Just landed in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 170th city of 100 000 people I have visited! Argentina is the 54th country I have visited! Bit more trivia: Buenos Aries EZE airport is the 2o0th airport I have been to!

I am going to update this blog post as I explore Buenos Aires this weekend.

Our plane touched down 23 minutes early into a grey 9 degrees celsius (48F). As soon as we landed there was a rush forward of people determined to get off first! Seated in the first row of Economy (Row 20A on this American Airlines Boeing 777) meant I had a little head start. I walked quickly and was soon close to the front of all the deplaned passengers. (Immigration queues in many countries can be horrendous so I try to be as close to first in the queue as I can!). Immediately upon deplaning, we walked up a steep gangway to a gleaming new terminal. More twists and turns brought us to a junction with three coloured lines:

1. Argentinean Citizens
2. Citizens who had visa rights (almost every country in the world)
3. Citizens of Australia, Canada and USA

I followed the third line to a booth where I handed over $100 for the privilege of entering Argentina. US and Canadians seemed to pay less. How did Australia offend Argentina so much? The advantage of being separated from the general queue means I got from plane through payment, immigration photo and thumb printing and customs (where my customs form was taken away and baggage x-rayed)  to the airport hall in 16 minutes!

While paying my $100, an altercation started at the line of non residents from other countries. One guy began shouting that he had been waiting too long. He began demanding in English more officers be put on duty.  I think his accent was Russian. He pushed people forward “across the line” and there was a surge of people seeking an express way out. Some even filtered onto my line where the immigration official told them to go back.

The airport police came down as I fled the scene! Not sure I would start a fight in the immigration hall of a country I am trying to get into?

The curse of landing early and getting through means that my car was not of course waiting for me, so I  got to watch the airport activity for a while with people greeting each other with hugs, kisses, tears and business like handshakes. My driver got there after 15 minutes.

The ride into Centro Buenos Aires was a lot less hair raising than  expected and milder than some of my other rides into cities. The freeway limit is 130km/h (91mph) which surprised me. Cars of course took the limit as advice not requirement!

We moved onto Aires 9 de Julio, the widest street in the world with nine lanes wide and gardened medians between the two traffic directions. Looking up, I  saw a massive picture of Eva Peron, gazing down on “her” people. I asked my driver about it and got five minute lecture on Peronist politics.

At the  intersection of 9 de Julio and Corrientes Avenue is El Obelisco (the Obelisk) that represents Buenos Aires and the independence of Argentina. Built in 1936, it stands 67.5 m with a blunt tip measuring just 40 cm. The four sides of the obelisk each represent the defining moments in the city’s history:

1. its founding in 1536
2. its second and definitive foundation in 1580
3. the first raising of the Argentinian flag in 1812,
4. declaration of Buenos Aires as the nation’s capital in 1880.

During the Peronist government in the 1970′s a sign which read “El silenco es salud”,  (Silence is health). Was it referring to sounding car horns or expressing alternative political views? In 2005, the obelisk was dressed in a large condom for World AIDS day! Unfortunately, the public is not allowed cannot climb its 206 steps to the top.

My hotel is around the corner, near Plaza San Martín  (pictured) in the Retiro neighbourhood at the north of the city. Off to explore now!

Dinner tonight was “typical”:Argentinian steak with salads and breads, red wine and a very late night!  I forgot to take photos. Dessert flan with Dulce Leche. Yum!

Graffiti in Central Buenos Aries.

Recently, my partner and I stayed at a small rural hotel in Australia’s Sunshine Coast. Check in was pleasant and friendly. We dumped our bags in the room, had a shower and went out to dinner.

As I reached into my pocket in the restaurant at about 1020pm for the car keys to return to the hotel, I realised that I did not have the room key.

I immediately rang the hotel and got the voice mail of reception.  I left a detailed message and then rang again 30 minutes later.

When we arrived at the hotel at 1105pm, we found reception was closed and the hotel silent and deserted. I called again.

I discovered at the reception, a night bell. I pressed the bell and it connected through to the same number at reception. I left another message and we waited. My other half decided to put the seat in the car back and fall asleep! There was what looked like an apartment labelled “Private”. I banged on the door and window calling out. Nil response. I noticed that there were two car park spaces and only one car there. I hoped that the car owner was the hotel manager and was out for a few drinks with friends.

At that point, another guest arrived. I asked her if she could call the number listed for after hour emergencies in the hotel information pack. This she did. It too went to the main hotel number. She left a message.

I rang a few more times. I then called the hotel chain booking service to see if they had another number for the owners. They didn’t. I rang our travel agent’s 24 hour support line. They had no other numbers and rang the hotel and also left a message.

I tried to find a way through the locked windows of our room.

I did a search on the business registration websites to see if there were any other numbers I could call someone, anyone on.

I looked up how to open a door with a Credit Card, on the Internet. Its very practical and helpful but does not work. I wrecked two cards.

At 240am, I called the local  police station thinking they may have local knowledge of the owner. The call switched through to the central police switchboard. The person who answered was very helpful but no hulking policemen came around to smash the door down.

I admitted defeat at 330am and joined my now snoring partner!

The sun came up between 4 and 5. At 5am, 530 and 6am I rang the hotel. At 630am, the owner answered. We were in our room by 636am. I carried my partner into the room. We slept to 9 and then checked out. The owner admitted he normally sleeps with the phone by his side but decided not to this night!

He charged us full price. Should he have?

I have just run a half marathon in Hobart, Tasmania. One of my 2012 steps toward my fitness goal is 12 major runs of 12km (7miles) or more. Of those I aim to do six half marathons. A half marathon is 21km (almost 13 miles).

I am aiming to do a half marathon in Paris in March. Maybe one on the Gold Coast of Australia in July. Anyone want to join me?  Or for any of them? Open to suggestions of interesting places to run.

Today’s race: The Cadbury Marathon was relatively well organised. There were very helpful officials along the way and plenty of encouraging crowds. It started and finished at the Cadbury Chocolate factory in Claremont, a suburb of Hobart. The factory is about 15km from downtown.

I have some suggestions toward the end of this post for possible changes to improve the event if I may be so cheeky.

The morning started with rain but became sunny -with a gentle breeze. Perfect running weather through a stunning course.  I ran the first 15km (9 miles)

well and was in fact five minutes ahead of my target time. The last six kilometres was more problematic and I blew my time target. I ran the whole thing in a time that was somewhere between 2hours 15 minutes and 2 hours 20 minutes which is quite acceptable. My aim is to get under two hours.

My first thoughts regarding change are connected with the course. As I said, it  starts at the Cadbury factory in Claremont, a suburb of Hobart and winds its way along the river to the Derwent Entertainment Centre and back to the Cadbury Factory. On arrival back at the factory, traffic was a little crazy due to cars trying to make their way into the site as well. I was wondering why the organisers don’t make the finish line in then centre of Hobart city? The advantages:

• it would be a more stunning finish- coming onto the waterfront in Hobart (no offence Cadbury, the finish is not very exciting)
• there would be a tourist boost to the shops and restaurants downtown (many people would stay for lunch/brunch/a drink/ coffee and shopping)
• there wouldn’t be the doubling up the course has to do to get people around each other
• it would be easier for people to be picked up
• there is public transport out of the city
• Cadbury, the major sponsor, could get their signage downtown and be noticed by more people.

The disadvantages are that there would be more roads closed and downtown Hobart would suffer with road closures but they handle that for other things.

We were all given a sample bag at the end. As the race is sponsored by Cadbury contained a big block of chocolate and a small candy bar size choc. I have eaten the smaller one but will give the bigger one to my neighbour for watching my house! This also helps me watch my weight (remember my fitness goal!)

This is where things got a little pear shaped. I took a taxi to the course start because there was no public transport available. Bus services start later  on Sunday than the race start. The organisers of the race had arrnaged for two buses to go from one of the city hotels out to the course start. These buses were too early for my sleeping needs!

I had decided to get one of the public buses back to the city from the factory. Because of the road closures, all  buses going back to Hobart from Claremont had been diverted. But to where? I asked three policeman. None of them knew.  Metro Tasmania (which runs buses in Tasmania) had no information on their website. When calling their number, I found, they had a cheery announcement telling people that their phone lines are closed on a weekend (what no one catches buses on a weekend???). At the bus stop near the Cadbury factory, there were eight people waiting. Two had been waiting for almost two hours for a bus. There was no signage at the bus stop to say that buses would be diverted or for how long or where. I took a cab back to my hotel and regretted not hiring a car for the day! I thought this was a very poor effort on the part of Metro Tasmania for locals and tourists alike. It also makes this event a little less environmentally friendly.

Thankfully, I rested by enjoying an amazing Farmer’s market: The Tas Farm Gate. Great healthy vitamins in fresh juice from Juicy Lucy. Thanks guys!

Recovery Juice (Beetroot, Carrot, Apple, ginger and something else)

In 2011 I visited  eleven new cities with a population of 100 000 people plus. This brought the number of cities I have been to with that size population to 167.  The new cities were (in order of how highly I rated them)

1. Seoul, S Korea…I was blown away by this amazing vibrant capital city. I ve decided it is the best city in Asia and my 11th favourite in the world!
2. Exeter, UK….a cute small English city with amazing Roman ruins and a very old and grand Cathedral
3. Dubai, UAE…as fun, spectacular and  mind boggling as I had been led to believe
4. Brasilia, Brazil…Despite the many detractors, I really enjoyed this city- so much so that I dedicated five blog posts to it!
5. Beirut, Lebanon…vibrant, fun with so so so much potential. If the hounds of war can be kept at bay, this will be a city to watch
6. Pattaya, Thailand….this is a lovely city which is easy to get around with amazing food but I found there is a very nasty undercurrent which I found very disturbing
7. Changwon, S Korea…another planned city but not one that feels oppressively planned
8. Houston, USA…I must admit, I was dreading going to Houston but was very pleasantly surprised
9. Fujariah, UAE…fascinating place with a great castle and  one of the oldest mosques in the world
10. Amman, Jordan….chaotic, friendly with great food and drink and very friendly people. Better infrastructure and public transport would make it a great city
11. Dammam, Kingdom Saudi Arabia…. a city that is overshadowed by neighbouring Bahrain…frankly I felt, a lot of work is needed here to bring this city up to world standards….unplanned infrastructure, poor public transportation don’t help with getting around

Last year, I identified my top ten cities in the world. That listing has not changed in the year:

1. Paris remains my Number One in the world.
2. Berlin
3. San Francisco - see my 2011 Review
4.  Melbourne, Australia
5.  Stockholm
6.   Montreal
7.  Barcelona
8.  Wellington, New Zealand
9.  Portland, Oregon, USA
10.  Toronto, Canada

What are your favourite cities?

Long been curious to try Royal Brunei. Due to a quirk in my schedule, I got the chance to last week. Even though it involved two stopovers, their flight got me out of London and into Melbourne at a time that fitted my schedule.

My first Royal Brunei sector was actually the 787th flight of my life. I had hoped for a flight on the 787 but the timing didn’t work. (For those who have been following, I flew my 737th on a Southwest 737, 747th in a Qantas B747, then United for 757, Qantas for 767 and more recently Air New Zealand 777).

Who are Royal Brunei?

Set up in 1974 by the Government of Brunei who still own the national carrier, Royal Brunei currently serve 18 destinations in Asia, Australia, the Middle East and London. Four cities will be trimmed from the network at the end of the month.

The carrier has had a mixed history oscillating between expansion and contraction. In fact the cities they have served (19) now outnumber the cities they currently serve (18). They have chewed through CEOS in recent years with three between September 2o02 and March 2011. There is currently no CEO.

Fleet currently includes: six 777s (leased from Singapore Airlines) and four A320s. They have an order for five 787s but I am not sure if that will proceed.

They were also my 79th airline, I have flown with.

It appears to me that Royal Brunei, having gone through an expansion period between 2006 and 2010, had to reduce fares to fill their planes. They as a result,  filled their planes with Australians, New Zealanders and English paying very cheap fares. Most of these passengers only used Brunei as a transit stop so the country had limited benefit from the growth and Royal Brunei lost money on the services. One English couple told me this was their seventh flight with Royal Brunei and they had found it was cheaper to travel through Brunei using the country as a stopover than it was to fly just to Brunei! This is not sustainable business. This year they have announced major restructuring designed to stem losses.

They are not part of an alliance.

Booking: 7 out of 10

The website (http://www.bruneiair.com) is a little clunky. I signed up for their Frequent Flyer Program “Royal Skies” online. Conformation was instant with the temporary card popping in my email in seconds. As part of the registration process, it asked me for my status with any other program. I entered that I was Gold with Qantas.  I cheekily followed that up by emailing their frequent flyer centre and asking for a “status match” (hey you gotta try!). The email bounced back, however, telling me basically all services can be done on the website. That seemed to foil that idea.

There is no seat selection system available online so I could not nab a bulkhead seat.

Check in: 7 out of 10

The Royal Brunei website would not let me check in. Telephoning the Australian office (there does not appear to be a centralised reservation centre), I was told that the online check in system was not working for passengers to Australia!

I arrived 3 hours before check in- very early- so the actual physical check in it was very fast and very efficient. I tried again for my bulkhead seat to find out that there were eight infants on the flight so all the bulkheads were taken.

 Boarding: 8 out of 10

Royal Brunei like to get you to the gate very early. I wised up by Brunei Airport and took my time. Boarding was very smooth each time.

We had a crew change in Dubai and a crew and plane change in Brunei. All of the crew were friendly and worked hard. They even showed passengers to their seats, something I have not seen on many airlines anymore.

Upon landing at Dubai, we all had to “de-plane” but could leave hand luggage on board. Our boarding pass was taken as we exited. In exchange,  we were given a card with a numbered on it. We hung onto that card and returned it to the gate staff upon re boarding in exchange  for our Boarding pass. No idea why they do that this way?! We then passed through security into the main Dubai airport terminal with its acres of shops. The security line for transit passengers was badly signposted and a lot of passengers took a wrong turn. They eventually made their way back but it was messy. I was a mini hero in that I went through the right security line followed by a number of passengers who were very pleased that in following me,  they had not got lost. I do think its ridiculous having to pass through security to re board the same plane we were screened in London for- but rules is rules.

Dubai gave me a chance to buy a Starbucks from the very friendly staff there. The food facilities were very limited due to some renovation work. McDonalds and a Thai Restaurant were doing a roaring trade.

The change of aircraft at Brunei meant a longer wait in a very boring airport terminal. The terminal consisted of a money changer, a Coffee shop, 3 duty free gift kiosks, a massage centre and a pharmacy. There were also showers but I was not excited by the state of them. The coffee shop has free wifi. There is a also a Dayroom service where you can rent a room with bed, shower and toilet. This is not well publicised.

Royal Brunei offer a city tour to transit passengers in Brunei over a certain length of time. I m doing the tour on my next flight.

On Board: 9 out of 10

All my sectors were on 777s and they were all full. The planes were clean and very pleasantly decorated.

There had been complaints on Skytrax that lavatories were not clean. Someone must have taken that to heart because for most of the flights, one of the cabin crew was stationed next to the toilets and they were cleaning them constantly. I never encountered a grubby lavatory. Royal Brunei provided moisturiser in the lavatories too, a touch many airlines have now dropped.

Layout in economy is 3-3-3. Seat width in economy is 18″ wide and pitch between the seats varies between 32″ and 34″. On the same sector here’s how some of the 21 competitors on the “Kangaroo Route” stack up:

Joy of joy, every seat had a pillow and blanket. No amenity packs were handed out at all in Economy.

Takeoff: 10 out of 10

Safety briefing started with a call to prayer in Arabic with pictures of Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, the major mosque in Brunei. I was interested that few people including cabin crew paid much attention to the prayers. The three sets of crews appeared to take safety very carefully checking and demonstrating clearly and well. All takeoffs were executed very professionally. Captain interaction varied but was professional, timely and friendly.

Entertainment: 9 out of 10.

Royal Brunei’s inflight entertainment system, Skyshow is a little dated technology-wise. They consist of 8.4″ TVs in every seat in economy and 1-4 in Business.  The range is excellent, however with an amazing array of current and old films in multiple languages. The passengers seated next to me were thrilled and caught up on all of the films they had been wanting to see. Some of the films and TV shows are censored which can cause some amusing jumps, sometimes.

Meals: 9 out of 10

I was very impressed with the quality and quantity of food on all of the sectors. I especially liked the ice cream for dessert. All meals are Halal and in keeping with the religious traditions of Brunei, no alcohol is served on board. This is far from  a big deal for me. You are apparently allowed to bring your own and consume it but I didn’t observe that happening. The range of drinks, I found surprisingly limited, however.  I thought there may have been more options in terms of juices.

There was plenty of water available through the night and crew members came around regularly with trays of juices and water. There were no snacks available to grab through the night.

Follow up 0 out of 10

I have had no points from the flights added to my Frequent Flyer Account.

My ratings:
84% which rounds out at about 4 out of 5

Positives:  Friendly crew, Good on board entertainment,

Negatives: On line Check in, no advanced seat selection, poor directions at Dubai

Would I fly them again? Yes- I am in December!

In the middle of Cornwall, England near the town of St Austell, England is a piece of Eden. The Eden Project, was  built the Eden Project in Cornwall in a disused clay mine, opening ten years ago. The project is about regenerating the environment and introducing it to the public. For example, when the Eden Project started, the site was so bad it had been used as the scene of a ruined alien plante in a BBC TV series.

Getting there

Train to St Austell station. From there were two choices of bus. Tip: When buying the train ticket, add a St Austell Bus plus onto the fare. It will cost 2 pounds extra. There are two buses from the station to the Project. Be warned: Bus 101 costs 5.50 pounds and Bus 527 costs 3.60 round trip.

The Project takes 4.00 pounds off your entry if you present a bus or train ticket.

Entry to The Eden Project is 22 pounds which I initially thought was high.

I started in the outdoor garden with a collection of English and European plants and interesting art.

I then went into the Link whch connects the gtwo domes. SAs i arrived, a Eden guide was invitig epopel to join afee tropical foods tour in the first of the two main domes: the  1.6 hectare (3.9 acre) Tropical Biome. The covered biomes are made from a tubular steel (hex-tri-hex) with  hexagonal external cladding panels made from a thermoplastic which is resistant to most dirt and stains, which simply wash off in the rain. The Tropical dome is 55 metres (180 ft) high and has a 30 metre watrefall in it.

The tour was excellent. We stopped at sevreal plaeces around teh dome, learnta bit olants tahtw e get food from , saw what they lok like and then ate sampels of those plants. We started with banana and ended with chiclate. Aftre, the tour, I climbed to the top viewing platform (picture).

After the snacks, I was ready for lunch. The Eden proeect makes food on site and aims to make fresh declisious meals. I had a carrot and coriander soup wuth an Eden garden salad and fresh bread while I listened to a fun band.

The Eden Project was having a harvest festival with bands, displays and demonstrations.

The second dome was the  0.7 hectares (1.6 acre) Mediterranean Biome with chillis of various fiery strengths. olives , etc etc. The nicest thing about the dome was a portable massage centre where I had a sublime 15 minute massage!

Next stop was The Core, an education facility and then the  visitor centre, shop, restaurant and plant nursery.  I had thought my visit there and back would be in and out but I spent almost five hours there. The next day a marathon was being held around and at the Eden Project. I would have liked to have joined in.

My ratings of Eden: 93%

Positives:  Aesthetics, Lots to do, well laid out, educational, friendly staff

Negatives: High entry price, can be a little preachy about the environment

Average Hotel Room: $100 -$150 (St Austell)

Would I visit again? Depending on what is on