Life and Travels of a Non-Famous Person
Travel Stories and Travel Tips
These travel stories are shorter than the chapters in "Life and Travels".
Boeing 737-300
After ending flights to Bali in the 1990s, Air New Zealand is ready to recommence flights between Auckland and Denpasar on a seasonal basis.
Scheduled to operate during the peak season of June to October, the twice-weekly flights will commence on June 20, 2012, using Boeing 767-300 aircraft capable of carrying up to 228 passengers. [Read more...]
Lion Air
The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has expressed it highest appreciation to the Central Jakarta Court’s decision to rule against the Indonesian air carrier Lion Air, PT Angkasa Pura -the government-owned airport management company, and the Ministry of Transportation in a case brought against the three for discrimination against disabled travellers .
As reported by detiknews.com, the commissioner of Komnas Ham, Saharuddin Daming, said on Thursday, December 8, 2011: “ The decision is spectacular. We give our highest appreciation to the panel of judges who ruled in this case.”
Virgin 737-800
It’s official! I hate just about everything to do with flying.
I’m not scared of flying, and I don’t get air sick. I’ve done thousands of air miles. I don’t mind take-offs and landings and short haul flights. But I hate long haul flights and I especially hate airport terminals and the nonsense that goes on there.
I can afford air fares. But what is getting out of control is the cost of getting to the terminal, parking at the terminal, eating and drinking at the terminal, arrival visas, departure taxes, general airport taxes, superfluous security checks, ridiculous privacy laws, and general discourtesy and inefficiency. [Read more...]
We were flying from Brisbane to South America. The flight itinerary had us leaving Brisbane’s domestic terminal at 5am to fly to Sydney, then international to Auckland, and on to Santiago in Chile.
Our first problem was getting to Brisbane Airport. A taxi would charge us about $100.
We didn’t want to drive our car and park it for 5 weeks. The long term parking expense, even with the amazing cost savings using Airport Parking, would have been prohibitive.
We didn’t want to ask friends or family to take us to the airport at 3am.
We wanted to take a train, but there were none leaving our suburb until the 5am departure time of the flight. The last one leaving the day before was at midnight. [Read more...]
Low Cost Carriers
LCCs have allowed more people to be able to afford to fly than ever before. But there is a cost. Most of those little extras you used to expect from the traditional carriers are still available from the LCCs, but on a user pays basis. In fact with most LCCs, all your up front money gets you is the right to occupy a seat, and even then you have to fulfill certain requirements, and you often don’t get a choice of seat.
Bali's Port of Benoa
The Port of Benoa on southern Bali has won the “Best Port Welcome 2010″ award by Dream World Cruise Destination Magazine.
The award was presented to Sapta Nirwandar of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism at the 2011 Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in Florida on March 16, 2011. The award shows that Benoa Port has met international standards and gained international trust.
Mount Tamborine view
We weren’t even thinking of going to Mount Tambourine when we left home. We were going to the wineries of Ballandean near Stanthorpe.
We had travelled from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast on the north side of Brisbane and on to Highway 13 heading south to go through Beaudesert to Stanthorpe. We actually got to Beaudesert but instead of turning right as we intended, we decided to have a quick look at Mount Tamborine just because it was so close, so we turned left.
We had been warned about this and it could have come to fruition if we hadn’t.
We knew we were to look for a shuttle service to take us to the Backpacker’s Ritz. We had been warned in our travel documents provided by Acacia Tours about taxi drivers pretending to be the service and then charging an outrageous fee. [Read more...]
This may not be fair comment, but it is 3am in Dubai as I write this and I am tired and cranky. We were using Emirates this holiday for the first time. Everything was fine from Brisbane to Cairo via Dubai, and was still fine as we left Cairo for Dubai to catch a flight to Johannesburg.
Eileen was watching a movie as usual. She loves movies. Twenty minutes out from landing, the hostess wanted Eileen’s headset back. The movie was still playing. There is no technical or security reason why headsets need to be handed in. But it was the rules!
[Read more...]
Saturday’s weather forecast looked great, but Sunday’s looked doubtful. A possibility of 15 to 20 knots of SE wind straight into our favourite winter anchorage in the Pumicestone Passage in the morning plus the possibility of showers. What to do for one day?
We had not explored the Noosa Everglades, or the lakes leading to them. Greg and Lynn’s 5.1m runabout would be fine for this shallow water work. By coincidence Greg and Lynn’s son Clayton had already rung asking if he could borrow Karlie to do that very thing, so he and his fiancée Amanda joined us to tow the boat to a launch ramp at Tewantin. [Read more...]
Life & Travels