I have just returned from my mega trip !
This trip has been a great travel experience for me, probably one of the trip of a lifetime. I will detail my adventures in my subsequent posts. But for now, I just want to have an afterthought of this trip.
First, I traveled hand luggage for the most part, so that means I can only bring the essentials. This includes my absolutely necessary winter wear, hand warmer, a minimum set of everyday clothes and toiletries.
I have also decided to leave my laptop behind, which explains the absence of posts during the trip. Though earlier I would have liked to bring it along so I can update my travel blog, but it does add a considerable weight to my hand luggage, so I have to leave it behind.
On this trip, there has been several hiccups, enough to impact on my subsequent travels.
First is the delay of my Asiana airlines Almaty to Incheon flight due to weather conditions in Almaty. There is a 5 hour delay, which causes me to miss my connecting flight to New York City. I was then transferred to the next day's flight instead.
Now, this impacts on my Norwegian flight from New York City to Shannon, Ireland since I was due to depart the USA on the same day. So I had to book myself a last minute ticket on the next day's Norwegian flight to Shannon. Fortunately, the flight ticket is not too expensive on this budget carrier.
The good thing is that as of that moment I have yet to book my coach USA bus trip from Manhattan to Stewart Airport so that saves me US$20.
The next hiccup? Well, there is a mechanical problem on my Norwegian flight. So end up, I only departed USA the next day bound for Dublin instead, where Norwegian arranged a free bus transfer to Shannon.
Now, I originally planned to arrive in Ireland on the morning of 2nd December, but these two consecutive hiccups caused me to arrive in Ireland on the night of 3rd December instead. Meaning, two days of sightseeing gone.
And according to my plan, I will be leaving from Belfast for Morocco on the night of 4th December.
So now, in Ireland, I need to make a quick decision. I can either proceed with my plan to visit the whole of Ireland, which requires several days and hence giving up Morocco, or, I only visit Ireland for a day and then proceed to Morocco.
Between Ireland and Morocco, I made a decision to tour Ireland. So Morocco would have to be for another day. Having toured Ireland, I must say that Ireland is indeed beautiful and no regrets for my decision.
This also means that I have to book another last minute ticket from Belfast to London on another day. Not exactly cheap but not too costly either since it is a short flight with many options to choose from.
Looking back, I felt fortunate that my USA domestic flights went smoothly without any delay. I realized that I only planned for a couple of hours in between these flights.
This can be risky for me if a flight is delayed for whatever reason. The flights include Honolulu-Seattle, Seattle-San Francisco, San Francisco-Chicago and of course the highlight, Chicago-Incheon on Asiana Airlines.
Any delay on any of the three domestic flights could really cause me to miss my Asiana airlines. Since these are on separate tickets, I would likely have to book a very costly last minute flight from USA to Asia. Of course, this scenario didn't happen and I was really happy !
Once in Seoul, South Korea, I had to decide on one of two travel routes. One, continue on to Europe as planned and visit Krakow and Jordan. Then buy a ticket to return to Asia. Two, buy a last minute ticket to China, then return to Kuala Lumpur then Singapore.
There is only one deciding factor: my budget. At that point, I felt that my travel budget is quite overwhelmed. And I couldn't find a cheap way from Europe back to Asia. So then I decided to just remain in Asia and forfeit my flight tickets for Europe.
Any regrets? Well, some, I have to say. Jordan is really a country I'm looking forward to visit. But then it will have to be for another day, I guess.
So instead I visited China. Well, at least I get to explore new cities such as Qingdao and Tianjin for the first time. I went to Beijing too, for the sole purpose of utilizing my Amex voucher to stay at the Grand Millenium, Beijing for one complimentary night.
Finally, I booked one last, last minute ticket to get myself from Kuala Lumpur back to Singapore. While in KL, I was still contemplating between taking the long distance coach, a cheaper but much longer option. Or taking a 45-minute flight on a more expensive last minute ticket.
At that moment in KL, being so close to Singapore, I wanted to get back home sooner rather than later, without the hassles of taking a long distance coach. But a last minute search for this flight turns up only expensive options, even for such a short flight.
I decided on a third option. Redeem 7500 krisflyer miles on a one-way economy class ticket on a Silkair flight, plus S$12 taxes. Though redeeming miles in economy class is not really a good use of miles, at least my out-of-pocket cash is kept to a minimum. Even less than taking the coach.
Fortunately for me, thanks to myself for booking paid flight tickets on Star Alliance airlines such as SQ and Asiana business class this year, I manage to reach Star Alliance krisflyer gold tier just after taking Asiana business class from Chicago to Incheon, South Korea. This status allows me to access the Silverkris lounge in KL airport and priority boarding on my Silkair flight.
Some comfort indeed...
Well, consider this as a Christmas treat for myself haha !
So with all these changes, some of them impromptu, here's my updated travel map:
For a total traveled distance of 82,242 km. Less than my initial predicted distance since I didn't travel to Europe towards the last part of my trip.
This is a Round The World trip, since part of my itinerary involves traveling one round of the earth, beginning and ending in Incheon, South Korea, in an eastward direction, just like my September trip.😀
Yup, that's all for a general overview of my mega trip. There are hiccups along the way, but I have since learnt to take it in my stride and to find (sometimes expensive) ways to overcome these obstacles for myself.
This trip has been a great travel experience for me, probably one of the trip of a lifetime. I will detail my adventures in my subsequent posts. But for now, I just want to have an afterthought of this trip.
First, I traveled hand luggage for the most part, so that means I can only bring the essentials. This includes my absolutely necessary winter wear, hand warmer, a minimum set of everyday clothes and toiletries.
I have also decided to leave my laptop behind, which explains the absence of posts during the trip. Though earlier I would have liked to bring it along so I can update my travel blog, but it does add a considerable weight to my hand luggage, so I have to leave it behind.
On this trip, there has been several hiccups, enough to impact on my subsequent travels.
First is the delay of my Asiana airlines Almaty to Incheon flight due to weather conditions in Almaty. There is a 5 hour delay, which causes me to miss my connecting flight to New York City. I was then transferred to the next day's flight instead.
Now, this impacts on my Norwegian flight from New York City to Shannon, Ireland since I was due to depart the USA on the same day. So I had to book myself a last minute ticket on the next day's Norwegian flight to Shannon. Fortunately, the flight ticket is not too expensive on this budget carrier.
The good thing is that as of that moment I have yet to book my coach USA bus trip from Manhattan to Stewart Airport so that saves me US$20.
The next hiccup? Well, there is a mechanical problem on my Norwegian flight. So end up, I only departed USA the next day bound for Dublin instead, where Norwegian arranged a free bus transfer to Shannon.
Now, I originally planned to arrive in Ireland on the morning of 2nd December, but these two consecutive hiccups caused me to arrive in Ireland on the night of 3rd December instead. Meaning, two days of sightseeing gone.
And according to my plan, I will be leaving from Belfast for Morocco on the night of 4th December.
So now, in Ireland, I need to make a quick decision. I can either proceed with my plan to visit the whole of Ireland, which requires several days and hence giving up Morocco, or, I only visit Ireland for a day and then proceed to Morocco.
Between Ireland and Morocco, I made a decision to tour Ireland. So Morocco would have to be for another day. Having toured Ireland, I must say that Ireland is indeed beautiful and no regrets for my decision.
This also means that I have to book another last minute ticket from Belfast to London on another day. Not exactly cheap but not too costly either since it is a short flight with many options to choose from.
Looking back, I felt fortunate that my USA domestic flights went smoothly without any delay. I realized that I only planned for a couple of hours in between these flights.
This can be risky for me if a flight is delayed for whatever reason. The flights include Honolulu-Seattle, Seattle-San Francisco, San Francisco-Chicago and of course the highlight, Chicago-Incheon on Asiana Airlines.
Any delay on any of the three domestic flights could really cause me to miss my Asiana airlines. Since these are on separate tickets, I would likely have to book a very costly last minute flight from USA to Asia. Of course, this scenario didn't happen and I was really happy !
Once in Seoul, South Korea, I had to decide on one of two travel routes. One, continue on to Europe as planned and visit Krakow and Jordan. Then buy a ticket to return to Asia. Two, buy a last minute ticket to China, then return to Kuala Lumpur then Singapore.
There is only one deciding factor: my budget. At that point, I felt that my travel budget is quite overwhelmed. And I couldn't find a cheap way from Europe back to Asia. So then I decided to just remain in Asia and forfeit my flight tickets for Europe.
Any regrets? Well, some, I have to say. Jordan is really a country I'm looking forward to visit. But then it will have to be for another day, I guess.
So instead I visited China. Well, at least I get to explore new cities such as Qingdao and Tianjin for the first time. I went to Beijing too, for the sole purpose of utilizing my Amex voucher to stay at the Grand Millenium, Beijing for one complimentary night.
Finally, I booked one last, last minute ticket to get myself from Kuala Lumpur back to Singapore. While in KL, I was still contemplating between taking the long distance coach, a cheaper but much longer option. Or taking a 45-minute flight on a more expensive last minute ticket.
At that moment in KL, being so close to Singapore, I wanted to get back home sooner rather than later, without the hassles of taking a long distance coach. But a last minute search for this flight turns up only expensive options, even for such a short flight.
I decided on a third option. Redeem 7500 krisflyer miles on a one-way economy class ticket on a Silkair flight, plus S$12 taxes. Though redeeming miles in economy class is not really a good use of miles, at least my out-of-pocket cash is kept to a minimum. Even less than taking the coach.
Fortunately for me, thanks to myself for booking paid flight tickets on Star Alliance airlines such as SQ and Asiana business class this year, I manage to reach Star Alliance krisflyer gold tier just after taking Asiana business class from Chicago to Incheon, South Korea. This status allows me to access the Silverkris lounge in KL airport and priority boarding on my Silkair flight.
Some comfort indeed...
Well, consider this as a Christmas treat for myself haha !
So with all these changes, some of them impromptu, here's my updated travel map:
For a total traveled distance of 82,242 km. Less than my initial predicted distance since I didn't travel to Europe towards the last part of my trip.
This is a Round The World trip, since part of my itinerary involves traveling one round of the earth, beginning and ending in Incheon, South Korea, in an eastward direction, just like my September trip.😀
Yup, that's all for a general overview of my mega trip. There are hiccups along the way, but I have since learnt to take it in my stride and to find (sometimes expensive) ways to overcome these obstacles for myself.
