This morning I visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship in Darling Harbour. It’s a nice garden in the midst of the city. I took a walk through Paddy’s market in Chinatown for souvenirs. There were a number of good deals. The uber took a while to get to the hotel, but eventually I made it…
I walked along the goods line which has a very interesting building called the paper bag building to the Central Park Mall which has a very interesting amount of greenery on the outside and water in the skylight. I joined a free tour of Sydney that walked past most of the areas I am familiar…
The plan today was to take an $18 bus tour of the eastern suburbs including Bondi beach. Before the bus tour I visited Queen Victoria building. It has two large mechanical clocks. A few more interesting buildings along the way…. The bus tour first took us to Mrs Macquarrie’s chair…. I took a couple of…
Today I took advantage of the discounted fares on the train to visit the Blue Mountains. A couple of years ago I visited via a bus tour that left from Sydney. Going by train was much cheaper… it was supposed to be $2.70 each way, but when I got back to Sydney Central train station…
I had booked a shared transfer from the airport to my hotel. It was $18 AUD, while the metro has an outrageous $20 platform fee at the airport. I was actually able to check into my hotel quite early in the morning. The room is nice, but not fancy. I took a shower then took…
I call it day 1 & 2 because I’m flying from Houston at 8:30 PM on Nov 15th and arrive in Sydney on Nov 17th at 7:00 AM due to the international time line. I used miles to fly to Sydney, so I’ve flown more miles for free on United on this one flight alone…
I traveled to the desert today by car. I was able to stop briefly in Nizwa on the way and visit the fort. It had a number of great artifacts in the collection and was very well preserved (unlike most castles in Europe). …
It will be a couple of long days…. I will arrive late in Dubai and still need to connect to Oman…. where I may or may not have a hotel room (long story). My ‘coffin’ for the next few hours… if you are clostrophobic you should fly economy!
I applied for my Australian ‘Electronic Travel Authority’ today. It’s kind of a visa, but really a $20 (Australian Dollars) entry fee. It’s good for a year after applying for it.
I just got this email today… I think that’s the most I’ve flown on a single airline.
I took a few pictures from the hotel rooftop bar this evening before dinner.
Sadly I left the Caribbean paradise today. I spent a bit of the morning in the spa. A little time in the warm, but not hot jacuzzi. Then I moved to the hot Roman bath. I got a bit too warm and had to chill in the cold bath. I…
Another relaxing day today. I played cornhole and lost. I had lunch at the beach grill again. They grilled lobster and had someone cutting open coconuts (obviously adding rum to the water). I went snorkeling near the beach. I saw a skate or stingray that was fairly small. I also saw…
This morning I started my day with a spin class in the pool. I need to get one of these bikes. Lunch at the beach grill was great. They had steak and shrimp. I had to go back for seconds. So far my best meals have been on the beach. I got a few…
This morning I was required to take a ‘site inspection’ of the 3 Iberostar hotels. They didn’t show us a room at the beach resort (cheapest), or inside any of it’s restaurants, or it’s theater. We were shown a room at the suites that was very similar to the Grand, but with a smaller bathroom…
Today I walked around the beach a little, but mostly sat on a lounge chair and in the pool all day. I ordered room service for lunch. The cesar salad was pretty terrible, completely covered in parmesan cheese. The steak was okay, but they brought all kinds of condiments except…
The day hasn’t started out great. I was #1 on the upgrade list with 2 available seats. Now I’m #6 without any available seats despite having the highest status level on United and checking in immediately. I’m glad I stopped flying United. Cathay Pacific treated me like a rock star, United treats it’s best customers…
I have about 6 hours before my flight to Oman after arriving in Doha, Qatar. I attempted to get into the Qatar Airways busines class lounge, but logic doesn’t work in the Middle East. Since my next flight is on Oman Air they would only let me in the other airline lounge which is not too good. So I went through immigration and customs and stayed in the quiet and empty Qatar Airways arrivals lounge. I even took a nice shower and changed clothes. A few pictures from the sky. Oman has beautiful
My round the world trip has been derailed. I’m now flying to Oman from Tokyo on my way back to Houston….. Since my flight doesn’t leave until 2220 I had time to explore Tokyo a bit more. I checked out of the hotel and left my baggage. It was a very short…