Thank you for the comments and feedback on last weeks’ post on how to prepare for a potential disaster when you are travelling (terror related or natural disaster). One of the things I encouraged you to do was to “Know the contact number(s) for the Embassy, High Commission or Consular office in the city you are visiting“. A few people indicated confusion over what an embassy is and what it can do. Like most people. I rarely encounter embassies, except for where I have friends working for one or I go to a Festival or…
162nd Blog in Top 1000+ Travel Bloggers
The Top 1000+ Travel bloggers started in April 2014 with 1000 travel bloggers and 700 additional bloggers have since joined the community. The main objective of this success tracking program is to give each blogger a regular personal score that reflects as accurately as possible their success in their activity – in this case, blogging about travel. The #travel1k score has been designed to measure digital & online influence. The scoring algorithm is not perfect but it is an interesting measure. For a numbers nerd like me, it is fascinating! My ranking is 162nd…
A 787 called Quokka could continue a long Qantas tradition
Quokkas are a small marsupial, found on some small islands off the coast of Western Australia. Related to the kangaroo and Wallaby, the cat sized Quokka was voted the “world’s happiest animal“. Now this animal’s name may grace the side of a Qantas plane. Earlier this month, Qantas Airways called on Australians to suggest names which reflect “the true spirit of Australia” for its first eight Boeing 787 Dreamliners They got 10,000 entries with 40,000 names! Just 20 names were shortlisted: Boomerang, an aboriginal hunting weapon Cooee: a shout used in Australia, usually in forest areas to…
What to do to prepare for a potential disaster while travelling
After the terrorist events across the world this past week, I think it is prudent to be prepared for a situation where you experience a natural or human emergency. (This is coming from someone who has lived in two war zones and travelled through multiple other war areas and disasters!) Check travel warnings for natural disaster warnings, violence, political unrest and wars before you travel. It amazes me that I talk to tourists who arrive in a country oblivious that only weeks before there was a coup or hurricane or earthquake! Check Your Perception: despite the…
The Afternoon I almost Died
On Friday June 2nd, 1977, I almost died in a bomb attack on my school bus. The Number 12 in Jerusalem was blown up minutes before I boarded. It was on a spring Friday in the Northern Hemisphere. I walked along the bus route to the terminus and then to the bus station and caught a much later connecting bus, getting home in the dark. (You just get on with life in this moments) My parents were frantic having heard about the bomb blast on the radio. There were, of course, no telephones and no…
Celebrating Cebu
Bohol, Boracay, Cebu and Palawan are some of the most popular places in the Philippines for foreign tourists. We checked out Cebu, on this occasion for a special vacation. Verdict: My Overall Rating: 55% My Ranking out of my top 200 Cities: 184th place Global Ranking: Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) ranked Cebu 26th among 28 APEC cities surveyed in 2015. Why it should be visited: Beaches, Food, Spanish history Negatives: Traffic, Traffic, Traffic and Crime, Crime, Crime Would I return?: No- we had a great time here but I would choose to see other Filipino cities first. Location and Orientation Cebu is…
Flat Earth Proven with Spirit Level on a Plane
This was so elaborate I thought it was a parody. A guy took a spirit level onto a plane to prove that the earth is flat. My one question is always: If the earth is flat, how come I can get on a plane in Singapore and travel in the same direction before eventually arriving back in Singapore? A flat earth would preclude that as there would eventually be an end or an edge? Fascinating to live in a world where people think the world is flat and scientists involved in conspiracies to cover this…
My First Cebu Pacific Flight
Having tried Philippine Airlines for the first time last week, I was determined to try their fast growing competitor Cebu Pacific. Especially, when I was flying from their own hub. Booking: 2/10 Booking with Cebu Pacific was one of the most mind-blowing frustrating experiences of my life. The website froze seven times in mid-booking over three days! I re-booted my computer multiple times and came back to the website. In frustration, I contacted Cebu Pacific who suggested I did not know what I was doing! Having convinced them that I was a tech savvy frequent…
Standing in Solidarity against Evil
Like many, I am dismayed with the bombing in Manchester which killed 22 people- mostly children. I am also saddened by the attack on a convoy of buses in Syria which killed 68 children last month. Let us not forget Yemen and South Sudan where more children die daily. Holding hands and singing KumBy Yah is not going to stop these atrocities but nor is bombing to pieces a whole lot of homes, villages and communities. We know neither of those strategies will work. The globe needs a new way forward. One that does not support the…
All about SkyTeam- Comparing airlines and Elite Earning
Of the seven airline alliances, Skyteam is the one I have had the least to do with. You will usually find me on a OneWorld plane before a SkyTeam flight! Of my 1200+ flights, almost half have been on a One World carrier, a fifth with a Star Alliance airline and fewer than ten percent have been via a Skyteam partner. This is caused by three things: Australia and New Zealand have never had a Skyteam member, I have had elite status with Qantas /One World and Star Alliance carriers for over a decade My concern/perception that…
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