All posts tagged: travel

A solo weekend in Paris

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I was in Paris a couple of weeks back. It was a solo 3 day trip (which I rarely ever do) and boy was it good! I was amazed by the history and beauty in every corner of the street. I mean literally every corner had a bit of art and a story. I took the flight to Paris from London Heathrow. It was a last minute booking and actually worked out to cheaper than taking the Eurostar, which was my initial plan. The flight was just an hour and it saved me from waking up too early in the morning. I hate that. My itinerary: I planned a very strict itinerary for my 3 days and followed it strictly. It might sound strange but I wasn’t too interested in shopping. This was primarily due to the luggage restriction on my flight to Paris from London. No regrets. Some places I toured: Eiffel Tower – Of Course. The queues to the top was ridiculous. Louvre – Saw the Monalisa for real. Notre Dame Cathedral Opera Palais Concorde Montmartre Sacre-coeur Basilica …

Nepal is Shaken but not Broken.

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I was in Nepal recently – in the capital city. The devastation caused by the quake was heartbreaking but the vibe in Kathmandu is not one of sorrow. Life is bouncing back – at least in the capital. Schools are running. Offices are open. Businesses are open. Sure there are are families whose lives will never be the same. But most have just picked up the pieces left behind and moved on. I took a whole bunch of photos and videos while I was there but unfortunately I lost all the data on my phone – an incident I will probably regret for a long looong loooong time. Here are a few that I shared with my friends that I was able to re-collect: We did not get to venture out beyond the Kathmandu Valley. The monsoon rain was causing more havoc. So I cannot say about the situation beyond the capital city. I read that help has still not reached remote areas. Life there would be completely different. But there are so many local grassroots organisations …

A ‘cockpit-like’ view of descent to Sydney

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A couple of months back, I flew Emirates A380 Airbus from Dubai to Sydney. The inflight entertainment on the flight is the worlds best apparently. Not surprised, as there was an awesome lineup of movies and I had widescreen – that’s all that matters anyways, isn’t it? But one thing I really enjoyed was watching the plane descend on a cockpit-like view and do the landing – right ahead of you through the inflight screen, not the side window. I took these with my iPhone to share with my sister – she is a fanatic when it comes to planes. I thought it would be fitting for the photo challenge on the Descent theme. Please excuse the bad quality of the photo though, I had just seconds to capture it! I have never been inside the cockpit of a plane and never known what it would actually be like to sit on the pilot’s seat and watch a plane land – for real. So this is experience is probably the closest that I will get to having “my own flying experience”. Now …

Our victory over the month of July

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This July was particularly taxing both for SS and me. Firstly, we got the keys to our new place. We renovated. We moved. SS moved jobs. And I was travelling (for business, not pleasure unfortunately) most of the time. I was literally in 3 different continents in 3 weeks – no kidding. But we survived and the first August weekend, we granted ourselves a weekend ski trip to up to Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains. It was amazing. This was by no means our dream vacation. But it was one of our best. To be able to release all that stress accumulated over the previous month, it was like being offered a chilled lemonade after completing a marathon under 40degrees heat – not that I know how that feels, but we can imagine! We survived July. We felt Victorious. Featured in: The Daily Post: Dreamy

The “luxury” at Shanghai International Airport

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The Daily Prompt theme of “In Transit”, reminded me of this photo I took, a couple of months back, at the Shanghai International Airport’s business lounge – inside the ladies toilet. (Yes, I pulled my phone out while in there). I know this post has hardly anything to do with the actual theme of the daily prompt, besides matching the title itself, but I thought to share this nevertheless 😀 I found it rather funny. Have you come across such fancy toilets before?

Photos with the ‘Aha’ moment

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Going through some old holiday photos, I realise we have SO MANY of them. Some sparking some good memories, others we have no recollection of! With digital cameras, snapping a picture has been too easy and we just snap anything and everything – well, at least that’s the case for me. And in dong so, each photo seems to lose some value. But there are some, that gives you the “Aha” moment. Like this sign post SS captured during our holiday in New Zealand back in 2009. I recall just standing there at the north-most tip of New Zealand, soaking in the absolute vastness of the sea and feeling rather insignificant actually, trying to work out which part of the earth we were – where was Sydney, where was London, there is a city called Bluff??. It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for me honestly, since I was so used to seeing where city is located in perspective of a 2D map, or the old school globe or google maps. Now, I am starting to sound a bit …