer) and even a spare usb charger.
Took me about 1 week to change over – from 1 pack a day (for 30 years!) to 3 cigs a day (in 1 week) to none a day – all in 2 weeks. Now, it just costs me about $5 – $10 per week to smoke my e-cigs. But, best of all, no more stress when flying or annoying people around me with passive smoking!

Holiday Travel Tips, Smokers e-gis, electronic cigarettes, vapping

Smoking and train trips in Europe

April 17, 2011 tikus 2 comments

booked my accomodation via agoda.com and Booking.com

Smoking and train trips in Europe

After a week of skiing in Switzerland, I took the train from Grindelwald down to Milan. From Milan, it was Florence and then Rome and finally down to Naples. Once again, during the whole time in Italy, it was great traveling around by train as a smoker. You are allowed to smoke on the platforms and certain parts of the train stations although I noticed the Italians are fairly relaxed about smoking anywhere around the train stations. To us, traveling from Germany down to Italy on a fairly relaxed schedule was great – we would purchase our train tickets to the next destination the day before. We usually bought our train tickets at the train station using one of those automatic ticket machines that are multi-lingual. These machines are pretty easy to use after the first time or so. Once we got our train tickets, we would then go off to book our hotel accommodation using one of the Internet hotels booking websites. It was all pretty stress-less especially knowing that I would not need to worry about my smoking habit whilst traveling by trains.

Note though that throughout all of the cities I traveled to, smoking was not allowed in the Metro or Underground of these cities.
From Italy, I flew across to Athens from Rome – Greece is a smoker’s heaven – almost everyone in Athens smoked and they smoked everywhere! It certainly felt like that! It was hard not to walk around Athens and not be accosted with passive smoke from someone else all the time! Needless to say, traveling around Athens and Greece was indeed very comfortable for a smoker. Certainly, smoking was permitted in restaurants and bars. Even in hotels with non-smoking rooms, you were allowed to smoke in the lift lobbies of the hotel floors. Note though that I did hear from someone that the Government is intending to be stricter about smoking from mid-2010 onwards. Can someone please confirm this?

Holiday Travel Tips, Smokers Europe, Smokers Lounge, Smoking

Smoking and Trains in Europe

July 24, 2010 tikus 3 comments

I booked my accomodation via agoda.com and Booking.com

Smoking in Europe

Trials and Tribulations of being a smoker

Continuing on with the trials and tribulations of being a smoker whilst traveling around certain parts of the world, I was most pleasantly surprised to discover how wonderful it was to travel on Eurail if you are a smoker. On my recent trip to Europe, I took the train from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt and then to Annecy in France. From Annecy, I then trained across to Interlaken ending up in Grindelwald in Switzerland for a bit of skiing. During this whole journey, I had no problems in indulging in a quick smoke throughout the trip. It was great especially since you are allowed to smoke in designated areas on the train platforms in those countries. Smoking is not allowed on the trains though – which is reasonable enough. Nonetheless, I did not have to endure not being able to smoke for more than 1 or 2 hours between train stops.
After a week of skiing in Switzerland, I took the train from Grindelwald down to Milan. From Milan, it was Florence and then Rome and finally down to Naples. Once again, during the whole time in Italy, it was great traveling around by train as a smoker. You are allowed to smoke on the platforms and certain parts of the train stations although I noticed the Italians are fairly relaxed about smoking anywhere around the train stations. To us, traveling from Germany down to Italy on a fairly relaxed schedule was great – we would purchase our train tickets to the next destination the day before. We usually bought our train tickets at the train station using one of those automatic ticket machines that are multi-lingual. These machines are pretty easy to use after the first time or so. Once we got our train tickets, we would then go off to book our hotel accommodation using one of the Internet hotels booking websites. It was all pretty stress-less especially knowing that I would not need to worry about my smoking habit whilst traveling by trains.
Note though that throughout all of the cities I traveled to, smoking was not allowed in the Metro or Underground of these cities.
From Italy, I flew across to Athens from Rome – Greece is a smoker’s heaven – almost everyone in Athens smoked and they smoked everywhere! It certainly felt like that! It was hard not to walk around Athens and not be accosted with passive smoke from someone else all the time! Needless to say, traveling around Athens and Greece was indeed very comfortable for a smoker. Certainly, smoking was permitted in restaurants and bars. Even in hotels with non-smoking rooms, you were allowed to smoke in the lift lobbies of the hotel floors. Note though that I did hear from someone that the Government is intending to be stricter about smoking from mid-2010 onwards. Can someone please confirm this?

Europe, Holiday Travel Tips, Interesting Facts, Smokers Europe, Smokers Lounge

Airport Smokers Lounge

April 18, 2010 tikus 50 comments

I booked my accomodation via agoda.com and Booking.com

In my recent trip to Europe for a bit of skiing and sightseeing around Italy and Greece, it became obvious to me, the challenges of being a smoker whilst traveling around various parts of the world. As far as I know, it is now virtually impossible to smoke in airplanes and also in most types of public transit around the world.

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Flying long distance certainly stresses me out just thinking of being cooped up in a plane for more than 7 hours without being able to smoke. Worst still is upon arrival at your transit or final destination and not being able to smoke in the airport somewhere – just anywhere. Certainly, one of the better airports to be stuck in, is Singapore’s Changi airport, if you are a smoker. This smoker-friendly airport has open air smoking lounges sprinkled throughout all it’s terminals!

Totally opposite to this (in my opinion) democratic and respectful attitude to smokers, are all the airports in Australia. None of the Australian airports has any facility for smokers but lots of bars or pubs if you like to get totally drunk – what does that say about Australian airports? It’s okay to get drunk and be a public nuisance but not okay to smoke in a smoking lounge and kill yourself from passive smoking? Such an archaic stance as far as civil liberties are concerned – why penalize smokers if they are not harming anyone else especially if they are in smoking lounges.

Dubai airport is also interesting – there is only one smoking lounge in the whole airport and it’s located in Terminal 1 which can be a fair walk away from some of the Departure Lounges. However, they have many restaurants and pubs throughout the airport which allows you to smoke in them if you are willing to pay for expensive drink or food. What a novel way of increasing revenue for these restaurants and bars! Let’s penalize smokers by getting them to drink or eat at these expensive places. Meanwhile, back at the one and only smoking lounge in Dubai airport, everyone is trying to squeeze into the lounge for a last smoke before embarking – tuff.

Athens airport was a delight! Upon arrival and even before Immigration or Customs, there was a small corner where alighting passengers could have a quick puff. Hopefully, this doesn’t change when the new anti-smoking laws come into effect in Greece. The birthplace of Democracy certainly appreciates the rights of smokers!

In Rome’s Fumicino airport, I also found a few smoking lounges scattered throughout the airport which I was grateful for.
Quit Smoking Today!

So, does anyone else know any other airports around the world which are smoker friendly – let us know here and we poor smokers of the world can make sure that we don’t transit or depart or arrive at airports that are not smoking friendly. In summary:

Singapore Changi airport – SF (Smoker Friendly)