What’s your favorite vacation destination when you’re not busy analyzing charts?coz I was some days off wanna know what you do?
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Ooooh. 
Hmm. You should check out the beaches here in the Philippines. 
They’re very beautiful. 
OH. Just not right now cause it’s literally 48 degree Celsius in some areas here. 
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I look forward to exploring Philippines someday.
Ilaje-akpoi, Nigeria; where the rivers never lacks fishes and the breeze the mints of nature. One challenge here is mosquitoes; two Egyptians couldn’t survived their bites last year and died while on treatment. If you can get your malaria vaccines, then trust me you’ll love every bits.
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Oh my goodness, you’re from the Philippines?
The best place is always on a beach.
When is the best time of year to travel there?
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Take me with you. :))
I started looking at random places on Google Earth street view. It’s pretty cool. It makes me feel like I’m there!
Has anyone else here done that?
Yes, quite a lot actually. and for many reasons. A recommended use of this for a Forex trader is to see the building in which your favourite broker is registered. Some in the Caribbean look a little shaky, like they are not really there?
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What a beautiful view!!! It’s not possible to look at a view like this and not think ¨I wanna go!¨
What a great idea!! I can complain all day about how Google collects and uses our data with/without or knowledge, but they do a damn good job! Well, that’s assuming they did this themselves. They might have just bought a company that did it…I have no idea.
But assuming that Google actually drove around all these streets and took all these pictures, it’s impressive. And the pictures are crystal clear. Better than any bank security footage, that’s for sure.
We can get a street and bird’s eye view of just about any street in the world!
The Caribbean, Asia, Australia…some small town in Nigeria that tourists never venture to…a quiet beach town in California, a quiet little town in Germany that you heard has delicious beer, or a section of Vietnam that’s famous for its street food.
I get very very bored when working on charts and every few minutes I have to do something else to keep myself going. Visiting places via Google Earth has been quite a treat!
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I use it extensively when researching UK properties to buy. I have recently identified 2 for a Oz colleague who is going through the paperwork. I am also moving home within a year so have had cause to seriously use Google earth or maps now to do “aerial views” of the props for sale. Amazingly, many of them are not exactly at the location shown on Google maps, so you have to get that little avatar and drag him onscreen to walk down the road either way to match the Rightmove advertisement pictures with the house frontage. They are out by as much as 100 metres up/down the road, so not totally reliable. It gives you a feel for the micro-location (like parks, ponds, graveyards, shops, crowded parking on roads), and this “fundamental analysis” is what makes me reject 90% of the suspects before I even go any further. Funny about how good processes are transferable between businesses - property investment, Forex trading, and all other pursuits I have an interest in. 
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Very smart! That’s a good way to scope out the scene while saving yourself a trip!
This is awesome for me because while I’m not there, I can fantasize about being there!
Do you ever use Google Earth for pleasure, or strictly business?
OMG why did I just see this now? 
Huhuhu. Sorry for the late reply! But yeeees! I’m from the Philippines and the beaches here are really pretty. Haha. I mean, if you can withstand the heat, May-June would be nice. BUT if you’re not necessarily going to the beaches, Christmas season is fun here too.
I thought you knew me by now. I do not differentiate between business and pleasure. Everything I do I choose to do. I tried to retire 3 times in my life, and got bored. You may as well enjoy your work when you have that choice. It is not all roses, and I have a long way to go to gear down my activity in my old age. But as long as health allows me, I do not even have a definition of “retirement”. I know that is hard for many people to contemplate but the last time I “did not like my job” was when I jumped off the corporate ladder in 1991. It’s been a much nicer life since then.
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Hello, my friend.
I did a contract assignment in Philippines - oil and gas exploration in the early 1980s. I would love to revisit. We lived in Makati Avenue, and I got to visit Cebu, Negros (private helicopter to a geothermal drilling site), Banaui rice terraces in Northern Luzon (gas exploration on land), and one short trip to Mindanao - not a great experience. The best place I went was to the 100 islands resort and went local. Three young engineers hosted by a very nice family who took us out each day in a small boat to visit island after island. A wonderful 18 months and I got paid for going to all those wonderful places. What is not to like about the Philippines. The people are the kindest on earth. And the bar musicians are the finest in the world
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Gotcha. But I mean, do you only use it to look up things related to business/investing? Or do you sometimes use it for curiosity or a short mental getaway?
In my case, it’s a short mental getaway, for sure.
I don’t do this but would love to visit the Alps, doesn’t really matter what country. Spring or fall, either one would be so cool.
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the Alps are a bit like charts …
they go up and down all over the place, rising and falling all around you and sometimes it’s hard to get your bearings
it’s hard to know where the top or bottom of the next one will be …
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haha! that’s a good one.
OK, I do admit, if I am contemplating going to a restaurant I have not been to before, or inviting someone out to see a sight (example trip to Buxton Derbyshire or a coffee shop in Knutsford, Cheshire) I have been known to virtually walk up and down the street, or to take an overhead view of a park or beach. Unlike looking at properties on Rightmove, you are sometimes pleasantly surprised that the real world looks and feels better than on the Google maps street view, not worse. Can’t say that about the pictures of rooms in a house - they look wonderful all airbrushed, and all look far smaller, and dirtier, in real life 
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Exactly! It’s such a treat! Especially for those who are unable to travel at the moment.
Imagine working a boring desk job, living check to check, and then you fantasize about places you’ve never been to. And on top of that, you get to actually pretend you’re there by looking at pictures and virtually walking in that city or countryside.
Of course, that’s the appeal of virtual reality. But, for me, it’s just a mental vacation–it’s not a substitute for the real thing. It never will be.
For now, it will suffice, and I will enjoy it.