ATTS

The flight from Dubai on Ethiopian was surprisingly comfortable plenty of legroom reasonable food and beverages and good entertainment if only my fellow travellers weren't so over the top it would have been pleasant. I find the Africans I meet extremely friendly almost overly friendly which leads to suspicions that may be totally unwarranted, but I am more cautious than I would like to be. Getting through immigration was easy and Nur and I were soon heading for our hotel transfer vehicle and our hotel located in the Bole area of town. After check in we walked to the Black Rose to meet his mate who works as a correspondent for Reuters. The bar was quite nicely set up and the booze is cheap, we then moved further down the road to the Piano bar which ... read more

I dragged myself out of bed at 15 minutes past midnight grabbed my suitcase and headed downstairs to the cab rank, 20 minutes later I was in the queue to check in, for some reason I couldn't do it online. There were hundreds of people lined up and after standing in that line for almost an hour I was becoming a tad concerned, then I heard Kathmandu yelled out I made my way past all the other cattle to the check in counter, ten minutes after that I had exchanged money and was patiently waiting at gate six. Half an hour later I was on the bus to the plane, row two aisle seat is my preference and I settled in to watch a few episodes of the Vampire Diaries. I arrived in Kathmandu for the ... read more

I have been getting messages all week to get to the airport early as the Eid holiday starts today. So, I got up an hour earlier than I would have and headed to the airport, it is Friday morning so there was hardly a car in sight, 20 minutes from my door to Gate 7 and a 2 and a half hour wait till boarding. Better safe than sorry I suppose. Every seat on the flight is full - more Australians than I have seen since I was last in Oz which means every drop of booze was gone before we reached Russian airspace. I must admit they are a bit annoying constantly wandering around - the lads across from me were roaring drunk by the time we landed. Immigration was mayhem I couldn't believe how ... read more

The flight time from Dubai to Kathmandu is about 5 hours so I decided to splurge an extra $60 for a front row seat with lots of leg room (both ways). It is amazing how few people are willing to pay a few dollars for a little comfort on generally uncomfortable aircraft. Total cost at this time of the year is $400 return, this is the only good thing about living in Dubai. I cruised through the airport so quickly that my hotel transfer had not yet arrived, so we had to wait for about ten minutes in the muggy evening heat, I pack extremely light these days with one 35 litre backpack which makes quick airport access and exit assured. We arrived at the hotel, confirmed some arrangements for the next day and got to ... read more

Arriving back from Egypt meant a trip to the cinema with the Movie group we have all been waiting for the release of Infinity Wars which in my opinion was brilliant. A few days later we went out for after work drinks, I don’t do it often because it is expense here, I left early because I am going kayaking in the morning. I left early the next morning picking Chris, Rina and Arthur up as we made our way to Abu Dhabi’s Mangroves National Park. Today we would Kayak about seven kilometres through the mangrove canals and it is damn hot for early May. I love kayaking and the others seemed to enjoy paddling through the park as much as I did, a bit more wildlife would have been good though. A few days later ... read more