Posted by Seth on February 5, 2012 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports | 
The route network of Adria Airways is a bit limited, as is their overall fleet (13 planes, 10 of which are CRJ-200/900s), but when Ljubljana is your destination, as it was for me, they’re definitely the carrier of choice. OK, fine, the CRJ-200 is a pretty miserable experience, even with the friendly Adria flight crew, but the flight actually wasn’t bad at all.
Adria actually blocks the front few rows of the CRJ200 as "Business Class" though the offerings aren’t particularly impressive. I was flying in economy and, other than no mini bottle of water prior to departure, I think the service was pretty much the same. I was fortunate to have an empty seat next to me so I was relatively comfortable for the flight.
The trip from Munich to Ljubljana is a quick one, only about 35 minutes in the air, so no service during the flight though I didn’t mind much. I was rather distracted by the beautiful views out the window. I love flying over snow-capped mountains.
The approach into Ljubljana was similarly beautiful, particularly with the mountains off to the side behind the airport. It makes for quite a first impression getting off the plane.
The flight was quick and pleasant. No service to speak of but really not an issue for 30 minutes in the air. And given their awesome connectivity in the region I can see flying Adria more often if in the area again. And, given how beautiful Ljubljana is, I hope to be back in the region sooner than not.
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Posted by Seth on January 9, 2012 under Trip Reports |
Climb up on top of your very own elephant and come along for a ride. Ahhh….a typical day in the life as a tourist in Sri Lanka.
After negotiating with a half dozen or so different providers (apparently bookings were high for that day) we finally were up on top of our very own pachyderm for an hour ride through the village and the marshlands behind it.
Not surprisingly there was an enterprising local hanging out on the path selling bags of small bananas to feed to the elephants. Incredible markup on the prices, but that’s what you get for being in the right place at the right time. And having the elephant take the banana out of my hand with its trunk was simply awesome.
We made it through the tour with only a small bit of traffic on the route, passing three or four other groups essentially doing the same route we did.
One of the main differences on our ride, however, was that we were not on a platform on the elephant. Out driver insisted that we ride directly on the animal’s back to get the full experience and there is no doubt in my mind that it was a very different experience. The feel of the shoulders and back undulating under us as we lumbered through the walk was most definitely interesting.
This was a very different experience from that at the bath time in Kerala. That offered us the opportunity to get up close to the animals and to watch them but not to actually ride them around. Getting to feel the texture of their skin and the hot breath coming out of the trunk as it exhaled on me while also jonesing for bananas was quite a bit of fun.
And then the hour was up, we headed back to the "shop" and climbed down off the beast. A quick hug of its trunk (still looking for bananas, I might add) and then we were back in the car and on the road again, heading off to our next awesome adventure.
Posted by Seth on December 16, 2011 under Trip Reports |
It is always a bit strange to me when I grab my stuff and head out to the airport knowing that I won’t be boarding a flight that day. But every time JetBlue announces one of their “Live at T5 Concert Series” shows I check my calendar and se if I’m otherwise busy that day. The shows generally are awesome and so is the fun of sitting at the airport, making new friends and enjoying a free concert. And I must say that Chris Isaak put on a phenomenal performance.
He did one song as a sound check and then came out for a 35 minute set. There were a couple Christmas Carols mixed in, including the “political statement” Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Most of the songs, however were old standards and it was a lot of fun.
He also cracked a couple jokes at the TSA‘s expense, noting the difficulties he had getting through security in his sequined jacket.
Also in the play list were:
Great Balls of Fire
Pretty Woman
Can’t Help Falling in Love
Love it Up (I think that’s the title; the first 30 seconds have a shout-out to JetBlue and the TSA crack)
Wicked Game
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Posted by Seth on November 3, 2011 under Flying, Review, Trip Reports |
It was day three of scheduled commercial service for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, operated by ANA, and I was on board. No, it was not the actual inaugural flight, but I still managed to get there within the first week of operations and I could not be more excited about the experience. It was awesome. That’s not to say that everything about the aircraft is perfect, but the experience certainly was.
My flight on the Dreamliner was from Hiroshima to Tokyo‘s Haneda airport. The trip is only about 400 miles and the total time in the air was just over one hour so it wasn’t really sufficient to try out everything on board, especially the effects of the higher pressurization (though I don’t recall my ears popping like usual, but I’m also not great at noticing that because it happens so often) and the more moist cabin air, but I still managed to put it through the paces as best I could.
Boarding was quick and efficient, as expected from the Japanese. Still, they allotted an extra 5 minutes to the process as they knew this was a special experience. There was something of a crush of gate lice to the self-boarding gates as they announced that boarding was available. Fortunately my Star Alliance Gold status (and being the big, ugly American) got me towards the front of the crush and on reasonably early in the process.
Business Class Cabin
Nothing really to say here; looks pretty comfy but this also is not their premium long-haul configuration so I’m not too worried about it.
Economy Cabin
There has been a bit of concern since Seat Guru published their guide to the seat map of the aircraft about the seat width in coach. The 2-4-2 layout (which really is more like 2-2-2-2 without an aisle in the middle) lends itself to a very generous seat width yet the reports on the site show the width as a hip-crushing 16.5". Good news, folks. That data is just plain wrong. The bulkhead rows, where the tray tables are in the arm rest, have the narrower width but the rest of the aircraft has a quite generous 18.5" or more width. The seats are quite roomy.
Seat recline is an interesting change from a typical airplane configuration. The seat back doesn’t actually move. Instead the seat-bottom slides forward about three inches and the back slides down a bit, creating the same effect as reclining. But it does so without imposing the seat on the passenger behind you. This sucks if you have long legs and also want to recline as you’re basically stuck but it is great for folks (like me) who hate having someone reclined into you.
The AVOD system is pretty nice, with 9" screens in coach. That’s about as big as you can get being so close to the screen and still be able to watch comfortably. There is a seat-to-seat messaging system and the screens can be used either as touch screens or with the controller. I was rather unimpressed with the music and video selections; no movies (though maybe because the flight was too short) and only a couple dozen short video programs plus maybe a dozen CDs for music. I hope that’s just because they don’t have the content fully loaded and not because it is going to be such a paltry offering going forward.
I’m also a big fan of the built-in cup holder in the tray table. They have two, one if it is open and one if it is closed, meaning that you can use the tray table for a laptop or other purposes and still have somewhere to stow a drink. Definitely a nice touch.
And then there is the mood lighting. Lots of fun there. The flight attendants were playing with this feature a bit, particularly during boarding and de-planing. It is fun, but I’m not sure it adds much value to the in-flight experience. It does demonstrate the ability to control the lighting levels to a very granular level, which I suppose is a very useful thing.
The windows are HUGE. It was a night flight so I’m not sure how much this really matters, but they were noticeably larger than on older aircraft. We’ll have to see what the net effects of this are in the long term but it certainly was nice. The electronic dimmers on the windows were a bit sluggish to react but they behaved exactly as advertised in the end. Again, a night flight made it hard to really evaluate the impact of this but it was certainly neat.
In the lav
The Japanese and their toilets. Touchless flushing (it puts down the seat, too!) and bidet functions (designed by Toto) are built in to the toilets. There’s also a window in the lav by 3L (though not at 3R). I do like a lav window.
It isn’t perfect
OK, maybe my expectations are just too high. Still, like one of the notes in a review offered up by Kerwin I noticed a few quirks in the flight. It was VERY quiet at cruise, and I was sitting just aft of the wing so I should’ve had engine noise to some extent if there was much. During the flight there wasn’t. That said, the mechanical noises surrounding the operation of the flaps and other wing control surfaces were pretty loud. Again, maybe just because I was sitting basically on top of them, but Kerwin noticed it, too.
There was also a strange "whine" going on throughout the flight. It was very high pitched – like an old tube TV going bad – and I have no idea if others noticed it or not. It kept going even after the engines were shut down upon arrival so I’m guessing it has to do with the electrical power plant on board. No matter what, it was pretty annoying. Not enough to ruin the experience, but if it really is like that going forward I can see it being a problem for me flying on this aircraft.
Finally, the new overhead bins, while well designed for baggage, are not particularly well configured for an adult to climb in. I’m thoroughly disappointed in that development.
It was a great day and a great trip. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back on board soon.
Oh, and if you want to check out the pre-flight safety video it is here:
Read more from this Trip Report under the Dream2011 tag here.
Tags: 787, ANA, Boeing, Dream2011, Dreamliner, Hiroshima, Japan, Photos, review, Star Alliance, Tokyo, video
Posted by Seth on October 13, 2011 under Trip Reports |
It is a bit hard to see the arrival at Robben Island, off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, as a welcoming event. As our boat arrived after the ~50 minute cruise over from the Cape Town Waterfront, it was hard not to feel both very welcome on the island as well as the effects of stepping back into history, near and far.
The island was used for hundreds of years as a prison, leper colony and quarantine station. Starting in the 1960s Robben Island had a number of buildings constructed to allow for its use as a maximum security prison facility to house political prisoners. The most famous of its residents in that time was Nelson Mandela, and several other famous political figures from South Africa served sentences there as well. In 1991 the last of the prisoners were removed from the island, ending its long-running role. Five years later Nelson Mandela, a former resident of the prison, was elected as the President of South Africa and the prison complex became a museum.
Today the Robben Island Museum is operated by the Ministry of Arts and Culture, offering tours of the island. The Island is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (and it is the 47th I have visited). In addition to the boat ride out to Robben Island and a tour of the maximum security prison facilities and other bits of the island the tours also include a portion guided by an ex-prisoner of the facility. When I first read that on their website I was mostly unimpressed. I’m not entirely sure why, but I didn’t expect that part of the tour to be particularly special. I could not have been more wrong.
It was clear that he was not a professional tour guide, but having someone there with the personal connection to the site really made an enormous difference. And having him give us a tour not just of the prison complex, but of the cell where he personally spent so many years of his life, was incredibly moving.
The common cells (shown in the photo above) were crowded, offered no privacy and were exposed to the elements, leaving the prisoners cold and wet in the winters and overheated in the summers. The private cells weren’t much better. The isolation that the prisoners were subjected to was just as punishing as the fact that they were imprisoned at all.
After we left the main prison complex portion of the tour we boarded buses and drove around the rest of the island. There is a small town still on the island – many of the former prisoners still live there with their families today – and there are some phenomenal views back across the harbor to Cape Town.
We also drove past the old quarry on the island. The quarry was worked by the prisoners and was also one of the main areas they used as a meeting place to provide education to each other and to continue their work for the African National Congress. When the former prisoners returned in 1996 after winning control of the government they were faced with the decision of what to do with the facility. As they completed their tour of the quarry area Nelson Mandela picked up a stone and carried it towards the exit of the area, depositing it at the exit of the quarry. Others followed in his footsteps, eventually building the mound of stones that is now visible at the site.
This is the only monument of any sort that was built on the grounds.
And then it was time for the boat ride back across the harbor into Cape Town. The mood on the ride over was somewhat chipper and sociable. The return ride was much quieter, to say the least. Most passengers were lost in their own thoughts.
I simply cannot express enough how amazing the whole experience was. Yes, it was somewhat emotionally draining, but every now and then it is good to really feel something like that in your travels rather than simply gliding through a city only seeing the pretty things.
Posted by Seth on August 25, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports |
Given a few days bumming around in Cape Town, South Africa, there were several different tours of the Cape on the itinerary. One of the trips was a bit more special than the others, mostly because it was run at 2500 feet above ground in a helicopter. Yes, the tour was a bit pricey (~$320/person for the hour-long flight), but it was an awesome way to see the area and a ton of fun.
We started off at the Helicopters Cape Town offices adjacent to the V&A Waterfront. This is the main tourist area downtown and offers up the infrastructure to support the tour operations. The crew working there were friendly and fun and quite accommodating of our rather ridiculous behavior. After watching the safety video and signing away our lives on the waiver form it was time to head out to the helicopter and go for a ride.
Taking off over the harbor we flew down the western coast of the Cape, past Table Mountain, Lion’s Head and the other peaks dotting the coast line.
As we approached Hout Bay we crossed over a bit of land and then made our run at the tip of the continent. The beaches and coast line in this area is mostly national park lands and rather well managed. This leaves them in a pristine state. Gaining access on the ground to many of them is quite difficult but they are stunning from above.
We also passed by a beach with some folks riding horses along the shore and a beach with a shipwreck right in the middle. Apparently the captain thought that he was pulling into False Bay and missed. The outline of the wreck in the sand is pretty cool.
The next stop on the tour was the Cape itself. The chunk of rock jutting out into the ocean is rather impressive. Seeing it from above is awesome.
After circling around there for a bit we headed up the eastern side of the Cape back towards town. Once again, amazing views along the coast line. The inside of the Cape is more populated and that created a rather different set of scenery as we flew along. At one point we crossed near a military base. Apparently they are known for running training missions from time to time firing shells out into the sea. Or our pilot was just having some fun with us. Either way, an entertaining story.
Finally, we made our approach to land. Being the aerogeeks that we are, and because we were given the option, we chose to have the flight end at our hotel rather than back up at the waterfront. Mostly because it is cool but also to save the 30 minute drive back after the flight. Needless to say, the folks playing golf on the course adjacent to where we landed were a bit annoyed. But it sure was nice landing about 100 feet from the room.
Overall, a fantastic experience and one that I’m quite happy I let myself be talked into.
Posted by Seth on August 14, 2011 under frequent flyer, points |
Want to win a 25K award ticket without too much effort? Have I got a deal for you! SAS is running a contest where folks can create a video and win 1MM points from their program. Creating a video is a lot of work, however, and the time to enter the contest is closed. But that just makes it easier to win the 25K award. Confused yet? Allow me to explain.
A couple folks in the frequent traveler community are looking to build some buzz and some votes for a few specific entries. To that end they are offering up a free ticket to one person who votes for any or all of their videos. Full details on the contest are here. Suffice it to say, the odds of winning are pretty good. Here’s the excerpt from the rules thread from the contest:
Before I go into the procedure for entering the giveaway, I should let you know that you can give yourself a second entry to the giveaway by sharing this giveaway with your friends on Facebook. Just share the link for this thread on FB by clicking here. Make sure and include the fact that you’ve both voted and shared in your comment per #6 below.
Here’s the procedure:
- Go to the first video (my favorite!)
- Click “Login with Facebook”
- Click “Allow” (don’t worry, it won’t post to your Facebook without your permission)
- Vote for the video!
- Repeat #4 for all the rest linked below (I’d suggest only opening 6 tabs at a time. When I opened more, Chrome slowed to a crawl.)
- Leave a reply to this thread saying that you’ve voted for all the videos (Please preface it with the word “Entry” so that it’s clear it’s an entry.)
Yes, you have to join MilePoint or FlyerTalk to enter the contest (FT version of the thread is here), but that really shouldn’t dissuade anyone from entering. This is my favorite of the videos, Takeoff:
As an added bonus, I’ve entered the contest but I have no intention of winning. If I do win then I’ll be giving away the award to someone who enters based on having read about the contest here. Just leave a comment here as well and you’ll have a shot at the second chance drawing should I be the one to win. It will be random based on the comment number.
Help out the community and make sure those million miles go to a good cause. But do so quickly. Voting ends at midnight CET on 15 August 2011 (that’s 6 or 7pm EDT on Monday; I’m bad at time zones).
Posted by Seth on August 3, 2011 under Flying, Trip Reports |
It seems that about once a year or so a news piece comes across the wire about a passenger who books a flight to Sydney and ends up in Sydney, only to find out that it is not at all what they expected. Rather than arriving in Sydney, Australia they find themselves in Sydney, Nova Scotia. Quite a difference there.
As part of our Canadian Maritimes adventure I purposefully booked an open-jaw award ticket. This was partly to ensure that we got to see as much of the area as possible without needing to double back with the rental car when it was time to leave. Just as much, however, it was to be able to fly out of Sydney. On purpose.
The flight was completely uneventful. Nothing special at all. Well, except that a woman in the row behind us was on her first flight ever and it was on a DASH-8 prop that took just about every bump along the way and transmitted it right into the passenger cabin. There were a few yelps at those points.
Soon enough we were in Halifax and ready to connect to our onward flight back to Newark. Not nearly as entertaining as the flight from the "other" Sydney.
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Posted by Seth on August 1, 2011 under Trip Reports |
What’s the one animal you want to see most? The one that would make today’s game drive a "win" for you?
This was the question, posed by my friend, I pondered over breakfast at the Kichaka Game Lodge on the morning of our last day. Having previously experienced mostly mud and rain (though it was a fun adventure) I knew that this was our last chance to see the wild animals. The weather was finally cooperating and so it was time to throw in my vote for the animal I really, really wanted to see in the wild.
Giraffe. It actually wasn’t all that tough a decision for me. The cats are cool (and we did see some of those, too), but giraffes are so incredibly strange to me that seeing one in the wild was the coolest option I could think of. It took all of three minutes for that desire to be satisfied.
We cleared the gates out of the lodge and started up the road to the reserve. About 500 meters in to the drive the road was blocked by a half dozen or so giraffes, calmly eating their breakfast from the brush alongside the road. Awesome.
Eventually they cleared the road (it is their land, not ours, so we just waited for them) and headed up into the main entrance of the reserve to see what other animals were around. A couple minutes later the CB radio crackled to life with the voice of one of the other guides indicating that they’d spotted cheetahs on the move. As it turns out, these cheetahs were hanging out at the same place we were the day prior as we were trying to rescue our truck out of the mud adjacent to an antelope carcass. Much as we had joked over drinks the night before about eyes in bush, staring at us as we worked to free the vehicle, it turns out they really were there. Good thing we didn’t try to eat the antelope, I suppose.
The cheetahs – a mother and two cubs – were on the move from that kill site. Their route took them down a hill, across a road and into the brush on the far side of that small valley. Fortunately for us that road just happened to be where we were stationed. These amazing, graceful, deadly animals pretty much walked directly in front of us. Beautiful.
Next up on our list of sightings was the elephant, a huge and surprisingly graceful animal. This was the "winner" animal of my friend and so, in the span of about an hour, we were both rather sated from a spotting perspective. Not that we were about to object to seeing any other animals, of course.
We left the elephant for a while as he headed into the woods and we drove on for our morning tea break. As we came back onto the main road the elephant had reappeared and was munching on some lunch. We were chatting with Geoff, our guide, about the behavior of the elephant and the animals in general and, before we knew what happened, the six ton beast was more or less next to our truck. It had approached in near silence and it moved on with similar stealth. More than anything, its ability to move so quietly was truly amazing.
With the elephant now gone back into the woods it was time to spot a few other species. Antelopes by the dozens, just waiting to be a meal for one of the larger beasts. Ostrich, too, though no heads buried. We saw some warthogs but they were skittish and didn’t pose for pictures.
In the end, the big missing beast was the lion. We saw tracks a number of times but they weren’t coming out to play and if they do not want to be found they almost certainly will not be. Just gives me an excuse to have to go back, I suppose.
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Posted by Seth on July 29, 2011 under Trip Reports |
There is, without a doubt, a reason that the Skyline Trail in Cape Breton National Park is considered the go to trail when visitors have a limited amount of time to experience the park. Sure, choosing a favorite trail is sortof like choosing your favorite child. They’re all wonderful in their own way and picking just one doesn’t really make a ton of sense. Still, the Skyline Trail generally gets quite high marks and of the trails we hiked it is definitely my favorite.
The Skyline Trail is a rather easy hike across mostly level ground on well groomed gravel trails and boardwalks. The round trip from the parking lot takes 2-3 hours to do the loop, depending on how often you stop to take photos and admire the scenery. Needless to say, our version was a bit on the longer side thanks to my stopping all too often.
At the end of the trail the boardwalk descends out to a point from which the views are simply unbelievable. Full panoramas of the ocean in front and the mountains behind, The boardwalk also serves to protect the area as it is a quite delicate ecosystem that experienced significant erosion prior to the construction of the pathway. And the benches provide great spots to rest, relax and picnic if you’ve remembered to bring food with you (ours was fried chicken and it was delicious!).
There is also an "advanced" version of the trail where part of the loop is less well groomed and less level. No gravel or boardwalks in this area but it is still quite a reasonable track and not particularly strenuous. It also adds a different set of flora and difference vistas to the hike and I highly recommend it.
Oh, and bring your windbreaker. The point juts out into the water in an area where the trade winds meet each other, creating an area where the breeze is more like a gale. You can see this in some of the segments of the video.
Words don’t really do justice to the beauty that is the Skyline Trail. Even the photos and video only show a small chunk of just how beautiful the area is. It certainly isn’t just this one hike that makes the Cabot Trail area a UNESCO World Heritage Site (my 46th visited!) but it doesn’t hurt the cause either.
Posted by Seth on July 27, 2011 under Trip Reports |
One of the most enjoyable things about Cape Breton National Park in Nova Scotia is that there are a wide variety of hiking options available. Some trails are many miles and hours long while others can be done in a few minutes from the nearest parking lot. Mary Ann Falls certainly fits in the latter category, making it a great place to visit quickly after hitting up some of the other, more significant bits of the park (or other activities in the region). Oh, and you can go cliff jumping there, too.
The falls are accessible via a dirt road that runs several kilometers up into the park off the main Cape Breton Trail. From the parking area it is only a 10-15 minute walk down to the foot of the falls. The pool at the bottom is swimmable, assuming you can get over the chilly water temperatures. And from the edge of the rock formation one can make a leap into the pool. It isn’t quite so elegant as to be considered proper cliff diving, but it is definitely possible.
After our morning spent kayaking out of Dingwall we had a delicious lunch in Neil’s Harbor before making the drive up to the falls. When we got to the pool we saw some other folks making what appeared to be rather ridiculous leaps into the water.
As ridiculous as the jumps may have appeared, the folks making them survived repeatedly, suggesting that it was probably safe. Before I knew what was happening Linnea had climbed up and was leaping off. After watching her survive the jump I set up my camera and headed over to perform my own jump into the water. Needless to say, it is not the most elegant of moves I’ve ever made. Still, I didn’t flop nor did I injure myself, so I’ll take it.
Easy to get to and lots of fun once you’re there. What more can you ask for??
