I agree on the knowing someone there point. I love the smaller, less touristy places that you get to go when you know someone there. It's much harder to find them as all the little known places don't show up on trip advisor, and if they do then suddenly they are all touristy.

Plus it's nice to go to the museum with 50c entry and the guy doing free shadow puppet shows in order to hopefully get you to buy one of the shadow puppets he made, or having a $2 meal instead of a $30 one.

Though I did have banana juice at a restaurant. I have no idea what it was but it was good. What it wasn't, is it wasn't a smoothie. It was nearly 10 years ago now but I've never worked out what it was I drank (since if you've ever put a banana through a juicer, you'll know they don't really have juice)

[–] liv 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Weird I wonder what the juice was... did they juice the skin maybe???

I agree touristy things are not great, they're bad enough right here in NZ. I've never looked at trip advisor, but it's a long time since I travelled, things have changed. Back then I only used to bring a dumb phone and paper maps, omg!

I remember once using someone else's map and there was this X on it in ballpoint pen so I went there ... it was really weird, just a tangle of undergrowth in the middle of a hill a bit like Mt Roskill. I think if I'd been able to see into the future I'd have done more tourist things though.

[–] Dave 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I doubt it was banana skin. It was sweet and bananary. Probably some amount of banana mixed with something else. Really no idea though.

Trip advisor is what comes up whenever you search for stuff. Super annoying because you have to sign in or something to see anything other that the list.

One time we went to Vancouver and looked the map up before going. The subway stop came up onto the street the opposite way than I was expecting, and we walked almost an hour in the wrong direction. I'm pretty happy there is google maps these days 😆

And did you at least dig in the spot marked X?

[–] liv 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ha ha no, without gps it's hard to tell whether you're within 10 metres of an X in the middle of a reserve. Also it was hot and very still and a bit creepy way out there tbh. Must have missed out on treasure! But more likely to belong to mafia than pirates, so I'm good with that.

Normally I have an innate sense of direction (I assume it's just your brain subconsciously keeping track of your movements, sun or stars position, etc - weirdly I still have it even though I no longer do much as a pedestrian) but subway exits can be disconcerting!

Banana essence, in coconut water or apple juice is my new guess.

[–] Dave 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ooh, it came in a glass at a restaurant but maybe it was something like this? I can't find ingredients but it seems to be apple juice with banana puree in it. I guess that would give you a thin drink not like a smoothie, but would be sweet and bananary?

Honestly it feels like two lifetimes ago so I'm not sure that I'd be able to know if it was the same even if I tried it today, I just remember it was sweet, bananary, thin not thick and creamy like a smoothie, and that I ordered a second one because I liked it so much. It seems to make sense that it might come out of a can. It wasn't further explained, so I guess it's a bit like ordering a coke.

[–] liv 2 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (1 children)

Ah that looks really yum. I must say this convo has given me a real desire to try banana juice.

I wonder if some of the Asian shops have it? I quite like some of the drinks like cold chrysanthemum tea.

[–] Dave 2 points 9 months ago

I once had some sort of canned plant flavoured drink. Pretty sure that was in Indonesia too, we went through a local supermarket and bought a bunch of stuff we'd never seen before (mostly junk food).

Anyway, I can't really recommend canned plant drink. It tasted too healthy, and had some slimy stuff in the bottom.