Today I leave on my first segment of my trip that will literally take me around the world. IAH-LHR & LHR-AUH British Airways and Air Belgium (wet leased to BA) DXB-HKG & HKG-HND Cathay Pacific NRT-MEX & MEX-IAH AeroMexico I never did get breakfast… The…
The food available in the British Airways lounge was not very good. You might have noticed… my ticket says British Airways, but the plane says Air Belgium. I’m not exactly sure why, but British Airways has wet leased the plane including the flight attendants and pilots from Air Belgium. The…
After a nearly 4 hour car ride to the Dubai Airport from the empty quarter of Abu Dhabi I am flying on Cathay Pacific through Hong Kong to Tokyo, Japan. If my flight is on time I plan to escape the airport briefly as I have 6 hours between my flights. The seats…
My flight arrived slightly later than expected. I decided that I wouldn’t get to see much if I left the airport…. Boarding started on my flight 4.5 hours after I arrived and the express train takes 24 minutes, leaves every ten minutes, plus going through security and immigration and a huge airport to get to…
Bento box for lunch. A true “box lunch” Sunset at the hotel in Shinagawa. The Shinagawa train station. The first course of dinner. Unfortunately my jacket was hung up – with my phone. Description of all the dishes at the dinner. Koyasan Tokyo Betsuin…. a Buddhist temple in Shinagawa. Clouds were right for…
Another Bento Box for lunch. I made it back to the Koyasan Tokyo Betsuin Buddhist temple before dark today. Nice antique fire truck in Takanawa The location of the 47 Ronin who committed suicide… Sengaku-Ji temple The view from my hotel room. The view from the hotel parking structure. Some very…
Today I started by leaving a bag behind at the hotel. I didn’t feel the need to carry my work boots and Nomex around Japan. After checking out of the hotel I walked across the street to the Shinagawa train station. I bought the most expensive train ticket I have ever bought in my life……..
Late start today. Checked out of the hotel at 0830. Took a taxi to the airport – rain was pretty heavy and it wasn’t that much more than the streetcar. The first available Shinkansen to Kyoto was at 0950. Another $100.53 for a train ticket. Later we found out that it was one of the last…
The typhoon had passed and it is a beautiful day, so today I decided to go visit Nara. There were tons of these deer wandering around the temples. There were vendors selling biscuits for them. Unfortunately some of the buildings were under renovation. This was a nice irrigation channel with a deer. I love Japanese…
The typhoon had passed and it is a beautiful day, so today I decided to go visit Nara. There were tons of these deer wandering around the temples. There were vendors selling biscuits for them. Unfortunately some of the buildings were under renovation. This…
Another beautiful day in Japan 🙂 Today I decided to go to Osaka and see the Osaka Castle. One of the turrets around the castle. It looks like a swamp animal in the moat. The Osaka Castle The…
This time we got to the Imperial Palace as soon as it opened. They have a great guide app (bring your headphones). Since we got there when it opened there was almost no one there. Poor planning meant we went to the Golden…
Another beautiful day in Kyoto. You can see the Shinkansen on the tracks from my hotel window. I started the day by visiting a nice garden called “Shosei-en Garden”. It was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel. The skies were a bit overcast. You can see the Kyoto…
Today was not a crystal clear day. Unfortunately the tour to Mt Fuji was only available on this day. The sticker for our tour. I paid $15 extra for the lunch to be included… I figured anyplace the bus stopped would be a tourist trap with very expensive food. The itinerary. We went to…
This morning I was going to go to Senso-Ji in Asakusa before all the tourists showed up, but went to the Imperial Palace to see if I could get a ticket for the tour (you get inside the palace, but not inside any buildings) Interesting small door inside large door. Nice view of…
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…
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