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This Week in Dulture…
Approx 3 minute read:
📽️ A great documentary for any plane ride
🛩️ Leaving winter is the worst and best reason to leave for a warm climate
🎵 The fridge that stays stocked forever
🏊️ To pool or not to pool…
💃 Shows that keep coming
Dulture weekly mix
Two nights ago I found myself in a club at this resort in Punta Cana and the DJ played Give me everything by Pitbull at least 10 times in a span of an hour. Why do they love Pitbull so much in the DR??? I’m just glad there’s no Pitbull in this week’s mix.
Flying is a great excuse to just disconnect and just veg out.
Disconnected from doom scrolling.
Disconnected from the outside world.
Just disconnecting yourself because your excuse is there simply is no internet access on the plane or you’re too cheap to buy it. It’s crazy to think internet access is something an airline charges for, like they’re selling passengers AOL CD’s so you can use the internet on the plane for 3 hours.
At least we’re at a point where you can get movies or TV shows on most flights these days without much issue.
I always look forward to the entertainment on a flight because I ambitiously think I’m either going to finally start a popular TV show and binge it or I’m going to watch a movie everyone is talking about.
And then reality sets in and I do neither.
On this latest flight a few days ago as I was scrolling through the content offered I saw Deadpool & Wolverine and thought, FINALLY, I can watch this. But just as I got through the job interview scene, it felt like watching it in a cramped seat on an airbus was not the best setting.
I actually do this a lot on flights - start something that everyone else watched months ago to catch up to society and then stop because it just doesn’t feel like the right setting to watch. And then I go to the off-beaten path of the airline’s content library and end up discovering a random documentary.
This time around I ended up watching 26.2 TO LIFE, a story about this organization called the 1000 Mile Club, that goes into San Quentin prison and works with inmates on training for a marathon, which they ultimately run within the confines of the prison yard.
The documentary takes you through the journey of several inmates who have transformed their lives around in prison and use running as an outlet to clear their mind and show the world that they’re capable of more and that they’re actually a good person.
They train sporadically through the week given, well, they’re in prison. They also have to run laps around their yard to complete the marathon - which is wild in itself because everyone is out on the yard, so it’s almost like running a marathon doing laps around your school yard when you were at recess - not to mention the yard can go on lockdown at any point and so the guys running in the marathon have to completely stop and lay down until the lockdown is over.
If you’re a runner you’ll especially appreciate the fact that they borrow shoes from the prison, train in essentially their prison outfits, and run over 100 laps of their yard to effectively complete the marathon.
What I thought was just going to be a random documentary about prisoners running turned out to be a lot of fun to watch on the plane - my kind of plane content.
The Process of Flying Somewhere HOT
So I’ll be honest, I’m not paying attention to anything going on in the world this week.
I’m currently sitting on my bed, eating the M&M’s left in the room, while my sunburns sting my arms. So this week we’re talking about resort life.
And it all starts when you land at your destination.
If you’ve never left a cold climate only to land in basically summer, and have to walk out of the plane and onto the runway, the first time you do it, it hits you like a sack of sweaty nails.
I’ve done this a few times now so I know to wear something that will breathe, otherwise you’re basically sweating bullets while lugging your carry on while wearing the layers of shirts Canadian weather forces us to wear just to get to the airport to fly out.
And then once the bus you’re shuffled onto takes off, it basically weaves between planes on the runway to get you to the airport itself.
And then you wait in line…
The thing I will say about landing in tropical destinations is that they tend to be very very lenient and efficient. I’m sure their custom’s patrol has their protocol but in travelling to Mexico last year, they essentially whisked us through customs and this time around, although the line up was exceptionally long, we were through customs without a question asked.
Nothing Beats a Good Mini Bar Fridge
The beauty of an all-inclusive resort is that your food and drink options are essentially settled for you before you even show up. And it’s not to say they’re forcing you to eat or drink certain things, but rather, the good resorts think through what would their travellers like, and then poof, you’ve got Heineken in your fridge.
The Pools vs The Beach
This week the east coast got hit with stupid weather that didn’t make sense for spring.
It’s always fun watching the photos and videos being posted online about nonsensical weather while you wonder what bathing suit you’re going to lounge around all day in the sun in.
I think it’s safe to say most resorts nowadays have a pretty decent pool situation. You’ve got your lounge chairs, your umbrellas, your proximity to drinks and food (notice it’s the other way around), as well as space.
If there’s one thing resort pools do well, it’s giving people space to just do their own thing.
If the good pools are all basically all the same, it’s the beach that makes all the difference. You may just want to lay by a pool all day everyday, which is a perfectly acceptable vacation activity. However, if you’re looking for some variety, you really do want a beach that will deliver.
Or maybe a water park…
In this day and age, there’s some sort of beach clean up that happens in the morning so you aren’t trudging through dried up seaweed on the sand. A clean beach makes all the difference.
Expectations Over Entertainment
A great resort experience is not complete without the night time entertainment. I’m talking Michael Jackson cover shows. I’m talking Pirates of the Caribbean interpretative dances, and I’m definitely talking acrobatic shows right out in the open with no safety mats or anything.
It’s always so funny reading people’s reviews of resorts online when they were disappointed with the food, the room, the staff, or the entertainment. I mean, you’re flying to effectively a third world country and you’re still expecting Michelin star quality food and Vegas-style shows.
People need to lighten up man…
This was actually an acrobatic show, I promise lol
A week of not having to worry about grocery shopping, driving anywhere, or cleaning anything is a week everyone should be able to experience at least once a year.
And if you’re lucky enough, you may just have a great wife who plans it so that it all takes place over your birthday.
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