Flying around

[chrisvenus]

Well, as I've mentioned before this summer sees me going off on my first great adventure. Well, hopefully great...

The plan is to leave beginning of July (5th/6th ish) and go to china, meet up with people in Hong Kong at the very end of July (so just under 4 weeks of china for me) and then after a week in HK going off to Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Then off to Australia(Sydney and then up north to the barrier reef).

I'm flying various bits and pieces of this and so I thought I'd see if anybody had any particular recommendations for or against any particular airline or any particular website that can be used to sort these things out or other such companies.

I'm flying here to china (shanghai is the current plan - hendybear, are you up for a visitor for a bit?) and then from Bangkok to Sydney, probably a connecting flight a week later Sydney to cairns and then from cairns back to the UK.

That's far more information than most of you probably need but if I'm asking for help I want to make sure you've got the full info....

Also for full comment whoring potential then people are welcome to suggest either a) things to do in and around Sydney or b) places to stay up near Cairns/the barrier reef (cairns is where there is a convenient airport but isn't set in stone as such if more awesome suggestions appear). I know I've got a few Australians on my friends list and I'm sure others who have holidayed up there...

Comments

[neoanjou.livejournal.com]

I flew out to Sydney on Cathay Pacific, and back on Quantas (thanks to a typhoon or something in HK), and both were perfectly acceptable. I must say that I preferred the Quantas flight, although the CP has a bigger screen ion the in-flight entertainment. I booked through http://www.holidaygenie.com/, who are good in the sense that they allow you to specify the date flexibly (i.e. I want to travel on x, but +/- 3 days).

I didn't do too much when I was in Sydney - working most of the time - but I had a fantastic time visiting the nearby Wine Country - it was AUS$ 100 for a day trip (Day being something like 8AM to 7PM) and we visited three vineyards. Manly beach was also very cool - it s 45 minute boat ride from the Harbour. As as Astronomer I also enjoyed the Observatory, and that whole historic area 'the rocks' or something.

[In fact I really disliked Sydney. I was on my own so it kinda sucked as I had to spend 14 hours a day entertaining myself (and slept for the other 10) - I imagine its a lot better with friends.]

[cultureofdoubt.livejournal.com]

Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb!
Absolutely must do thing. I recommend the Discovery Climb - http://www.bridgeclimb.com/theClimb/DiscoveryClimb/adventure_climb.htm

[tyasante.livejournal.com]

ooooh, sounds very exciting. Airlines? Hmm, for the love of god, avoid easyjet - they hate your luggage, they hate your bookings, they hate you. Oh yes, most of all they LOATH you and all of your kin who happen to be flying with EasyJet.

Otherwise, have fun. :D

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Sounds epic!

[almostalady.livejournal.com]

I have no useful comments but it sounds like a fantastic trip! What's made you decide to go now? Are you on sabbatical from work? Is it a Journey of Self Discovery?

You'll have to start a photo diary for us ;)

[chrisvenus]

I decided back in octoberish kind of time. I think it originally started out as a "I could run away from the world and hide" when I broke up with mi_guida (who I am now going out with and has done more to organising this trip than I have so far by a fairly long shot). That was the first prompter and that was the point I realised I had the money in the bank if I could get the time off work. Then I asked work if I could have unpaid leave and they said yes (before the big economic collapse - I don't think they'd say yes know but they are sticking to their word). I think it is also a reaction to a friend's death and doing the whole "life is short, I should do fun stuff now rather than later".

I suspect its partly a journey of self discovery but its more a journey of going to see awesome things.

And for the technical details its two months unpaid leave, two weeks of paid leave and is going to be awesome. There will be blogging, there will be photos, no idea about the details of where and when. That is far into the future. ;-)

[almostalady.livejournal.com]

All good reasons for a great adventure. Have a fab time and keep us posted on planning so that we can be properly envious :)

[chrisvenus]

I'm thinkign I should write a full post on the trip plan. I thought I'd said more about it but judging by the responses I guess not. :) That sounds like a friday afternoon activity to me... ;-)

[susanofstohelit.livejournal.com]

That sounds fantastic - I'm a little jealous. I need a vacation one of these days.

When I was in Shanghai May 2008, I couldn't access livejournal (facebook was fine). No idea why, but I thought you might want to know.

[hendybear.livejournal.com]

LJ is intermittent in China, it is currently blocked, but there are many ways round these things.... I say witting this in Shanghai...

[chrisvenus]

Yeah, that much I'm not too worried about. If worst comes to worst I'll just e-mail it to somebody else to put up. :)

[uon.livejournal.com]

Sydney is great! I keep meaning to write up my trip there over New Year.

Things you should do: (a) Go to the Blue Mountains, they are amazingly gorgeous; (b) GO SURFING. Seriously. I'd never tried it before and it's awesome fun. Newtown was a fun area to explore; it seemed to be where lots of freaks and arty types hung out.

Your plans sound ace, I hope you have a great time!

[chrisvenus]

Blue mountains is on my list (because mi_guida has a relative or something like that who lives in that vicinity. Surfing I may try when we are up north in queensland.

[hendybear.livejournal.com]

(shanghai is the current plan - [info]hendybear, are you up for a visitor for a bit?)

I most certainly am, finalised my apartment contract two hours ago! I have two spare rooms, you are welcome for as long as like.

Just one word of warning, I can not promise my continuous presence, this new job role is likely to leave me bouncing around the world a fair bit... For instance I start work in the Shanghai office on Tuesday and I may have to be in Korea on Wednesday!

That said I have plenty of friends who will show both the "tourist" sites and the "real" Shanghai.

Oh and a tip on flights, for some strange reason it is often cheaper to book a return flight to China and only use one half of it, no idea why.

[chrisvenus]

Woot!

Well, my current thought was to start off in shanghai so I can get a more personalised introduction to the country before setting out on my own... I still need to work out exact plans but i'll likely be arriving on 6th Julyish... What's a good e-mail address to contact you on, out of interest? I feel that may be a more practical way of discussing things nearer the time than LJ... For now though I don't really have much more than "a few days in shanghai and I'll be there around the 6th July". :)

As for flights I thought you got in trouble for booking return flights and not using both parts of the ticket or something like that? Because you are clearly a terrorist if you book for a flight and don't get on it or something like that...

[hendybear.livejournal.com]

"As for flights I thought you got in trouble for booking return flights and not using both parts of the ticket or something like that? Because you are clearly a terrorist if you book for a flight and don't get on it or something like that..."

Well I have three non used "return" tickets at the moment! Two Shanghai-London and one London to Shanghai. The trick is to make sure your immigration card is filled in with the correct details, then no one cares as the records match.