Posted by Seth on March 10, 2010 under Trip Reports | 
When jetBlue announced their $10 fare sale for yesterday and today I figured out that there was one destination on the list I could make a day trip out of: Burlington, VT. It was a new airport for me as well as a state I’d never visited. Plus, the timing on the flights would let me get in and out with enough time to do a few things on the ground and still get a decent night’s sleep at either end of the trip.
I lined up a decent itinerary and shared it with some friends. I was laughed at. A lot. Fine; I reworked the itinerary and found some new options. The Ben & Jerry’s tour was out – too short and focused on kids rather than the actual manufacturing process – and a visit to the Vermont Pub & Brewery was in. Cabot cheese was on the list, too. Still a pretty full day up in Vermont.
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| One of my favorite views – on the AirTrain at JFK |
Then I got on the plane and ran into a whole bunch of other folks also taking advantage of the $10 10th birthday fares. There was a couple who came down to New York City for dinner last night, a business man who made some surprise visits to customers and a large group of guys on their way to a day of skiing. As we started discussing itineraries my plans changed again. VBP was sneered at for mediocre beer (in retrospect I agree) and the Cabot tour was scratched as too far out of town. Plus, there’s another event in NYC tonight at 6pm that I wanted to be home for.
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| Lots of liveries on display at JFK T5 this morning |
So the new itinerary was simple: skip the rental car and just take a cab downtown. Wander along the lakefront until the bars open for lunch. Drink beer and eat pub grub. Return to the airport two and a half hours after leaving and head home. And that’s exactly what I did.
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| Lake Champlain from the Burlington waterfront |
The waterfront area is quite beautiful and the work they’ve done on the boardwalk and ferry terminal is impressive. Downtown Burlington is quaint and quiet, except for the “Free Tibet” rally being held at City Hall. Overall, the experience fit exactly what I expected of a sleepy New England town. From the 75 year old cab driver who was 5mph below the limit the whole ride to the quiet green in front of city hall to the over-zealous TSA agents hoping that I was their “Big Catch.” It shows signs of a life that starts when the college kids wake up and are done with classes in the evening but none of those places were open at noon.
On the plane I was warned off of Vermont Pub & Brewery as just not being that great. Unfortunately, it was all that was open at 11:30am on a Wednesday, so it got my business. I had a flight of six beers, only two of which I actually enjoyed. Still, it was better than a poke in the eye. Plus, it was 40 degrees and not a cloud in the sky so I was able to enjoy my beer outside. That was a special treat.
After beer it was off to find lunch – a quick gyro at Alhi Baba’s – and back to the airport. On the standby list, through security and to the gate just in time for my standby to clear and to hear final call for passengers. Perfect timing.
I’m sure that I missed plenty in Burlington today. Gravy fries at Nectar’s, for example. I’ll have to go back and spend a day or two rather than an hour or two. It seems worth it.
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http://boardingarea.com/blogs/thewanderingaramean/2010/03/crazy-10-birthday-sale-from-jetblue/
Posted by Seth on March 1, 2010 under Trip Reports |
This past weekend’s trip to Las Vegas was anchored around attending the NASCAR race at the local track. Yes, it was a bachelor party and yes, there would be the usual drunken revelry, but the main focus was the race. For all but one of the guys on the trip it was our first trip to a NASCAR race. It was everything I expected and then some.
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| The ~130,000 fans getting ready for the Green Flag to drop. |
I grew up in a family that was relatively involved in sports, both as participants and as spectators. And I grew up in the South, where game day meant that you could easily be hanging out with 85,000+ of your closest friends, all dressed in the same colors and all screaming your heads off in support of the local team. I thought that was pretty impressive. It turns out that NASCAR takes the concept to another level. A race isn’t just two teams (though there did seem to be the Jimmie Johnson versus everyone else thing going on in many of the conversations I caught snippets of). There are 43 cars on the track every week that a fan can affiliate with. On top of that there are ownership teams, manufacturer teams and probably a few other alliances that I didn’t catch. It was a lot to keep track of, especially for a first-time attendee.
The entire scene was “more” than I expected of just about every aspect. It was louder than I thought it would be, and that was after I put in my ear plugs. It was way faster than I expected, too. And there was way more unhealthy food available to buy than in any other stadium environment I’ve been in. Just walking the midway area and seeing the bacon-wrapped hotdogs, foot long corndogs and wide variety of fried items available for consumption made my arteries a bit sore.
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| Watching the final restart of the race. |
There was also the human element of race day. When I say that we experienced a broad range of society I’m probably selling the experience short. From the three women in front of us who got into a fight with each other when they realized they had to shift two seats over to the impressive displays of facial hair stylings to, well, just about everything else we witnessed, it was impressive. They stereotypes that NASCAR has associated with it were strongly represented, as were a number of other demographics. But even with the typical stereotypes in play it was enjoyable and even sometimes educational to listen to the crowd talking about race strategy, relative strengths of the drivers and the minutiae that determined the difference between winning and crashing into the wall. The people part of the experience was just as much fun as the race. With over 125,000 people there to cheer and take in the event it is easy to see why.
And it was a pretty good race to watch overall. Not a ton of accidents and only a couple dozen laps run under caution meant that, for the most part, the drivers were able to really open it up and go after each other on the track. Watching Kevin Harvick move up from starting in 34th to a 2nd place finish was impressive. The ability of the drivers to negotiate traffic and the confines of the track while moving as fast as they were was downright amazing, especially as close as they were to each other and the walls.
Equally amazing to the drivers’ ability to generally not crash while hurtling around the track at 180+ miles/hour was the ability of the pit crews to do as much as they do as quickly as they do it. I understand that races are won and lost in the pits as much as they are out on the track and watching the dozen or so guys working together throughout the race, particularly for the 10-20 seconds/stop that they were “on” was quite impressive. The amount of work that can happen on a car that quickly is amazing.
The main downside of the day was the poorly planned design of the parking at the track and the completely inept attempts of the group working at traffic control to manage the situation. At one point we literally did not move for an hour trying to leave. Shortly after that I managed to convince the traffic folks of a better plan – mostly by moving the cones and implementing the plan myself while they were debating whether they should or not – and things got better. And it still took about 90 minutes from that point to travel the 15 miles from the race to the hotel. It was a rookie mistake on our part. The smart folks set up their grills and had a grand time watching us struggle to leave. That’s definitely the smart way to play the situation there.
Am I planning on emigrating to NASCAR nation anytime soon? Probably not. But I can definitely understand the enjoyment of the sport for those who are into it. There’s a lot more to it than “turn left at the corner” and trying not to crash too badly. I’m definitely happy that I got to experience it the once.
A few more pictures, just for fun. To see the rest of the shots from the day check out the photo gallery here.
Posted by Seth on February 26, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I’d love to take credit for some sort of brilliant trick or negotiating skill I used with one of the half dozen agents I worked with today trying to get out of New York City to Las Vegas. I wish I had a special trick up my sleeve or a special code word I could share that explains how I actually got on the plane and got the plane out of the snow at Newark today. I don’t. I do have a lovely first class seat on the one 757-300 that Continental Airlines got off the ground this morning that was actually headed to Vegas and I’ll admit that it was mostly luck that got me here.
I’m actually on the same flight I was originally booked on when I woke up this morning. The flight was canceled at least once – maybe twice – and reinstated with customers being moved around and reassigned flights somewhat haphazardly from what I could tell. A few of the times I called in to ask about alternate routings I was apparently already assigned seats back on this flight. The folks at the airport couldn’t really tell me if the flight was going to happen or not; there was mostly just confusion as the various different computer systems were spitting out different data to people.
When I left the Presidents Club the second time two friends were in the midst of a very creative rebooking that the agent seemed to be quite keen on, more more helpful than the three I spoke with that denied much less creative or expensive reroutes earlier in the day. Such is life, I suppose, though the inconsistency in the application of the rules is certainly frustrating.
One smart move Continental made was to not waste all the food that their Chelsea Kitchens division had produced the night before expecting to serve on the flights today. Rather than trash it since most of the flights were cancelled they packed it all up and brought it over to the terminal, setting up a snack bar near the Customer Service station in the terminal. Definitely a classy move, even if a limited choice of options.
But I was leaving the club because my flight was boarding, so I didn’t mind all that much, even if it was 5+ hours after the original departure time. It was only around the tenth flight that Continental managed to get off the ground at all today so the fact that it happened to be the one headed to the place I was going was pretty much blind luck. Oh, and then there were the hundred or so other lucky souls who managed to get a seat on the flight from the standby list. I’ve never seen the list of cleared standby passengers quite so long and I don’t think we left anyone behind at the airport.
First up, deicing, with the nifty trucks that they use at Newark. The guy in the cherry-picker cab actually drives the truck via controls up there. Saves needing an extra guy in the truck and it is pretty cool too.
Thanks to the fact that there were basically no other planes flying we had a quick taxi out to runway 4L and a great view as we made the final turn to depart. I really look forward to this view every time I get on an airplane.
And then it was time for the meal service. Sure, it was 3:15 in the afternoon at this point, but the flight was originally scheduled for a 9am departure. That means it is catered as a breakfast flight. So it was Honey Nut Cheerios or Omelets for everyone. Ten hours after I woke up and three hours after I had lunch I was finally having breakfast. Not that I mind too much; I love Cheerios. But it was entertaining and the flight attendant was laughing at the fact that she was taking breakfast orders in the middle of the afternoon.
A nap and a fresh baked chocolate-chip cookie somewhere over the Rockies and we’re getting ready to start our descent into Vegas now.
I hope the other guys trying to get out from NYC had less trouble with their flights than I did. Most were taking afternoon or evening flights so I’m somewhat optimistic – not overly so, but a bit.
Posted by Seth on February 16, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Four flights covering 7,400 miles is not really all that much for a weekend of travel. Nothing to sneer at, to be sure, but not a ton of miles covered. The fact that I’m earning 150% credit thanks to the booking class helps to justify the trip, as does the rather great sale fare that I got the tickets at. Plus, there is the fun of flying on Copa Air, a/k/a bizarro-world Continental.
Continental and Copa share a lot of similarities in their operations. That makes sense considering that Continental used to own a decent chunk of the Panamanian carrier. And even now that Continental has divested their ownership share Copa still seems to behave a lot like Continental. They share a frequent flyer program – OnePass – and the Copa flight attendant uniforms strongly represent the last generation of Continental’s, for example. And then there is the fact that their logos are significantly similar and that the two carriers operate with immunity from the United States to Panama and connections beyond. Looking around in the galley on one of the flights I noticed that a couple of the bins are labeled as Continental rather than Copa. Yeah, they are very tight.
But not everything is exactly the same. There are just enough differences to make flying on Copa a somewhat jarring experience. Sure, the upgrades still come through generally (I got all 4 this weekend) but Copa serves real meals on all their flights and serves booze from real bottles rather than minis. As it would be described in India, “Same same, but different.”
I was conscious for three of the four flights this weekend. The first – a 5:07am departure from New York City – I slept through entirely. The others, however, were rather pleasant experiences. We had printed menus on one of the three and the meals were consistent enough that I got to try one of everything that they are serving these days, I think. There were ice cream sundaes at the end of each meal, and that goes a long way towards making a flight a success. Of course, unlike Continental Copa doesn’t serve Grand Marnier on their flights. Instead they offer a “Rum of the Month” program in Classe Ejecutiva and I took full advantage of that. Sortof.
It turns out that this month the catering folks only put the good rum in the carts in the back of the plane. So the first two times I ordered the ron especial I was actually drinking Bacardi. I knew that it wasn’t that good but I just assumed I didn’t like the special rum. It was only on my last fight, flight from Panama City back to New York, that I was able to have the conversation with the flight attendant and understand what was being served and solve that problem. Thank goodness, as the special this month – Abuelo Añejo 12 year – was much, much, much better than the Bacardi. I’m no longer wondering why I have to use so much ginger ale to cut it to provide decent flavor, for example.
Beyond the rum there are a number of other nice things about the Copa experience. Full meals on all the flights, for example. It isn’t gourmet by any stretch but the food is pretty decent. I had steak, chicken and different chicken as my three meals and all were completely tolerable. Sure, there was a strange double salad first course on one of the flights but, well, it didn’t kill me.
Oh, and they serve ice cream sundaes on all the lunch and dinner flights. Yummy!
The food service was also much slower than I’m used to. On one of the flights it was 45 minutes before the flight attendant showed up to ask what we wanted and another 30 minutes before drinks showed up. Certainly not the end of the world, but less attentive than I would expect from most airlines in the forward cabin. There’s a decent enough explanation for the slow service. There is only one flight attendant working in the front cabin, expected to serve 14-16 passengers. It simply isn’t possible for that to play out well. But that’s the way they roll. Maybe they have to since they serve a full meal in coach to the 150+ folks back there and that needs the extra body but it does diminish the service up front a bit.
Beyond the food and booze the flights were a great opportunity to meet people. I was wearing my jetBlue shirt on the outbound flights and that was enough for the guy across the aisle on the JFK-Panama segment to start up a conversation. Turns out that he used to work for jetBlue and now works for Copa in their airport operations group. He commutes between Panama and New York most weekends. We had an interesting conversation about impending expansion of the terminal in Panama City, the needs of the terminal (showers in the Presidents Club!) and how incredibly convenient it is as a connection point heading to Central or South America.
I met Tony, a guy who works in the elevator business. We talked about our shared inability to speak Spanish, random visits to various Central American cities and how to better take advantage of the miles he’s been earning all these years. I truly hope he does better than he has with them because he has never redeemed any and, quite frankly, that is a shame. On the plus side, I think I’ve started the education process for him and explained some of the better options he has with all those points.
And then, sitting in the Presidents Club in Panama City, I saw a guy who was obviously from New York (the Duane Reade bags give it away) and who looked pretty familiar. I introduced myself and it turns out that we had met a while back at a FlyerTalk event. We chatted for a bit in the lounge and then ended up sitting next to each other on the flight back to New York. He was wrapping up a weekend in Buenos Aires and me from Mexico City. Similar stories and adventures though also completely different.
Such is the life of the frequent fliers.
Posted by Seth on February 16, 2010 under Trip Reports |
Given a total of 14 hours on the ground in Mexico City, of which the majority was during sleeping hours, there wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity for grand adventures or expeditions. Things got even worse when my phone lost data service on arrival and I couldn’t find the address of the hotel to tell the cab driver. A quick phone call back to a buddy in Los Angeles solved that problem (Thanks, Damien!) but I was still left with a few hours on a Monday morning that I had to fill. I wasn’t willing to just sit in the hotel room until I had to head back to the airport – what fun is that?!?! – so I set out on a very limited exploration of a very small part of Mexico City.
My hotel, the Wyndham Garden Inn, is in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City. About 30 minutes from the airport, the area is very accessible and also happens to be a reasonably nice neighborhood to wander about. Even putting aside the significant number of points I earned for the hotel stay I think that the property is a winner. Free internet that is a pretty decent connection, great towels (very soft) and a pretty good location make the property a winner to me.
I got some great tips from a friend in terms of what I should try to see and I managed to do pretty well overall, I think. I still need to get to El Moro, the churros shop that was recommended, but I did get to see El Angel de Independencia and a couple other sites while wandering around the neighborhood for the couple hours I had that morning. Plus, I’ll be back in six weeks and should be able to get that bit of fun in on that visit.
But on this visit I simply walked up one of the main streets of town for a bit and was exposed to an enjoyable snippet of the city. Plenty of folks out on the street and I watched their completely crazy means of dealing with traffic circles (they just go on whichever side gets them to the destination faster rather than in a circle!). Overall, it was a rather enjoyable way to spend a bit of time in the morning getting acclimated to town.
Plus, I had a ridiculously delicious breakfast on the street. As I walked past the guy on the way out for my rambles I had a very good feeling about the situation. He had several meats, each kept in a very neat pile on the griddle. Plus the whole rig looked to be very clean. Still, there was no one else out eating so I was a bit apprehensive. I got over that when I returned from my excursion and saw a couple others around the stall eating off of plates that were covered in a disposable wrap. So he runs a very clean shop. That’s a good sign.
My initial order – in my version of very broken Spanish and his much better English – was for carne y queso; steak and cheese. Served on a couple tortillas and then topped with onions, salsa and a squeeze of lime juice from the condiment bar that he had on the cart. Half way through consuming that delicious I managed to order a second round, this time with chorizo rather than carne. It also had a different cheese though I really couldn’t describe the difference with any reasonable accuracy.
The two tortillas overfilled with meat plus a soda were about 30 pesos. That’s just over two US dollars. The food was great and at the price there was really nothing better out there. At least not that I could figure out how to order anywhere. After all, I barely speak Spanish.
And then it was back to the airport and then onto the circuitous routing back to New York City. Having the same flight crew for the Mexico City – Panama City flight as the night before into Mexico was fun. So was meeting a guy in the lounge in Panama that I vaguely knew from a previous trip. But that’s all a different story.
Posted by Seth on February 14, 2010 under News |
This one isn’t quite as awesome as the Kulula Air livery that was making the rounds on the internet last week, but the latest special livery from AirTran is pretty sweet. The carrier has partnered with McKee Foods to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bakery’s best known brand, Little Debbie Snacks. I have a special place in my heart for those little bundles of excessively sweet and gooey goodness as I pretty much grew up on them so I’m sure that skews my view of the livery a bit. I’m OK with that.
Oh, the airline is running some contests and whatnot associated with the plane, too. Whatever. If they aren’t serving Fudge Rounds or Oatmeal Cream Pies or Star Crunch on board it shouldn’t really count.
Some more info on the promos and the livery here and here.
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Posted by Seth on February 9, 2010 under Mileage Run, Trip Reports |
Indeed, I owe the islands of Hawaii an apology. For years now I’ve been telling anyone willing to listen (and quite a few who couldn’t care less) just how much I disliked Hawaii. That hasn’t stopped me from visiting 5 times in the past three years – when it comes to miles on the cheap I’m easy – but I never really enjoyed the trips.
Until this past weekend.
The reason? I got the hell out of Waikiki. I even made it off Oahu and out to another island (the Big Island). And that made all the difference in the world. It was incredibly refreshing to discover normal people hanging out and enjoying the island life rather than catering to package tourists in high-rise hotel towers on a fake beach. I got to hang out with locals who actually enjoyed living there and leading relatively normal lives, not just running tourist trap tours and pretending that they actually serve decent food.
At the encouragement of my friend Vince, a longtime resident of the Big Island, I paid him a visit. Immediately after arriving in Honolulu I found myself making the long trek over to the commuter/interisland terminal for the short flight to Hilo. Sure, Vince lives near Kona on the other side of the island, but I figured why not get an extra airport in my collection and see some more of the island by driving across.
I booked a bed at the Hilo Bay Hostel, knowing that I’d be in late, out early and not have too much need of a full service establishment. It was clean (enough) and the others staying there were quite friendly. It also is right in the middle of town which meant easy access to a few bars at night and to decent breakfast in the morning at Bear’s Coffee. The breakfast was fine but the conversations there were absolutely phenomenal. I happened to sit amongst a few folks at the counter who were recounting their days running the local pot growing operations and private security shops, regaling each other with tales of who was doing what and reminiscing about how they “had to get out when the cocaine came in.” I also was up early enough to catch a sunrise over the shoals that sit just off the edge of downtown. Not too shabby.
After breakfast I hopped in the rental car (pretty cheap via these guys) and set out along the Saddle Road across the middle of the island to meet up with Vince. The drive to Kona has gotten significantly better in recent months due to the repaving of that road. There is only one section now that is in terrible disrepair. I don’t really know how bad it used to be but I made the drive much more quickly than I expected to (about 2 hours versus the 3 I was led to believe it would take) and it was fresh asphalt for the vast majority of the trip. No complaints at all.
Our destination that morning was Hapuna Beach State Park, a bit north of town and adjacent to the Hapuna Beach Prince hotel. The beach was crowded but not so much so that we couldn’t find space to lay out some towels and catch some sun (too much, in my case). Plus the waves were pretty good there and Vince provided boogie boards. It had been about 17 years since I last rode on one but, much like riding a bicycle it all came rushing back to me, including the sensation of being slammed into the sandy bottom by a wave as I wiped out during one ride. No lingering effects but definitely a bit woozy for a few seconds there.
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| Relaxing between sets a Hapuna Beach State Park |
We also did a bit of cultural tourism, paying a visit to the Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site. The site was the long standing seat of power for the Hawaiian islands. It was 200 years ago when King Kamehameha finally completed his unification of the islands as a single kingdom, the completion of a 19 year effort that started with the construction of a war temple at the Pu’ukohola Heiau site. Among other things I learned during the visit, apparently the opposing leader sacrificed at the temple knew that the meeting was a setup that would involve his death but he went anyways, knowing that it was his fate to be the death that would provide the power to unify the peoples of Hawaii. That’s pretty impressive.
The temple itself is not open for tourists (it is still used by native Hawaiians performing religious rituals) but the site is and there is a well labeled trail, some videos explaining the history at the ranger station and another local beach at the base of the cliffs. The other beach – Spencer State Park – is even more of a locals hangout than Hapuna Beach. They permit camping and there is a small, well protected beach that was quite pleasant. Again we came across many families out enjoying the Saturday afternoon. There were more grills running than I could count and my mouth was watering at the sight of all the different foods being prepared. Alas, no time to try to crash one of the many parties; we had a plane to catch.
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| The beach at Spencer State Park on the Big Island |
Yes, we had a plane to catch. That’s because during the afternoon I had convinced Vince to make the hop over to Oahu with me that evening to meet up with a half dozen other guys for dinner. The fact that he had no running water at home that night probably helped in the convincing, though I still like to think that I really was that motivating. Anyways, off to the airport and on to the plane.
It was a whirlwind 18 hours on the Big Island but infinitely better than any of my previous trips to Oahu. Next time one of the $250 fares to Hawaii comes up I know what I’ll be doing when I arrive in Honolulu: leaving!
Posted by Seth on February 5, 2010 under Trip Reports, points |
For a guy who doesn’t really love Hawai’i I seem to go there an awful lot. It is hard to complain too much when the airlines offer up a $250ish fare from the New York City area as it is a trip worth a bunch of miles, but I generally don’t really enjoy being there. Of course, I blame that on having stayed in Oahu, specifically in Waikiki Beach, when I get there. I know that there are supposed to be better bits to see and this time around I’m finally going to give that a try. I’m headed to the Big Island.
Today’s trip is a four flight affair, starting with a departure from Newark at 6am and finishing with a puddle-jumper flight from Honolulu to Hilo scheduled to arrive at 8:30pm tonight. Just enough time at each connection to hop into a lounge or two for a snack and then on to the next flight. Assuming everything connects OK (which seems pretty likely so far) I shouldn’t have any troubles other than the fact that it is about 20 hours in transit from my apartment to the bed at the other end.
Map from the totaly awesome Great Circle Mapper tool
Perhaps the best part about the first flight today (EWR-SFO) is that the plane is mostly empty. Normally when flying on United Airlines I’d perform some sort of “upgrade flirt” at the counter or in the lounge to try to get a seat in the Economy Plus section for free (I know it is coming soon enough with Continental OnePass reciprocity but I’m impatient) but this morning I didn’t even bother. The First Class cabin may be booked full on this A319 but the back is wide open. There are at least 10 half rows that have one or zero customers seated there. I traded my seat up near the exit row for 22E, a middle seat in the back.
Just after takeoff I was happily asleep in my lie-flat coach seat, trying to imagine if it would really work with a second passenger cuddled up next to me as Air New Zealand thinks they’ll be able to sell with their new SkyCouch seats. And I still don’t see it working, at least not for customers over 5’ 6” tall.
I awoke from my 3+ hour snooze to one of the more disgusting views I’ve seen on a plane. This:
Seriously, it isn’t your house. I know that it isn’t particularly crowded on board this morning but keep your feet down. Yuck!
Only 15 hours yet to go on this trip. Plenty more nap time and writing time to come.
Related Posts
Posted by Seth on February 5, 2010 under News |
It looks like I need to schedule a trip so South Africa so that I can experience in person what is probably the most entertaining airline livery I’ve ever seen. The airline is South Africa’s Kulula and they’ve gone rather whimsical and informative with their new paint job.
Photo from psfk.com
Way more fun than my previous favorite, the Continental “retro-jet” sporting a livery from the company’s history. I really like that font.
Even if I can’t make it there at least I can enjoy the photos. Reminds me a bit of this Far Side cartoon from many years ago:
Posted by Seth on January 25, 2010 under Trip Reports |
I’m that guy. I feel it is important to get that out of the way very early in this trip report. I’m the guy who went to Egypt and didn’t actually see the pyramids. I was given strict instructions by many, many people that I should see the pyramids. I did much research on how to best experience the pyramids given the short amount of time we had on the ground.
And then reality set in. We only had five nights on the ground and one of them started well after midnight. We would be diving for two full days so that was a decent chunk of the total time. And we had trouble with the flights as well. Around New Years the domestic flights are pretty full so that further restricted our options time-wise. Based on that – and a desire to have more than a few hours of time to actually see things – we were basically stuck. We could either do Luxor or Cairo and the pyramids. We chose Luxor over Cairo. That meant no pyramids, but we saw amazing temples, a pharaoh and an awesome collection of sphinx.
The ride in to Luxor from Hurghada was four hours through the middle of the desert. It is truly a beautiful and completely barren landscape. Rockier than I expected for a desert but absolutely stunning. And then we were on the edge of the Nile River. The transformation from desert to lush green is a stark change. It happens suddenly along both sides of the Nile. And it is amazing. You end up with views like this from the restaurant/pool area from the hotel:
The Temple at Luxor is simply awesome. Like many of the other ruins on display in Egypt it is hard to believe that they are thousands of years old. They look reasonably new. And they are wonderfully well lighted at night. The mosque in the middle is a relatively new addition to the site but the whole of the site is a wonderful walk-through.
On our one full day in Luxor we did the “standard” half day tour. A private car, including an English-speaking driver, was about $80 for us as arranged through the front desk of our hotel. That included visiting the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and other temples. The admissions costs at the sites was easily another $75ish per person – lots more than I expected – but they were worth it for the most part.
The Valley of the Kings is a collection of tombs from a number of pharaohs who ruled about 3-4000 years ago. They decided to relocate their tombs farther south in Egypt, out in the middle of the desert, to avoid the typical looters of the pyramids. They found a site a few miles away from Luxor where there was a natural formation that resembles a pyramid – a sharp point at the top of the hill – and they excavated amazing caverns under the desert to hold their remains and possessions.
The number of tombs that are now uncovered and exposed to the public is quite impressive. The tomb of Ramses II is one of the more publicized bits of museum within the greater site. I do not think that it meets the expectations set by that publicity. It was the smallest of the three tombs we visited and the interior was rather unimpressive. Yes, there was a 3000+ year old corpse on display and that was pretty cool. And there is the hope that the money paid goes to the further maintenance and preservation of the site. But beyond that the tomb was really rather small, simple and notably less impressive than the other couple that we saw at the site.
After the Valley of the Kings it was on to the other side of the hill where the Temple of Hatshepsut sits. Hatshepsut was one of the more famous pharaohs, mostly because she was a woman, a rather rare bit in the lineage of ancient rulers in Egypt. And, for reasons that I cannot quite understand, that particular site is not excluded from photography like the Valleys of the Kings and Queens are. It is in just as good of shape as the others and it presents some amazing views of how the temples of the time were built. The hieroglyphic carvings are intricate and amazing.and are impressive even thousands of years later. But photos are permitted. I’m not complaining.
And then there are the Sphinx. Pluralize it how you wish. I like Sphinxen though I can understand where the term Sphinxes is more acceptable. Either way, there are tons of them throughout Egypt and they are quite impressive. Only recently was it discovered that there is a boulevard connecting the Temples of Luxor and Karnak, about two kilometers apart, and that the entire length of road is lined with sphinxen on both sides. Businesses and homes have been bought out using the Egyptian version of eminent domain laws and the path is being uncovered from end to end to put the sphinxen on display. The interruption to life is unfortunate but the history that they’ve been able to put on display is wonderful.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of these sphinxen on the road from Luxor to Karnak. And at either end is an amazing temple, thousands of years old and incredibly well preserved. Both are worth visiting but the site at Karnak is somewhat larger and truly amazing. Given no personal experience, if asked to describe an ancient Egyptian Temple the description given would almost certainly come very close to the reality that is the Temple at Karnak. The columns, the statues and the facades are iconic. And seeing them in person is not an experience that can be easily translated to words.
I can use the word awesome only so many times in a single post so I’ll let this be the last one:The Temple at Karnak is AWESOME. If it isn’t there already put it on your bucket list. It really is that impressive.
Following the visit to Karnak we headed back down to Luxor and settled in for a couple drinks, dinner and then heading off to the airport to start our overnight journey home. But that last afternoon and evening in Luxor gave us many wonderful discoveries. There were the couple amazing restaurants we found – probably the only two worth speaking of in Egypt from our perspective. There was the sunset. It was a beautiful blend of natural light, a range of colors and shadows and a handful of guys on the promenade, swearing that they could sell us a sunset felucca sailing even after it was clear that the sun had actually passed below the horizon.
The restaurants that afternoon and evening – Sofra and Casablanca, respectively – were both quite good. Finding an authentic dining experience rather than a greasy spoon targeting Brits, Germans and other Europeans on package holidays was incredibly hard throughout our time in Egypt. Asking at the hotel in Hurghada got us referred to a restaurant that was out of business. Asking elsewhere endured the risk of being sent to the place where the baksheesh was stronger than the actual quality. It was not a good situation.
There were many recommendations for a place on the west bank of the Nile that had all the details except for an actual address. We never found that restaurant. But these two, these tourist-focused but authentic cuisine shops, were truly outstanding. The food quality was some of the best that we experienced in Egypt and the service was top notch, almost too much in the case of Casablanca. Still, we finally managed to actually find some good food in Egypt and that was a tremendous relief. The trouble we had on that front is a big enough scar on the visit that it has actually made a return trip less likely than I had expected it to be.
Overall the experiences that one can have in Egypt are unparalleled. There is simply too much there that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world that it demands a few days out of every life. And it still demands a few more days of mine.
After all, I still have to see the pyramids.
More photos from the trip here.
Posted by Seth on January 6, 2010 under Trip Reports |
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| Happy New Years from Barcelona! |
I’m a bit late in getting to my year-end summary of travel this year because, well, I was traveling. No sense wasting part of a wonderful vacation in Barcelona trying to figure out the details of my year in review when there was so much delicious food to be had and beautiful sights to be seen. But I’m back now and finally had a chance to update my records with the flights from last year and take a look at just how much I did. The numbers are pretty astounding to me.
My travels in 2009 were, by far, the most extensive I’ve ever had. There was more of just about everything. And it was a ton of fun. I visited more countries – 20 – than I’ve ever visited in a year. I actually doubled my previous high of 10. Even more exciting for me is that of the 20, 12 were new to me.
I flew on 25 different airlines (more if you count the various express operators out there), from the largest in the world to some of the smallest.
I flew on 34 different aircraft types, ranging in size from 6 seats to 350ish. I got on every jet type that Boeing currently has flying (I think – 717, 737 Classic, 737 NG, 747, 757, 767, 777) and most of the Airbus (A300, A318, A319, A320, A321, A330, A340) and Embrear (E140, E145, E170, E190) options, too. There were other aircraft, including random props and a few flights on a Gulfstream G IV.
I flew a total of 180,752 miles, give or take a few. I spent almost 17 days in the air and flew about three quarters of the way to the moon or just over seven times around the earth. That bests my previous annual high by over 50%.
Most amazing to me, however, was the number of new (to me) routes I flew this past year. I flew 126 flights in the year. Of those, 70 of them were on routes I had not previously flown. A full 55% of my flights were on new routes. Considering that I managed to make it home from every trip that seems rather amazing to me.
I also redeemed more miles than ever last year – over 500,000 in total. That covered a number of trips, many in the pointy end of the plane and all of them across oceans. Some of my accounts are looking a bit anemic right now but I’ve got plans to solve that problem pretty quickly.
The best part is that I’ve already started to count up for 2010. A couple countries, several new routes and a bunch of miles have already been logged. Plus, I’ve got trips booked through April so far covering lots more routes and miles.
