It is half way through August and we are debating where to spend New Year’s Eve. Last year was in Hobart, Australia. Two years ago, we saw the festivities in Adelaide, Australia and three years ago found us in DaNang, Vietnam. Other places I have spent NY eve include: Aberdeen, Scotland; Brisbane, Australia; Dallas, TX, USA; Ibadan, Nigeria; Melbourne, Australia; San Salvador, USA and Sydney, Australia. Future options are: New York, Paris and Reyjavik. This year the destination needs to be a short hop from Bangkok, Thailand as we only have four days. The options…
My Musings (Sundays)
Category Archives for My Musings (Sundays).
My Million Dollar Travel Plan Part 1.
A few weeks ago, I asked what people would do if they had a million dollars to spend in travel. This is what I would do… Travel is already a luxury. For those of us able to afford to travel on aeroplanes to distant countries puts us in a very special, blessed and lucky category. Out of my million dollars, I would immediately give a chunk away with $50,000 each to the following five charities.: The Railway Children for street children work in East Africa Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) to support 30,000+ volunteers who provide medicine and surgery,…
Inching to Qantas Platinum
One of my travel goals this year was to re-obtain my Qantas Airways Platinum status. I have until July 31 to achieve 1400 status credits which is the threshold. With two weeks to go, the goal is achievable: For my non-flying friends, they are somewhat bemused by this obsession. For those who fly a lot, they understand what is going on! I even did one mileage run to reach this goal. Qantas Platinum is the equivalent of oneworld Emerald status giving First Class Check in, First Class lounge access, dedicated phone support, extra luggage and double…
A Million Dollars to spend on travel?
Some “travel insiders” were asked recently to comment on what they would do if they had a million dollars to spend on travel. What would you do?
Seven things I have learnt from flying 2.5 million KM
Two and a half million kilometres is a long way! Just over 1.5 million miles, it represents 62 laps around the earth. 600 times between NYC and Los Angeles! I have spent exactly 21 weeks sitting in aeroplane seats!! I hit this milestone, I believe, 35,000 ft over New Zealand, en route between Auckland and Wellington. Probably somewhere near Mt Taranki. There was no award and unlike in Up in the Air, no one came in with champagne and congratulations. (George Cloony’s character had hit 10 million miles, though). I am in an extremely privileged position.…
Why are we so focussed on air accidents?
I do not want for one second to belittle the tragic loss of life that occurs with each air crash but I wonder, what is it about a plane crash that impacts on our consciousness? Every two days, approximately 66 people are killed on Egyptian roads; a total of 12,000 a year. 45 people per 100,000 die on Egyptian roads. Thats a horrific statistic but no one says anything about it. A year ago, a bus veered off the road at Giza into a canal leading to 35 people dead. It barely made a blip in…
Formula for Mapping the Tourists
I loved exploring the sights of Venice, Italy. I wandered through quiet squares where locals pegged washing out and gossiped. I was often the only tourist in the back alleys. Yet when I visited St mark’s Square, the place was crowded with tourists of every nation. Why didn’t those people stray far from the square? The same thing happened when I went to Petra. Most people walked the one kilometre (half a mile) to the amazing treasury building and went no further. Some went to the next section. I explored the furthest reaches and was…
Achieved Qantas Gold Again
Qantas has a five tier system for its Feequent Fluer system starting at Bronze and working through silver, Gold, Platinum and Platinum One,. I have held Gold or higher for over a decade. Thanks to a long distance relationship, I have achieved Gold again for 2016/2017. As mentioned two weeks ago, I am on track for Platinum. This gets me First Class check in and lounges and priority for seats and upgrades. When you spend hundreds of hours a year in airports and on planes, these make a difference for which I am very grateful!…
Kuwait to require DNA testing of all tourists
I have been to many Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, UAE, for example) but not to the State of Kuwait. I have an open invitation from some Kuwaiti colleagues to visit the country. The news that the country will extend DNA testing to tourists leaves me a little disquieted. Kuwait has talked about introducing DNA testing for a while. Following the bombing of a mosque in June, 2015 which killed 26 worshippers in Kuwait City, the country quickly enacted laws to mandate DNA testing of its 1.3 million are Kuwaitis and 2.9 million expatriates. It’s the…
Mileage Run- with Qantas Double Status Credits help!
My membership year for Qantas finishes soon. I had intended to keep my Qantas Gold Status for another year. With Qantas announcing, their double status credit promotion last week, this changed. Enticed by the earning of double the number of status credits on every flight booked between now and May 4th for travel until 16th April, 2o17, I began a stocktake of my miles situation. A few bookings later, it looked like I would be close to Qantas Platinum! Platinum gives access to One World First Class lounges internationally and Business Class in Australia. The Qantas First Lounge in Sydney is one…
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