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Vietnam the third: Day 1, Transit Day
Who doesn’t like a 3am start? Me for one, but when the mobile starts beeping and calling out that wonderful catch phrase, “Smile, you’re travelling!” then it’s just a case of sucking up the entitlement and hauling my white arse out of bed. An added bonus was pissing the cat off by having the audacity to get up before she’d had a chance to get in my face about her breakfast. So it was last minute run around, make sure animals were sorted, recheck the notes for the house sitter, and drive to the airport. Being generally prepared and seasoned travellers, we aimed for 2 hours pre-flight and weren’t too…
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Holiday in Cambodia Day 1: Siem Reap
If I only make about as many typos this time as I’ve had hours sleep today then I think I’m doing pretty good. Today has been a series of fitful, uncomfortable naps, followed by food, and repeat. I got about 2 hours on the flight PER > SIN, followed by not the best airline breakfast. The staff were looking after me, though, as the inflight entertainment wasn’t working for my seat, so they kept checking to see if they could do anything else for me. It meant I got breakfast along with the dietary groups that normally get fed first, so I probably missed an extra 30 minutes sleep there.…
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Holiday in Cambodia: Day 0
It’s that time again, for the second year in a row I find myself with some accrued work time I have to take and I’ve managed to scrape together the bucks for a cheap jaunt in South East Asia. Last year was Kuala Lumpur: cooking classes, rollercoasters, rooftop helipad bars. This time it’s the Heart of Darkness, the place where, as Jello Biafra noted in the late 1970s, “they get things done”. It’s a holiday in Cambodia. I don’t know much about Cambodia. I’ve read the news, followed the history, read the wikipedias. So all I know is that, when it comes to Cambodia, is that I know fuck all.…
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Day 13: Frankfurt
I’ve hit that point where I think it’s day 13, but it just might not be. I’m not completely sure what day it is, but am pretty sure I spent most of it either getting to or wandering around Frankfurt. The flight in was good, premium economy on the Singapore airlines A380 is pretty comfy, the seats have an okay recline and a decent amount of space. First movie was South Korean, “Hit and Run Squad”, full of drama, some explosions, and lots of car chases. As the last two stops of this tour are Krakow and Frankfurt, I thought that possibly one of the most memed movies of the…
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Day 11: Havana to New York, one day in a place they named twice
The last morning in Havana was spent running around trying to spend the last of our CUC, as they can’t be exchanged outside of Cuba. I tried, I really did, but the level of Cuban souvenirs is generally not great for carrying around and bringing back into Australia: too much wood and leather. All of the fridge magnets are either clay or wood: there are so very few metal magnets here. And here is a real kicker: it seems that this is a country that doesn’t do souvenir tea towels. Not one. We thought that there were also no snow globes, too. One last Havana thought: it seems the touts…
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Mambo de la luna: Day 1+, the longest day
I’m a little bit north of the Aleutian Islands, a little south of the Bering Strait, the International Date Line is possibly somewhere below me, and am just over halfway through the longest flight of my life. And not just my life, many lives, as I’m on what is currently the longest non-stop commercial flight in the world, heading from Singapore to Newark, approximately 16,700 km. It’s been a while between trips, and without going into it, between KL and now I have just been working far too hard. This is just to put things in perspective: I’m way out of practice at putting my thoughts into words, so apologies…
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Day 0: PER to KUL
The tired and grumpy baby edition. And that’s not referring to the grumpy and tired baby waiting to board behind me, heck I sympathise entirely. It’s way past everyone’s bedtime, and who at Malaysia Airlines decided that 2.10am was a reasonable time to fly? I’m talking about the muppet waiting next to me, who has his mobile volume turned up and all the sounds trned on. I’m getting every beep, whorp, woowoo, and ding, and in my rather tired state not enjoying the soundtrack at all. I may not have documented this previously, but consider this a new pet peeve: just turn that shit off. I’m killing time, waiting to…
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Day 22: Hoi An we’re flying
Sitting in the business class lounge at Changi’s terminal 3, we’re half way home. One more flight, one more lot of customs, one more car ride and that’s it. Our own house, out own beds, doing our own washing and cleaning. Three weeks doesn’t seem like a long time in the whole scheme of things, and there are times when it certainly feels longer than others. It’s been a great trip, but we’re also glad to be heading home. Today started way too early, we had a car to the airport booked for 8am, so of course we slept badly. From around 6am there was music coming in from somewhere,…
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Day 13: Kanchanburi-Bangkok-Hanoi
Today was a long day. As Mick Thomas wrote, “There’s no point writing postcards on your bad days”, so I’ll try to keep it short. L and I got almost no sleep last night. The combination of hard bed and threat of sleeping through alarms and missing the 7.20am train kept us restless. We made it to the train with plenty of time, thanks to a moped taxi with bolted on side seating, but when we boarded we ended up in the car with all the locals. Not a problem in the company, but this car just has two long bench seats with absolutely no padding, as in even less…
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Day 5: LPQ to BKK
Wrapped up our time in Laos this morning, with L choosing the chicken soup for breakfast and discovering why I’ve been sweating so early in the day (the chilli fish sauce packs quite a kick). Wrapped up with a stroll around the block and along the river, and finally bravely took the plunge and had a Laos coffee. FYI, Laos is one of the largest coffee producers. However, when left to their own devices, they, like many SE Asian countries that got refrigeration long after they got coffee, found their own path to making this beverage palatable to the populace. In Laos, this involves lots of sugar, sweetened condensed milk,…
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Day 1: Transit to the heart of darkness
The day started way too damn early, up before dawn. It finished with a good meal, fine company, some booze, and with an extra hour thanks to these time zone things. The first leg, PER > SNG, was generally uneventful. L did the booking, so it was business class, but an older airplane so not super shiny and swish. Still, I could recline the seat, and got some okay food, but for business class I’ve certainly had more attentive staff. At Changi we had to get passport pics for our Laos visas on arrival, and tried to score some Changi $$$ but due to the Byzantine bureaucracy the computer said…
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Indochina1718. Day 0. It begins.
All up at 0324. Immunities injected in preceding weeks. Essentials (laptop, books, underwear) packed. Loved ones kissed goodbye. The heart of darkness beckons. I really shouldn’t blog before I’ve had coffee, or whatever local equivalent L and I are heading for. The long awaited trip is here: 3 weeks, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, with a bounce each way at Changi. Adventures await: elephants, temples, and all the awesome and mysterious food we can eat (durian included). It’s early. Too early. All i can smell is a clean uber; all i hear is David Bowie, all i feel is the linen shirt on my back. It begins.
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[NYC Day 0] Leaving Perth
Weird to think that I’m on my way to New York City. Boarding is not for a while, I got through security etc in very little time so I’ve got a moment to chill in the Qantas lounge. The place could use an extra power point or two, but the air con is good and the peach iced tea is drinkable. It’s probably a good thing I’m on my own this trip as there’s no real champagne in the place for L. I’ll be happier when they finish all the work around Perth airport. The drop off bays are really badly signposted, the roadworks make it way too interesting, and…
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@home, 2015 | new york new york, new york city, north america, preparation, saratoga springs, transit, usa
[NY Day -5] A new trip beckons
It’s been a while, and there are a few posts missing. And somewhere an update crunched the template I liked so there may be some further changes to how it looks around here. But enough of the boring stuff, a new trip is on the horizon! Next Sunday I’ll hop into a big ol jet airliner that will take me to JFK in NYC. As Michelle Shocked said, “New York City, imagine that”. It’ll be a whirlwind 13 day trip taking in the sights and sounds of both New York City and Saratoga Springs, NY. I’ll share some more stuff later, once the packing starts. <insert a message from my…
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British Isles tour 2014, Day 0
Qantas lounge, Perth Airport. Next stop, London, to start the Ticonderoga takes on the British Isles tour. First stop is Loncon 3, the World Science Fiction Convention, where we’ll wheel and deal. Then it’s a few days down time in Plymouth with L’s aunt, before Dublin and Shamrokon to wheel and deal some more. L is already on the road, France, Belgium. We’ll meet up in London on Thursday. Aside from the wheeling and dealing and glamorous and sexy world of small press publishing, I’m aiming to tick off the following: see the Thames Barrier in action (Wednesday 13 August is the monthly maintenance where they do this) drink a…
