Category: anti-smoking

Wrapping up 4 Months in S.E. Asia

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, cycling, gymnastics, hiking, travel1 Comment

I did make the best of the past 4 months in Asia — but not likely to return.

I traveled Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Philippines, and Taiwan (which is actually in Asia, not S.E. Asia).

S.E. Asia is ideal for young party animals without much money — who want to ride a crappy rented motorcycle in a thong bikini while drinking cheap beer on the way to the beach.

It’s not great for me as multi-day hiking and cycling cultures are near non-existent.

MOST of the outdoor activities are water related. 🐟

I believe the ocean should be avoided due to box jellyfish and sea monsters.

I’d only gone to S.E. Asia because two Gymnastics competitions were scheduled there. Both excellent. I was happy to be at both with a media credential.

  • World Championships 2025 Jakarta
  • World Jr Championships 2025 Manila

BEST of my Holiday

If offered a private jet to fly back to just one destination ➙ perhaps the Gili Islands, Indonesia.

Click PLAY or watch Vietnam highlights on YouTube.

Problems for the Tourist in S.E. Asia

I hate personal motor vehicles. But it’s literally the only way to get around.

S.E. Asian cities are polluted, littered, and mostly should be avoided.

Even in Manila, public transit is too lined-up to be time efficient.

Super keen to finally get to Taiwan, ultimately I was disappointed as a tourist.

I got used to the heat and humidity of S.E. Asia. NOT my favourite climate, however.

On the upside, I saw very few mosquitoes. Only one cockroach. Second hand smoke is not nearly as bad as Europe.

MANY rats. Most in public parks eating garbage litter and around outdoor street food kiosks.

Many would list food as a highlight of S.E. Asia. Personally, I quickly tired of rice based meals. Most of my cravings were for western comfort foods. Toast, in particular. I ended up in McDonalds often as it’s clean, fast, and you can pay by credit card in a machine.

One pet peeve is trying to check-out of any grocery or convenience store. I can’t recall Canada EVER being so slow. Philippines has dozens of people in a grocery store doing something, but still makes customers. spend 20 minutes in a check-out line.

Cash based economies seem so backwards to me now.

S.E. Asia, in general is super inefficient. I do love Singapore, however, exactly the opposite. Everything is fast and well organized.

Many things are closed. Nobody knows why. Nobody knows if and when they will ever reopen.

What Asian nations will I likely visit in coming years?

Mongolia. I’m planning an adventure there in the next year or two.

Pakistan too.

Oman.

Nepal, of course.

I’ve only been to South Korea once. Would love to get back.

Touring Indonesia is not for ME

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, gymnastics, travelLeave a comment

I just travelled Indonesia for a month. Most of the popular attractions.

It’s not a good fit for this old backpacker.

Aside from major city train / bus service, tourists end up taking a lot of personal vehicles. Bad for the environment. Terrible for traffic jams.

Ride sharing apps like Grab and GoJek are essential as there are no alternatives in much of the nation.

Indonesia is ideal for young invincible backpackers who love to ride scooters through dangerous traffic. While chain smoking. Adrenaline junkies.

Instead of touring, I’d recommend picking one spot you like. Rent a place for a month. Concentrate on a few things: scuba, snorkelling, health & fitness, yoga, surfing, writing, reading, partying, …. Whatever you’ve always want more time for.

Don’t travel very far.

I’d like a month in the Gili Islands, for example.

The culture tourists face is (mostly) men, (mostly) chain smoking.

Every young guy in Indonesia dreams of getting a scooter. And then enough money for fuel and cigarettes.

This MIGHT be an A.I. generated image. 😀

While it’s easy and quick to move between Bali, Lombok and the Gilis, island-hopping elsewhere often involves a flight, bad bus, or lengthy boat journey.

To be fair, there ARE a number of island chains where you can jump between islands on a short speedboat or long-tail-boat ride. The Banda Islands and Kei Islands in southern Maluku are compact and a breeze to travel among, while it’s also easy to move around the Karimunjawa Islands off Java, the Togean Islands off Sulawesi, the Banyak Islands off Sumatra and Raja Ampat off Papua.

That said — I’ll be returning to Jakarta soon for the World Gymnastics Championships.

Healthspan vs Lifespan

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Lifespan is how long you live, on average.

In Canada, average life expectancy at birth is about 81.7 years. Women live longer than men, on average.

As you get older, that number increases. For example, as a 67-year-old man in Canada, it’s predicted I’ll live to be 85-87 years.

We all need to plan and budget for a comfortable life through to the inevitable end. So I need a plan for about another 20 years.

My parents lived to ages 94 and 96.

Some use the term healthspan to sum up Healthy life expectancy (HALE), the average number of years that a person can expect to live in “full health“.

At age-67 … I still feel fully healthy. There’s nothing I can’t do today due to health limitations.

Japan has the highest HALE at less than age-75. Lesotho the lowest.

Surprisingly low are the USA, UAE, and Qatar.

Canada is NOT up with the healthiest, either.

So … we all need to plan and budget for a comfortable life once our health is failing. IF your nation has good public healthcare, costs could be lower for this phase of our lives.

Wearables MIGHT help. I’m not using my Apple Watch for any health reasons. Yet.

Perhaps I should.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Will and Harper

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, education, ethics, GOP USA, government, happiness, human rights, movies, things getting worseLeave a comment

An important film.

Unscripted road trip.

Touching.

It’s about friendship. Life. … Aging.

Acceptance about who you are. And being tolerant of others to be who they want to be.

I was quite charmed by the warm welcome Harper got dropping into a random Oklahoma biker bar. (You can still smoke in Oklahoma bars?)

Face to face, people are most often welcoming and open minded. Even rednecks in country bars.

Since 2020, right wing politicians have been attacking the rights of transgender people — simply as a way to motivate their most deplorable voters. Very few of those haters have ever once had an encounter with a trans person.

Considered and attempted suicide rate of transgender people in the United States

from 2000 to 2022, with a forecast from 2023 to 2030

Right wing politicians and influencers like Musk and J. K. Rowling are partially responsible for those suicides.

I admire Will Ferrell trying to bring trans folks some hope with this movie.

I’d to do the same if any of my friends announced they were transitioning.

It’s a complicated process. And different for every single person.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I found the ending of this movie just perfect.

Why I QUIT the Tuscany Trail

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, best bike rides, cycling, government, health & fitness, travel2 Comments

The scenery is amazing. Excellent and varied cycling possibilities.

One of the best areas of the world for biking adventures.

Click PLAY or watch 2-minutes of highlights on YouTube.

Ultimately, I had to quit after day 3 because of illness.

Drinking from the same hoses and standing pipes as every other cyclist, I suffered some sort of stomach problem. Diarrhea. Threw up on my shoes, at one point.

Didn’t eat for about 36 hours.

BUT if not sick I might have still quit after Siena. Completing about 190km of the 472 total.

For one thing, the afternoon lightning storms were terrifying. Even the most experienced riders hunker down in lightning. Two were killed in Tuscany as I post — both hit by falling trees.

The rain turned some trails into impassable mud baths. … Though it did soften up some other trails.

My bike is excellent for normal bikepacking — but the Tuscany Trail was far more technical than I’d expected. A mountain bike with very little weight attached is what most experience riders were rocking.

I was envious of the electric mountain bikes.

My bike was the 2nd most inappropriate rig. Worse was a 2-person tandem. Husband and wife. I wished them luck.

I was cycling with ALL my gear for a months long trip.

On one of the many downhill, rocky trails a screw came loose on my front pannier rack. So my front saddle bags were rocking side-to-side.

In Siena I took as much off the bike as possible (see photo below) and went to find luggage storage.

IF you Google “siena luggage storage” you’ll find a wealth of options.

All lies. In Siena there are only tobacco shops who hold a few bags as side income. And they only open randomly. Not Sundays. … And this was Sunday.

WHY doesn’t Siena have 24-hour lockers like most Italian tourist cities.

My theory since age-17 is that Italy is hopeless for tourists.

Nothing works. Nothing is open when you need it.

A long history of government inefficiency and corruption makes it this way.

Note that Germany and Switzerland next door are two of the most efficient nations.

There are no real enforced rules in Italy. Yet every time a tourist turns around somebody is yelling at you for violating an unnecessary rule. Yeesh.

When tourists complain, it’s explained that Italians don’t care about entrepreneurship nor efficiency because they value lifestyle over money. I don’t buy it.

Chain-smoking and sipping tiny espressos is not a healthy lifestyle.

I’d definitely return to Tuscany for cycling. But not likely the most famous ride ➙ the Tuscany Trail.

For one thing, it’s mainly a ca$h grab by organizers. They spend very little and pocket over 100 € / person. Normally capped at 3000, in 2023 they went up to about 4700 bikes. Too many for these trails and small towns.

Better, for example. is the Ganza Gravel event. October is much better weather than June. Cyclists have 3-4 different routes to choose from. Folks get together for meals in the evenings. There might even be a food festival at the end.

For those who are not really cyclists, the supported electric bike tours looked very good to me. Not inexpensive.

Smoking Causes Lung Cancer

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, health & fitness, moviesLeave a comment

End of story.

See more Our World in Data smoking charts.

The best commentary on the Big Tobacco lobby was the 2005 film Thank You For Smoking.

I loved how the lobbyist played by Aaron Eckhart doesn’t smoke.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The Barkley Marathons

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, health & fitnessLeave a comment

Hardest and dumbest race in the world.

The Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held in Frozen Head State Park near Wartburg, Tennessee.

If runners complete 60 miles (97 km) this is known as a “fun run.”

The full course is 100+ miles (160 km) (distances are approximate). The race is limited to a 60-hour period, and takes place in late March or early April of each year. …

The full, five-loop race has been completed 18 times by 15 runners as of the 2019 event. …

Jared Campbell finished 3 times. #respect

Click PLAY or watch Gary Robbins‘ – 2016 & 2017 races on YouTube. What a man!

I’m happy for John Kelly too, a 2017 finisher.

The land of Gross National Happiness

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, economics, government, health & fitness, hiking, philosophy, travel1 Comment

I really have to get to Bhutan.

Smoking is ILLEGAL there.

Click PLAY or watch it on Facebook.

The Truth About Vaping

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, health & fitnessLeave a comment

I hate smoking.

I hate vaping less as the second hand smoke is not nearly so bad.

And vaping legal product is much safer for the user than cigarettes. (The U.S. deaths appear to be mostly due to illegal product.)

More than 40 million people around the world now vape, up from just 7 million less than a decade ago. In the U.S., roughly 1 in 5 high-school kids vape. …

It wasn’t long before a vaping champion was crowned: Juul Labs, founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco.

… By 2017, Juul was the U.S. leader in market share, selling one of every three e-cigarettes. …

Why did Juul become so much more popular than its rivals? Michael Siegel has one answer.

Juul has a very different nicotine formulation that makes it much more addictive. …

… the U.K. has regulated these products. And most importantly, there is a limit on the amount of nicotine that’s allowable. You can only have up to 20 milligrams per milliliter of nicotine …. In the U.S., there’s no limit at all.

So Juul comes along, they put 54 milligrams per milliliter in their product …

It’s 17 milligrams in the U.K.

Read more …

The Truth About the Vaping Crisis

The bigger problem in the USA is NOT the deaths, but rather the high percentage of youth who are not smokers taking up vaping. In 2019 it’s still considered cool.

why I can’t live in Europe

On By Rick McIn anti-smoking, economics, product complaints, travel8 Comments

This is a repost from 2009. Having travelled Europe extensively in 2018 and 2019, my opinion is unchanged. 

Too much second hand smoke, too few toilets. 

I should live in Europe.

The trains are fantastic. There are dedicated bike trails everywhere. It’s easy to live without a car.

But I can’t live in Europe. 

  • It’s OLD
  • It’s EXPENSIVE
  • Banker’s Hours
  • People aren’t friendly
  • Smokers

=== It’s OLD

No need to visit the potentially gorgeous Sagrada Família in Barcelona. There are no plans to remove the scaffolding until at least 2026.

308565295_452c4ee086_b

I’m not sure how they ever made postcards of the great monuments of Europe. Photoshop?

Most are under construction. Constantly.

=== It’s EXPENSIVE

broke-guyA sample of prices from December 2007:

Gallon of unleaded gas: $8.08
Gallon of bio diesel: $6.06
Wireless Internet: $6 for 30 minutes, $32 for 24 hours
Vienna public transport, 24-hours: $8.40
Berlin public transport, 24-hours: $8.97
Seat reservation, Brussels-Frankfurt train: $4.41
Overnight parking, Hotel Helvetia, Lindau, Germany: $14.40
Leopold Museum, Vienna: $10.30

see more

I recently heard that a basic hotel room in urban Finland costs US$400 / night.

There are very few pressures to bring prices down in Western and Northern European countries. You need a HUGE salary to afford to live there.

=== Banker’s Hours

Recall when the only reason we hated bankers was that they worked only 10:15AM-11:45AM. And 2:15AM- 3:45PM ??

Most businesses in Southern Europe still close in the middle of the day. Many are required to close by government legislation.

Shop keeps sometimes seem disappointed if you find their store open.

sorry-we-are-open

I’m surpised any commerce happens at all.

The tradition of siesta may have worked well in the small village decades past (when wives were stay at home chattel) but it’s bloody inconvenient in 2009. Especially for a tourist.

In the Dolomites of Northern Italy they have incredibly helpful tourist information kiosks. But they close from Noon Saturday until Monday morning. … The majority of tourists arrive by train from big cities further south, about Noon on Saturday.

In Andorra la Vella, the only city in the country of Andorra, none of the internet cafes were open on a Saturday morning. Not even 24 Hour Internet. (I did them the service of removing their “OPEN” sign. But my Swiss Army knife did not have the power tools required to remove the 24 Hour Internet sign.)

=== People aren’t friendly

Picture an arrogant, rude European.

disdainful

That’s my preconception.

But when I finally found, in the summer of 2009, an arrogant French bus driver, I couldn’t stop laughing.

As he chastised me, the ignorant, smelly American tourist, I couldn’t help chuckling at his stereotype manner and accent. He seemed to me a Hollywood comic actor spoofing the role with a phoney accent.

Ever since I saw the wonderful 1967 Sidney Portier film, To Sir, with Love, I’ve had another bias … A disgust with the British class system.

Even today I picture a subculture of profane skin head soccer louts. And uncouth, unwed teen mothers. Spending their meager dole at the pub rather than at the dentist.

I did see them in Scottish pubs. But sucking fags outside the door of the pub. Smoking in restaurants and bars was banned in the United Kingdom July 2007. Thank God.

Infants and children are allowed in pubs, however. Drunks care for them while Mom and/or Dad step out for another smoke.

… To be fair, I was very surprised how friendly the Scots were to me, another dumb tourist. Far more friendly than any of the other 5 Western European countries I visited.

=== Smokers

The single biggest reason I could not live in Europe.

They are shameless. Unrepentant. Totally oblivious to others.

The phrase “second hand smoke” has never yet been translated into Italian.

They smoke indoors and out. I could not enter any cafe or restaurant. In fact, a guy lit up in the airport restaurant in Bilbao, Spain. There were no signs saying he couldn’t.

Worst of all, it was clear to me that smoking is still cool, in Europe.

smoker-cafe

I can’t live in Europe.

It’s uncivilized.