Twice around the world in 40 days

[VPS]

Many thanks for the effort. I know how time consuming TR are and lots of great photos. I think Sri Lanka is firming up in the next 18 months or so

 

[Milboo]

Really enjoyed the whole TR.

Those personal pat downs at CMB are exactly that!

 

[OZDUCK]

hanks very much for pulling this all together - must have been a lot of work.

 

[RooFlyer]

Post-script. Lake Baikal booked for late September, QFF points in J almost all the way.

Because direct flights in and out of Irkutsk are only weekly, I have an ENTIRE week there. What the hell am I going to do for a whole bloody week in one place?

(Answer: I won't be in one place of course, am booking multi-day tours out into the countryside and onto Olkhon Island ...) I was thinking about darting across to Vladivostok, but no direct flights

 

[kookaburra75]

Many Thanks @RooFlyer for your trip report.
Myself, MrsK, my parents, daughter, step son and his partner (about 600,000 points worth of flights) are heading over to Sri Lanka for my son's wedding in Feb, and your trip report has provided a wealth of ideas and what to see and do, and maybe not do - not keen on lots of stairs.
This will be our first trip to Sri Lanka and we're really looking forward to it, especially the food.

 

[RooFlyer]

Thanks; make sure you check out other Sri Lanka Trip reports at the TR Index.

 

[michaelangelo]

Impressive report!

Small correction (or not depending on what side of the wall you align!), but that's a Palestinian beer. Made in, and named after, the small town Taybeh just outside Ramallah (the Palestinian de facto capital) in the West Bank. I visited in 2014 and at the time they claimed to be the only microbrewery in the middle east. Run by a really nice family who had spent some time in the US and wanted to bring quality beer back to their homeland. Really nice brews, and they host an Oktoberfest celebration each year which I one day hope to return for.

Fantastic position over the bay on a warm evening. Tried my first Israeli beer - thoroughly deserved after the hard touring today

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[RooFlyer]

Thanks . Must admit I didn't read the label.

 

[craven morehead]

Thanks . Must admit I didn't read the label.

That's because it wasn't Gin

 

[rginoz]

Fabulous trip report about a great trip, RooFlyer. I'm a bit late joining the journey, but it's just like being there with you. Great photos, great stories and wonderful experiences. Thank you very much.

 

[JohnSydney2000]

In the afternoon, it started bucketing down, which was expected , so I fell back on my plan B which was Albrook Mall - connected to the Wyndham hotel. The Mall is said to be the biggest in Latin America. It looks like its just grown incrementally, and is a bit of a maze.

I grabbed a late lunch (and you can see why @amaroo would never travel with me ) but it was cheap, convenient and sorta healthy.

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I had dinner in the hotel seafood restaurant - didn't take the pic until I was partly into it, but it was a nice ceviche with lime juice, with a trio of seafood bits on some soft corn based base as entrée (which came out second). Panama's take on a pisco sour was a bit odd, but tasted OK.

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I was due to fly out of PTY at a nice leisurely 1:30pm next day, so got my friendly tour guy to take me to the airport at about 11:00.

Drove past downtown, which I missed in the dark (and the speed) on my way in. it looks like a good, clean city with a tremendous number of apartment and office towers:

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Arrived at the airport, check in OK and I remembered that there was no lounge. There is a huge new terminal under construction, so hopefully that will change. My priority Pass had run out, otherwise I could have used the Copa Lounge. No matter, I settled down with a coffee and my laptop for an hour or so,

Boarding was painless - onto an AA E175, in J. 1-2 config, with me in 1A (there was some other dude settling into it, but I kicked him out, even though he said he was following my TR and this was his natural spot ). Took off on time and was soon crossing the Panama coast.

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Lunch was decent (that's cheesecake, not cheese!) and soon reached the Florida keys.

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We landed 50 mins early; I expected that the gate wouldn't be ready. It was, but I was then wishing that it wasn't!

Rant hereby begins.

What followed was one of those airport experiences where you swear you'll never fly again. I'll stop at never flying into MIA internationally again. We rolled into some far gate and disembarked down an outside ramp, then along some strange tarmac thing, onto busses and into a train wreck.

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The bus merely took us around the corner to gate D60, at the VERY-far-end of the concourse. Huge long walk then, past entirely deserted gates (why not drop us off a bit closer??) which was OK, the exercise was good. I knew it would be a long walk when I passed a sign 'Skytrain to immigration'. Eventually we hit a queue extending well out of the immigration area. And then the chaos began.

Imagine 2 rows of immigration e-gates either side of a space not much more than a hotel corridor. Funnel everyone into one end, with no guidance. What happens? Of course everyone banks up at the top of the funnel, and kiosks towards the F-A-R end are unused. And you can't get through! Staff watching all this, doing nothing. The queue to get out of this area stretches up the middle, between the rows of kiosks. F'n hopeless.

Completely different experience for me compared to LAX arrival, with my B1B2 visa. At MIA, you use the kiosk and scan the visa page and answer customs questions on the screen; it gives you a ticket. Then join another queue to show ticket. Then join another queue to see immigration desks. Get shunted from one end to the other - this is 'queue management', MIA style. Immigration officer asks why I was travelling on a visa, not ESTA. I visited Iran, I replied. "Yep, that'll do it" was his reply, as he stamped my passport.

In LAX, I only had this last stage so far and had a paper customs form in my hand.

About 45 mins so far. Get to baggage carousel, where the bag has been dumped in a pile with all the rest. Exit customs. Go through to bag re-check. Then it got bad. Pure chaos in this area; people everywhere, I didn't know where to go. Bloody staff person just waved down the hall and yelled 'join the line, join the line'. Which one? "Join the line, join the line". There was a line to enter the re-screening area. it stretched down a ramp where you might otherwise exit. Total chaos.

Shuffle forward. All of a sudden, they appear to open up a new lane, and our part of the queue surges forward. A free run to the front?? ??.

No, of course not. We went past a security hall totally choked with people. We were led through the 'crew' area, to a door where we exited to the check-in area? WTF?? No explanations, just 'go there, 'go there', following a guy. We walked, and walked, and walked ... eventually into the 'E' terminal security area (we were in D).

Eventually through and I had no idea where I was. Found an Admiral's Club where I got some derisory directions.

Eventually reached the Flagship Lounge in Terminal D 1hr 50 mins after landing.

It wasn't so much the time that pissed me off, but the total chaos of the whole process with none, ZERO explanation or guidance or assistance from the airport staff. they just stood there and watched.

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Rant ends. For now.

Had a couple of hours to kill. had dinner in the lounge, which was pretty good, and then time to boart my next AA flight, to DFW. A 737 in 'First'.

The first row was 3, so I was in 3A; I didn't mean to choose a bulkhead, but that's what happens when they start the numbering at 3. Pretty standard B737 J, 4 rows of 2-2. Only IFE was a small screen on the bulkhead with some cough NBC TV show. No IFE in the AA phone application.

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It was probably because I was still pissed off at the MIA thing, but the lead FA on this flight was a shocker. Hard not to say the 'wrong thing' here, but a Mae-West figure, busting out all over shall I say; a curdling southern accent and she thought she was just sex on legs. 'Honey', 'sweetie-pie' 'sugar' was how passengers were addressed, men and women.

I know in Oz, FAs have to stop talking, hands on knees and be attentive during take-off roll and take-off. Not her. Couldn't see her, but could hear her discussing boyfriends with the other FA. Fair dinkum, just a stream of squealing laughter, clapping of her hands in excitement, the whole bit, from start of roll until well into the climb.

It was a 9pm departure, so no dinner (warm nuts - accepted and a cookie - declined), but I was at first pleased that they had a sav blanc rather than the standard chardonnay, but it was undrinkable. Of course AA domestic First isn't First, but this wasn't even acceptable J. Not that this came as a surprise - I've travelled enough in the US to know what to expect, but I thought if this was branded F it might be a bit of a cut above. Nah.

Arrived DFW terminal C at 12:30am, 30 mins late; bags eventually arrived but inter-terminal shuttle had stopped running, so you had to call them (no courtesy phone). Eventually into Grand Hyatt at T4 about 1:15am.

Nice enough room.

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MIA - avoid it if you possibly can.

Reading this a bit late but yes, MIA is an absolute shocker . Had maybe 120 in bound or outbound flights since 1981, and worse, maybe 40 int. arrivals from Central/Latin America. My worst experience was taking 135 minutes from being 10th in line to greet the "Immigration Officer" to actually getting to the head of the line.
I have had to be re-booked and given hotel accomodation at least 12 times by AA if I recall.

Male passengers in this airport have been shouting since before mobile phones have been invented.
And since 1981, MIA has been a non-stop construction zone.
RooFlyer is absolutely correct - avoid.

If your ticket can be routed flexibly, if you are arriving from the south, try to have your international arrival at DFW in preference to MIA. John.

 

[JohnSydney2000]

Yes; as noted elsewhere they revved up amazingly again when we landed, and when they shut the engines down, it sounded like an entire hen house was right below us, in full voice.

Stupid signage at DOH. I had a free transit overnight stay courtesy of QR, and I had instructions on how to pick up my hotel and meal voucher on arrival at DOH. Simply "Go to transit desk". So, coming off the plane I followed the clear signs to "Transit", for a hundred metres or so, and found a desk. Not here he says. The OTHER transit desk, completely the other way. A light rail ride, walk etc and found the OTHER transit desk and got the paperwork.

Cleared immigration 'fast track' (sort of), no bags to pick up, and found the Oryx Rotana hotel person, which was difficult, as they weren't holding up their sign. Waited till 5 other pax arrived, then in the mini bus to the hotel.

The Oryx Rotana used to be very convenient to the old airport, but now its a 15 min drive away. I didn't want to stay here - asked for the in-airport hotel, but Oryx it was. I had a bad experience here last time - long story, but they tried TWO rip-offs and I swore never to go near the place again. But, it was a freebie, with A$60 of food and drink thrown in, so I'll wear it.

Decent buffet meal, then 5:30am shuttle back to the airport, for a 8am departure. Even though I had my boarding pass, they insisted I arrive 2 hrs before departure, and the shuttles only ran every 30 mins.

To the business lounge, well reviewed previously, for a light breakfast to satisfy the worms before breakfast on the flight.

I'm on QR131, a B787-8 service to FCO; seat 5A.

1-2-1 config, and the seat is great. Row 5 lacks a window directly next to the seat, but can easily see outside through the next window. Its a lie-flat job, so oodles of legroom.

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Very well designed seat. to the left, controls (and a smart controller just off to the left), with a storage bin that held my lap-top and bits and pieces. To the right, water and more storage, on the aisle.


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Usual J hard-sided amenities kit. Cold towel (was offered hot or cold) and PDB of Lansom black label brut.

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Behind me was the whY entry L2 and in the middle of this pic behind the screen thing is another pair of J seats. Strange position - between the 2 toilets. I think it was designed to be a bar-type area but they have seats there. The table space is huge.


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Toward the end of boarding, a couple of VWIPs arrived. The chap in the white was some sort of airline guy, I think. Gave them the tour of the cabin, and then the coughpit etc - right when the pilots would be doing their pre departure check-list; you can see the guy with the manifest waiting to deliver it to the cough-pit. I deducted points from QR at this point, as they didn't appear TKWIA. Minor delay in departure for Wanker-Important-Persons.

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Looking at that nose, I wonder if it was the QR Chief Executive.