The Ghan

That's what happens when you are coming from the comfort of your Air Conditioned vehicle and want to take pictures outside. If I was wearing glasses it would be the same. Fog on the lense! Anyway, above is the foggy picture of famous Ghan that goes from Darwin to Adelaide. It takes two days to travel the 3000 kilometres that separate the two cities. It also is the reason why there are so many wild camels in Australia since they were used during the construction of its rail line. It additionally gave its name to the service - originally The Afghan Express - since the camels used for that purpose were imported from Afghanistan. The connection to Darwin was only in service in 2004, so it is quite recent, and even though I drive past the station several times a day I do not have the opportunity to see one of those very often as they only depart from Darwin twice a week (on Wednesdays at 10am and on Saturdays at 9am).

SQ332 - Choose your seat!

Last time I took SQ332 between Singapore and Paris was nearly 3 months ago. If you remember I was raving about the quality of service and the comfort of the flight due to the lack of passengers (see here). Well, I was far from guessing it could be even better (for the passenger but worse for the airline). Today, the flight had to be my best flying experience ever (and I can say I have flown quite a bit over the past 20 years!). 7 passengers in between first and Biz (for 50 seats) and 24 passengers in Economy (for 228 seats). It really gives you the impression of flying your own private plane which is a delight on such a long haul flight. I wonder how long SQ will maintain this day flight for? I have always suspected that the people travelling for Business purposes were choosing to fly the night flight in order to get a full day at work so this day flight has never really been full but never that empty neither! I also hear rumours that SQ might replace the B777-300ER by an Airbus380 on this route shorlty. If that's the case they will definitely merge those two flights into one. That's sad because I find it to be the perfect timing. Departing Singapore by 2 pm and arriving by 9 pm in Paris on the same day is just perfect.

From Nowhere to Nowhere

Everytime I take a ferry out of Singapore there is, most of the time, a boat going from / to Nowhere. I first found it strange and I was then explained one day that there were boats going to International waters for gambling purposes. Gambling is still illegal at the moment in Singapore even though they are currently building huge casino complexes. Anyway, it is always mysterious to have boats going nowhere. Imagine yourself being at the airport and seeing planes adverstised as going nowhere! You would really wonder what is hidden behind this, wouldn't you?

On my way...

The 'Check In' is done, the immigration card is filled. I am ready to escape Singapore once more. This week-end will take me to the Mekong Delta area at Ho Chi Minh Ville (Saigon). I did not have time to really prepare the trip and I am not quite sure what to expect but it is very good to keep a few surprises. Life would be boring without them...

Sarawak, here we come!

Even though Singapore is a good hub and is quite 'central' in South East Asia, the number of places to travel to for a short week-end is quite limited after all. Once you've gone to the surrounding cities (Bangkok, KL, Jakarta, etc...) you really need more time if you want to visit some interesting sites. I would like to go to Sapa in Vietnam, to some near places in China or further away to Bhutan but two days surely are not enough. Anyway, tonight we decided to leave to Kuching which is in the Malaysian part (Sarawak and Sabah) of Borneo. We could stay for a week or two but unfortunately we have to be back at work on Monday... Let's try to make the most of this short getaway thanks to SilkAir.

Not so far away!

I don't know if this advertisement campaign from La SNCF is still going on in France (I believe it must now be two years old) but I happened to lay my hands on an old magazine today where it was featured. It is funny because I remember the Nouillorc and Losse-en-Gelaisse ones but I could not recall seeing the Singapore's ad. It was a very effective campaign and this just proves that in the end I am really not so far away from my hometown. A reminder to my friends and family: coming to see me is as easy as logging on www.voyages-sncf.com. (How nice am I to free-advertise on my blog!)

Charles De Gaulle - Changi

Back on the other way. I left cold and grey Paris in a bit of a messy situation. It took ages to go through the immigration, there was a strike of the cleaning personnel who were demonstrating while banging drums, the travellator going to the boarding satellite was out of order, the toilets were blocked... Quite the usual stuff. It is somehow a sharp contrast with the way things are organised here in Singapore. It took me less than 5 minutes from the moment I deboarded the plane until the time I caught a taxi out of the airport.

2008: Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Hong Kong everyone. May all your wishes come true.

Last day of the year

I am quite happy to spend the last day of the year in that buzzing and fascinating city. I'll certainly be out with the crowds to watch the fireworks tonight even though I already had a good crowd immersion all day taking the tram up to The Peak. It was a beautiful and sunny day with perfect cool temperatures. As expected the sky is always a bit hazy over Hong Kong therefore it is rare to get a clear view from the top. But once more, it is such a relief from hot and sticky Singapore.

Enjoy your last day of 2007 and see you in 2008.

Travelling Night

My usual bag is packed, I’m ready to go. I will have travelled a fair bit over the past two months. I counted 26 flights in a little over 6 weeks and I might forget some. Even though I quite enjoy it, I am starting to feel tired lately with all those jetlags… Fortunately, once I am back in Singapore I should not fly for at least… two weeks!