Soooo sloooow I'm not sure I'm going to be able to post this.
Just flew into Dubai from Bangkok on an Emirates flight.
I have to say the first experience I had with Emirates 2 years ago wasn't good. The staff was rude, the flight was late, the suitcase was ruined when it arrived, the food was terrible and the in-flight entertainment was not working properly.
The only reason I chose to fly with Emirates again is that it was the cheapest flight from Bangkok to Venice and also because on paper it doesn't look bad, Dubai is in fact exactly half way between Bangkok and Venice. 6 hours flight to Dubai and then another 6 hours to Venice with a layover of 4 hours to stretch my legs, certainly more appealing than 11 hours flight to Moscow and a short layover and then another 5 hours flight to Venice, or even the other alternative that would have seen me flying to Istanbul in the morning an d fly out in the evening.
A few days before the flight to Bangkok I received an invitation from Emirates to upgrade my economy seat to a business one for a few dollars. I jumped and upgraded immediately cause I knew that even thought the upgrade was only from the Dubai Venice leg it would have meant having the possibility to rest at the Business Lounge between the 2 flights and since the flight to Bangkok was exhausting for my heart, I stand by my decision.
Once in Bangkok and checking in I was upgraded to Business also for the leg Bangkok to Sydney, therefore I had the opportunity to check what it means to fly Business with this airline.
The seats are almost 180 degrees reclinable and the cabin is really cool with the ceiling that illuminates with the stars constellations when the lights are dimmed.
The screen was almost as big as my computer's at home and the choice of programmes was good.
Food was disappointing, but who cares, I got to sleep and that's what I needed most!
I'm now in the Business Lounge and my neck is still very stiff (I think it's psychological, every time I fly to Europe it becomes bad).
But yesterday I had a great day!
After I finished the beer at the Cool Corner Pub I ventured towards the river, the Chao Praya with the idea of taking some photos from the banks.
While I was walking there I was approached by a guy who asked me all sorts of questions about my camera and when I told him I was thinking about taking photos from the river banks he suggested I took a river cruise.
I did that a few years ago so I wasn't interested but when I arrived at the river I saw that there was a company proposing a special cruise not along the Chao Praya but in the inner canals where the boat houses where.
I've never done that so I bought a ticket, excited by the fact that the monsoon was clearly approaching.
After many times of travelling in South-East Asia I know what that means: play time!
Every kid stops working and they start jumping into the river like mad, great opportunities for photos!
And so it was!
As soon as the monsoon started not only did I get some shots of kids diving into the water but I also got a shot of a monk feeding the fishes and of a huge ( and I mean huge) lizard climbing out of the water to the steps of one of the boat houses.
Ok, I know it was technically not a lizard, but do I dare say Varano? Now, see, Varano is the italian word, and right now the english one just escapes me.
Anyway it was similar to an australian goanna.
Except that it was huge, scary and swimming like a champ.
Now, that was the good part.
The bad part was that the rain didn't stop, it went on and on and on and in the end of the cruise it was still raining buckets so that I just took a taxi to the train station and the train to go back to the hotel.
My mistake was to think that by getting off close to the hotel it wouldn't have taken long to get back.
Wrong! Since it was raining the traffic was it its worst and everyone seemed completely nuts, honking and swearing and accelerating and the stopping all of a sudden.
Out of the train station I crossed a bridge (mind you at this time I was already soaked) to get a taxi in the main street. I had to wait a while and I couldn't belive my luck when finally one free taxi pulled over and let me in.
Now, since it was raining I didn't really notice something extremely odd about the taxi.
As soon as I was inside I started noticing that there were Hello Kitty gadgets everywhere.
Everywhere means: the seat belts, the rearview mirror, the windows, the head rests, not to talk about the how the guy was dressed: one white shirt with Hello Kitty sleeves, pink... yeah, pink!
I had enough time to take it all in cause the guy was very sweet but he got the wrong way a couple of times and to do 3 km it took us more than one hour.
Granted, the traffic was bad, but when for the second time I saw the now familiar sign of the train station I started panicking.
What if he doesn't know where he's going?
Aren't we all a little bit scared of taxi drivers?
I mean how many horror movies have they made with a murderer disguised as a taxi driver? Well, I can think of at least one, the Bone Collector!
But this one wasn't or if he was he was on his day off, since at the end we arrived at destination.
I wanted to ask him if he liked Hello Kitty, but the question would have sounded redundant besides I was really happy to be finally at the hotel and I was still drenched and in need of a hot shower!
Just flew into Dubai from Bangkok on an Emirates flight.
I have to say the first experience I had with Emirates 2 years ago wasn't good. The staff was rude, the flight was late, the suitcase was ruined when it arrived, the food was terrible and the in-flight entertainment was not working properly.
The only reason I chose to fly with Emirates again is that it was the cheapest flight from Bangkok to Venice and also because on paper it doesn't look bad, Dubai is in fact exactly half way between Bangkok and Venice. 6 hours flight to Dubai and then another 6 hours to Venice with a layover of 4 hours to stretch my legs, certainly more appealing than 11 hours flight to Moscow and a short layover and then another 5 hours flight to Venice, or even the other alternative that would have seen me flying to Istanbul in the morning an d fly out in the evening.
A few days before the flight to Bangkok I received an invitation from Emirates to upgrade my economy seat to a business one for a few dollars. I jumped and upgraded immediately cause I knew that even thought the upgrade was only from the Dubai Venice leg it would have meant having the possibility to rest at the Business Lounge between the 2 flights and since the flight to Bangkok was exhausting for my heart, I stand by my decision.
Once in Bangkok and checking in I was upgraded to Business also for the leg Bangkok to Sydney, therefore I had the opportunity to check what it means to fly Business with this airline.
The seats are almost 180 degrees reclinable and the cabin is really cool with the ceiling that illuminates with the stars constellations when the lights are dimmed.
The screen was almost as big as my computer's at home and the choice of programmes was good.
Food was disappointing, but who cares, I got to sleep and that's what I needed most!
I'm now in the Business Lounge and my neck is still very stiff (I think it's psychological, every time I fly to Europe it becomes bad).
But yesterday I had a great day!
After I finished the beer at the Cool Corner Pub I ventured towards the river, the Chao Praya with the idea of taking some photos from the banks.
While I was walking there I was approached by a guy who asked me all sorts of questions about my camera and when I told him I was thinking about taking photos from the river banks he suggested I took a river cruise.
I did that a few years ago so I wasn't interested but when I arrived at the river I saw that there was a company proposing a special cruise not along the Chao Praya but in the inner canals where the boat houses where.
I've never done that so I bought a ticket, excited by the fact that the monsoon was clearly approaching.
After many times of travelling in South-East Asia I know what that means: play time!
Every kid stops working and they start jumping into the river like mad, great opportunities for photos!
And so it was!
As soon as the monsoon started not only did I get some shots of kids diving into the water but I also got a shot of a monk feeding the fishes and of a huge ( and I mean huge) lizard climbing out of the water to the steps of one of the boat houses.
Ok, I know it was technically not a lizard, but do I dare say Varano? Now, see, Varano is the italian word, and right now the english one just escapes me.
Anyway it was similar to an australian goanna.
Except that it was huge, scary and swimming like a champ.
Now, that was the good part.
The bad part was that the rain didn't stop, it went on and on and on and in the end of the cruise it was still raining buckets so that I just took a taxi to the train station and the train to go back to the hotel.
My mistake was to think that by getting off close to the hotel it wouldn't have taken long to get back.
Wrong! Since it was raining the traffic was it its worst and everyone seemed completely nuts, honking and swearing and accelerating and the stopping all of a sudden.
Out of the train station I crossed a bridge (mind you at this time I was already soaked) to get a taxi in the main street. I had to wait a while and I couldn't belive my luck when finally one free taxi pulled over and let me in.
Now, since it was raining I didn't really notice something extremely odd about the taxi.
As soon as I was inside I started noticing that there were Hello Kitty gadgets everywhere.
Everywhere means: the seat belts, the rearview mirror, the windows, the head rests, not to talk about the how the guy was dressed: one white shirt with Hello Kitty sleeves, pink... yeah, pink!
I had enough time to take it all in cause the guy was very sweet but he got the wrong way a couple of times and to do 3 km it took us more than one hour.
Granted, the traffic was bad, but when for the second time I saw the now familiar sign of the train station I started panicking.
What if he doesn't know where he's going?
Aren't we all a little bit scared of taxi drivers?
I mean how many horror movies have they made with a murderer disguised as a taxi driver? Well, I can think of at least one, the Bone Collector!
But this one wasn't or if he was he was on his day off, since at the end we arrived at destination.
I wanted to ask him if he liked Hello Kitty, but the question would have sounded redundant besides I was really happy to be finally at the hotel and I was still drenched and in need of a hot shower!
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