These days, the only thing more popular than tinder itself is complaining about tinder. Women complain that they can't find good guys on there, only fuckbois and deadbeats, and men sign up, get one match in 6 months and wonder "where are all da ho's at?!" It seems neither sex is happy with online dating.
And yet, the Match Group (Tinder's parent), is on track to exceed $2 Billion in revenue this year. Clearly, they're doing something right. And men and women, despite all their bellyaching, are ponying up big cash to use the app. What gives?
They key is to understand *why* OLD sucks: they suck at doing what they say they're going to do for you, and excel at doing what you really want them to do. Hence, you complain in public, while still swiping like an addicted monkey in private.
Here is what OLD *says* they're going to do: they're going to help you meet The One: your soulmate, your spouse, your partner-in-crime, ride-or-die, yadda yadda yadda. Here's what they really do: they preserve and feed your fantasy of who that soulmate actually is, tantalize you with the possibility that that soulmate is just barely, almost, oh-so-close to being yours, and hide any sort of hard truths about relationships and people that gets in the way of your delusions. And then, you pay them for helping keep your delusions alive, while publicly complaining that they're not helping you make those delusions become reality.
BTW, this is not a secret that only Tinder knows. It's called marketing 101. A beer commercial is ostensibly about selling you a nice tasting beverage that you enjoy drinking. Yet the commercials have bikini clad women surrounding the beer drinkers while they lounge around on a beach. A pickup truck is ostensibly a practical vehicle used by people who need to haul stuff around all day. Yet their commercials are all about exploring the great outdoors and tearing up trails in forests and mountains. And most of them are bought by people who'll never haul more than a "Just Married" sign and will never drive on anything more off-road than a highway with a few potholes on it.
So how does this marketing delusion work in online dating? To explore that, we have to first analyze how people found relationships before online dating. At that time, you relied pretty exclusively on your social network, e.g. friends, family, co-workers, church, and other social networks you were in. Unlike Tinder, these social networks really *do* want to see you happy and in a stable relationship (generally speaking; and yes, they may be bad at it, but most of the time, their heart is in the right place). This is for several reasons:

1. They care about you and genuinely want to see you happy
2. Since you're a member of their social network, it actually helps everyone else if you're stable and happy, and not miserable and always needing support from the social network rather than contributing back
3. Conversely, if someone sets you up with a horrible person (or even a very mismatched person), they will face repercussions from you and everyone else when the relationship inevitably blows up. You can't sue Tinder for a date gone wrong. But you can certainly disown your friends if they set you up with a serial killer. IOW, the social network can bite back if you willfully mess things up.

Additionally, your social networks know a lot about you and (usually) a lot about the people they're matching you with. Which means they can often see through your own BS (in the way that good friends and close family usually can), and find good matches for you that you would never have considered yourself.
This system has worked for thousands if not millions of years. And most notably, OLD has none of the advantages listed above. Yet OLD has been incredibly successful and pretty much completely replaced the IRL social networks of the past. We even pay them to do what our social networks used to do for free. Why is that?
Because the mortal weakness of your IRL social networks is this: since they're not in the marketing business, they tell you hard truths you don't want to hear. I'll give you an example. When I was in my early thirties (pre-tinder), one of of my co-workers, also in her early thirties, was telling me about a date her friends had set her up with. Apparently it was a mid-forties man, balding, divorced, with a kid. She was in shock the next day. Not so much about the guy, who was nice enough. But that her friends thought that was her appropriate match. In her mind, she was still the mid-twenties hot young thing who would get cat-called in the bars. More than the guy himself, just the idea that now she was only fit for older, frumpy, divorced dads, and that furthermore *that was what her friends thought*, was too much for her to bear. But her social networks were doing the right thing. They didn't want to see her end up single and alone in 10 years. And regardless of whether that guy was the absolute best she could do, they saw her relationship value far more clearly than she did. They were a lot closer in their estimates of her value than she was.
In contrast, Tinder will happily whisper lies in your ear all day as long as you pay it to do so. In fact, for them, it's a *failure* if you find your perfect partner and ride off into the sunset, because that means you'll soon delete their app. Let me repeat that: Tinder does not want you to get married. It doesn't even want you to find someone for a year. If all of their customers found a mate within a month of being on the app, and then not check the app again for a lifetime or even a year, they'd run out of customers and go out of business. And their profits are far more important to them than your happiness.
So what are these lies?
1.
(If you're a woman), your perfect match is a billionaire convict outlaw church-going surgeon who cries during weddings. Also has 6-pack abs and a footlong. (If you're a man), your perfect match is a Victoria's Secret Angel madonna in public, whore in bed, who does yoga 6 hours a day and gets wet just thinking about your mastery of obscure Star Wars trivia. Also has no problem blowing you in public.
Yeah, neither of these people exist. Your friends will tell you that. But Tinder never will. Not only will it never tell you that, it actively encourages everyone to lie and puff themselves up into those fantasy matches. A guy who insists on talking about his "amazing trip to Machu Pichu" 5 years after he went is considered a blowhard in real life. On Tinder, that's the picture he uses to make his life seem more exciting than it really is. Every person on Tinder is trying to convince you that they are that billionaire convict, or that yoga-addicted underwear model. Your IRL social network would weed out the phonies real quick. Tinder prefers to bump them up in your queue.
2.
That man / woman of your dreams is just a swipe away. Who knows? They could even be the very next swipe! So just... flick your finger... one more time... Even if the people above actually exist, very, very few people can even meet them in real life. That billionaire dude doesn't hang out at Applebee's. Just getting into the restaurants / hotels / vacation resorts he stays at in order to run into him requires knowledge, money, and enough time spent studying the subtle class markers of the ultra-rich that you can pass yourself off as one of them. Similarly, just meeting a Victoria's Secret model requires running in their social circles, which typically means you're either a rich person, in the fashion and entertainment industry, or at least live in NY / LA and are willing to blow huge amounts of money on bribing the bouncers and hosts to let you into the closed clubs they hang out in. If you're really, really lucky, you might score a date because you're neighbors with their grandmother back in Kansas and she somehow convinces her granddaughter to give the nice neighborhood boy a chance when she's back home for Christmas and bored out of her skull. And even that's not as easy as a quick swipe, is it?
Everyone knows that to make a million dollars, you need to study hard, get into a good career, work your ass off, have a little luck, etc. Just like how your friends will tell you that to get a good girl, you need to work hard, lift, be sociable, and overall become a desirable guy. Tinder is the equivalent of the casino slot machine, which tempts you that that million dollar prize is just a dollar and a quick pull away. Similarly, Tinder tells you that dream guy/girl is just a quick swipe away. At least casinos are legally required to list the actual probability you have of winning that prize. Tinder doesn't even do that.
3.
Even if your perfect match exists, and you end up meeting them, you will often find out, much to your disappointment, that they're not a great match for you. There's a great saying: "behind every beautiful woman, there's a guy tired of fucking her." That glossy exterior image is often radically different than the inside. Every guy who has dated at least a few incredibly hot women will tell you that many of them (though not all!) are not worth the hassle. It may not even be that the other person is a "bad" person. Even a good person from a radically different environment can be a bad match. For example, if you can't name at least 5 different forks and which foods to use them with, and you think being a foodie means using A1 steak sauce instead of ketchup, then you probably won't even enjoy that 3-star meal your billionaire boyfriend buys you in Paris, while he will look on in disgust at your local hometown's "world famous" hamburger you buy him.
Birds of a feather flock together. Your social network is comprised of people who are similar to you in many aspects of your life, which makes it very difficult to find people radically different in life experience / values / outlooks than yourself. Which is actually a *good* thing because people from radically different walks of life tend not to be compatible enough to build a life together. Again, say somehow through Tinder you score a date with your movie actress celebrity crush. What would you actually talk about? Do you know anything about the movie business? Could you relate to her insecurities and what she deals with going on auditions every day where random strangers tell her she's too fat / too blonde / not blonde enough / too flat-chested / too busty to ever make it in this town? Heck, forget all that: do you even know what's a fun date thing to do in LA outside of the tourist traps that locals can't stand? Conversely, what's the chance she knows anything about your life? Is there any shared experience between you two that could form the basis for a real relationship?
Again, IRL social networks know this, because they generally know both people well, and have a good sense of who's a good match for whom. There have been plenty of times when I asked my friends about a hot girl I saw at a party, and they warn me off, telling me "dude, stay away from her. She's smoking hot, but batshit crazy." Or conversely, seat me next to someone I might never have noticed, who ends up being a great person that I want to spend more time with. Tinder doesn't ever do this. If you swipe right on someone their algorithm tells them will only lead you to misery, does it ever flash a big warning sign "Caution: Do you really want to date this loser?". Of course not. It only wants to feed whatever notion of a "perfect match" you already have. And if you think a recently paroled ex-felon is your perfect match, then that's perfectly fine with them. Don't think for a second that Tinder doesn't know that 90% of a match is based on looking at the first few photographs. It doesn't care. There's a reason Tinder is more popular than eHarmony. People don't want to be told who their best match really is (often because who your match is usually reflects who *you* are...). People dream of their soul mate since they're kids. The last thing they want is someone who pours cold water all over that dream. And if your soul mate is someone from your neighborhood that went to your high school or plays softball with your friends, then you don't need Tinder to meet them. So unless Tinder can feed your fantasy that your best life partner is someone totally outside of all your social networks (a ludicrous proposition when you consider it on its merits), someone only Tinder can hook you up with, it won't be able to convince you to trust Tinder over your IRL social networks.
4.
There's an old saying: if at first you don't succeed, redefine success. Tinder has redefined success in the relationship world to "getting a match from someone." In the real world, it never mattered how many "matches" you got. There wasn't even a concept of that. It only mattered if you eventually found someone to spend your life with. When your friends set you up and you two decide after a couple of dates that it's not going to work out, your friends usually consider that a failure, because their goal is to help you get into a relationship, not just to go on a single date. Tinder's standards for success are much lower.
Of course, Tinder has been helped in this regard by the slut-pride movement that states the marker of a woman's success and worth is the number of dicks she's had inside her, rather than the quality of the man she actually ends up with. But Tinder's measure of success is even shallower. They consider it a success if you "match" even if that never even leads to a meeting in real life. More importantly, they've convinced *us* that the app was successful if it "matched" you with someone, regardless of whether that match went anywhere. It's instructive to see women write in their Tinder bios that they're "sick of fuckbois, not looking for hookups," etc. Yes, they're stupid because they're on a hookup app saying these things, but the amazing thing is, they don't blame the app itself, they blame the people on it. Because Tinder has redefined success in OLD as getting a match. Everything else is the responsibility of the person they matched you with, even if Tinder is the one that made the match on shoddy criteria that were destined to fail. In the early days of OLD, dating sites used to advertise the number of marriages that occurred from their site. You'll notice no one does that now. Because they realized marriages are bad for business, but to avoid the dearth of marriages being viewed as a product failure, they had to redefine success and make you accept the new definition as merely being "matched". Which we have.
5.
Let's say you make it through all of this. Your dream mate actually exists. He / She actually happens to be on Tinder and both of you somehow decide to swipe on each other. Then you navigate the minefield of messages / texting / phone calls until you finally manage to get coffee together. And despite your dream match being a ski instructor from Switzerland who only speaks French, while you've never made it past your high school Spanish classes and haven't traveled outside of your state, you realize he shares your passion for watching Kim Kardashian on E!. The final question: why do you think he'd be interested in you? We laugh at the women featured on WAATGM who are all looking for some incredibly desirable guy while offering nothing of value themselves. But we all fall into that delusion, and Tinder feeds that. Once they've redefined success as getting a match, something that can even happen on accident (oops! I meant to swipe left! Crap!), then you feel like someone actually likes you if they match you. Again, we laugh at instagram ho's who define their life's worth by the number of likes their ass shots get. We wonder if they ever consider that 90% of those likes are from thirsty dudes in India and Saudi Arabia that they would never even touch with a 10-foot pole. And yet, if you get a "match" from some hot girl, even if she unmatches you right away, or after a couple of text messages, we take that as a sign that, "if a girl that hot matched with me, then surely one of them will actually go on a date with me soon!" And you keep swiping. We criticize women who think that just because some dude had a one night stand with her, that she's close to getting a relationship with him. And yet Tinder has convinced us that just because we occasionally get a match with a random hot guy/girl that if we keep swiping, eventually one of those matches will turn into a real date which will turn into a steady relationship, which will turn into...all your dreams coming true! But just like a fuckboi is only into fucking you, Tinder is only into getting you "matches". It has no interest in things proceeding further, and its algorithms are not designed to help their matches do so. Indeed, just like a fuckboi hopes you don't actually find a real relationship since then you might cut him off, Tinder hopes that match doesn't lead to anything beyond a one night stand, because otherwise, you might delete their app.
Needless to say, IRL social networks are very aware of this. Which is why sometimes they tell you a hard truth like, "dude, don't bother. That girl is way out of your league. She only dates football players." Because the last thing they want to see is you getting shot down unnecessarily.
-----------
So back to my co-worker, the 30 year old who got setup with a 45 year old divorced dad by her friends. Her friends knew she was finally looking for a serious relationship (she probably told them she was "tired of fuckbois" or whatever they were called back then :-), so they eliminated all the players and even the potentially good guys who weren't ready to settle down yet. Then they waded through whatever BS checklists she had and tried to figure out what was truly important and what wasn't, then eliminated guys who didn't at least have the important stuff. Then they eliminated people that had nothing in common with her, or who wouldn't be a good match for her personality. Lastly, there were probably a few amazing guys that checked all her boxes, but who her friends knew were way out of her league and were probably dating younger, hotter girls. And they eliminated them so that my co-worker wouldn't get her heart broken when (after sleeping with her) they decide she's not up to their standards for an LTR. Finally, after all that weeding out, they figured maybe this 45 year old divorced dad, who may not have all his hair or 6-pack abs but was still a good guy who was genuinely interested in settling down, and was still young enough to be willing to have kids with a new wife, and who was at the peak of his career and could provide a good life for her and any future family, is not such a bad match for her. But all she could see was that accepting him would mean she was no longer that hot girl at the club that all the guys would buy drinks for and she wasn't ready to do that yet.
At that point, if Tinder existed, she probably would have gone on the app, started swiping left and right, get quick reassurance that indeed, she was still that hot girl thanks to all the matches she got from hot guys in random towns 50 miles away, none of whom she'd actually ever meet, reject her friends' advice and trust Tinder instead. Later that night, when she was lonely and wondering if she'd every find a guy to love her, she'd still reject calling that 45 year old guy, who would have taken her out to dinner and maybe even found a lot of common ground and shared experience despite their age difference. Instead, she'd swipe right on a random guy who Tinder selected for her mainly based on the fact that he was within her listed age range and was only 1 mile away (even if he was only a tourist visiting from Australia for 3 days), since that's the only real piece of data Tinder actually has on anyone. And she'd fuck him that night. He'd leave before she wakes up, to get to the airport and fly home halfway around the world. And in the morning, waking up to an empty bed, she'd blame a) the guy for skipping out, even though she knew he's from Australia; b) the 45 year old dude for not being younger / hotter / fashionable enough to give her the tingles; c) her friends for thinking he was in her league; d) the entire world for being cruel and leaving her single and unhappy despite being such a great catch. IOW, she'd blame every thing out there, except the one thing that actually was preventing her from doing the work and making the sorts of compromises and decisions necessary to find and keep a long-term, happy relationship. Nope. Far from blaming Tinder, she opens her phone, starts up the app again, and goes through the swiping drill again, hoping that this time, finally, she hits that jackpot the app keeps telling her is right around the corner...
All of a sudden, Tinder making $2 billion doesn't seem so far fetched, does it?

Christmas Day 2019
This is an update from last year's list which is an update of some list from a year or two ago.
Outdoor Activities
If the weather is good (check forecast[1]), here's some outdoor activities:

• Go to the beach
• Go to the gardens
  • Auckland Botanic Gardens is open for people to wander around but visitor centre will be closed. Sculpture in the gardens (or Our Auckland listing)
  • Parnell Rose Gardens.
  • Auckland Domain. Auckland Domain Walks including a sculpture walk.
  • Albert Park and University of Auckland grounds
  • Cornwall Park. Visitor info has links to the map for Christmas tree trail as well as map for the park.
• Walking Tracks around Auckland - Auckland Council and Department of Conservation.
• Visit the various volcanoes in Auckland. Both Mt Victoria and Mt Eden will have beautiful views of the city. There's public transport. You will need to walk up.
  • Mt Eden (Bus is 27W or 27H)
  • Mt Victoria lookout (or wikipedia) - Take the ferry to Devonport, walk from ferry to the top of Mt Victoria.
  • One Tree Hill (and Cornwall Park surrounding it)
  • Rangitoto Island. Take one or more of the walks there. Definitely ensure you go up to the top of the crater for the view. Some people stay a bit longer and have a picnic morning tea/lunch. You can't buy lunch there. Rangitoto. It is a pest-free island reserve and so you have to ensure you leave it as you arrived. Info about visiting pest free islands. Ferry - Fullers timetable.
  • See 6 volcanoes and never leave Auckland. CNN Travel. 27 June 2017.
  • Auckland Volcano Cones by Auckland Tourism, Wikipedia, GNS science, Science Learning Hub
• Muriwai Gannet Colony.
  • Only an option if you have your own transport and able to walk as it is about 30 mins walk from the carpark. Discussion in 2018 about the duration of walk from carpark.
  • World famous in New Zealand: Gannet Colony, Muriwai. Stuff. Aug 05 2018.
  • Info by Auckland Council, NZ Birds, Wikipedia. Go to the beach too.
• Ride around in a bike (ONZO). Maps and Rides suggested by Auckland Transport and Bike Auckland. On Bike Auckland's site, if you hover your mouse over the "Maps & Rides" menu, you'll find other options like easy rides.
• Auckland Transport's Public Transport holiday timetables from 23 December 2019 - 12 January 2020.
• Scooters - one or two scooter services you can hire by the minute. Flamingo. Possibly Jump, Neuron, and Beam. No Lime and Wave scooters. Articles: NZ Herald or Newshub.

[1] Weather forecasts by Metservice and Weather Watch.
Indoor Activities:

• Go to church - you can experience christmas day service in a number of languages in Auckland.
  • St Patrick's Cathedral (Catholic) https://www.stpatricks.org.nz/ You'll find other Auckland Catholic parishes here https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/
  • Anglican Diocese - Christmas Services 2019. Also Christmas at St Matthew-in-the-City.
  • There are other denominations like Methodists, Baptists, AOG, Salvation Army, etc. Just search for them. I suspect the local visitor info centre and hotels have a list for their guests.
  • I think these lists above are services in English. I don't see the services in other languages listed there. You will be able to find services in many pacific island languages and asian languages. It is a case of whether you'll find the particular combination you are looking for in a location you can get to on Christmas day.
  • Use google search if you are after a particular church denomination. Wikipedia list of Church organisations in NZ. Not sure how complete it is. Churches' Christmas message: Waiting for Christmas has a list of clergy,(with their affliation) signing the message at the bottom. While the list is old and clergy may have changed, the church organisations are most likely to be around.
• Go to the movies.
  • Queen St + Manukau Event cinemas open on Christmas Day. https://www.eventcinemas.co.nz/
  • Hoyts https://www.hoyts.co.nz/ Hoyts Sylvia Park, Te Awa (Hamilton), Riccarton (Christchurch) and Entertainment X were open on Christmas Day 2018. Unfortunately site won't load at the moment. There's a chance a few cinemas from this group will be open on Christmas day.
• https://snowplanet.co.nz/ is open every year on Christmas day.
• Skycity Auckland - This is a hotel with the skytower. You can go up the tower on Christmas Day. There will be restaurants open. The casino will be closed.
• Kelly Tarlton's - Opening Hours on their website doesn't say they are closed on Christmas day. They were open in 2018 and previous years.
• Auckland Airport is open.
• Definitely closed: Auckland Zoo, Auckland Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, all casinos in NZ.

Event searches

• Eventfinda search for Auckland on 25 December 2019 or list of Christmas events (which may not necessarily be on christmas day).
• Our Auckland search for 25 December 2019

Public Transport
Auckland Transport's Public Transport holiday timetables from 23 December 2019 - 12 January 2020. Waiheke ferry timetable (pdf).
Food and Drink
Go to the supermarket on Christmas Eve to stock up on food and essentials. No supermarket and most businesses will be closed on Christmas Day. Christmas Day is one of very few mandatory public holidays in NZ, even the casino is closed 24 hours. Only places allowed to remain open are petrol stations, some fast food places and restaurants.
Hospitality businesses (restaurants, cafes etc) are able to charge a public holiday surcharge if they open on public holidays. If they do so they have to state clearly (ie sign at the door, or counter or menu). This public holidays are 25 and 26 December 2018, and 1 and 2 January 2019. FYI 26 December is also known as Boxing day in NZ.
Alcohol cannot be served unless with a meal[2]. So if something that looks like a pub is open, it is highly likely they are open to serve meals and you can order an alcoholic drink with your meal.
Restaurants that are open tend to be fast food places like McDs, KFC, restaurants that are part of hotels, a few ethnic restaurants and maybe a handful of others.
[2] That particular law applies only to Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Christmas Day as well as before 1pm on Anzac Day. Legislation: Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012. Despite the date of the act, the law has been around for some time. 2010 news article about it. Sale and supply on Anzac Day morning, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas Day restricted: on-licences.
Without any particular order:

• Hotels with restaurants: Christmas Day at The CUT, Rydges Auckland, Christmas dining at Stamford Plaza, Christmas day at Grand Mercure Auckland, Festive dining at Skycity Auckland's Restaurants - Each restaurant has a different offer for Christmas day, Christmas Day buffet at Novotel Ellerslie, Christmas at Cordis Auckland. many hotels with restaurants - I won't be listing them all. Just giving you a few so you have an idea.
• Denny's restaurant (American). Locations on website. There's a popup when you go to their webpage that says they are open on Christmas day.
• Denizen’s guide to the restaurants that are open over the holidays. The Denizen. 18 Dec 2019.
• Post about a restaurant offering free lunch or dinner on Christmas day.
• Christmas and NY Hours in Mission Bay https://www.missionbay.co.nz/mission-bay-christmas-new-years-hours.
• Viaduct Auckland https://www.viaduct.co.nz/2019/12/16/whats-on-wheres-open-at-viaduct-harbour-this-christmas/
• Dairies are open. For tourist: Dairies in NZ are a local convenience stores often found dotted around NZ, usually local to a neighbourhood. Wikipedia). They are known elsewhere with other names bodega, superettes, 7-11 or the shop attached to petrol stations.

Other essential info
Alcohol and smoking in public areas
Please note that there's usually an alcohol ban in many public areas like bus stops, parks, reserves etc. This means you are banned from consuming alcohol publicly unless you are in a licenced establishment (ie restaurant). Alcohol bans are either for an event, for extended periods or permanent. For more information about alcohol ban in Auckland.
Auckland Smokefree policy has a list of places where smoking is not permitted. This isn't limited to indoor areas only. It also includes parks, playgrounds, bus stops.
With NY celebrations coming up I won't be surprised if there's both alcohol and fire bans in popular beach areas and parks too.
Fire Season

• As this is summer, there's usually a fire ban in many areas in NZ.
• Fire and Emergency NZ https://checkitsalright.nz/
• Change in fire seasons for Auckland.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand is updating the fire seasons for Auckland. From Monday 2 December it will declare a restricted season across greater Auckland and a prohibited fire season across all the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. A prohibited season means a total fire ban, with any current fire permits for the area suspended from the date the prohibited season starts. A restricted fire season means any open-air fires will need a permit.

• Articles:
  • Auckland to have restricted fire rules from Monday. RNZ. 29 November 2019.
  • Fire restrictions imposed across Auckland ahead of summer. Stuff. Nov 30 2019.
  • Auckland Council page on Outdoor fires.

Below is a list I posted as reply to a tourist's query in /newzealand. I am posting this list here in case there are visitors or new Aucklanders. I realise most of us know about this.
Please be nice and kind to all.
Outdoor Activities
If the weather is good (unfortunately not according to forecast[1]), here's some outdoor activities:

• Go to the beach
• Go to the gardens (Botanic Gardens open for people to wander around but Visitor centre closed. The Domain, Parnell Rose Gardens, Cornwall Park).
• Go visit the various volcanoes in Auckland. Both Mt Victoria and Mt Eden will have beautiful views of the city. There's public transport. You will need to walk up.
  • Mt Eden (Bus is 27W or 27H)
  • Mt Victoria (Take the ferry to Devonport, walk from ferry to the top of Mt Victoria)
  • One Tree Hill (and Cornwall Park surrounding it)
  • Rangitoto Island may not be an option. Fullers timetable says they aren't sailing on Christmas Day.
  • See 6 volcanoes and never leave Auckland. CNN Travel. 27 June 2017.
  • Auckland Volcano Cones by Auckland Tourism, Wikipedia, GNS science, Science Learning Hub
• Muriwai Gannet Colony.
  • Only an option if you have your own transport and able to walk as it is about 30 mins walk from the carpark.
  • World famous in New Zealand: Gannet Colony, Muriwai. Stuff. Aug 05 2018.
  • Info by Auckland Council, NZ Birds, Wikipedia. Go to the beach too.
• Ride around in a bike (ONZO) or scooter (Lime)

[1] Weather forecasts by Metservice and Weather Watch.
Indoor Activities:

• Go to the movies.
  • Queen St + Manukau Event cinemas open on Christmas Day. https://www.eventcinemas.co.nz/
  • Hoyts Sylvia Park, Te Awa (Hamilton), Riccarton (Christchurch) and Entertainment X are open on Christmas Day
• https://snowplanet.co.nz/
• Skycity Auckland - This is a hotel with the skytower. You can go up the tower on Christmas Day. There will be restaurants open. The casino will be closed.
• Go to church - you can experience christmas day service in a number of languages in Auckland.
  • St Patrick's Cathedral (Catholic) https://www.stpatricks.org.nz/ You'll find other Auckland Catholic parishes here https://www.aucklandcatholic.org.nz/
  • Anglican Diocese - Christmas Services 2018
  • There are other denominations like Methodists, Baptists, AOG, Salvation Army, etc. Just search for them. I suspect the local visitor info centre and hotels have a list for their guests.
  • I think these lists above are services in English. I don't see the services in other languages listed there. You will be able to find services in many pacific island languages and asian languages.
  • Use google search if you are after a particular church denomination. Wikipedia list of Church organisations in NZ. Not sure how complete it is. Churches' Christmas message: Waiting for Christmas has a list of clergy,(with their affliation) signing the message at the bottom.
• Auckland Airport is open.
• Kelly Tarlton's - Opening Hours on their website doesn't say they re closed on Christmas day. Their 22 Dec facebook post ends with " We are open as usual every day over the holiday season from 9:30 AM - 5 PM. Come down to SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium and see the penguin chicks in their creche!". Thanks to spagbol for the heads up in comment below. new

Public Transport
Public transport will be on a Sunday timetable in Auckland. https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/ Bus, train and ferry Christmas holiday timetables. From 24 December 2018 to 6 January 2019, most public transport services will be operating to a Christmas/New Year holiday timetable.
Food and Drink
Go to the supermarket today (Christmas Eve) to stock up on food and essentials. No supermarket and most businesses will be closed on Christmas Day. Christmas Day is one of very few mandatory public holidays in NZ, even the casino is closed 24 hours. Only places allowed to remain open are petrol stations and restaurants.
Hospitality businesses (restaurants, cafes etc) are able to charge a public holiday surcharge if they open on public holidays. If they do so they have to state clearly (ie sign at the door, or counter or menu). This public holidays are 25 and 26 December 2018, and 1 and 2 January 2019. FYI 26 December is also known as Boxing day in NZ.
Alcohol cannot be served unless with a meal. So if something that looks like a pub is open, it is highly likely they are open to serve meals and you can order an alcoholic drink with your meal.
Restaurants open tend to be fast food places like McDs, KFC, restaurants that are part of hotels, a few ethnic restaurants and maybe a handful of others.
Some of the top restaurants shut down from either today or Monday for a few weeks, unless they are part of a hotel or one of the few known to offer a christmas day meal.

• Hotels with restaurants: The Christmas Buffet at Rydges Auckland, Christmas dining at Stamford Plaza, Christmas day at Grand Mercure Auckland, Skycity Auckland's Restaurants - you need to go to each restaurant to see what's on offer for Christmas day, Christmas Day buffet at Novotel Ellerslie, Eight at Cordis Auckland. many hotels with restaurants - I won't be listing them all. Just giving you a few so you have an idea.
  
• Denny's restaurant (American). There's a facebook message says they are open on Christmas day. Locations on website.
  
• Fast food: McDonald's, KFC, Domino's Pizza - Note at bottom of Domino's front page says 20% surcharge on Christmas Day.
  
• Going out for Christmas? Where to eat out on December 25. NZ Herald. 15 Dec, 2018.
  
• Christmas Day Party & Feast. This is out west auckland. Not sure you can easily get there on Christmas day.
  
• The restaurants open for home delivery this Christmas day. Newshub. 19/12/2018.
  

Tulsa's event list.

Ongoing

• Blue Dome Pop-Up Shops (Blue Dome District - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 22nd Get your holiday shopping fix at the Blue Dome District in downtown Tulsa during this series of pop-up markets featuring…
• Christmas Scavenger Hunt (Broken Arrow Performing Arts Center - Broken Arrow) Thru Fri, Dec 13th Don't let the Grinch steal your holiday spirit...Come explore BA's Rose District with a fun Christmas Scavenger Hunt that will get you and your loved ones in a festive mood! 1 team with the most points wins a Gift Basket provided by Rose District Merchants and the City of Broken Arrow! https://www.letsgoandhunt.com/bachristmas.html
• Garden of Lights (The Gardens - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Jan 5th Escape the hustle and bustle of the holidays with a visit to this magical garden aglow with lights during the Garden of…
• 🍴 Lights on the Hill (Chandler Park - Tulsa) Thru Wed, Dec 25th Chandler Park will be ablaze with the sights and sounds of the holiday spirit during November and December. Drive through…
• Limo Holiday Lights Tours (City Wide - Tulsa) Thru Mon, Dec 30th Schedule a two-hour tour of the city's most spectacular holiday lights via limo, and enjoy a smooth ride past vibrant…
• Philbrook Festival (Philbrook Museum of Art - Tulsa) Thru Sat, Dec 28th The Philbrook Museum of Art hosts the Philbrook Festival each winter, an annual holiday tradition in…
• Rhema Christmas Lights (Rhema Bible Church - Broken Arrow) Thru Wed, Jan 1st Join over 200,000 annual visitors at the Rhema Christmas Lights display and witness over two million shimmering lights…
• River Lights (41st St Plaza - Tulsa) Thru Tue, Dec 31st Celebrate the holidays on the banks of the Arkansas River in Tulsa at River Lights. The display is lit daily through…
• Rose District Ice Rink (Rose District Plaza - Broken Arrow) Thru Sun, Jan 5th Skate under the festive twinkle lights at Broken Arrow's only outdoor skating rink. Bring your ice skates or rent them…
• West Bend Winterland (Claremore Expo Center - Claremore) Thru Sun, Dec 22nd Claremore's West Bend Winterland is reminiscent of traditional holiday festivities, and invites your family to create…
• Winterfest (Downtown - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Jan 5th Downtown Tulsa is transformed into a festive wonderland during Winterfest, an annual holiday tradition. Bring friends and…
• Bixby's Winter Wonderland (Charley Young Park - Bixby) Thru Sat, Jan 11th The whole family is invited to experience Bixby's Winter Wonderland. Stroll through the illuminated Charley Young…

Wednesday, Dec 4th

• Build a Reader Storytime: Preschool (Owasso Library - Owasso) The best in children's literature, songs, games, finger plays, rhymes and other reading-related activities are shared with your preschooler. For ages 3-5. **The last Preschool Storytime for the year will be Wednesday, Dec. 11. Preschool Storytime will resume on Wednesday, Jan. 15.
• 😂 Jason Russell (Loony Bin - Tulsa) Thru Sat, Dec 7th
• 🎭 Open Auditions for Cast (Tulsa Spotlight Theatre - Tulsa) Start Time: 6:30pm Open Auditions first Wednesday of every month. 6:30pm
• Yale University Whiffenpoofs (All Souls Unitarian Church - Tulsa) Let the Yale Whiffenpoofs get you in the holiday spirit with a lively performance at All Souls Unitarian Church in…

Thursday, Dec 5th

• 🎡 Brown Bag It: Tulsa Festival Ringers (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Start Time: 11:30am
• Cryptic Wisdom (The Shrine - Tulsa) Start Time: 9:00pm
• 🍴 In the Middle Book Club (Owasso Library - Owasso) Start Time: 6:00pm Join us to discuss "Roller Girl" by Victoria Jamieson and make some awesome buttons! We'll also have snacks and hot chocolate/hot apple cider. For ages 9-12. Request your copy here: https://tccl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/3204432063.
• 😂 Jason Russell (Loony Bin - Tulsa) Thru Sat, Dec 7th
• Travis Tritt in Concert (Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tulsa - Catoosa) Award-winning country singer Travis Tritt is taking over The Joint in Catoosa for a special evening of live music. Since he…
• Broken Arrow Wine Walk (Rose District - Broken Arrow) Start Time: 6:30pm The Broken Arrow Wine Walk gives guests the chance to sample a variety of locally crafted drinks within walking distance…

Friday, Dec 6th

• 🍴 Chandler Park Lights on the Hill (Chandler Park - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 8th Start Time: 6:00pm Enjoy one of the brightest Christmas light displays in Tulsa! Millions of lights will line the roads throughout the park. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!
• Christkindlmarkt (GAST House - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 8th For a unique and distinctly European holiday shopping experience head to the Christkindlmarkt put on by the German American…
• Tulsa Dog Training Club Agility Trial (Expo Square - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 8th See trained dogs compete in a series of agility tests during the Tulsa Dog Training Club Agility Trial. Held at Tulsa Expo…
• Festival of Lights Christmas Parade (Downtown - Sand Springs) Day 1 of 2 Come and enjoy one of the state's oldest and biggest nighttime holiday parades and experience the wonder of a small-town…
• 🍴 Hayes Carll (Cain's Ballroom - Tulsa) Start Time: 6:30pm Cain's Ballroom welcomes Hayes Carll to Tulsa, OK on Friday, December 6, 2019 Burn Co Barbecue - Cain’s will be open during the show. Advance - $23 + fees Day of Show - $26 + fees Door - $26 Mezzanine (21+) - $38 + fees No re-entry! No smoking! No refunds! Support acts are subject to change without notice!
• 🎓 Holiday Customer Appreciation Celebration (U.S. Cellular Store - Claremore) Thru Sun, Dec 8th Start Time: 10:00am Claremore U.S. Cellular Store Hosting Holiday Customer Appreciation Celebration
  Happy holidays from U.S. Cellular! The Claremore store at, 502-B S Lynn Riggs Blvd is hosting a holiday-themed Customer Appreciation Celebration from Dec. 6 – Dec. 8. During this time, everyone who visits the store will receive a free tumbler, and customers can…
  
• Holiday Maker Market (Mother Road Market - Tulsa) Visit the Mother Road Market along Route 66 in Tulsa for the Holiday Maker Market. Complete your holiday shopping while…
  
• Hoosier Arenacross Nationals (Claremore Expo Center - Claremore) Day 1 of 2 Experience two high-flying nights of motorized, adrenaline-pumping arenacross action. After kicking off the night with live…
  
• 😂 Jason Russell (Loony Bin - Tulsa) 1 day left
  
• Kayfabe's Annual Toy Drive for St. Francis' Children's Hospital (Blackbird On Pearl - Tulsa) Start Time: 9:00pm
  
• Miracle in Bedford Falls (Broken Arrow Community Playhouse - Broken Arrow) Thru Sun, Dec 15th Frank Capra’s timeless film “It’s a Wonderful Life” has been given a fresh adaptation with Broken…
  
• Philbrook Festival (Philbrook Downtown - Tulsa) Day 1 of 2 Start Time: 6:00pm Join us as Philbrook comes alive with holiday events, visits from Santa, train rides, Lego Village, garden games, live music, shopping, décor, and thousands of lights in the gardens reflecting the spirit of the season. Gather the whole family for unforgettable experiences. Festival Nights are special ticketed event nights which feature a light…
  
• Philbrook Playdates (Philbrook Downtown - Tulsa) Day 1 of 2 Start Time: 9:30am Come and play with your child, let your child play with other kids, and meet other adults! We provide the creative activity and we clean up the mess. December 2019: Exploring Light Discover the awe-inspiring wonder-filled work of Anila Quayyum Agha with your little one. Then explore light and shadow together! Playdates at Philbrook are…
  
• ♪ Wax: Push On Tour (The Vanguard - Tulsa) Start Time: 8:00pm Wax garnered his success from his YouTube channel, where he attracted attention for his rapping and singing skills. Although…
  
• Wayne "The Train" Hancock (The Shrine - Tulsa) Start Time: 9:00pm
  

Saturday, Dec 7th

• Buddy Lafortune Community Center's Holiday Craft Bazaar (Lafortune Community Center - Tulsa) This event is great for all your holiday shopping, we will have many different vendors selling goods including but not limited to, homemade crafts, knit scarves, pillows, stockings, blankets, jamberry, Mary Kay, Scentsy, and much much more
• 🎨 Chandler Park Cookies with Santa (Chandler Park - Tulsa) Start Time: 11:00am FREE Bring the family out to enjoy milk and cookies with the ‘man in red'. Don't forget to bring your wish lists and cameras to snap a photo. The 1st 100 guests will receive a goodie bag! LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!
• 🍴 Chandler Park Lights on the Hill (Chandler Park - Tulsa) 1 day left Start Time: 6:00pm Enjoy one of the brightest Christmas light displays in Tulsa! Millions of lights will line the roads throughout the park. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!
• Christkindlmarkt (GAST House - Tulsa) 1 day left For a unique and distinctly European holiday shopping experience head to the Christkindlmarkt put on by the German American…
• A Christmas Carol (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Day 1 of 2 A Christmas Carol Dec. 7-8, 13-15, 19-22 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 9, 16, 23 at 2 p.m. :: John H. Williams Theatre Robert Odle and Richard Averill's musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' beloved novella about the joy of giving has been a Tulsa tradition for more than 40 years. It's a heartwarming story about Scrooge, a lonely humbug who is given the…
• Christmas in Kendall Whittier (Kendall-Whittier - Tulsa) Venture into the Kendall Whittier District this winter for a festive holiday shopping experience. Attend the annual…
• Coweta Christmas Parade & Tree Lighting Ceremony (Downtown - Coweta) Celebrate the winter holidays this season at the annual Coweta Christmas Parade & Tree Lighting Ceremony. Select…
• Christmas with The Petersens (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) The Petersens are an award-winning family band from Branson known for their authentic music, clean comedy, and family values. In 2015, the family received international attention when banjo player Ellen Petersen competed on American Idol. The family has toured throughout the U.S., Canada, Finland, and Ireland, performing their Americana roots…
• A Crafty Christmas (Kum & Go - Sand Springs) Plan to attend A Crafty Christmas for an afternoon filled with holiday shopping. This arts and craft show in the heart…
• Creepy Christmas Light Tour (Woodward Park - Tulsa) Thru Mon, Dec 23rd Haunted history and Christmas lights combine at Tulsa Spirit Tours' Creepy Christmas Light Tour. Learn all about the…
• Tulsa Dog Training Club Agility Trial (Expo Square - Tulsa) 1 day left See trained dogs compete in a series of agility tests during the Tulsa Dog Training Club Agility Trial. Held at Tulsa Expo…
• 🎭 The Drunkard and the Olio (Tulsa Spotlight Theatre - Tulsa) Start Time: 7:30pm
• Festival of Lights Christmas Parade (Downtown - Sand Springs) Day 2 of 2 Come and enjoy one of the state's oldest and biggest nighttime holiday parades and experience the wonder of a small-town…
• Tulsa Flea Market (Expo Square - Tulsa) Explore 50,000 square feet filled with antiques and collectibles at the Tulsa Flea Market. Head to Tulsa Expo Square, and…
• Holiday Arts & Crafts Show (Bixby Community Center - Bixby) Scratch a few names off your Christmas gift list by making your way to the annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Show in Bixby.…
• 🎓 Holiday Customer Appreciation Celebration (U.S. Cellular Store - Claremore) 1 day left Start Time: 10:00am Claremore U.S. Cellular Store Hosting Holiday Customer Appreciation Celebration
  Happy holidays from U.S. Cellular! The Claremore store at, 502-B S Lynn Riggs Blvd is hosting a holiday-themed Customer Appreciation Celebration from Dec. 6 – Dec. 8. During this time, everyone who visits the store will receive a free tumbler, and customers can…
  
• Hoosier Arenacross Nationals (Claremore Expo Center - Claremore) Day 2 of 2 Experience two high-flying nights of motorized, adrenaline-pumping arenacross action. After kicking off the night with live…
  
• 😂 Jason Russell (Loony Bin - Tulsa) Last Day
  
• 🏃 Jingle Bell Run (BOK Center - Tulsa) Come jingle with us at the annual Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis. Proceeds from this event help fund research and programs for the 800,000+ Oklahomans with arthritis - American's number one disabling disease.
  
• LaFortune Park Crafts Bazaar (Lafortune Community Center - Tulsa) Start Time: 9:30am Browse homemade items, decorations, scarves, jewelry, and other unique treasures for your holiday shopping list from quality vendors. Booth space available. Call for pricing. Elisabeth Ziegler (918) 496-6220 LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!
  
• 🎓 Les Mis rables (School Edition) (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Day 1 of 2 Les Mis�rables (School Edition) Dec. 7-8, 14-15 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 8-9, 15-16 at 2 p.m. :: Liddy Doenges Theatre Season Tickets Tulsa's most talented teens take on the masterpiece! Theatre Tulsa's Broadway Academy teenage students perform the inspiring saga of love, hope and... GET TICKETS
  
• Midwest Arms Collector Gun Show (Expo Square - Tulsa) Day 1 of 2 For more than 15 years, the Midwest Arms Collector Gun Show has produced quality gun and knife shows. Be sure to explore the…
  
• Miracle in Bedford Falls (Broken Arrow Community Playhouse - Broken Arrow) Thru Sun, Dec 15th Frank Capra’s timeless film “It’s a Wonderful Life” has been given a fresh adaptation with Broken…
  
• Mzclave (Blackbird On Pearl - Tulsa) Start Time: 9:00pm
  
• The Nutcracker (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 22nd This December, Tulsa Ballet presents "The Nutcracker" at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Audiences of all ages…
  
• 🎨 Oklahoma and the Great Depression (The Gilcrease Museum - Tulsa) Start Time: 10:00am Explore the connections between Oklahoma and the Great Depression through talks, poetry readings, performances and more as we celebrate the exhibition DOROTHEA LANGE'S AMERICA. Free with museum admission. FEATURED TALKS
  “It’s Dying and It’s Hardly Been Born”: The Dust Bowl in Music, Literature and Film | 10:15 a.m. -Dr. Sean Latham,…
  
• Philbrook Festival (Philbrook Downtown - Tulsa) Day 2 of 2 Start Time: 6:00pm Join us as Philbrook comes alive with holiday events, visits from Santa, train rides, Lego Village, garden games, live music, shopping, décor, and thousands of lights in the gardens reflecting the spirit of the season. Gather the whole family for unforgettable experiences. Festival Nights are special ticketed event nights which feature a light…
  
• Philbrook Playdates (Philbrook Downtown - Tulsa) Day 2 of 2 Start Time: 9:30am Come and play with your child, let your child play with other kids, and meet other adults! We provide the creative activity and we clean up the mess. December 2019: Exploring Light Discover the awe-inspiring wonder-filled work of Anila Quayyum Agha with your little one. Then explore light and shadow together! Playdates at Philbrook are…
  
• 🎭 Rainbows Are Free - Head Pains Record Release Show (The Vanguard - Tulsa) Start Time: 8:00pm Head to the Vanguard for a night of metal and theatrics when Rainbows are Free brings their signature show to…
  
• Saturday Afternoon Test N Tune (Tulsa Raceway Park - Tulsa) Start Time: 12:00pm
  
• Shelby Mustang Classic Car Auction (Expo Square - Tulsa) The Shelby Mustang Classic Car Auction features top hot rods. Visit Tulsa Expo Square, and see the wide range of Mustangs…
  
• Succulent Centerpiece Workshop (Philbrook Downtown - Tulsa) Start Time: 2:00pm Get your hands dirty. Take home a piece of Philbrook: succulents grown from our collection. Create a stunning centerpiece (with expert help). Make it for holiday entertaining or as a gift (that keeps on giving/growing). Enjoy wine, beer, and light refreshments. Philbrook Members: $40 Not-Yet Members: $60 Tickets include Museum admission…
  
• Victor Wainwright (The Shrine - Tulsa) Start Time: 7:00pm
  

Sunday, Dec 8th

• The Alliday Show (Retro Den - Tulsa) An all handmade arts and crafts show in its 10th year!
• 🍴 Chandler Park Lights on the Hill (Chandler Park - Tulsa) Last Day Start Time: 6:00pm Enjoy one of the brightest Christmas light displays in Tulsa! Millions of lights will line the roads throughout the park. LIKE US ON FACEBOOK!
• Christkindlmarkt (GAST House - Tulsa) Last Day For a unique and distinctly European holiday shopping experience head to the Christkindlmarkt put on by the German American…
• Christmas (Keystone State Park - Sand Springs) Keystone State Park hosts Christmas at the Park just in time for all the exciting winter festivities. Bring the…
• A Christmas Carol (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Day 2 of 2 A Christmas Carol Dec. 7-8, 13-15, 19-22 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 9, 16, 23 at 2 p.m. :: John H. Williams Theatre Robert Odle and Richard Averill's musical adaptation of Charles Dickens' beloved novella about the joy of giving has been a Tulsa tradition for more than 40 years. It's a heartwarming story about Scrooge, a lonely humbug who is given the…
• Creepy Christmas Light Tour (Woodward Park - Tulsa) Thru Mon, Dec 23rd Haunted history and Christmas lights combine at Tulsa Spirit Tours' Creepy Christmas Light Tour. Learn all about the…
• Criss Angel (Osage Event Center - Tulsa) Come to the Skyline Event Center at the Osage Casino in Tulsa for a night of mind-blowing magic from Criss Angel. The star…
• Tulsa Dog Training Club Agility Trial (Expo Square - Tulsa) Last Day See trained dogs compete in a series of agility tests during the Tulsa Dog Training Club Agility Trial. Held at Tulsa Expo…
• 🏃 Half n Half Marathon or Half (Turkey Mountain - Tulsa) The RunnersWorld Tulsa Half and Half Marathon allows you to run a half marathon on the Turkey Mountain trails or a half marathon on paved pedestrian trails. All races will be going at the same time for some fast-paced finish line action.
  Half Marathon on Turkey Mountain Dirt Trails Half Marathon on Riverside Paved Trails Full Marathon…
  
• 🎓 Holiday Customer Appreciation Celebration (U.S. Cellular Store - Claremore) Last Day Start Time: 10:00am Claremore U.S. Cellular Store Hosting Holiday Customer Appreciation Celebration
  Happy holidays from U.S. Cellular! The Claremore store at, 502-B S Lynn Riggs Blvd is hosting a holiday-themed Customer Appreciation Celebration from Dec. 6 – Dec. 8. During this time, everyone who visits the store will receive a free tumbler, and customers can…
  
• 🎓 Les Mis rables (School Edition) (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Day 2 of 2 Les Mis�rables (School Edition) Dec. 7-8, 14-15 at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 8-9, 15-16 at 2 p.m. :: Liddy Doenges Theatre Season Tickets Tulsa's most talented teens take on the masterpiece! Theatre Tulsa's Broadway Academy teenage students perform the inspiring saga of love, hope and... GET TICKETS
  
• Midwest Arms Collector Gun Show (Expo Square - Tulsa) Day 2 of 2 For more than 15 years, the Midwest Arms Collector Gun Show has produced quality gun and knife shows. Be sure to explore the…
  
• Miracle in Bedford Falls (Broken Arrow Community Playhouse - Broken Arrow) Thru Sun, Dec 15th Frank Capra’s timeless film “It’s a Wonderful Life” has been given a fresh adaptation with Broken…
  
• The Nutcracker (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 22nd This December, Tulsa Ballet presents "The Nutcracker" at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Audiences of all ages…
  
• ORU Golden Eagles vs Haskell Fighting Indians (Mabee Center - Tulsa) The ORU Golden Eagles men's basketball team strives for success on the court. Watch the team work together toward…
  
• Tulsa Toy Run (Expo Square - Tulsa) Thousands of bikers descend upon Tulsa Expo Square every winter just in time for the holidays. During the annual Tulsa Toy…
  

Monday, Dec 9th

• Glenpool Christmas Parade (Glenpool) Kick-off the holiday season at the Glenpool Christmas Parade. This festive Merry Monday event will feature displays from…
• Creepy Christmas Light Tour (Woodward Park - Tulsa) Thru Mon, Dec 23rd Haunted history and Christmas lights combine at Tulsa Spirit Tours' Creepy Christmas Light Tour. Learn all about the…
• Fiction Addiction Book Club (Owasso Library - Owasso) Start Time: 6:00pm Love talking about books? So do we! Join us to discuss "Beartown" by Fredrick Backman. Reserved copies of the book are available at the desk or you may request your own copy at https://tccl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/3578565063.
• ♪ Jennifer Marriott Band (Tulsa) Start Time: 5:00pm
• Miracle in Bedford Falls (Broken Arrow Community Playhouse - Broken Arrow) Thru Sun, Dec 15th Frank Capra’s timeless film “It’s a Wonderful Life” has been given a fresh adaptation with Broken…
• The Nutcracker (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 22nd This December, Tulsa Ballet presents "The Nutcracker" at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Audiences of all ages…
• Sing! An Irish Christmas (Mabee Center - Tulsa) Start Time: 7:30pm Join us for Sing! An Irish Christmas and make memories that will last a lifetime. Come sing along with thousands of believers in your city and celebrate the true story of the Christmas season!

Tuesday, Dec 10th

• 🎭 Brady Theater, Tulsa, Oklahoma,USA (Brady Theater - Tulsa) Start Time: 8:00pm Il Divo at the Tulsa Theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma pre-sale 1st of august at 10.00am
• Build a Reader Storytime: Babies and Toddlers (Owasso Library - Owasso) Ready, set, READ! This beginning storytime focuses on helping your baby or toddler develop important literacy skills while emphasizing the fun of reading. For ages birth-2. **The last Baby/Toddler Storytime for the year will be Tuesday, Dec. 10. Baby/Toddler Storytime will resume on Tuesday, Jan. 14.
• Creepy Christmas Light Tour (Woodward Park - Tulsa) Thru Mon, Dec 23rd Haunted history and Christmas lights combine at Tulsa Spirit Tours' Creepy Christmas Light Tour. Learn all about the…
• Miracle in Bedford Falls (Broken Arrow Community Playhouse - Broken Arrow) Thru Sun, Dec 15th Frank Capra’s timeless film “It’s a Wonderful Life” has been given a fresh adaptation with Broken…
• The Nutcracker (Tulsa Performing Art Center - Tulsa) Thru Sun, Dec 22nd This December, Tulsa Ballet presents "The Nutcracker" at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center. Audiences of all ages…

See Also

• OK Gamers
• Techlahoma
• Tulsa Meetup Groups
• Tulsa Library Events

The following gives you an overview of relevant movies. There are 138 categories. You can use this as a challenge: make sure that you have watched at least one film from each category.
(1) 80s action First Blood (1982) Conan the Barbarian (1982) The Terminator (1984) Commando (1985) Top Gun (1986) Predator (1987) RoboCop (1987) Die Hard (1988) Bloodsport (1988) The Killer (1989)
(2) Black comedy Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Withnail & I (1987) Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988) Man Bites Dog (1992) Happiness (1998) Snatch (2000) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005) In Bruges (2008) Wild Tales (2014) Ingrid Goes West (2017)
(3) Coen brothers Blood Simple. (1984) Raising Arizona (1987) Miller's Crossing (1990) Barton Fink (1991) Fargo (1996) The Big Lebowski (1998) O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) A Serious Man (2009) Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
(4) Film noir The Maltese Falcon (1941) Double Indemnity (1944) Laura (1944) Mildred Pierce (1945) The Lost Weekend (1945) The Big Sleep (1946) Out of the Past (1947) They Live by Night (1948) The Third Man (1949) In a Lonely Place (1950) Night and the City (1950) Ace in the Hole (1951) Rififi (1955) Kiss Me Deadly (1955) Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
(5) French New Wave The 400 Blows (1959) Breathless (1960) A Woman Is a Woman (1961) Léon Morin, Priest (1961) Jules and Jim (1962) Vivre Sa Vie (1962) Contempt (1963) Band of Outsiders (1964) The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) Pierrot le Fou (1965) Two or Three Things I Know About Her... (1967) Weekend (1967) My Night at Maud's (1969)
(6) Left Bank Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) Last Year at Marienbad (1961) La Jetée (1962) Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) Le Bonheur (1965)
(7) Richard Linklater Dazed and Confused (1993) Before Sunrise (1995) Waking Life (2001) Before Sunset (2004) A Scanner Darkly (2006) Before Midnight (2013)
(8) Serial killer Henry (1986) The Silence of the Lambs (1991) Se7en (1995) Zodiac (2007)
(9) Screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934) The Awful Truth (1937) Bringing Up Baby (1938) His Girl Friday (1940) The Philadelphia Story (1940) The Lady Eve (1941)
(10) Vigilante films Dirty Harry (1971) Straw Dogs (1971) Death Wish (1974) Falling Down (1993) Walking Tall (2004) John Wick (2014)
(11) Terrence Malick Badlands (1973) Days of Heaven (1978) The Thin Red Line (1998) The New World (2005) The Tree of Life (2011) Knight of Cups (2015)
(12) Drugs Trainspotting (1996) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) Requiem for a Dream (2000) Traffic (2000) Blow (2001) Maria Full of Grace (2004)
(13) Buster Keaton Sherlock Jr. (1924) The General (1926) Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) The Cameraman (1928) Our Hospitality (1928)
(14) Disaster Airport (1970) Apollo 13 (1995) Twister (1996) Deep Impact (1998) The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Deepwater Horizon (2016)
(15) Neo-noir Point Blank (1967) Chinatown (1974) Thief (1981) L.A. Confidential (1997) Sin City (2005) Drive (2011) Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
(16) Cars & Racing Vanishing Point (1971) Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) Death Race 2000 (1975) Rush (2013) The Fast and the Furious (2001) Days of Thunder (1990) Speed Racer (2008)
(17) 1920s Greed (1924) Battleship Potemkin (1925) Metropolis (1927) Sunrise (1927) Napoleon (1927) The Crowd (1928)
(18) Adventure The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) Deliverance (1972) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) Master and Commander (2003) Apocalypto (2006) Life of Pi (2012) Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)
(19) Genius Rain Man (1988) Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993) Good Will Hunting (1997) A Beautiful Mind (2001)
(20) South Korea Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring (2003) Oldboy (2003) 3-Iron (2004) Mother (2009) I Saw the Devil (2010)
(21) Ingmar Bergman The Seventh Seal (1957) Wild Strawberries (1957) Through a Glass Darkly (1961) Winter Light (1963) Persona (1966) Cries & Whispers (1972) Scenes from a Marriage (1973) Autumn Sonata (1978) Fanny and Alexander (1982)
(22) Billy Wilder Sunset Boulevard (1950) Some Like It Hot (1959) The Apartment (1960) One, Two, Three (1961) Witness for the Prosecution (1957)
(23) Comedy-drama One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Being There (1979) My Dinner with Andre (1981) The Breakfast Club (1985) The Fisher King (1991) Groundhog Day (1993) Forrest Gump (1994) Buffalo '66 (1998) The Truman Show (1998) The Man Without a Past (2002) Lost in Translation (2003) Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Frances Ha (2012) Toni Erdmann (2016)
(24) Drama Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Gone with the Wind (1939) The Grapes of Wrath (1940) All About Eve (1950) A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) From Here to Eternity (1953) On the Waterfront (1954) Splendor in the Grass (1961) Midnight Cowboy (1969) À Nos Amours (1983) Vagabond (1985) The Piano (1993) La Haine (1995) Secrets & Lies (1996) The Ice Storm (1997) The Celebration (1998) All About My Mother (1999) Ratcatcher (1999) Amores Perros (2000) La Ciénaga (2001) Morvern Callar (2002) 25th Hour (2002) Elephant (2003) Mysterious Skin (2004) Babel (2006) 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (2007) Wendy and Lucy (2008) The Social Network (2010) Incendies (2010) Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (2011) Shame (2011) The Hunt (2012) The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) Winter Sleep (2014) Mommy (2014) Son of Saul (2015) Room (2015) Spotlight (2015) Manchester by the Sea (2016) Paterson (2016) Columbus (2017) The Florida Project (2017)
(25) James Bond Dr. No (1962) Goldfinger (1964) Casino Royale (2006) Skyfall (2012) The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) GoldenEye (1995)
(26) Romantic comedy Roman Holiday (1953) Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) The Princess Bride (1987) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) There’s Something About Mary (1998) Amélie (2001) Punch-Drunk Love (2002) Sideways (2004) The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005) 500 Days of Summer (2009)
(27) Robert Bresson Diary of a Country Priest (1951) A Man Escaped (1956) Pickpocket (1959) Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) Mouchette (1967) The Devil, Probably (1977) L'Argent (1983)
(28) Political thriller Z (1969) Three Days of the Condor (1975) All the President's Men (1976) Blow Out (1981) Patriot Games (1992) The Lives of Others (2006) The Ides of March (2011) The Post (2017)
(29) Parody/spoof Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Dark Star (1974) Airplane! (1980) The Princess Bride (1987) Spaceballs (1987) The Naked Gun (1988) Hot Shots! (1991) Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993) Austin Powers (1997) Galaxy Quest (1999) Black Dynamite (2009)
(30) Orson Welles Citizen Kane (1941) Touch of Evil (1958) The Trial (1962) Chimes at Midnight (1965) F for Fake (1973)
(31) Pixar Toy Story (1995) Finding Nemo (2003) Ratatouille (2007) WALL·E (2008) Up (2009) Inside Out (2015) Coco (2017)
(32) Pre-Code Hollywood The Blue Angel (1930) Frankenstein (1931) Freaks (1932) King Kong (1933) Duck Soup (1933) The Thin Man (1934)
(33) Superhero Superman (1978) X-Men (2000) Spider-Man (2002) The Dark Knight (2008) Iron Man (2008) The Avengers (2012) Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Logan (2017)
(34) War All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) The Longest Day (1962) The Train (1964) The Deer Hunter (1978) Apocalypse Now (1979) Das Boot (1981) Platoon (1986) Saving Private Ryan (1998) Black Hawk Down (2001) Dunkirk (2017)
(35) Stanley Kubrick Paths of Glory (1957) Lolita (1962) Dr. Strangelove (1964) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) A Clockwork Orange (1971) Barry Lyndon (1975) The Shining (1980) Full Metal Jacket (1987) Eyes Wide Shut (1999)
(36) Surrealism Entr'acte (1924) The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928) L'Étoile de Mer (1928) An Andalusian Dog (1929) L'Age d'Or (1930) The Blood of a Poet (1930) Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
(37) Western Stagecoach (1939) The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) My Darling Clementine (1946) High Noon (1952) Shane (1953) The Searchers (1956) Rio Bravo (1959) The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) The Wild Bunch (1969) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) Dances with Wolves (1990) Unforgiven (1992) Meek's Cutoff (2010)
(38) Spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars (1964) For a Few Dollars More (1965) Django (1966) The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) The Great Silence (1968) Duck, You Sucker! (1971)
(39) Swashbuckler Captain Blood (1935) The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) The Sea Hawk (1940) The Four Musketeers (1974) The Three Musketeers (1993) The Mask of Zorro (1998)
(40) Werner Herzog Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974) Stroszek (1977) La Soufrière (1977) Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) Fitzcarraldo (1982) Grizzly Man (2005)
(41) Nunsploitation The Devils (1971) School of the Holy Beast (1974) Killer Nun (1979) Nuns on the Run (1990) Nude Nuns with Big Guns (2010) The Little Hours (2017)
(42) Psycho-Thriller Peeping Tom (1960) The Innocents (1961) Repulsion (1965) Bad Timing (1980) Possession (1981) Misery (1990) Jacob's Ladder (1990) Memento (2000) Martyrs (2008) Shutter Island (2010) Black Swan (2010) Only God Forgives (2013) Gone Girl (2014) Room (2015) The Neon Demon (2016)
(43) Krzysztof Kieślowski Dekalog (1989) The Double Life of Veronique (1991) Three Colors Trilogy (1993)
(44) Akira Kurosawa Rashomon (1950) Ikiru (1952) Seven Samurai (1954) Throne of Blood (1957) The Hidden Fortress (1958) Yojimbo (1961) Sanjuro (1962) High and Low (1963) Red Beard (1965) Kagemusha (1980) Ran (1985) Dreams (1990)
(45) LGBT Girls in Uniform (1931) Funeral Parade of Roses (1969) Je, tu, il, elle (1974) Paris Is Burning (1990) My Own Private Idaho (1991) All about My Mother (1999) Beau travail (1999) Tropical Malady (2004) Brokeback Mountain (2005) Shortbus (2006) Weekend (2011) Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) Carol (2015) Moonlight (2016) Call Me by Your Name (2017)
(46) Yasujirô Ozu Late Spring (1949) Early Summer (1951) Tokyo Story (1953) Good Morning (1959) Floating Weeds (1959) An Autumn Afternoon (1962)
(47) Wuxia Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) Hero (2002) House of Flying Daggers (2004) The Assassin (2015)
(48) Woody Allen Annie Hall (1977) Manhattan (1979) The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Match Point (2005) Midnight in Paris (2011)
(49) Survival Walkabout (1971) The Edge (1997) Cast Away (2000) Shackleton (2002) Touching the Void (2003) Into the Wild (2007) 127 Hours (2010) All Is Lost (2013) The Revenant (2015)
(50) Robert Altman MAS*H (1970) McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) The Long Goodbye (1973) Nashville (1975) The Player (1992) Short Cuts (1993) Gosford Park (2001)
(51) Aliens Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Alien (1979) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) The Thing (1982) Aliens (1986) They Live (1988) The Abyss (1989) Independence Day (1996) District 9 (2009) Arrival (2016) Annihilation (2018)
(52) Rainer Werner Fassbinder The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971) The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1973) In a Year with 13 Moons (1978) Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) Veronika Voss (1982)
(53) Michelangelo Antonioni L'Avventura (1960) La Notte (1961) L'Eclisse (1962) Red Desert (1964) Blow-Up (1966)
(54) Martial Arts Fist of Fury (1972) Enter the Dragon (1973) The Street Fighter (1974) Drunken Master (1978) The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) Wheels on Meals (1984) Police Story (1985) Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991) Ong Bak (2003) Ip Man (2008)
(55) Lars von Trier Breaking the Waves (1996) The Idiots (1998) Dancer in the Dark (2000) Dogville (2003) The Five Obstructions (2003) Antichrist (2009) Melancholia (2011)
(56) Horror Cat People (1942) Rosemary's Baby (1968) Night of the Living Dead (1968) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) Halloween (1978) Dawn of the Dead (1978) Friday the 13th (1980) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) Scream (1996) The Village (2004) The Descent (2005) Let the Right One In (2008) The Witch (2015) It Follows (2015) The Wailing (2016) It (2017)
(57) Supernatural horror The Exorcist (1973) Poltergeist (1982) The Devil's Advocate (1997) The Blair Witch Project (1999) The Sixth Sense (1999) The Others (2001) The Babadook (2014)
(58) Romantic drama Casablanca (1942) Brief Encounter (1945) Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) All That Heaven Allows (1955) Imitation of Life (1959) Doctor Zhivago (1965) Romeo and Juliet (1968) The Remains of the Day (1993) Sense and Sensibility (1995) Titanic (1997) The Notebook (2004) Atonement (2007) Blue Valentine (2010) Laurence Anyways (2012)
(59) Wes Anderson Rushmore (1998) The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Moonrise Kingdom (2012) The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
(60) Thriller M (1931) The Night of the Hunter (1955) The French Connection (1971) The Conversation (1974) Sorcerer (1977) The Vanishing (1988) Jurassic Park (1993) Speed (1994) Run Lola Run (1998) The Bourne Identity (2002) Infernal Affairs (2002) Collateral (2004) Miami Vice (2006) No Country for Old Men (2007) Prisoners (2013) Nightcrawler (2014) Green Room (2015)
(61) Michael Haneke The Seventh Continent (1989) Funny Games (1997) Code Unknown (2000) The Piano Teacher (2001) Caché (2005) The White Ribbon (2009) Amour (2012)
(62) Giallo The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963) The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) Deep Red (1975) Suspiria (1977) Tenebrae (1982) The New York Ripper (1982)
(63) Musical Top Hat (1935) The Wizard of Oz (1939) Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) Singin' in the Rain (1952) A Star Is Born (1954) West Side Story (1961) Mary Poppins (1964) The Sound of Music (1965) Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) Cabaret (1972) Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) Phantom of the Paradise (1974) The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) Saturday Night Fever (1977) Grease (1978) All That Jazz (1979) Little Shop of Horrors (1986) Moulin Rouge! (2001) Les Misérables (2012) La La Land (2016)
(64) Racism To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) In the Heat of the Night (1967) The Color Purple (1985) Do the Right Thing (1989) American History X (1998) This Is England (2006) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Selma (2014) Get Out (2017)
(65) Federico Fellini I Vitelloni (1953) La Strada (1954) The Nights of Cabiria (1957) La Dolce Vita (1960) 8½ (1963) Juliet of the Spirits (1965) Satyricon (1969) Amarcord (1973)
(66) Early cinema The Arrival of a Train (1896) The Kiss (1896) The Man with the Rubber Head (1901) A Trip to the Moon (1902) The Great Train Robbery (1903) Gertie the Dinosaur (1914) The Birth of a Nation (1915) Intolerance (1916)
(67) David Lynch Eraserhead (1977) The Elephant Man (1980) Blue Velvet (1986) Wild at Heart (1990) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992) Lost Highway (1997) Mulholland Drive (2001) Inland Empire (2006)
(68) Crime Le Samouraï (1967) The Godfather (1972) The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (1976) Scarface (1983) Once Upon a Time in America (1984) The Untouchables (1987) The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989) Heat (1995) City of God (2002) Catch Me If You Can (2002) Memories of Murder (2003) Lord of War (2005) The Town (2010) Victoria (2015) Sicario (2015) Baby Driver (2017) Good Time (2017)
(69) Heist The Sting (1973) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) The First Great Train Robbery (1978) Ocean's Eleven (2001) Heist (2001) The Italian Job (2003) Inside Man (2006) Inception (2010) The Town (2010)
(70) Paul Thomas Anderson Boogie Nights (1997) Magnolia (1999) There Will Be Blood (2007) The Master (2012) Phantom Thread (2017)
(71) Action comedy 48 Hrs. (1982) Lethal Weapon (1987) Maverick (1994) True Lies (1994) Bad Boys (1995) Men in Black (1997) Starship Troopers (1997) Three Kings (1999) Kung Fu Hustle (2004) Hot Fuzz (2007) 21 Jump Street (2012) Spy (2015) Deadpool (2016)
(72) Anime Angel's Egg (1985) Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Akira (1988) Ghost in the Shell (1995) Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (1997) Perfect Blue (1997) Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (1999) Millennium Actress (2001) Mind Game (2004) Paprika (2006) The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (2013) Your Name. (2016)
(73) David Cronenberg Videodrome (1983) The Fly (1986) Naked Lunch (1991) A History of Violence (2005) Eastern Promises (2007)
(74) Docufiction Nanook of the North (1922) On the Bowery (1956) In Vanda's Room (2000) Colossal Youth (2006) My Winnipeg (2007)
(75) Edward Yang Taipei Story (1985) A Brighter Summer Day (1991) Yi Yi (2000)
(76) Fantasy The Dark Crystal (1982) The NeverEnding Story (1984) Delicatessen (1991) Being John Malkovich (1999) The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) Pan's Labyrinth (2006) The Fall (2006) Avatar (2009) Holy Motors (2012) A Ghost Story (2017) The Shape of Water (2017)
(77) Sharks Jaws (1975) Deep Blue Sea (1999) Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009) Shark Night (2011) Sharknado (2013) The Shallows (2016)
(78) Quentin Tarantino Reservoir Dogs (1992) Pulp Fiction (1994) Jackie Brown (1997) Kill Bill (2003) Inglourious Basterds (2009) Django Unchained (2012) The Hateful Eight (2015)
(79) Japan Ugetsu (1953) Sansho the Bailiff (1954) Harakiri (1962) Woman in the Dunes (1964) Kwaidan (1964) Onibaba (1964) The Face of Another (1966) Eros + Massacre (1969) Maborosi (1995) Cure (1997) All About Lily Chou-Chou (2001) Happiness of the Katakuris (2002) Nobody Knows (2004) Strange Circus (2005) The Calamari Wrestler (2005) Big Man Japan (2007) Love Exposure (2008) Confessions (2010) Like Father, Like Son (2013)
(80) Jacques Tati Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953) Mon Oncle (1958) Playtime (1967)
(81) Alfred Hitchcock Rebecca (1940) Shadow of a Doubt (1943) Notorious (1946) Rope (1948) Strangers on a Train (1951) Dial M for Murder (1954) Rear Window (1954) Vertigo (1958) North by Northwest (1959) Psycho (1960) The Birds (1963)
(82) Animation Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Pinocchio (1940) Fantasia (1940) Dumbo (1941) Bambi (1942) Fantastic Planet (1973) The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1976) Only Yesterday (1991) Beauty and the Beast (1991) The Lion King (1994) The Prince of Egypt (1998) The Iron Giant (1999) The Triplets of Belleville (2003) The Incredibles (2004) Persepolis (2007) Waltz with Bashir (2008) How to Train Your Dragon (2010) It's Such a Beautiful Day (2012) The Red Turtle (2016)
(83) Iran Where is the Friend's Home? (1987) Close-Up (1990) A Moment of Innocence (1996) Taste of Cherry (1997) Certified Copy (2010) A Separation (2011) The Salesman (2015)
(84) Jean Renoir A Day in the Country (1936) La Grande Illusion (1937) The Rules of the Game (1939) French Cancan (1955)
(85) Monster The Blob (1953) Godzilla (1954) Tarantula (1955) Cloverfield (2008) Trollhunter (2010)
(86) Wim Wenders Alice in the Cities (1974) Kings of the Road (1976) The American Friend (1977) Paris, Texas (1984) Wings of Desire (1987)
(87) Teen American Graffiti (1973) Over the Edge (1979) The Warriors (1979) Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979) Rumble Fish (1983) Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986) Stand by Me (1986) Boyz n the Hood (1991) Kids (1995) Fucking Åmål (1998) Heathers (1988) Ken Park (2002) Mean Girls (2004) Superbad (2007) Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) Spring Breakers (2012) The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) Boyhood (2014) Lady Bird (2017)
(88) Buster Keaton Our Hospitality (1923) Sherlock Jr. (1924) The General (1926) Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928) The Cameraman (1928)
(89) Cannibal films Cannibal Holocaust (1980) Eaten Alive! (1980) Cannibal Ferox (1981) Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989) Cannibal! The Musical (1993)
(90) Carl Theodor Dreyer The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Vampyr (1932) Day of Wrath (1943) Ordet (1955) Gertrud (1964)
(91) Hippie The Love-Ins (1967) Psych-Out (1968) Zabriskie Point (1970) Hair (1979)
(92) Martin Scorsese Mean Streets (1973) Taxi Driver (1976) Raging Bull (1980) The King of Comedy (1982) After Hours (1985) Goodfellas (1990) The Age of Innocence (1993) Casino (1995) The Departed (2006) The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
(93) Mystery Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) Clue (1985) The Usual Suspects (1995) The Game (1997) Donnie Darko (2001) The Prestige (2006) The Man from Earth (2007)
(94) Pier Paolo Pasolini The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966) Teorema (1968) Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)
(95) Prison The Great Escape (1963) Cool Hand Luke (1967) Escape from Alcatraz (1979) The Shawshank Redemption (1994) A Prophet (2009)
(96) Yakuza Tokyo Drifter (1966) Branded to Kill (1967) Ichi the Killer (2001) Zatōichi (2003) Outrage (2010)
(97) War drama The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Die Brücke (1959) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) The Battle of Algiers (1966) The Cranes Are Flying (1957) Come and See (1985) Schindler's List (1993) The Pianist (2002) Downfall (2004) The Hurt Locker (2008) Beasts of No Nation (2015)
(98) German expressionism The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) The Golem (1920) Nosferatu (1922) The Last Laugh (1924)
(99) Comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) Divorce, Italian Style (1962) The Pink Panther (1963) The Great Race (1965) The Odd Couple (1968) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Life of Brian (1979) The Jerk (1979) The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) Tampopo (1985) A Fish Called Wanda (1988) My Cousin Vinny (1992) Office Space (1999) Jackass: The Movie (2002) Anchorman (2004) Borat (2006) The Hangover (2009)
(100) 90s action Total Recall (1990) Terminator 2 (1991) Point Break (1991) El Mariachi (1992) The Fugitive (1993) The Rock (1996) Mission: Impossible (1996) Con Air (1997) Face/Off (1997) The Matrix (1999)
(101) Andrei Tarkovsky Andrei Rublev (1966) Solaris (1971) The Mirror (1974) Stalker (1979) Nostalgia (1983) The Sacrifice (1986)
(102) Satire Sullivan's Travels (1941) The Producers (1967) If.... (1968) Blazing Saddles (1974) Network (1976) American Beauty (1999) Fight Club (1999) American Psycho (2000) Thank You for Smoking (2005) Idiocracy (2006) In the Loop (2009)
(103) Music A Hard Day's Night (1964) The Blues Brothers (1980) Pink Floyd: The Wall (1982) This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Stop Making Sense (1984) Amadeus (1984) Sister Act (1992) Buena Vista Social Club (1999) Almost Famous (2000) 8 Mile (2002) Ray (2004) Whiplash (2014)
(104) Alejandro Jodorowsky El Topo (1970) The Holy Mountain (1973) Santa Sangre (1989)
(105) Avant-garde documentary Man With a Movie Camera (1929) Blow Job (1964) News from Home (1977) Koyaanisqatsi (1982) Baraka (1992) La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2000) I was moving ahead … (2000) Habitat (2012)
(106) Ernst Lubitsch I Don't Want to Be a Man (1918) Trouble in Paradise (1932) Ninotchka (1939) The Shop Around the Corner (1940) To Be or Not to Be (1942)
(107) Erotic Last Tango in Paris (1972) In the Realm of the Senses (1976) Body Double (1984) Basic Instinct (1992) The Handmaiden (2016)
(108) Sci-fi The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Planet of the Apes (1968) THX 1138 (1971) Star Wars (1977) Blade Runner (1982) Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) On the Silver Globe (1988) Twelve Monkeys (1995) Star Trek: First Contact (1996) The Fifth Element (1997) Gattaca (1997) The Matrix (1999) A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Minority Report (2002) Primer (2004) Moon (2009) Cloud Atlas (2012) Her (2013) Gravity (2013) Edge of Tomorrow (2014) Ex Machina (2014) Interstellar (2014) The Martian (2015)
(109) Tim Burton Edward Scissorhands (1990) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Ed Wood (1994) Mars Attacks! (1996) Big Fish (2003) Sweeney Todd (2007)
(110) Stoner films Up in Smoke (1978) Half Baked (1998) How High (2001) Pineapple Express (2008)
(111) Sports drama The Hustler (1961) Rocky (1976) Remember the Titans (2000) Million Dollar Baby (2004) The Wrestler (2008) The Fighter (2010) Moneyball (2011) Creed (2015)
(112) Powell & Pressburger The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) The Red Shoes (1948) Black Narcissus (1947)
(113) Dystopia Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) Brazil (1985) Dark City (1998) Battle Royale (2000) 28 Days Later... (2002) V for Vendetta (2005) Children of Men (2006) The Road (2009) Snowpiercer (2013) The Maze Runner (2014)
(114) Luis Buñuel The Young and the Damned (1950) Viridiana (1961) The Exterminating Angel (1962) Simon of the Desert (1965) Belle de Jour (1967) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) That Obscure Object of Desire (1977)
(115) Documentary Night and Fog (1956) Shoah (1985) The Thin Blue Line (1988) Hoop Dreams (1994) Man on Wire (2008) Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) Leviathan (2012) The Act of Killing (2012) Tim's Vermeer (2013)
(116) Modern action 300 (2006) The Raid: Redemption (2011) Dredd (2012) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Hardcore Henry (2016)
(118) Rape revenge The Virgin Spring (1960) I Spit on Your Grave (1978) Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002) Irreversible (2002) I Saw the Devil (2010)
(119) Wong Kar-wai Chungking Express (1994) Fallen Angels (1995) Happy Together (1997) In the Mood for Love (2000) 2046 (2004)
(120) Horror comedy Young Frankenstein (1974) House (1977) An American Werewolf in London (1981) Dead Alive (1992) Shaun of the Dead (2004) The Cabin in the Woods (2012) What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
(121) Courtroom drama 12 Angry Men (1957) Anatomy of a Murder (1959) Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) The Verdict (1982) A Few Good Men (1992) The Rainmaker (1997)
(122) Charlie Chaplin The Tramp (1915) The Kid (1921) The Circus (1928) City Lights (1931) The Great Dictator (1940) Limelight (1952)
(123) Yakuza Tokyo Drifter (1966) Branded to Kill (1967) Ichi the Killer (2001) Zatōichi (2003) Outrage (2010)
(124) Splatter Blood Feast (1963) The Wizard of Gore (1970) The Evil Dead (1981) Bad Taste (1987)
(125) Africa Black Girl (1966) Touki Bouki (1973) Hotel Rwanda (2004) Moolaadé (2004) Timbuktu (2014)
(126) Ancient Rome Quo Vadis (1951) Ben-Hur (1959) Spartacus (1960) Cleopatra (1963) Caligula (1979) Gladiator (2000)
(127) Biography The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Patton (1970) Gandhi (1982) Malcolm X (1992) Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) Schindler's List (1993) Monster (2003) The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) Lincoln (2012)
(128) John Cassavetes Shadows (1958) Faces (1968) A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
(129) Eastern Europe Ashes and Diamonds (1958) Daisies (1966) Cremator (1969) Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (1970) Damnation (1988) Satantango (1994) Underground (1995) Black Cat, White Cat (1998) Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) No Man's Land (2001) The Turin Horse (2011) Ida (2013)
(130) Russia Brother (1997) Russian Ark (2002) The Return (2003) The Sun (2005) Hard to Be a God (2013) Leviathan (2014)
(131) Religion The Ten Commandments (1956) The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) The Mission (1986) The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) The Passion of the Christ (2004) Silence (2016)
(132) Cult films Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) Barbarella (1968) Pink Flamingos (1972) Tron (1982) Ghostbusters (1984) Repo Man (1984) The Toxic Avenger (1984) Back to the Future (1985) Big Trouble in Little China (1986) Surf Nazis Must Die (1987) Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) Army of Darkness (1992) Wayne’s World (1992) Clerks (1994) Bad Boy Bubby (1994) Dude, Where’s My Car? (2000) Donnie Darko (2001) Freddy Got Fingered (2001) The Brown Bunny (2003) The Room (2003) Fateful Findings (2013)
(133) Unsorted L'Atalante (1934) Children of Paradise (1945) It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Pather Panchali (1955) Marketa Lazarová (1967) The Conformist (1970) Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) Cinema Paradiso (1988) Dead Man (1995) Life Is Beautiful (1997) Pi (1998) Being John Malkovich (1999) Adaptation. (2002) The Illusionist (2006) Synecdoche, New York (2008) Dogtooth (2009) Enter the Void (2009) Inception (2010) Rubber (2010) The Great Beauty (2013) Birdman (2014) A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014) Inherent Vice (2014) Chef (2014) The Lobster (2015) The Big Short (2015) Swiss Army Man (2016)
(134) Home Invasion Home Alone (1990) Panic Room (2002) Borgman (2013) The Gift (2015) Don't Breathe (2016)
(135) Historical The Leopard (1963) A Man for All Seasons (1966) Quest for Fire (1981) The Last of the Mohicans (1992) Braveheart (1995)
(136) New Hollywood Bonnie and Clyde (1967) The Graduate (1967) Five Easy Pieces (1970) The Last Picture Show (1971) Harold and Maude (1971) Easy Rider (1969)
(137) Hayao Miyazaki Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) Castle in the Sky (1986) My Neighbor Totoro (1988) Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) Porco Rosso (1992) Princess Mononoke (1997) Spirited Away (2001) Howl's Moving Castle (2004) The Wind Rises (2013)
(138) Italian neorealism Rome, Open City (1945) Paisan (1946) Bicycle Thieves (1948) Stromboli (1950)

Mammoth post incoming..... I read a lot of posts in this thread and others to help me prepare for my first time backpacking in South East Asia, used mostly reddit and youtube to collect information and in return to all the helpful people who advised me, I want to add a bit to the info out there. This was our first time backpacking in Asia but we have both travelled a decent amount, apologies to those seasoned backpackers who might eye roll at the obvious things I point out! And how long this post is! few linked included where possible.
I travelled with my boyfriend (both in our mid 20s) for 7 weeks from Nov 2019 to Jan 2020 covering 4 countries; Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We travelled as a couple, not really looking for the typical hostel/partying experience. I had spots/cities we wanted to stop in picked out more so I could check that our return flight back gave us enough time (bf had job to come back for). For those interest I travelled with 40l backpack (Osprey ladies size I recommend for small gals). and 15l day back and boyfriend had 65l backpack. I really reccommend getting up to date on vaccines and/or visiting somewhere like Nomad travel (UK major cities only) for additional shots. We also bought a medical kit from them which came in very handy and I would buy THIS one (works out cheaper than making your own).
Our original plan was to buy a motorbike in Ho Chi Minh and then use that as our main mode of transport to bike across Cambodia and then finally go to Bangkok, so there's a section about bikes at the end.
I am plant based / have a pretty strong dairy intolerance, so I'll add a section about travelling as a 'vegan' as I found it more difficult to get concrete advice on that before I left.
We are from UK so our budget/prices we evaluated against £ GBP
Hong Kong - this was the most built up and relatively similar experience to our lives at home and eased us pretty gently into travel. I would compare Hong Kong to a metropolitan place like London. We stayed in the Wan Chai district and would recommend the are for first timers. Not as expensive as the Central District and gives more local flavour with the street markets which you are likely to explore or pass through on the way to the MTR. Stay on Hong Kong Island over the peninsula as a lot of activities are there and though it is more compact you get a good sense of what HK is really like.
Prices - cost of restaurants was about the same as home - £8-10+ for a meal. Transport - incredibly cheap, routes often less than £1 or 50p Lots of 7/11 and Circle K with reasonable prices for snacks or eating in
Things we did: - Victoria Peak - there are some views more 'within' the city if you take the giant escalator up and walk a bit further as opposed to going straight to the top - Mong Kok area and surrounding markets - Hong Kong museum - quite dated and nothing on history of recent years but it is free - Hong Kong Peninsula night time view of HK island (symphony of lights show) - Temple Street night market - Dragon's Back - this was easy to get to via bus and a nice welcome break from the city. An easy hike. - Ching Chung Koon, Tao temple - really beautiful temple with turtles, easy trip by bus to visit
Shenzhen - We went to Shenzhen as we wanted to see what China was like and had some intrigue about it being a Special Economic Zone. My advice to absolutely everyone, unless you know of something on the other side you want to see, is do not go.
We read that it was free to enter but you would have to get a short stay visa stamp. We ended up stuck in immigration after getting off the MTR for about 2 hours, first you must go and get a photo and a visa put in your passport which includes filling our a form and being asked a few questions about your stay, then you go downstairs and fill our a landing card, get fingerprinted and then pass through to Shenzhen. There isn't a clear explanation as to where these different rooms are to get the whole process done and you're at the mercy of how busy the waiting rooms are for how quick you get out, no visas would be ready and then they would surge in 10 being ready for collection at once.
Shenzhen was a very homogenous city, we couldn't find any historical sites or areas designed for non Chinese to engage with the local fare, though bare in mind Shenzhen is absolutely huge and we were short on time after arriving later. Tube system is cheap and in English and we used cash to pay. When we tried to use bank cards to take out more money I had no luck with Mastercard, Visa and Visa credit card at more than one ATM. The best part of the trip was a small antique shop in the train terminal with genuine trinkets, pottery etc. The guy was quite fair with our haggling too.
Macau - Again we visited this as another special zone outside of HK. Again unfortunately I don't recommend going. To us, Macau was missing all the parts of the Vegas strip that would make a high concentration of casinos together worthwhile; no smoking indoors, no open carry on alcohol on the streets, no street vendors or anything to create an interesting people-watching street, not helped by how spread out all the casinos were from one another. We visited the Venetian which brought us away from the casinos on the ferry side of Macau, so that might have made a difference. The Venetian at Macau had the same feeling as The Trafford Centre if UK readers are familiar with it. If you have been there you'll have your own opinion about it and use that to inform going to Macau.
Hong Kong Protests - Before leaving for HK I'd been keeping up with the protest news. Though by November the 'peak' of protests seemed to have passed a lot in UK news there were still plenty of reports of violent clashes daily. From digging around online I felt that it was still safe to go but just to be mindful of large groups of people collecting or the university area. Whilst we were in HK we didn't see anything that alarmed us or made us feel unsafe. While I don't think the media outlets were incorrectly reporting protest clashes, the actual volume of them appears to be exaggerated (but that's how news makes money, right..). We saw graffiti at most MTR stations and some bus stations that had english text posters and print outs explaining the situation that were even updated overnight to new developments like Trump's treaty. One mall we tried to go to adjacent to some university buildings was closed and the MTR next to it was all smashed up but other than graffiti we felt very safe when wandering round the city both day and night. I would say the university area probably needs the most caution, but if the MTR is stopping there again then there has probably been improvement.
Vietnam - We flew into Ho Chi Minh city, stayed for about 3 days. I'm curious to return to Vietnam in the North of the country, while the South was very interesting to see I was more than ready to move on after about 8 days. Didn't really get a good feeling out of HCMC; extremely loud, sticky, busy place. The best thing we did was go to the War Remnants Museum, things like the old post office were interesting but they don't really take up much of your day. A phone sim for 2 weeks with unlimited data was easy to get and cost less than £10 I think.
HCMC is a good place to take advantage of cheap taxis and cheap food. We could get a good meal and a soft drink/smoothie for £2.50/£3, grab taxi was about £1 anywhere and £1.50 in a grab car, Circle K essentials like a sewing kit were about £2.
Would recommend the Grab app for getting around - though it wasn't my favourite place we visited, I was really able to appreciate the pace and culture of the city zipping through little side streets on the back of the bike from District 1 down to other places in Chinatown area.
There are plenty of markets to visit, but when you've seen the stuff at one the others aren't really much different and people didn't really want to haggle with us.
We did a Mekong Delta day trip, though I'm not always a big fan of a guided tour this was fun and worth going on. Have a look on a site like Klook and pick something that sounds interesting and in budget - we visited temples, honey farm, coconut farm, held some snakes, traditional boat on Mekong and lunch for about £18 each for everything.
Nha Trang - we visited here as somewhere in South Vietnam by the sea before heading westways for the rest of the trip. It was a much calmer and quieter city than HCMC but I'm not sure I would visit again, very windy in November. An unbelievable amount of Russians here, more built up and developed than I was anticipating too. Long Son Pagoda and Ba Ho waterfalls were good to visit, though Ba Ho seemed to be having a very big touristy development built on it which was a weird contrast to the very difficult to climb and almost untouched waterfalls. We biked to Bai Dai beach - just make sure to take the first turn down to the beach before you hit the strip of resorts being built because it goes on forever and they won't let you through for access to the sand. Beautiful views on the way down but can see the whole area and Vietnam in general being swallowed up by package resort tourism which is a shame.
Cambodia - This ended up being my favourite country of the visit. Though there's not really pavements or waste management or sewage and you can't drink the water etc, but there was little rampant tourism, people were kind, the weather was great and we saw some beautiful places. Phone sim will cost you about $5 and you can only top up limited data about $5 for 8GB.
Prices - Cambodia has 2 currency system with USD and riel though most of the time you're using USD (4,000 r = $1). I felt like because of USD prices were rounded up a bit more so it was still cheap, but more expensive than Vietnam. Eating out probably about $5-7 or more if you're not holding back. There aren't many chain stores in Cambodia so you're at the mercy of individual places for a good selection of snacks and then hopefully not grossly inflated prices especially on Western imports ($2.50+ for pringles?). I did find that pharmacies were cheap. Make sure you haggle with tuk tuks or use PassApp, but that app needs some work so it's often easier to take one that's in the street. In PP/SKampot getting around we paid no more than $3. In SR to go to the airport $7.
We took a bus to Phnom Penh from HCMC which made the border crossing quite easy. We had e-visa already printed out etc but it didn't seem to make our waiting time any shorter but saved us having to fill out any forms at border control.
Phnom Penh - felt a lot nicer than HCMC as soon as we got there really. Still hot and dirty and hassled like hell for tuk tuks but I felt more kindness from Cambodians. Compared to HCMC this was a whole lot quieter and more relaxed. Not every building has a formal address so if you're not staying at a hotel (airbnb) bear in mind you might need more visual instructions to find your stay.
We stayed near the Royal Palace and the area round there, though more for expats was chilled out and there were local markets, not far to walk to temples and sites etc. There are a few hotels in this area with pools if you need to cool off. The one we tried we just took the lift up to the roof no problem, but I had messaged another nearby that said it was for residents only.
Siem Reap - though this city is pretty much here for Angkor Wat tourism I enjoyed being here not just to see the temples. We stayed at THIS airbnb which was very reasonable and probably one of our favourite stays. No pool but there were a few places nearby that were happy to let us use theirs, we just bought drinks and food. There are a few temples in the city near the city where you can see fruit bats all in the trees. The river here is nice, big market, lots of cats.
Angkor Wat: we bought a 3 day pass and went on a sunrise tour one morning and then did our own thing on the other days. Doing the tour means you get up and in for sunrise at the right time and it's good to get some history about the places you're seeing. Angkor Wat temple itself wasn't the most interesting to me and there are hundreds if not thousands of people there in the morning that makes it a lot less enjoyable. We also visited:
Ta Phrom - temple from Tomb Raider Angkor Thom city gates Bayon Temple - this was a cool 2 storey temple that is merged with depictions of Hinduism and Buddhism Preah Khan
You can hire a tuk tuk driver for a day around $15 mark or you can hire electric bikes in SR centre and take those around (tourists not allowed to ride motorbikes in temple complex) $5 for 24hrs. Just make sure to give your electric bike a good charge beforehand as the battery doesn't always read right. There is a restaurant in the complex you can swap your battery at - the whole temple area is an extremely large place, you can be 15mins drive in between spots so plan carefully.
Koh Rong Island - we took a flight from SR down to Sihanoukville to then get the ferry across to Koh Rong. Our flight ended up being delayed by 12 hours (welcome to Cambodia) so we had to stay a night in Sihanoukville and go across the following day. Travelling from Sihanouk airport to Sihanouk we had to wear bandanas over our faces to stop breathing in the dust, even though only one window in the car was cracked, it's hella dirty. If you are travelling from the airport to town I highly discourage taking a tuk tuk or rickshaw; the roads are not well surfaced in a more extreme manner than what I saw in PP and SR, there are a lot of freight trucks which will need to be over or undertaken in order for the journey to not take hours. Taxis are unfortunately the most expensive here and the journey cost $20.
Sihanoukville - I'm told recent infiltration and development of Sihanouk by the Chinese has completely transformed the city in the last 2/3 years at an incredible rate with no care for the local Khmer population. It was possibly the worst place I've ever visited. Dusty and dirty on another level, open building sites and construction absolutely everywhere. Very young looking boy in a digger pulling up the pavement less than 5ft from a busy restaurant. I had to climb up a 3ft pile of loose rubble to get to an ATM because the whole side of the road had been obliterated.
If you are waiting for the ferry on Beach Road and you need an ATM but they're all broken like they were when I was there in December, there is an ATM on the actual pier. I was stressing about taking money out for Koh Rong as I heard there was no way to get cash on the island but when I was there I saw a few places that offered cash out (but I didn't try them).
I reccommend reading THIS reddit thread and the LINKED article by a Chinese blogger about Sihanouk.
I read THIS travelfish article about Koh Rong which was very helpful too. I had an impression from the article that the island is quite under developed, which in some ways was definitely true, however it was easy to do what we wanted and we didn't struggle for places to eat etc. We stayed on the main pier (though really this is still a small strip of restaurants and shops, no resorts) and spent most of our time on White Sand Beach. Koh Rong could not be any more different than Sihanouk and it was a great place to spend Christmas and unwind. We didn't do much other than swim and lie on the beach and it was great! There were boat tours to take but a lot seemed to end with 'free drink and party' and we weren't interested in that. Prices on the island were the same as PP/SR. The only things that were a lot more expensive were activities - someone had a jetski you could rent for $100.. and there was some tree top zip line you could do for about $20.
We visited 4k beach next door which was a lot more remote, beautiful as well but only one option to eat. We came past Coconut Beach when we left on the speedboat and that looked to a bit less than the main pier but still stocked with a good few options. Overall the food we had on Koh Rong was some of the best!
Kampot - A small town/city on the river. Very chilled with a nice central part of town with good places to eat. There are hardly any big hotels or buildings over 3 stories - it felt like a more real Khmer place than somewhere like Siem Reap. From Kampot you can visit Bokor Mountain, Kep, salt fields, a lot of natural escapes. Unfortunately we both got very sudden aggressive gastro-bug or food poisoning so we spent 5 days pretty much inside doing nothing (was going to happen at some point). Kampot was a quiet place and we were able to recover well here though.
Kampot to Koh Chang - From Kampot we travelled to Koh Chang, Thailand. I'd seen some speculation online that it wasn't possible to do this trip in one day, but having done it I can say yes it is but it is a long day. Almost every bus trip we took on our adventure meant that we lost all of the day (no motorways in Viet/Cambodia) however the quality of transport means it can take even longer. Vietnam was good with sleeper or semi sleeper buses, however in Cambodia our 6.5 hour trip from Kampot to the Thai border at Trat was 16 people in a 12 seater minibus plus a baby.. so bear in mind long distance trips in Cambodia can be testing! From Trat border we got a minibus to the bus station, then a songalew/thai taxi to the ferry and then a minibus took us to our hotel on the other side [12 hour trip].
Thailand - Much more infastructure and felt more modern than Cambodia and Vietnam, but I couldn't really get a vibe for the place and felt like a lot had been lost to the prevalent tourism. I would maybe visit again but staying away from coastal areas - if felt like the Spain of South East Asia.
Prices could be a little more on top of Cambodian prices but you could find cheap places to eat. About £5 for a meal. Taxis cost about £3 through Grab. 7/11 and Family Mart very cheap snacks for pennies.
Bangkok - as this was our last stop we didn't travel to many temples or big spots outside the city because money haha... we stayed away from the expat areas, the Museum of Art & Culture had a cool free exhibition, the malls Siam Discovery, Siam Paragon are worth visiting for the food halls and just to see. Where we stayed had a pool so we took it pretty easy. Went to Chatachuk but too much tourist and sweat..
Bikes:
We bought a bike in HCMC via facebook marketplace - I would suggest if you know anyone Viet to get them to help you get the true price because as a tourist you're probably seeing an inflated price tag. If not that it might be possible to get one from another backpacker, but then you may be at the mercy of any damages or issues with the bike they're not aware of as they aren't familiar with bikes.
We took our bike (Honda Cub c 50) to Nha Trang with us stowed in our sleeper bus - we visited a few bus trip/tourist places and one was happy to do it for us. I think for 2 people and the bike was about £23 one way, so not bad at all. You'll have to empty the fuel before it goes in the bus so just remember that at the other end you might have to give your bike a min to run the fuel through it again. We sold it in Nha Trang because it wasn't quite powerful enough to get us around with any bags (i was not in charge of buying bike haha...). Bikes are more than easy to rent in every country we went to for probably £5 a day max. We had a bike in Koh Chang but I know in Thailand there are more rules about tourist rental so I would swerve riding on the mainland. The most hectic place we rode was HCMC so I would just suggest avoiding that if you can, even if you ride in your home country.
We sold our bike in Nha Trang via facebook marketplace. We took a loss but it was more about cutting our dead weight before the rest of our trip so to speak. If you really want to ride a lot in SEAsia, Cambodia has no restrictions on tourists having bikes up to 125cc if you want to play the legal legal route (not that I saw any police in Cambodia over 3 weeks!). A bike is also a responsibility and if you're wanting to feel completely free while travelling it might not be right to buy one. Do thorough research! I travelled with a full face helmet and I was grateful for it on windy rides and hectic places likes HCMC. If you're not planning on riding a lot then this is definitely not essential but finding a full face helmet, that fits, that isn't too bootleg to break on you might be some things to consider (bare in mind I was planning on doing long rides when planning this trip initially).
Veganism / plant based / special diets: As mentioned I have strong intolerance to all dairy products and am generally vegan; I still eat eggs maybe once a week and might have fish and chips a few times a year.
With the exception to intolerances and allergies I think the best approach to eating in South East Asia or travelling in general is be willing to be flexible. I only like to eat plant based, but I'm happy to eat eggs and at a push will eat fish or chicken. This is obviously not what I want to do for every meal but consider that you might be getting places late at night, options that are clearly described in English as not containing your allergens may only have meat in them etc.
When I travelled to Japan and also for all these countries, I wrote 'I cannot eat dairy etc' in English on Google translate and then screenshotted the response in the desired language if I needed to show someone to confirm ingredients. For Japan I looked up pre made examples as I know the kanji can sometimes not translate directly, but here I just had the google translate page as a back up.
Hong Kong - a lot of English spoken here and a lot of specifically vegan places however they are more expensive. At 7/11 they sell the 'Kind' granola bars which are vegan and yummy! and I also ate the ready made egg and rice sushi balls. Some ingredients were listed in English but I don't remember finding any other easy go-to's. At bakeries, of which there are a lot, almost everything appears to be cream filled, buttered, flaky pastry. I found I could eat walnut and raisin breads without any noticeable issues, but I didn't have an ingredients list to check.
Vietnam - in HCMC I was very lucky to be staying down the road from a fully vegan restaurant that had ice cream, vegan banh mi, smoothies etc (Healthy World in District 1, there is another somewhere else in the city). Tofu was on menus and on an English menu in a Viet place I could safely pick something veggie. Asking for a dish to be 'chay' means veggie and that works too. Because everything is so cheap, it seemed to be easy enough to eat here. Desserts were limited with the exception of a vegan shop.
They do have Oreos, in general for all these countries, I hope you like Oreos because they're the only dessert option most place !
Cambodia - Sometimes easy and sometimes not. Tofu did appear on menus, I would recommend trying Tofu Lok Lak as a veggie Khmer dish (it will probably come with a fried egg) and I was able to ask for curries just veggie or with tofu. I ate mostly eggs and toast of some kind for breakfast because that was a filling option. Every city I was in there was at least one vegan cafe or restaurant that was not too much more ££ than a normal meal so I knew at least I could get myself something nice and safely vegan every other day while keeping a budget. I was concerned about Koh Rong being a remote island that I would struggle to eat but this was one of the best places! There is a purely veggie/vegan restaurant on the main pier, as well as other restaurants offering vegan pizza, veggie pad thai, tofu curries etc. I also found a second kind of chocolate biscuit that wasn't an Oreo here!
Koh Chang/Thailand - though we were back to having access to 7/11 the options seemed more limited and Thailand was my least favourite place to eat. In 7/11 I did find a few different kinds of Almond milk (& oreos!) but ingredients were rarely in English. Some options at the food halls were inari sushi, Subway (hash browns) and a few other (but more pricey) dedicated vegan restaurants in the central district.
You deserve a medal if you made it this far - any questions please ask me, thanks :-)