London to Singapore

This year I went to Asia for the first time.

Having lived most of my life in Australia, it was a bit of a shame having never visited South-east Asia at all.But 2011 was the year this would be fixed! (Even though I now live in England.)

Over the next few blog posts I will write about my trip two-and-a-half-week trip which included Singapore, Langkawi, Bangkok and Phuket.

I left for Heathrow airport after work on a Monday night in mid-October. This was great, because that is what, inherently, one day work weeks are.

I boarded my first Airbus A380. I was impressed with the Singapore Airlines A380: I thought it was significantly more spacious than the Boeing 747's I'm used to doing long-haul flights on.

Apart from one of the flight attendants having a little bit of attitude, the service was also great, from the food to the in-flight-entertainment.

Singapore Airlines Economy Class on the Airbus A380

I landed in Singapore and met up with my friend who lives there.  We caught the MRT back to her condo where I freshened up, and then we headed out.

My highlight of my first night in Singapore was definitely going to the New Asia Bar, which is a bar high up on the 71st floor of the Swissotel tower in central Singapore.  Certainly the highest bar I've ever had a drinks at!

View from the New Asia Bar

The next instalment will cover the side-trip from Singapore to Langkawi in Malaysia.

Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are fighting to buy BMI

Who would you prefer to buy BMI from Lufthansa? IAG (British Airways) or Virgin Atlantic? I hope I get to keep my BMI frequent flyer points. Ideally, BA will trade me a silver BA membership for my recently-earned silver BMI membeship. Fingers crossed.

Mallorca

As you will have realised by now, I have been terrible in the last year or two at keeping this blog up-to-date. On the weekend I went with some friends to the island of Mallorca (Majorca) and luckily for me, one of those friends wrote an excellent blog post about the trip which I am going to simply link to. Here it is.

Septuple Dutch

No, I’m not speaking Double Dutch. It’s just a play on the fact I’ve just come back from my seventh time to the Netherlands. My seventh time to Amsterdam. I do love the city, but that’s not why I’ve been seven times. 

I’m not that crazy about it. Each visit has been for its own unique reason.

The first time I went to Amsterdam was back in 2006, when I first came to Europe. It was one of my first European destinations and I was excited to go there. I went with PP Travel – the party professionals! It was for a long weekend and great fun.

The second time was during the summer of 2006, as a stopover on a Paddywagon bus tour from London to Munich for the World Cup soccer game between Australia and Brazil. 

The third time was in January 2009, a weekend for a mate’s 30th.  Amsterdam is a great city for a boys’ weekend!

My fourth time to the Netherlands was in October 2010. I had spent a weekend in Krakow, Poland with some friends, and on the Sunday night needed to be in The Hague, in the Netherlands, for a work conference. So I flew from Krakow to Prague to Amsterdam, and then caught a train from Schipol (Amsterdam’s airport) to Rotterdam, and then another one to “Den Haag”.  After spending a few days in the Hague, one of my colleagues and I headed to Amsterdam for some meetings, staying at the curious Hotel De Filosoof. I was in the ancient Greek room, while my colleague was in the Japan room.

My fifth time to the Netherlands, earlier this year, was with the same friends with which I went to Krakow. They were spending a week in Amsterdam and I went to visit them for a weekend. We even managed a side trip to Groningen, a small city in eastern Netherlands, to visit some friends who we met on the Krakow trip.

My recent sixth trip to Amsterdam was a quick overnighter. It was a last minute work trip: I booked the flight at 4pm and at 7pm I was taking off from London City Airport.  I stayed the night at the very interesting CitizenM hotel at the airport, and at 10am the next morning was on my way back to London.  Luckily I did have time to wander into town in between.

Yesterday was my seventh time to Amsterdam, and just a quick day trip for some work meetings with potential clients, and a visit to my company’s Dutch office.

So, after seven visits to the Amsterdam, what do I like about the city?  Well, I’ll name seven things, in no particular order:

• The Architecture. Amsterdam’s unique narrow but tall, red, slightly crooked buildings lining a vast network of canals gives the city an instantly recognisable scene.
• The coffee shops provide a unique experience.
• The red light district.  Amsterdam is a beautiful and friendly city, not the sleazy and drug infested town that it’s sometimes made out to be. But the red light district is definitely worth a stroll at night. Window shopping for beautiful, young women (as well as some rather disturbing ones!) can provide an interesting cultural experience.
• The bakeries. Sweet and savoury snacks looking fresh and delicious on many a street corner.
• Febo. A fast food chain where you buy the food from vending machines by inserting coins in the slot. It is all fresh though, because on the other side of the wall are chefs putting in fresh burgers and croquettes.
• Dutch girls. They are tall and attractive!
• Dutch people’s amazing use of the English language. Of all the places in Europe to not have to worry about the language barrier, this is the one. Sure, it’s nice trying out a different language here and there but in Amsterdam you don’t have to worry about the stress of not being able to communicate. Everyone seems to be able to speak English, which means you have a better chance of understanding the locals than in some places in the UK like, say, Belfast, Glasgow or Liverpool.  Even at Schipol airport, most of the signs are primarily in English, sometimes with a Dutch translation underneath.

Violence and Looting in London

A rather different travel blog post tonight!

This has certainly been one of the most interesting, and somewhat scary, moments of my time away from Australia.

On Saturday night there was a bit of rioting in the North London area of Tottenham. I didn't pay much attention to it. It is a rough area, and I didn't think much more of it.

On Sunday I had breakfast with friends in Brixton.  The area was just gearing up to have a street festival. It ended that day in looting in the area.

Today is Monday. This evening various looting, rioting and violence has spread all over London. I've just put together a map showing some of the epicentres where this has taken place (in red) compared to where I live (in green).


View London Riots in a larger map

Buildings on fire. Shops ransacked. Buses burned. Police attacked.

I went shopping in Clapham Junction on Sunday. Now I hear the book store is the only shop that hasn't been looted.

Apparently there are not enough police to tackle it all.

And now it is spreading to Camden and Tower Bridge areas.

Interesting times in London. Tomorrow after work I fly to Budapest.

A crazy fortnight of travel: Belfast, Ibiza and Oslo

I have had a busy couple of weeks.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Last week I started the work week in Belfast. I went on the Sunday morning (after a big day at Royal Ascot and an even bigger night out in Putney) to do some sightseeing and stayed for the Monday and Tuesday for work meetings.  It was an interesting time to be there, with the worst violence in 10 years erupting during my stay. See my post on Belfast here.

I came home on Tuesday night and had a few nights at home. On Thursday night I packed my things again, and on Friday headed off to work. After work I joined some friends at the London Zoo for a late night opening, and headed down to Gatwick Airport for another trip away.  I was going to Ibiza, for a very short time, and it went a little something like this:

SPAIN

Friday

21:30 - Arrive at Gatwick and check in. Find out there's nothing to do at Gatwick at this time of the night, and nowhere to buy food, as everything is already closed!

22:30 - Flight takes off from London Gatwick

Saturday

01:30 - Flight lands on the Spanish island of Ibiza. I am all ready to catch a taxi to the other side of the island and withdraw plenty of Euros to cover it. Then I realise there is a bus that can get me there for about €4.

02:30 - I figure out what bus stop to get off at and find my way to the hotel, which is in the middle of nowhere, both thanks to Google Maps the GPS on my Blackberry.

03:00 - I am way too tired (and alone) to see the Ibiza night-life, and anyway I'm in the middle of nowhere, so I go to sleep.

11:00 - I wake up in Ibiza, refreshed. I wander around the San Antonio and realise I'm not far from some nice beaches, bars, restaurants and nightclubs. I walk all the way to the San Antonio city centre and eat breakfast on a rocky beach in a small hidden-away cove.    I enjoy wandering around San Antonio. The place has clear blue water, and is buzzing with life.  I'm a little put off by the vast majority of Brits, some very trashy, and the full English breakfasts advertised at every restaurant and bar.

21:00 - I'm waiting for my friends to arrive from London. I have dinner at a beach-side bar enjoying the sunset. I have some beers from some bars on the way back to the hotel.

Sunday

00:30 - My friends finally arrive at the hotel, having just flown in from London. We don't waste any time. We head out to various bars and club. Our first drink is, sensibly, a vodka and Red Bull. Each one is made in a pint glass, with about a triple shot of vodka and a full can of Red Bull. It costs €5.

06:00 - We've been to a few places and even played 2 rounds of drunk bumper cars. , We haven't made it to any of the megaclubs. We stumble out of a Scottish pub. It is broad daylight, we are drunk, and one of my friends can't stand. I decide to try to flag down a taxi.

06:20 - I haven't succeeded in getting a taxi. I realise there is a taxi rank, so we go and (attempt to) stand in the long queue.

06:21 - We are rescued by a "taxi driver" who offers to take us home for €25. He's not a real taxi driver. I look at my friend who is barely standing. I negotiate the price down to €20 and he takes us to the hotel.

11:30 - I wake up, shower, pack and check out of the hotel.

12:00 - I knock on my friends door and sleep on their couch for another 3 hours.

15:00 - One of my friends and I head down to a beach-side bar, eat lunch, and go to the beach.

18:00 - We return to the hotel to get our other friend, go swimming in the pool and get ready for dinner.

21:00 - We eat dinner at the same beachside bar I went to yesterday, enjoying the sunset.

22:00 - We have a few final drinks at some of the pubs and bars, as I'm about to head back to the airport, after about 48 hours in Ibiza. My friends are staying on for a few more days.

Monday

12:30 - I'm back at the hotel, and luckily the reception guy manages to get me a taxi despite it being a busy night with everyone heading out.

01:15 - I'm at the airport with plenty of time to get my 2:30 flight.  I'm too afraid to have a nap in case I miss my flight!

02:30 - My flight departs Ibiza and I am asleep before take-off

03:30 - My flight lands at Gatwick.  The next train back to the city is at 4:30. But that will get me to work too early to get into the office. So I decide to catch the 5am service. I try to find somewhere to have a nap in the arrivals terminal. All the seats are taken. People are sleeping on the floor but I don't feel like it. I eventually find some seats in the train station, but all the one without armrests are taken. I uncomfortably doze on 3 seats, sleeping around and atop of the armrests.

05:00 - I catch my train back to London. It is already really sunny and warm so I find it hard to sleep.

05:45 - I arrive in the city. I can't get into my work building. I go to McDonald's for breakfast.

06:15 - I manage to get into work, have a shower, and go to have a nap at my desk.

08:00 - One of my colleagues catches me sleeping at my desk. I decide to wake up and proceed with my work day.

By the time I finished finished on Monday night, at about 7pm due to a long meeting, I was feeling absolutely ruined. It was a hot day in London and all I wanted to do was get home. I walked to Cannon Street station but the trains weren't running. I want to the steaming hot Bank underground station, and caught a DLR home. By the time I got home, I just wanted to sleep. But I had to unpack from Ibiza and pack for Oslo. I was heading to Norway the next day for work!

NORWAY

I had Tuesday morning in the office, and at lunch time headed to Paddington station for the Heathrow Express. Storms were brewing in London at this time, and by the time I got to Paddington, there were no trains running, because lightning hit some power lines or signal boxes.  I caught a few tubes and ended up at Heathrow, luckily in good time.  I waited and waited for my flight to board, which ended up being delayed. I eventually made it to Oslo.  Landing at Oslo airport was amazing, watching the fjords on the approach in the "late afternoon" (9:30pm) sunshine!   The Flytoget express train from the airport to the city wasn't running, so I had to combine a train and replacement bus, and then walk, to get to my destination. What a journey it had been that day!

I got to my hotel at 11pm and it was still quite bright.  I had some dinner and went to bed.  I was nursing a cold I think I managed to get partly thanks to my lack of sleep on Sunday night.

On Wednesday I spent the day with a client and then walked around Oslo. It was a warm, sunny day, perfect for a sightseeing stroll around the city. Oslo is a picturesque capital. It is spacious and in true Scandinavian style, with neat buildings, plenty of parkland and views across the Oslo fjord.

The next morning I got up at 4:50am, in time to get the 5:45 replacement bus to the train station to get me to the airport. By 9:30 I was back at London Heathrow and at 10:30 back in my office.

CONCLUSION

It has been a tiring couple of weeks but overall I love my life. Most of the last 5 years have been spent living in London, travelling Europe and the rest of the world, whether it be for business or pleasure.  It is a great opportunity and I am thankful that my life has allowed me to do that.

Return to Belfast

I am in Belfast on a business trip. I have been to Northern Ireland before, back in 2006 when I did a week-long Paddywagon tour all over Ireland.  I found the whole thing very interesting, seeing ongoing evidence of The Troubles.

Things haven't changed much. Just last night, in East Belfast, there was rioting caused by the Ultser Volunteer Force (paramilitary protestant loyalists) attacking Cathlic homes in the area. Two people were shot.  At lunch time I went for a walk around South Belfast.  Only a few minutes from the office I was passing murals on the walls of residential buildings, paying homage to UVF "battalions" and loyalist heroes of the past, while British union flags line the streets.  Had I been a few suburbs over, I am sure I would have seen the republican equivalent, with references to the IRA.

They say the peace process has calmed things, and I believe it has, though there is still tension in the city. I read this morning that there are more walls going up between Catholic and protestant neighbourhoods than there are coming down.

The city centre, on the other hand, is newly developed, clean and peaceful.  I stayed at the Hilton which is right next to a modern waterfront concert hall. I went shopping in an impressive, contemporary shopping centre under a huge glass bowl at Victoria square.

I wonder about life in Belfast. I understand pay to be quite low here, but the cost of living seems comparable to London. I am sure property prices are much lower, though day-to-day costs are the same as the rest of the UK. Life must be reasonably tough for people trying to make a living here. But hey, could be worse. They could be paying six Euros for a pint like their neighbours in Dublin are!

I suck

I suck. I have not posted since March! Have I travelled in that time? Hell yes!

Some of the places I have been to since March:

• Brazil
• Argentina
• Estonia
• Germany

Germany was Tuesday and Wednesday last week. I flew back on Wednesday night and on Thursday morning headed down to the Isle of Wight for the Isle of Wight Festival.  I came back from that this Monday night, and have been out every night this week. It is now Friday night and tomorrow I am off to Ascot for the Royal Ascot horse races. Then on Sunday I am off to Belfast for work.  I have not yet had a chance to fully unpack all my muddy stuff from the festival.  This is a reflection of my busy (but admittedly awesome) life lately.

I will try to catch up on posts some time soon! Hang in there.

Bed time

It is Friday night, not even 10pm, and I am about to go to bed. WTF, you may ask. You see, I have to get up at 1:30am tomorrow, so that I can leave home at 2am, to catch the 2:15am night bus to Baker Street, from where I plan on catching the 3:30 am easyBus to Stansted Airport and consequently the 6am flight to Bratislava, where I plan on spending the weekend.

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I have trips to the Netherlands and Australia to catch up on, as well as countless older trips. Write to you soon!

In Australia Again

I left work on Tuesday evening and headed to Heathrow for the airport. I was coming home to Melbourne.

The first part of my Qantas journey was smooth. I slept most of the way to Bangkok after a tiring week. After refuelling at Bangkok, the plane sat on the tarmac for over an hour waiting for a part to be replaced.  Once we landed in Sydney we were late enough for me to miss my connecting flight to Melbourne.  They put me on the next flight to Melbourne, but that, too, was delayed, due to a no-show passenger, followed by a plane with a medical emergency needing to land.

Once I finally landed in Melbourne on Thursday lunchtime, it turned out my suitcase hadn't. I left the airport anyway after my 27-hour flight and overall over-30-hour journey. I managed to keep myself awake until the suitcase finally arrived.

The last few days have been great, catching up with family and friends, and today heading out to the St Kilda Festival - a free music festival at the beachside inner-Melbourne area of St Kilda.

2010 - a year of travel in review

It has been a bit of a slack year, blogwise!  I have to be honest, I have not done a good job at all of keeping this blog up-to-date this year. So as the year draws to an end, I thought I could get away with it all by summarising my year of travel in one single post! So here we go...

Let's start with a scary stat. 

I took 36 flights totalling to about 44,900 miles (about 72,250 km) in 2010. Some of this was for personal holiday travel, and some was for business (not business class though - I wish!)

IT ALL BEGAN IN...

Australia. I visited Australia for Christmas and New Years last year, to get away from the London cold and catch up with those at home. It was great! A trip down to Sorrento with one group of mates and another trip to Warrnambool with another group, ensured that I spent as much time as possible on the beach.

A CHILLY RETURN

Brr! The very next morning after landing, I found myself walking to work in the snow!

But really, you can't let winter stop you! So some friends and I ventured right into the cold. Up north. To Yorkshire. The highlight was staying in the seaside town of Whitby, and you can read all about the trip here.

THE WINTER WAY

Making the most of England despite the winter, my girlfriend and I went down South too, and visited New Forest and Portsmouth. But let's not get carried away with English travel. Europe is at our doorstep! A friend and I headed of to Austria for a few days. We had a good time wandering around Vienna, eating ketchup flavoured chocolate and generally being silly, as well as meeting up with some Austrian friends, and visiting them in the mountains where I lived when I was young. My friend headed back to London, and I stayed on to go skiing at Bad Gastein, near Salzburg.  Austria's a great place to spend a winter week!

Reichenau, Austria

SPRING INTO LIFE


It was a spring full of travel.

• A day road-trip to Belgium on a freezing day with some friends, visiting Antwerp and Gent.
• A visit to Zurich in Switzerland for work
• A trip to Portugal at Easter
• A business trip to America, which took me to Minnesota, Chicago and unexpectedly, New York
• A long weekend in the Peak District
• A break from the winter in tropical Barbados, which was definitely a highlight of the year
• A trip to Brussels just to have lunch with some clients

SUMMER IN EUROPE

This summer I spent a lot of time in England.  I attempted a beach trip to Blackpool, stopping off at Liverpool on the way, but being Northern England, it was cold!  I had a few other trips around the UK for work, including Durham, Newcastle and Birmingham.

The highlight of my summer, however, was my trip to Greece.  I went with a bunch of great friends to explore Athens and sail the Cyclades islands!

SPAIN

I finished summer off with a trip to Spain for the August bank holiday weekend, taking in Alicante, Valencia and Zaragoza.

Alicante

The idea came up by looking at what cheap RyanAir flights were available to warm places. I found one into Alicante, which is half way down the Spanish East coast, and one out of Zaragoza, in the North of Spain. This would be a great excuse to traverse the country by train!

But it didn't all go according to plan. When I landed in Alicante and came through passport control, the first thing I did was get changed into shorts. Which is when I realised I didn't have my wallet!  Surely I couldn't have lost my wallet again? (I had lost my wallet half way through the Greek sailing trip just months earlier!)

I asked at the RyanAir desk and they asked someone to check the plane.  No sign of it. Maybe I dropped it in the airport?  I went to the airport Police station, which was in charge of lost property. They asked me to hang around for a few hours in case it showed up. So the first few hours of my holiday were sitting on the airport floor. And then on the phone to the banks, cancelling all my cards! 

But what would I do for money? When I lost my wallet in Greece, I simply borrowed some money from my friends. But I was in Spain alone! HSBC agreed to send me some emergency money through a Western Union Money Transfer. All I had to do is find a Western Union office and show them my reference number passport (which luckily I still had).

I had €3 in my pocket, and luckily the bus from the airport to the city was €2.40. Although I seriously considered walking, had it not been 35 degrees.  I made it to the city and found the Western Union office. The problem was it was now the early afternoon.... and therefore siesta! I had a few hours to kill before the shop re-opened so I went to the beach. Unfortunately I couldn't find any water taps, and €0.60 wasn't enough to buy a drinks, so after a few hours on the beach in the blistering sun, I was parched.  When I finally picked up the emergency cash, the drinks and ice cream I bought were the most delicious I'd ever tasted!

I explored Alicante a bit, which diddn't take long. It is a small city, surrounded by cliffs and a very touristy beach. It wasn't full of English tourists though, which was nice. That night I caught a train up to Valencia, which is Spain's third largest city. Amazing architecture kept me entertained, and the next day I went to a beach too.  The Valencia beach had a lot more locals than Alicante. On the second night I made my way to Zaragoza, which is a quiet city in North of Spain, inland. After some sightseeing there, I headed back to London, with a few Euros to spare.

Valencia by night

OKTOBERFEST

I decided to celebrate the end of my 20's and beginning of my 30's by going to Oktoberfest in Munich with a few friends.  Just like two years ago, we did a package with Alpenrider, staying in a chalet in beautiful Kirchberg in Tirol, Austria.  For two days in a row, they took us into the centre of Munich for the festivities, and then drove us safely back over the border to Austria to recover. I had a great time and it was a perfect start to the next decade of my life!

Drinking Bavarian style, in Lederhosen

SWEDEN

Soon after coming back to London, I had a business trip for a few days in Sweden.  My colleague and I flew into Copenhagen in Denmark, and the next day caught the train across the Oresund bridge-tunnel to Malmo in Sweden. A small city with a beautiful town centre. We had some business meetings and ate some hamburgers, and caught the train up to Stockholm. For more business meetings. And more hamburgers. And hot dogs.

A Swedish hot dog with mashed potato, in a wrap of course

 Luckily on the Friday night some other colleagues of ours came over from London to join us for the weekend, and saved us from the junk food eating. Unfortunately this was replaced by copious amounts of drinking, which in Stockholm, isn't cheap.  It was a great weekend though, exploring various areas of Stockholm night-life.

KRAKOW AND THE HAGUE

Two of my friends from Australia are in Europe and they spent some of their time visiting family in Poland. What a perfect excuse to make my first visit to that country!  We decided to meet up for a weekend in Krakow.

So I consulted good old Ryanair and booked a cheap flight to Krakow on a Saturday morning. The problem was that the flight was at about 6am, out of Stansted airport - London's equivalent of Melbourne's Avalon. I had to get there by about 4:30, which meant that I had to catch the easyBus from Baker Street at 3:30, which in turn meant that I had to catch the night bus from my house to Baker Street at 2am.  So I had to get up at 1am - probably the earliest I have ever gotten up.  I did think of just pulling an all-nighter, but knew I would only have 1 night with my friends, so I wanted to have the energy and awakedness for that.

And that I did. I managed to do a lot of sightseeing with my first day in Krakow, and then had quite the night out that night, with my friends and some people from the hostel. I thought a 3am finish was a good effort for a 1am start the morning before!

Day 2 in Krakow was cut short by the fact that I needed to be at a conference that Sunday night, in the Hague, the Netherlands. So, after only about 30 hours in Krakow, I left my friends on a walking tour in the early afternoon, and started my marathon journey to the Hague: taxi to Krakow Airport, flight to Prague, another flight to Amsterdam, train to Rotterdam, another train to the Hague, taxi to the hotel! Phew! 

After a few days of fun at the conference I was happy to come back home to London!

WINTER

And that was pretty much it for the Autumn, because soon after that, winter hit!

I had a few more domestic trips around the UK for work, going to Edinburgh, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Bristol and Birmingham, but no more holidays, unfortunately. It was time to save my leave for the the trips coming up in the new year.

I welcomed the new year by the first of those, a ski trip over Christmas and New Years Eve to Chamonix in France - which was great fun.

Happy new year! What have you got planned for travel in 2011? I am off to Australia, Brazil, and Argentina.Can't wait!