A high and dry, wild and wet, majestic history medley – RTW 2018

[JohnM]

And it eventually finishes and we’re the last to leave...

 

[JohnM]

Hmmm, now checked for the 10. Seat 3A - which was my original best choice - but two weeks ago an EF seat alert showed 1K had opened. I selected that under the new seat selection system. It either it didn’t stick or I’ve been relegated.

Given that I’m ‘back’ in 3A, it suggests that maybe the change to 1K didn’t stick. No biggie.

 

[Boca68]

The Ledbury looks great, maybe next year I can squeeze it in.

But the question we all want to know is.... did the boy with guns pay? . Or did dad have to fork out Not freakin' cheap.

 

[JohnM]

The Ledbury looks great, maybe next year I can squeeze it in.

But the question we all want to know is.... did the boy with guns pay? . Or did dad have to fork out Not freakin' cheap.

Definitely not cheap - and he did pay . I paid for the Kensington Wine Rooms precursor.

We last ate there in 2012, according to him. I didn’t think it was quite so long ago. Time flies! The first time I ate there solo must have been about 2-3 years before that.

Check their booking system. It’s hard to get in. I snared a 2145h sitting at a few weeks’ notice.

 

[RooFlyer]

So I'm looking forward to you finding the places serving foam and other hoity toity delicacies when we are on the silk road next year. Or do I just get kebabs?

 

[JohnM]

I can confirm that my favourite pre-flight snack is openly available at LHR for QF10 (today, at least) .

Quite a large serve compared with the usual at SYD.





I had a Croser with it, but while I was eating I saw the server open another bottle of bubbly that was not Croser. Asked what it was - “Perrier-Jouet”, he says. Asked for a glass and was given it without question. Happy days .

 

[JohnM]

So I'm looking forward to you finding the places serving foam and other hoity toity delicacies when we are on the silk road next year. Or do I just get kebabs?

If yer lucky....

 

[JohnM]

The 10 is delayed by 1:15. Dang, nothing for it but to have another Perrier-Jouet. There seem to be no issues getting the Champagne. I suspect that it’s simply unlisted and anyone with the smarts to ask for it will not be denied.

I’m in the QF lounge now and happy, so I can’t be bothered lounge-crawling.

But I do wish the a/c was cooler - although I suspect it’s a general issue with ghastly T3. Always stuffy and hot .

 

[JohnM]

Just to wind up the last part of the trip before I settle in to sorting my camera pics and rewinding to post some of those and add some notes about other places visited where poor or no internet access prevented keeping up to date on the go.

As reported elsewhere (Direct PER-LHR and Office View threads) QF10 on Sunday was cancelled. Information later from the CSM when we flew the next morning about 19 hours late was that an APU issue caused the bird to go tech, then the crew ran out of hours and attempts to get a replacement crew failed.

After the cancellation announcement about mid-afternoon, I retreated to the lounge and decided to just wait until the scrum at the lounge desk (and no doubt an even bigger scrum at the general customer service desk) subsided. I eventually go down to be told that I had been re-routed on a BA flight eek to HKG and connected on to MEL on QF. Hmmm, first I'd heard of this . Seemed strange that nobody had tried to contact me to ask whether this suited or to inform me of the fait accompli. I did heard an unconfirmed story that another pax was re-routed on an earlier flight, was not told and consequently missed it.

Anyway, I asked to be kept on QF10 for when it flew again. QF put everyone up overnight at the LHR Crowne Plaza and say we'll fly at 0700h next day.

After a fairly shambolic checkin the next morning we got under way at about 0800h. The ride was good and took 16:15h, except for some (to me) bizarre reason the CSM decreed that breakfast would be served after takeoff and dinner would be about 3h out of PER (making it about 0400h PER time). It seemed totally the wrong way round to me. Anyway, after about 6 hours, I asked for dinner, which was duly delivered and then I got some sleep. I think it subsequently transpired that quite a few people asked for dinner earlier than planned.

Once the bird got to PER, they had advised that it would not be going on to MEL. Obviously it was being held in PER to operate Tuesday's 9 and get the schedule back on track. Transfer to a DOM flight, take a very fast ride to MEL, ditch the idea of stopping overnight, turn around and come back Tuesday night to arrive home about 12h later than originally planned.

I learned a bit about the LHR QF Lounge, but still fail to understand it. The great mixing of Q Club through to CL has it offering a hybrid of F&B. Everyone can snare a serve of S&P squid, which I understood to be F Lounge only fare in places like SYD (or is it also available in the INT J lounge in SYD?). Accessing Champagne, rather than the Croser sparkling, seems to rely on being highly specific and not on being checked for status - but I could be wrong on that. How this can be sustained long-term and what sort of pressure it puts on the staff is a puzzle to me.

The ill-fated bird going to the gate. Travel was reversed a couple of hours later. It was the first cancellation on the QF9/10 service.



In the lounge. Nothing in writing about the Champagne (Perrier-Jouet).



Mmmm...

 

[JohnM]

Finally away the next morning.










Quite reasonable espresso.



Just squeezes the whole route on the map.



To be rewound and continued...

 

[Boca68]

All well and good my man @JohnM ....

As your are foreigner, from the west and all that... . Was the idea of getting off the flight in PER considered? Rather than transcon return after major delay. Or are we going with the 'why go direct when you can connect' theory?

If I was chasing SC, maybe? but after 10 weeks of flying , travels and finally a big delay, I'd just want to get home. Any reason why you stuck to the last couple of sectors?

 

[JohnM]

All well and good my man @JohnM ....

As your are foreigner, from the west and all that... . Was the idea of getting off the flight in PER considered? Rather than transcon return after major delay. Or are we going with the 'why go direct when you can connect' theory?

If I was chasing SC, maybe? but after 10 weeks of flying , travels and finally a big delay, I'd just want to get home. Any reason why you stuck to the last couple of sectors?

Getting off the chariot in PER was never considered .

My original plan was to go all the way to MEL - to use the full sector on my DONE5 and to experience the full QF10 flight. I was going to overnight at MEL, then return to PER as the last (ie. 16th) sector of my DONE5 (I always use them all).

I have all the time in the world - so why not go for a ride, enjoy the F&B and reap a few trinkets . And, after all, PER-MEL and back is only around 3h travel each leg - a trifling. I've done many, many a day's drive where it's been 3h out into the country (that's working in agriculture for you), a chunk of work, and then 3h home.

Besides, after 10 weeks on the road and 25 preceding flights, I was just starting to get into the swing of things....

 

[JohnM]

Sorry about duplication of the lunch S&P squid - but hey, who wouldn't like another serve of that? .

 

[JohnM]

OK - back to the TR after being flat out since returning home and having a cold.

Rewind to Bolivia. La Paz is an interesting place. It’s in a basin, but still at around 3600m. The airport is at El Alto – a rapidly-growing sub-city on the plateau above and at 4200m.

It would probably be advisable before just lobbing into La Paz to know how you cope with altitude. Altitude sickness is a bizarre phenomenon that seems to have no systematic relationship to age, gender or fitness level. It can be quite dangerous for someone who fails to respect it or is susceptible or poorly adapted to it.

I don’t think that there would be too many people who could drop into La Paz from sea level without feeling some effects. For me, noticeable effects start at about 3300m and I’ve several times been above 5000m which I know I can handle, so I was prepared for what it would be like in La Paz and El Alto. Move slowly is the key.

One of the things that La Paz is famed for is its Teleferico mass-transit system. Each line is colour-coded and very modern and efficient. Currently there are 7 of a planned 11 lines in operation (Mi Teleférico - Wikipedia). The Purple Line is close to being the next to open.

A half-day morning Teleferico/walking tour was a great broad introduction to the city, followed by a an afternoon walking tour targetting more specific central aspects. It was a good combo from the same company, and both leaving from San Francisco Church which was very convenient to my hotel.

The Red Line, incorporating a historical railway station.






These seemingly blocks of flats, are actually a cemetery. I didn’t make it to the La Paz cemetery, but I did at another city, so detail will follow from that.

Some of the colourful facades amongst the ubiquitous red brick on the slopes to El Alto. El Alto Red station.



At El Alto. A colourful church. The famed Witches’ Market - not at all busy that day and close photos are not the done thing. Looking down on La Paz.



Yellow Line down. Lovely guide greatly enhanced the view .



The White Line runs right up a main avenue of the city. Orange Line went up and over a ridge to get us back to near the Red Line starting point. Great morning out for day 1.



San Francisco Church, founded 1548. And Calle Jaen – La Paz’s finest colonial street.



The Green Line out towards Moon Valley, a badlands landscape park.

 

[JohnM]

A visit to a view point coincided with a photoshoot of Cholitas - indigenous women – each representing a province before a final choice of a ‘Miss Cholita’ or something equivalent.

Apparently, the wearing of bowler hats came about when a merchant imported them from Britain to Bolivia to sell to British men working on the railways but they were too small. A story was invented that all stylish women in Europe wore them and a trend was started.



Buildings have steadily filled the slopes up to El Alto over the years. Now El Alto is the fastest-growing area and crossed by the Blue Line.



The Presidential Palace fronts onto Plaza Pedro D Murillo. Bolivia has had many revolutions (like, about 100!) over the years and a bullet-hole fresco remains on one of the buildings on the NE corner. Another interesting factoid about Bolivia is that the South American ant-Spanish revolution started here – but it was the last country to gain its independence! Also, they were perpetual losers in wars with neighbouring countries – ceding territory to Chile and consequently becoming land-locked, and also to Brazil (the western Pantanal – one of my destinations on this trip).

There seems to be a growing concern that President Evo Morales is showing signs of despotism and odd behaviour (eg. sympathising with Venezuela, rigging elections, manipulating to govern beyond constitutional terms, quashing any meaningful opposition, building grandiose edifices like the new presidential office tower behind the palace in defiance of planning guidelines. Even forcing the installation of a backwards-running clock in the spire of the National Congress building (his ‘reasoning’ was explained to me but has now escaped my memory. To signify some 'revolutionary' aspect IIRC.) Uh-oh, we’ve seen this before – a populist freely elected and then gets old/goes nuts…). Many Bolivians are very twitchy. It’s a lovely country – it would be a pity to see it go to cough.

 

[Bindibuys]

La Paz is one of my favorite cities

 

[JohnM]

As pleasant as La Paz is, it was not the primary reason I was in Bolivia. A couple of days is enough. Time to get out and about. Next destination is Uyuni town – a day’s drive south of La Paz and the jumping-off point for the famed Salar de Uyuni.

Travelling across the altiplano. Typical of South America, the long-distance coaches are common and of high quality. We were in the mini bus in pic 2 for this straightforward run to Uyuni.

A great core group of only seven plus Julia, our top-notch Bolivian guide. We had some additions to meet in Uyuni who were only doing that short option for the upcoming few days on the salar and in the mountains. That would fill our two LandCruisers to come.

The guy on the far left was very interesting. He was a very accomplished and well-published travel writer (news articles and books) from Germany. He was working (and very hard) during the tour, taking copious voice-memo notes all day long and transcribing everything to notes on his PC every night while it was still fresh. The next guy was an Iranian by birth but now a resident of Toronto and a very experienced traveller, a couple from Sydney essentially honeymooning on the Inca Trail and in Bolivia, an Australian woman who was returning to Australia after working in London, and a young London lawyer taking a break after leaving her job before returning to Uni to do a Masters. I just made up numbers… A really fun group - topped off by our ‘additions’ to come at the salar and mountains circuit. It was a blast.






It soon became apparent in Uyuni town – and subsequently on the salar and in the mountains – that Bolivia is a ‘go to’ destination for millennials. They very obviously dominated the tourist demographic. A lot were combining the Inca Trail with Bolivia – and the Salar de Uyuni is the hot spot. They all want to go there to play photographic illusions on the salt pan and post on every type of social media known to man. It’s an absolute mission. Ahhh, millennials! – gotta love ’em!

At Uyuni and next morning preparing for the excursion onto the salar and onwards into the mountains for the next three days. We were most definitely not the only ones preparing in the same way… Plenty of extra fuel on the roof; I felt like I was getting ready to repeat my 2017 Canning Stock Route expedition!



First stop was the Cemeterio des Trenes (train graveyard) outside Uyuni. These date back to the 19th century when there was a rail-car factory in Uyuni. Our full group for the three days out into the wilderness. We added another young couple from Australia and a terrific Italian couple living in London and travelling independently. We ended up bumping into them several times during the following part of the trip as they also followed the classic Bolivia circuit.



Then it was out onto the salar - 12,000 sq km at 3600 m. Unlike Australian salt pans which are shallow with thin layers of salt over earth, the Salar de Uyuni has a thick crust of salt overlying great depths of saturated brine, predominantly of sodium, lithium and magnesium chlorides. Bolivia has about 45% of the world’s know Li reserves, of which most is in the Salar de Uyuni.

There was a slushy area just outside Uyuni town to negotiate before getting onto the solid stuff.



Now that the Dakar Rally is a South American event, it comes through here.



The stop for lunch had everyone excited for the first trick photography session.





Toy dinosaurs to fight or run from are a common prop.



Or why not roll an Oreo? I decided I’d have them in the palm of my hand… But, even better, why not cook ‘em alive? All a bit of fun.

 

[RooFlyer]

You had the Sony on its snow seetting?

 

[JohnM]

That #!* contraption . It works OK as long as everything's dry .

 

[RooFlyer]

So on the salt pan it should have been a cracker!