Bangkok to Chiang Mai- Train Number 1. First Class. Dep: 1830. Arr: 0815 There are many ways to travel between Bangkok and Chiang Mai; flying, driving and a frequent bus services. Being a railway geek, I was determined to add another Thai train trip to my collection. There are four main train lines in Thailand: The Northern route to Chiang Mai (today’s trip) The Northeastern route which breaks into two branches The Eastern route to the Cambodian border which we took last December The Southern route into Malaysia Booking: 5/10 For some inexplicable reason,…
App matches hosts & guests for meals
Love the concept of an app called Eatwith. It matches visitors to a city with hosts who open their homes up and cook for those visitors. I am a huge fan of anything that helps me experience the “real” culture of a place. I have enjoyed a five course home cooked meal in France, meats, pastries breads and dumplings in Germany and amazing melt in your mouth pasta dishes in Hungary. I have supped on stews and sweets in Scotland, noshed on lamb roast in New Zealand, tasted tamales in Costa Rica, feasted on rice and chicken in El Salvador and…
The Top Ten views from the air
What would you consider to be the ten best views from the air? British Airways asked their pilots who fly 180 routes globally to nominate their top ten: Northern Lights- I’d love to see them! Central London – Approach into Heathrow (I wonder how much that is about BA pilots coming home?) Mont Blanc – Pisa Sydney Harbour – on departure from Sydney, Australia Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz and bay – San Francisco Greenland – North Atlantic flights Venetian canals – Venice, Italy Cape Town, Table Mountain, South Africa Dubrovnik, Croatia Mount Fuji The survey…
Air Astana delays 787s until 2019
Air Astana, the flag carrier of Kazakhstan will delay the arrival of its three 787s with the first coming in 2019 instead of 2017. The airline revised this year’s 14 percent growth target to zero percent due to deteriorating economic conditions in the country and devaluation of the currency in February. Launched in 2002, Air Astana operates 63 scheduled domestic and international routes from its main hub, Almaty International Airport, and from two secondary hubs. The airline connects Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Like all Kazakhstan carriers it had been banned from operating in the European Union but that ban…
Etihad WILL buy Alitalia stake
Etihad Airways will buy 49 per cent of the Italian flag carrier Alitalia “as soon as possible“. This is Etihad’s eighth investment in an airline. In Europe, Alitalia joins Air Serbia (ex JAT), Air Berlin, Aer Lingus of Ireland and Switzerland’s Darwin Airline, which is branded as Etihad Regional. Etihad also has stakes in Air Seychelles and Virgin Australia. Etihad, in addition to its own aggressive growth has used these stakes in smaller airlines to feed passengers into its global network. The airline revealed that 2013 first-quarter sales from code-share and equity partners grew to 22% of its total sales. The announcement…
Technicalities with my Blog
There has been a problem with my blog this last weekend. The technicians are working on it and hope it is all resolved soon. Consequently, some draft posts of mine went live before they had been finished. Apologies.
Paris -New York in Business for 30% less- LaCompagnie
Fuel prices must be down because people are launching all business class airlines again. I blogged about London based Odyssey airlines last month. (Still unsure if they have a chance or not). At a Manhattan news conference last Tuesday, LaCompagnie was launched. The company has raised approximately $US41 million) from investors and is the brainchild of a former executive of India’s Jet Airways Peter Luethi and Frantz Yvelin, the founder of a previous all business class airline L’AVION. L’AVION operated between Orly Airport, Paris and Newark in the USA from 3 January 2007 to 2 July 2008 when it was taken over…
Chilling in Chiang Mai
I have been to Thailand a few times now but never to Chiang Mai until now. I am very sorry to have left the city alone for so long. The city is a little more isolated than other parts of Thailand but still attracts approximately five million visitors per year- 40 per cent of whom are from outside Thailand. I soon discovered why it was placed at 24 on TripAdvisor’s “25 Best Destinations in the World” in 2012. Chiang Mai is 700 km (420 miles) from Bangkok. Getting there requires a flight of about an hour or a 12 hour…
All by myself – passenger stranded in Las Vegas
What would you do when stuck overnight in an airport? Overnight at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, Richard Dunn made a video lip syncing to Celine Dion’s All by myself using his ipad, watched by his bemused wife, cleaning staff and security personnel… (so technically, he wasn’t all by himself!) Celine Dion has responded to the video saying she loved it and inviting Richard to see his show next time he is in town.
12 tips to Stay Safe while eating Street Food
One of the guys at work said to me today: “you don’t eat street food do you?: I nodded enthusiastically as I have eaten soup surrounded by rubbish and dogs in Cambodia, squatted with locals in the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, shared falafels in Jordan and snaffled pork rolls in Portland, Oregon. For a couple of dollars I have eaten like a king in cities across the globe! But “I have some rules”…. I take time to adjust to the local cuisine. My mistake is getting off the plane and grabbing something immediately!…
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