Well, David did arrive in Perth eventually, safe and sound!
The plane was diverted to Melbourne as it was the only other airport with Airasia ground crew.
He had a 10 our wait in Melbourne airport which was boring but otherwise okay...
We are in transit at KL airport at the moment, having bad coffee and availing ourselves of the wireless internet.
Hmmmmmm...
I don't think there is anything exciting to say about being in transit so I'll do a proper blog tomorrow fron Shenzhen.
Friday 5 June 2009
Wednesday 3 June 2009
Poor David
This morning we set off at 5AM to pick up our mate David from Perth Airport. Of course we checked out the website first to make sure of the arrival time etc. All good so far...
We got to the airport and there was no info for his flight on the board and no voice-overs on the PA to say what had happened to it. I went outside to where Clive was waiting in the car and just happened to overhear one of the traffic inspectors telling someone that the flight had been tranferred to Melbourne and wasn't arriving until 2PM.
What a professional organisation Perth airport is! There were at least ten cars that pulled up while we were there to pick up people from that flight. As the flight was diverted to Melbourne they would have known this hours in advenced of the sceduled landing in Perth. The website had been updated when we checked in the morning to say there was a 20 minute delay, so obviously there was nothing wrong with the site, they just didn't bother putting in the right info!
More importantly, David (who we will be staying with in China) has a really painful leg injury that he is supposed to be getting looked at by a specialist while in Perth. If he misses the appointment it will be another 3 months until he can come back to Oz. Added to that is the fact that it is bad for his injury to be sitting for long priods, so any kind of flying is not good but a flight arriving hours late is going to be excruciating.
We haven't actually heard from him yet so we are a bit worried, hopefully he is fine and is just relying on us checking the internet for flight details...
We got to the airport and there was no info for his flight on the board and no voice-overs on the PA to say what had happened to it. I went outside to where Clive was waiting in the car and just happened to overhear one of the traffic inspectors telling someone that the flight had been tranferred to Melbourne and wasn't arriving until 2PM.
What a professional organisation Perth airport is! There were at least ten cars that pulled up while we were there to pick up people from that flight. As the flight was diverted to Melbourne they would have known this hours in advenced of the sceduled landing in Perth. The website had been updated when we checked in the morning to say there was a 20 minute delay, so obviously there was nothing wrong with the site, they just didn't bother putting in the right info!
More importantly, David (who we will be staying with in China) has a really painful leg injury that he is supposed to be getting looked at by a specialist while in Perth. If he misses the appointment it will be another 3 months until he can come back to Oz. Added to that is the fact that it is bad for his injury to be sitting for long priods, so any kind of flying is not good but a flight arriving hours late is going to be excruciating.
We haven't actually heard from him yet so we are a bit worried, hopefully he is fine and is just relying on us checking the internet for flight details...
Sunday 17 May 2009
Off to the Far East
Hello People,
I'm sure most of you know we are off to China next month, so for anyone who's interested we will
keep a travel blog with pictures and random musings for your entertainment.
The general plan is to fly to Shenzhen with our friend David and stay with him and his other half Lianny for a couple of nights and then fly to Beijing, take a train to Quingdao (Tsing Tao, where the beer comes from!) then to Shanghai and finish off in Shenzhen before going home.
If you check out the map, Shenzhen isn't on it but is located just above Hong Kong. It's a big modern city, supposedly a bit like Kuala Lumpur but more populous.
While we are in Beijing it is Clive's ambition to paraglide off the Great Wall at Simatai. There is a local paragliding group which does this and he's trying to organise something with one of them before we arrive. My ambition is to photograph Clive flying off the Wall and to eat copious amounts of Dim Sim.
More after we arrive at our destination!
Monday 16 February 2009
Thai VIP Bus
I had the pleasure of spending the night on a Thai VIP bus last night.
It cost 600 Baht or maybe A$28 for the 10 hour overnight journey.
The seats recline almost fully and you are given a box contaiing snacks and water.
There are only 3 rows of seats occupying the width of the bus instead of the traditional 4, so the seats are really wide.
It is the most comfortable bus ride ever, and less than the cost of many hotel rooms in Thailand, its a great way to get around.
My only complaint is that it was so cold inside... Take a jumper and socks to suppliment the supplied blanket.
I wanted to take a picture of the inside, but folks were already sleeping :)
Friday 13 February 2009
Leaving Nepal
Leaving Nepal.. Nepal has got to be the most difficult country to leave!
It must have taken more than two hours to get through the system.
Well, there was only one door open into the airport terminal, everone was trying to funnel in from every direction, it just wasnt happening, after 30 minutes, we had just moved 1 metre.
So, they opened a second door and things got much better, 40 minutes to get into the building.
Inside the terminal, all big bags were x-ray'd, sounds reasonable.
Then off to the Nepali bank to get departure tax
Then check-in.. Maybe 1 hour to this point.
Through passport control,, easy enough
Interrupt.. I am writing this on the flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok, flying with Thai airways.
I love flying with Thai airwaysm we have just been fed and I have hada small Singha beer befoe the meal, Red wine with the meal, another small beer to follow.
I have to enjoy it beause when I fly my next segments with Jetstar, the cheapskate airline, I get nothing..
There is a message on the p.a.. "There is turbulence, please return to your seat" Ha ha, I love turbulence, I am a Para glider pilot! bring it on!
Now a long 30 minute queue to go through security,, This is where it gets more crazy.
First small bags are x-rayed
Now you go through the metal-detector door thing.
Then, you are patted down.. Why? Doesnt the metal detector work?
Then, your small bags are all opened and hhad searched.. Why? Doesnt the x-ray machine work?
You sit in a boring room till your plane is ready
You walk out to the plane, where you are patted down again.. Why?
It keeps a lot of people employed for sure, but it seems to go on.
Mind you, not like the curtained room in the domestic departure area.
It will feel good to be back in Thailand.. only a three hour flight:)
While I was waiting in the boring room before boarding the plane, Mick and John left on their flight to Singapore, followed not long after be the Russian paraglider pilots headed to Karachi on their way back home.. "Hello Australia" they all called out.
It was a great end to an amazing paragliding session..
p.s. It IS great to be back in Thailand :)
It must have taken more than two hours to get through the system.
Well, there was only one door open into the airport terminal, everone was trying to funnel in from every direction, it just wasnt happening, after 30 minutes, we had just moved 1 metre.
So, they opened a second door and things got much better, 40 minutes to get into the building.
Inside the terminal, all big bags were x-ray'd, sounds reasonable.
Then off to the Nepali bank to get departure tax
Then check-in.. Maybe 1 hour to this point.
Through passport control,, easy enough
Interrupt.. I am writing this on the flight from Kathmandu to Bangkok, flying with Thai airways.
I love flying with Thai airwaysm we have just been fed and I have hada small Singha beer befoe the meal, Red wine with the meal, another small beer to follow.
I have to enjoy it beause when I fly my next segments with Jetstar, the cheapskate airline, I get nothing..
There is a message on the p.a.. "There is turbulence, please return to your seat" Ha ha, I love turbulence, I am a Para glider pilot! bring it on!
Now a long 30 minute queue to go through security,, This is where it gets more crazy.
First small bags are x-rayed
Now you go through the metal-detector door thing.
Then, you are patted down.. Why? Doesnt the metal detector work?
Then, your small bags are all opened and hhad searched.. Why? Doesnt the x-ray machine work?
You sit in a boring room till your plane is ready
You walk out to the plane, where you are patted down again.. Why?
It keeps a lot of people employed for sure, but it seems to go on.
Mind you, not like the curtained room in the domestic departure area.
It will feel good to be back in Thailand.. only a three hour flight:)
While I was waiting in the boring room before boarding the plane, Mick and John left on their flight to Singapore, followed not long after be the Russian paraglider pilots headed to Karachi on their way back home.. "Hello Australia" they all called out.
It was a great end to an amazing paragliding session..
p.s. It IS great to be back in Thailand :)
Thursday 12 February 2009
Kathmandu - It's Cold here
Its 5:30am on Thursday morning and its cold, well its 14C in my room, but I feel cold, which is why I am typing this in bed, with a shirt and jacket on.
Getting to sleep was difficult.. The bed has a big heavy doona on it and it took about 2 hours for me to warm it to a suitable temperature.
Kathmandu, like the whole of Nepal, only has intermittent mains electricity, overnight, it came on between midnight and 5am.. Useful eh?
We flew into Kathmandu on the 1:30pm flight from Pockhara, which actually left pockhara about 3pm and arrived Kathmndu at 3:30pm, I guess we were installed in our hotel in the city by about 4:30pm.
Kathmandu is a great city, you could do a lot of shopping here, but when you have a 20kg baggage allowance and a 17kg para glider, it limits you somewhat :) I am already overweight on my lugguage!
We wandered around our part of town for a couple of hours while working up an appitite, and then ate.
I ate at an 'Organic food Cafe and Salad bar' which is not my normal kind of place but I was wooed by the free WiFi internet.
I had this amazing bowl of soup there, and the best coffee that I have had in Nepal, which isnt saying much.
The soup was a vegatable soup that contaied all the veggies that I could imagine, and in case that wasnt enough, it had a lot of rice in it, it was a huge bowl and really really filling.. I ate it all :)
Here is a picture of th soup....
And some dogs sleeping i a doorway :)
Our plan for today is to find breakkfast somewhere and leave for the airport at 10am, arriving there at 11am.
Mick and John's flight is meant to leave for Singapore at 1:15pm and mine is meaant to leave for Bangkok at 1:55pm, but in Nepal, these flights times are approximate :)
It will be strange for me to go from being too cold in Kathmandu, to being too hot in Bangkok, but I am looking forward to the idea.
Thanks for the comments, it is good to know that someone reads these ramblings.
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