The not as interesting as Beijing 2008 TR!

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First of all - let me just warn you. This TR will not be as interesting as nlagalles Beijing TR - it's just a small trip to BKK and HAN then home...

I hope to include some random observations for the benefit of those of you who have not been to HAN before and some observations of BKK (which I am sure many more have been to).

Departure via SYD from MEL was relatively uneventful. A QF 738 then a transfer at SYD to the international terminal. It's a bit painful catching the bus and all that hoo-ha, but that's life. I did have the good fortune to catch up with my first AFFer on a normal trip at the SYD FLounge. I had a quite enjoyable conversation with VT01 and had something quick to eat. As it turns out, we both work for the same company! Small world. He works in a different part of the company in Sydney, and with many thousands of employees in Oz, there are a lot of them I don't know. We both flew on the SYD-BKK BA10 flight (although I was ticketed on the codeshare QF302). I didn't manage to get my preferred seat of 63A or K on the BA 744 , but the seat I did have turned out to be nearly as good. 20K is downstairs at the very back of the J cabin, which means it was rear facing (my preference for sleeping) and I didn't have anyone's legs to climb over when getting in and out of the seat. VT01 told me that BA allow you to pre-allocate your seat once it has been ticketed via their web site - I didn't know this. I did what I normally do with QF and called the BA call centre, the agent assured me that they would put my preference down for 63AK, but I don't think they did a thing to be frank! For some reason, QF international checking couldn't issue the BA BP in MEL, so I had to check in on getting to the SYD International terminal - the check-in agent told me there were no notes against my booking and there were no window seats available upstairs in any case... lesson learned - pre allocate my BA seats online!

Anyway - in the air, the flight was uneventful. I did get some shots out the window (lounge and aircraft!) on departure from SYD and MEL.

This one gives an interesting side by side comparison of QF's new (centre) and old livery (Top and Bottom).

Foreboding clouds over Botany Bay (looking south)

I didn't bother with a feet shot since I had more legroom than I knew what to do with, but I did take a photo of the meal (well, entrée at least, then I got distracted with the wine and forgot to the photos of the main course and desert ) - a light prawn salad - very nice.

I watched a couple of movies, did some work on the laptop and had a short nap - all in all, a pleasant flight. Arrival at BKK was a breeze thanks to my APEC BT Card and carry on only luggage.

Next instalment - my time at BKK and Dusit Thani hotel review.

 

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My week at BKK

The Hotel

Most of us from our company booked the Dusit Thani hotel - for two reasons.

1. it is one of the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) hotels, so there were free buses running to and from ITU Asia 08 (the reason for our travel to BKK) for us to use.
2. it is on my companies list of approved hotels with negotiated rates.

It was originally built in the 70s and was the first 'tall' building in Bangkok - being 25 stories high. The hotel itself as very nice and had an incredible number of restaurants - this turned out to be something of a godsend as the Thai government imposed a state of Emergency on the second night we were there and my company's security department imposed additional security restrictions which included staying in the hotel in the evenings... As a result, we trialled a number(not all) of the in hotel restaurants and all were very good - very high standard of food and service, although (as expected) more expensive than external restaurants)

We ate at the hotel's Vietnamese, Italian, Thai and French restaurants and I would recommend them all if you are prepared to pay a little more. If we were in Sydney, the hotel restaurants would have been considered cheap eats, but were expensive by Bangkok standards. The French restaurant on the top floor had great views of Bangkok and was the most expensive with a seven course set menu coming in at 2900 Baht - approximately AU$75, but the other restaurants had main courses for 300-800 Baht (AU$7.70 to AU$20.50). Wine was very expensive (being all imported), so I stuck with the local Singha beer most of the time apart from our final night slash at the French restaurants where we polished off a few bottles of Aussie wine with our French food.

The rooms were quite modern and had a refurbishment relatively recently (not sure when) which made the whole experience quite pleasant. The photos below are my room when I first arrived so it was still neat and tidy (but night time).

The Excitement

I arrived on Sunday night. Setup day at ITU was Monday. Most of us couldn't get into the event until the Thai princess (who was also an event sponsor) had completed her tour of the event (including our stand where she asked what we were doing in Green computing) at 12:30 pm. The delays in getting into the IMPACT conference centre meant we would be late getting back to the hotel. While we knew about the civil unrest in the south of Thailand which forced the closure of three airports including coughet (HKT) which stranded quite a few JQ pax in BKK and HKT, none of us knew what else was going on at Parliament house elsewhere int the city.

As an aside: Recent interview with those stranded at coughet have siad they weren't too upset - they got to extend their holiday by a few days and didnt need to pay any extra for it...

Anyway, Monday night in a dispute between the peaceful PAD movement who occupied the Prime Minister's office and pro-Govenment rivals, one person was shot dead and about 40 hospitalised. This prompted the goventment to declare a state of emergency which (among other things) give them the right to move the army in to try and 'settle' the dispute. In an interesting change from past behaviour, the military deciced to move in without weopons to separate the two (pro and anti govenment) groups. The commander in cheif of the armed forces copped a bit of flack form some Government ministers for not using more force, but I think it is a welcome change and shows that the military are prepared for this political turmoil to remain that and not turn it into a military coup.

We learned of the state of emergency on BBC World news on Tuesday morning and during our pre-show briefing, were given some more details. Later Tuesday morning, the security department form our company issued some additional guidelines for operating in Thailand. To quote the email

"...business travel to Bangkok should be postponed until the situation stabilizes. As the political environment remains uncertain, extra precautions are advised. Travellers in the country now should avoid all crowded public places, such as markets, public transport, night entertainment areas like Patpong, Nana Plaza, Soi Cowboy as well as the backpacker district of Khao San Road. Large gatherings, demonstrations, political rallies, and concentrations of military and police checkpoints should also be avoided. Travelers in Bangkok should monitor the situation and be contactable at all times."

This made it a little difficult for us, since the Dusit Thani is litterally around the corner from Patpong. The Thai condition that prohibits gatherings of more than five people also made it difficult for us to do much with dinner outside the hotel, so that's why we spent most of our evening meals in hotel restaurants.

The Event

ITU Asia really is a trade conference targeted at the Telco industry. I was at ITU World in HKG almost two years ago and it was huge. Everyone that would would expect was there and everyone I spoke to was related in some what to the Telco industry. At this event however, things were different. Ok, it's an Asia only event, so I expected it to be smaller. What I didn't expect was to have all and sundry industries coming to the event. In the first three days, I spoke to more people from other industries than telcos. I was fortunate in that the offering I had on my demo stand could be easily adapted for any industry, so I actually took some leads - but they were from the Military, Travel , Power Generation, Education and Building industries... so much for Telco specific event. When I asked why these people were here at a Telecom trade conference, they said they did not know it was a Telco event.... What a waste of time, effort and money. I don't think we will be doing an ITU event ever again.


As an aside: The next ITU World event (they are every 4 years with ITU Asia, Africa and Americas events in the intervening years) is set for Geneva in 2010. We wont be going to that one either and it has nothing to do with the Bangkok event. The Swiss government has permitted all of the hotels to put a minimum stay limit of 10 nights for ITU for an event that only runs 5 days. The hotels have also increased their rates by 300% for the period. These restrictions and prices would seem like me to be a good way to kill the event off...

The NEC stand at ITU had some interesting methods to draw crowds. Picture this... two Thai girls (Blue and white) 'dancing' to some dance music while a Japanese girl (the one in the Gold top on the photo) reads in her best Jinglish a boring script about what they are doing for next generation networks. Hmmm, I wonder what was getting all the attention... (Sorry for the quality - the phone camera is all I had with me)

In calling them girls, I am not meaning to imply they were under-age, just that they are quite a bit younger than I am ;-).

General Observations

Not a lot of words here, most of what I saw of Bangkok was from the bus to and from the ITU event... We did go out to dinner on the first night to a great Thai restaurant in the Patpong area called 'Mango Tree' really good food, good services and much cheaper than the hotel restaurants. We came across a couple of Elephants in the streets on the way back to the hotel (Sorry for the quality, but I only had my phone's camera with me). Their handlers were selling bags of peanuts to feed to the Elephants.

I bought some stuff for the mini-dots at the night markets on the way home including these incredible 'splat toys' - click on the photo to see it in action.


Next instalment: Arrival into Hanoi and the weekend

 

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Arrival into HAN and a bit of a look around

Departure from BKK


This was my first flight on TG (ever) and the firsttime on an A300. So, it was a day of firsts for me. Departure from BKK was pretty easy – found the APEC queue and lined up. My flight was departing from Gate E10 which was right down the far end of the terminal E – and quite a walk. For those who haven't departed from the new BKK (I had from the old airport, but this was my first experience of the new one), once clearing immigration control, there are loads of shops – this is also where the airline lounges are. To get to the gate, you then need to clear a security checkpoint for all the gates in that terminal. Once through the security point, there is nothing in terms of comfort apart from toilets and enamelled metal seats. With no lounge access for this leg (my Silver Krisflyer status doesn't get me anything so valuable), I figured I would go through the checkpoint after a bite to eat in one of the many restaurants inside the terminal. On boarding the aircraft, I headed back for my seat. This aircraft appeared to have an inflight entertainment system, but it did not appear to be turned on, so I plugged in my mp3 player and drifted off in my own little world. The seat itself was average for comfort, but my buttock was starting to get numb by the time we arrived into HAN. I took a feet shot – specifically because I have never flown TG Y before.

Arrival into Hanoi


The airport at Hanoi (HAN) is a pretty small affair and with no visible APEC line - so I picked a short line and off I went. Processing seemed to take a bit of time and (unusually I thought) the immigration officer stamped my immigration card and gave it back to me??? I hope it doesn't cause problems when I go to leave the country. I had arranged for the Hanoi Hilton Opera to provide an airport pickup which was an easy and comfortable way to get to the hotel. I have a couple of observations from my trip into Hanoi:

• There seemed to be a lot of houses on narrow blocks (perhaps 6m) but three stories tall – even when there seems to be a lot of land around the houses. I am not sure why, perhaps the government limits the size of the land the people are allowed to build on. Hopefully, one of my local team will shed some light on the matter.

• Cabling alongside the roads is reminiscent of some parts of Bangkok – a tangled mess of cabling.

​

• Nokia maps is worthless in Vietnam – not even the tollway form the airport is on the map. I would add that they are great for Bangkok though.

Hanoi Hilton Opera

the Hilton hotel in Hanoi is right next to the Hanoi Opera house, thus the name and is a nicely presented hotel. In the foyer late afternoon, they had a string quartet playing classical music. I am not sure if the sound will work on this short clip - but trust me, they are good!



The rooms themselves are neat and comfortable, although not as modern as the Dusit Thani in Bangkok.

I've run out of images for this post, so I will continue in the next one

 

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Arrival into HAN and a bit of a look around

The Hanoi Hilton Opera

Sunday's art galleries and walk around the old sector.

Having discounted travelling to Ha Long bay for the day (due to the 4hr drive each way) as I was recommended by a German colleague in Bangkok last week (who also told me it was only one hour drive!), I went with a colleague from Singapore to look at the art galleries in the old quarter. He recommended these galleries as a source of good quality art at a reasonable price. He wanted to get some art for his flat and has done in the past. Her are some photos of some of the galleries.

next: more observations of Hanoi

 

[medhead]

Re: My week at BKK

As an aside: The next ITU World event (they are every 4 years with ITU Asia, Africa and Americas events in the intervening years) is set for Geneva in 2010. We wont be going to that one either and it has nothing to do with the Bangkok event. The Swiss government has permitted all of the hotels to put a minimum stay limit of 10 nights for ITU for an event that only runs 5 days. The hotels have also increased their rates by 300% for the period. These restrictions and prices would seem like me to be a good way to kill the event off...

Stay in Lausanne, it's only 30 to 60 minutes away by train.

Or if it's all swiss hotels, somewhere in France, Saint Julien en Genevois seems to be in driving distance, about 1 hour by bus or upto 2 hours by train. Or Bellegarde sur Valserine seems to be about 30 minutes by train.

Good trip report, thanks

 

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Apologies for not updating the TR over the past few days - work got in the way and by the time I got back tot he Hilton each night, I've had moire work to do...

Anyway, I am sitting in the BKK QF Flounge at the moment waiting for QF2 to SYD. I will try to spend a bit of time on the flight writing the next installment of the TR - possibly even finishing it off - I can't imagine any of you woud be interested in the domestic transfer from SYD to MEL once I get to the land of Oz .

 

[Flashback]

Ahh, that picture of the powerlines brings back fond memories of the streets of Kyoto

 

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Observations of Hanoi

Did I mention there are a lot of scooters in Hanoi? No? Well there are! Millions it seems. I took this photo on Sunday afternoon on returning from the art galleries. Scooters as far as the eye can see (apart from a handful of cars) - I really needed to be higher to do the throng justice

The traffic was chaotic - cars and scooters routinely on the wrong side of the road, making what I am sure are illegal turns. I shot a short video on my phone of part of the taxi ride back to the hotel yesterday afternoon after we had finished out client meeting. (yes, the scooters are on the footpath as well!)



We ate breakfast at The Press Club (opposite the Metropole Hotel - just around the corner from the Hilton) each morning. A full breakfast and espresso coffee for about VND180,000 which sounds a lot. But trust me, it's not that much (about US$10 I think - will confirm when I get on the ground in SYD) - certainly cheaper than eating in the hotel which makes a big difference to how far my per diem goes each day.

The thing that I really noticed in Vietnam was the architecture. It really carries a lot over from the French influences even now. Certainly different from any other Asian city I have been to. They are big fans of concrete construction which I guess is not particularly French, but the style is certainly European in nature. It's a shame that so much of it is run down and covered in slime. Have a look at the photos below to see what i mean:

 

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Coming home

The other curiosity with their architecture was a prevalence of very skinny tall homes. I didn't get a really great photo, but imagine a 4m wide building, I guess 25m long and three or four stories tall. The only thing I can think of is that the Government only allocates that size block of land, so to maximise the size of their house, the build up. I grabbed the following photos on the way to the airport on my way home:

HAN-BKK-SYD-MEL

My company's policy of flights greater than 8hrs be business class and HAN-BKK was part of a continuous trip to MEL which meant I got to sample TG's business product (short haul anyway) from HAN to BKK. Check in was painless, followed by immigration control (no APEC line that I could see, but no queues either, so straight through). There are two lounges at HAN, a shared Vietnam Airlines/CX and a general multi-airline lounge. When I arrived, there was hardly anyone in the lounge. It's a neat lounge and probably big enough for HAN - the whole airport is pretty small. I am not 100%, but I would guess there are only eight gates in the terminal and a few bussed remote gates (maybe another six). The lounge had a good selection of fresh fruit, drinks and pastries. Plenty of seating and a dedicated work area with PCs. There was also free wireless Internet access (SSID: ACS) which seemed as fast as the hotel, so I couldn't complain...

 

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Han-bkk-syd-mel

TG's short haul J product uses seats that are similar to the QF Millennium seat with similar leg room. See the feetshot below. My flight left HAN at 11:15 am, so I expected lunch on the flight. Frankly, I was disappointed with the lunch meal; there was no choice and it was pretty light on. Have a look at the photo below to see what I mean. (Apologies for the quality of the photo, my camera ran out of juice, so I had to use the camera on my phone)

Note sure if it is a throwback to my boyhood dreams of flying like an albatross on the wind and sailing around the clouds, but I like taking photos of interesting cloud formations. So... when I saw these on departing HAN, I had to snap a few.

I guess if feet shots are a characteristic of QF009's TRs, cloud shots are mine.

 

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Other interesting sites at HAN included a JetStar Pacific 737 (still white, but i presume they will get repainted eventually to the familiar silver and orange) and on the far side of the airfield a bunch of MiG 21 Fishbed fighters in shelters.

An interesting thing that is probably peculiar to Thailand, but it was really noticeable on approach to BKK - almost all the country paddocks were very long and narrow. Have a look at this to see what I mean. Very different to most other parts of the world.

On arrival in BKK - I pretty quickly realised that the *A checkin counters were at the terminal that I arrived in and the OW counters were nowhere to be seen. After a LONG walk to the other end of the terminal (the new BKK airport is much bigger than the old one), I found the QF counter, but alas unmanned. Oh well, rather than wait for it to open, I figured I would try checking in at the QF F lounge, which was unfortunately closed. Lucky for me the J lounge was open, so I checked in there. The Flounge would open in one hour I was informed (at 2:30 pm), so I settled into the J lounge for a bit.

I had a conference call to dial into, but unfortunately none of the desks had telephones, so rather than use my mobile, I used my corporate VoIP sofphone via the free wireless Internet access and VPN connection over that.seemed to work ok - and the other end didn't report any problems, so QF at BKK probably more bandwidth available than any of the Internet connections in Vietnam (where the softphone was unusable). Once I finished my call, off I trundled to sample the FLounge (no photos, sorry) which was just like the J lounge except about a third of the size and more settings for just two people. When the lounge staff called QF2, I headed off to board (and two security checkpoints - up to that point in BKK, I hadn't been through any security checkpoint - unlike transiting at SIN or HKG or most other airport international transfers for that matter). Anyway all I have to go now is to clear customs and immigration at SYD, catch the bus across to T2 and catch my bus, I mean QF Cityflyer to MEL. Unless something outstanding happens in that process, this will be the past entry for the TR.

Interesting sidenote- on approach to MEL, we flew directly overhead Essendon Airport and had a great view of the two DC-3s on the tarmac not to mention a small twin turboprop taking off underneath us. First time I recall coming in so low over Essendon.

Now, don't make me tell you "I told you so"- it wasn't anywhere as good as nlagalle's Beijing Olympics TR, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same and maybe learned a thing or two...

Next trip, not sure yet, but it might be Japan, it might be Singapore, it might be Philippines, it might be Vietnam again - that's the problem with my job, I often don't know two weeks out where I will be going next. I guess it keeps things interesting!

See you in the skies!

• Dot

 

[nlagalle]

Interesting sidenote- on approach to MEL, we flew directly overhead Essendon Airport and had a great view of the two DC-3s on the tarmac not to mention a small twin turboprop taking off underneath us. First time I recall coming in so low over Essendon.

Now, don't make me tell you "I told you so"- it wasn't anywhere as good as nlagalle's Beijing Olympics TR, but I hope you enjoyed it all the same and maybe learned a thing or two...

Great read!! I'll certainly remember the tips when i next go through BKK.

I've sat in the jump seat on a 737 flying over Essendon at 1,000ft before. It is a great view looking down! You tend to get that approach when there is a good northerly blowing and they are only using runway 34 (although i just read rwy 09/27 is closed due to works)

Nick

 

[Keith009]

Nice read, dot. Some interesting pics there.

 

[serfty]

... Once I finished my call, off I trundled to sample the FLounge (no photos, sorry) which was just like the J lounge except about a third of the size and more settings for just two people. ...

For some Images I took of the BKK F lounge shortly after it opened last year, look here:

• Qantas First Lounge BKK

 

[markis10]

Great read!! I'll certainly remember the tips when i next go through BKK.

I've sat in the jump seat on a 737 flying over Essendon at 1,000ft before. It is a great view looking down! You tend to get that approach when there is a good northerly blowing and they are only using runway 34 (although i just read rwy 09/27 is closed due to works)

Nick

Before they put the running rabbit (strobe) on the approach to 34 and you were flying with some airlines you ran the risk of landing at Essendon, quite a few missed approaches were performed when landing clearances were given with Essendon in sight, now confirmation of the runnning rabit being sighted is required before any such clearance is given AFAIK.

 

[nlagalle]

Before they put the running rabbit (strobe) on the approach to 34 and you were flying with some airlines you ran the risk of landing at Essendon, quite a few missed approaches were performed when landing clearances were given with Essendon in site, now confirmation of the runnning rabit being sighted is required before any such clearnace is given AFAIK.

The strobes have been there for some time, but it still gets mixed up occasionally, mind has been a few years since I last heard of one mistaking Essendon for Tulla.

 

[markis10]

The strobes have been there for some time, but it still gets mixed up occasionally, mind has been a few years since I last heard of one mistaking Essendon for Tulla.

They were installed circa 1995, after 14 incidents of mistaken identity from 1977 onwards (I worked in Mel tower in the 80's and 90's):

30/5/1977 DC8 International Regular Public Transport (RPT) Wellington Misidentified Essendon (EN) runway(R) 45 for Melbourne (ML) R34
6/6/1977 Boeing 707 International RPT Auckland Mistook EN for ML
24/8/1977 Cessna 401A Instrument Flight Rules Charter Bendigo Mistook EN runways for ML
6/2/1979 Falcon 200 Military Canberra Misidentified EN R17 for ML R16
19/6/1985 Boeing 747 International RPT Sydney Aircraft radar vectored via
EN to ML commenced descent to EN
13/5/1987 Boeing 767 International RPT Wellington Mistook EN for ML
8/8/1987 Boeing 747 International RPT Adelaide Misidentified EN R35 for
ML R34
23/2/1988 Piper PA-31 Charter Hobart Misdentified EN R35 for ML R34
12/12/1989 Boeing 747 International RPT Adelaide Misdentified EN R26 for ML R27
18/12/1989 Boeing 737 Domestic RPT Sydney Mistook EN for ML R34
6/9/1990 DC9 Domestic cargo Launceston Misdentified EN R26 for ML R27
15/12/1990 Boeing 747 International RPT Sydney Misdentified EN R17 for ML R16
27/12/1990 Piper PA-32 Private Warrnambool Misdentified EN R35 for ML R34​

1/11/1994 Boeing 747 International RPT Sydney Misdentified EN R35 for ML
R34

 

[nlagalle]

They were installed circa 1995, after 14 incidents of mistaken identity from 1977 onwards (I worked in Mel tower in the 80's and 90's):

30/5/1977 DC8 International Regular Public Transport (RPT) Wellington Misidentified Essendon (EN) runway(R) 45 for Melbourne (ML) R34
6/6/1977 Boeing 707 International RPT Auckland Mistook EN for ML
24/8/1977 Cessna 401A Instrument Flight Rules Charter Bendigo Mistook EN runways for ML
6/2/1979 Falcon 200 Military Canberra Misidentified EN R17 for ML R16
19/6/1985 Boeing 747 International RPT Sydney Aircraft radar vectored via
EN to ML commenced descent to EN
13/5/1987 Boeing 767 International RPT Wellington Mistook EN for ML
8/8/1987 Boeing 747 International RPT Adelaide Misidentified EN R35 for
ML R34
23/2/1988 Piper PA-31 Charter Hobart Misdentified EN R35 for ML R34
12/12/1989 Boeing 747 International RPT Adelaide Misdentified EN R26 for ML R27
18/12/1989 Boeing 737 Domestic RPT Sydney Mistook EN for ML R34
6/9/1990 DC9 Domestic cargo Launceston Misdentified EN R26 for ML R27
15/12/1990 Boeing 747 International RPT Sydney Misdentified EN R17 for ML R16
27/12/1990 Piper PA-32 Private Warrnambool Misdentified EN R35 for ML R34​

1/11/1994 Boeing 747 International RPT Sydney Misdentified EN R35 for ML
R34

ahh.. would have been interested seeing an Piper arriving at MEL! I've overflown MEL once before, at 2500 that was a buzz!

 

[markis10]

Might add a good trip report, its nice to read about "the not so normal" destinations and adventures, and tips about phones etc for conferences come in handy! Thank you!

 

[dot]

ahh.. would have been interested seeing an Piper arriving at MEL! I've overflown MEL once before, at 2500 that was a buzz!

Well, that is something I have done (almost). Not so much MEL, but I have flown a Piper into DXB behind a 777. On landing, I had to taxi behind the 777 (riding the toe brakes to stop from getting too close) before we went to the flight school area of the field and the 777 in front of me went to the passenger terminal.

It's a long story, but my sister was a FA with EK - I went to DXB on one of the Family & Friends specials when EK launched their services from MEL (via SIN)... Anyway; my sister found a flight school that was offering the first lesson for free. Only thing is she didn't tell me I was having a lesson (I thought she was shouting us a joy flight) before we got there and she didn't tell them that I lived in Oz and wouldn't be having a second lesson! I got to fly with my sister and father in the back seat and we all had a great time!

BTW- Anyone who read the post about traffic in Hanoi - I have added a video clip as promised to that post - so please go back and have a look...