A Round-Up of 2020

 Good Tidings for Christmas 2020 !

I realised that it has been a little more than 6 months since I last updated this blog. How time flies...

This year, the pandemic year, has largely affected me, just as it did everyone else. I have only travelled internationally just once, in January, to Bangkok, Thailand. This is before international borders start to close.

Without travel, I turn to work to occupy my time. So yes, 2020 has to be my most busiest work year, since I started working many years ago.

Of course, some procrastination sets in as well haha! 

So what do I think of 2020 ?

Well, in my personal opinion, it has not been a great start to this decade. At the start of the year, news broke out about the coronavirus from Wuhan, China. It is infectious and can be transmitted between people. In this time and age, given that air travel has been able to connect countries and people from around the world. In the first three months of the year, this coronavirus seems to be spreading only within China.

Soon after, towards the end of March, it is inevitable that this coronavirus spread quite quickly to all over the world, and prompting all countries, save for a few, to close their borders to foreigners, a first in modern history.

Till today, borders remain closed for many countries. Travel is very much restricted for international tourists. Naturally, the tourism industry was badly affected. Airlines stored most of their airplanes. Hotels see very few tourists. Tourist attractions were closed to contain the coronavirus.

Today, nine months since the pandemic affected us, life has since returned to some normalcy, at least for Singaporeans. For countries which has managed the pandemic well, they have started to reopen their economies. Since borders remain closed, they encouraged domestic tourism instead. This works great for places such as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam which have a large land area and many tourist attractions to explore. In particular, the United States has many great outdoor attractions and nature parks. In Europe, countries on that continent has opened up to each other, allowing travel and tourism to continue on the continent.

Unfortunately, nine months later, there seems to be no end of the pandemic in sight. The number of cases in the United States, Europe and many other countries is still climbing. Some countries have experienced waves of coronavirus infection, affecting the reopening of economies.

Fortunately for Singapore, it has since kept the pandemic under control, with no recent local cases and only imported ones. The domestic economy has basically reopened. To encourage tourism, it has tried to form a travel bubble with Hong Kong, but alas, it didn't work out in the end. Singapore also unilaterally opened its borders to few other countries, though they declined to reciprocate. Basically, Singaporeans still cannot travel.

 

For me, as a Singaporean, domestic tourism is very much limited. We have a small land area, so the number of tourist attractions, both natural and man-made are few. There are not many major attractions, Universal Studio, Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands are basically it. Singapore can be more or less be explored in a few days.

Luckily, being an island nation, we can turn to explore the outlying islands near Singapore. There is St. John Island, Sisters' island, Kusu Island and Pulau Ubin to check out. These, however, are relatively small islands which can be explored in a day trip.

In addition, as it is the year-end school holidays now, hotels are also encouraging staycations for Singaporeans. Hotel rates have dropped from the pre-pandemic levels, across all types of hotels. Four or five star hotels in tourist precincts such as Orchard can be had for under S$200 a night. This is since supply far outweighs demand, which is the opposite pre-pandemic.

For me, I have since explored most, if not all of Singapore's tourist attractions and the outlying islands. I have also turned to staycations, having stayed at 5 local hotels to date, ranging from four to five stars. I will be reviewing these staycations in my subsequent posts. 

Singapore's home carrier, SIA, has since suspended many flights and parked its planes. It has organized various aviation related activities such as dining in an A380, tour of its cabin crew training grounds, trying out its plane simulators and purchase of its premium meals. The tours are however limited in numbers and sell out fast . I haven't been able to join in the tour so hopefully SIA can continue to hold such popular activities. 

Finally, there is the Singapore's cruise to nowhere. All passengers are subjected to testing before joining the cruise.

2020 is ending in about a week's time, and I am still looking forward to 2 more staycations before welcoming 2021.

As the year draws to a close, now is also the time to think of my new year resolutions. That will be covered in my next post. 😀

My frequent flyer status '20

At the moment, I have silver status with all three major airline alliances. Namely, Star Alliance, OneWorld and Skyteam Flying Blue. Purely a coincidence.

Star Alliance Singapore Airlines Silver

Skyteam Flying Blue Silver

OneWorld Qatar Airways Silver

This is actually the first time where I have equal status with all three alliances. So how did this come about?

Well, for my Singapore Airlines status, last year I had achieved Gold status and had enjoyed the lounge access that comes with it, even when travelling in economy class. However, I did not accumulate enough flying miles to sustain my Gold status. So this year, I had a soft landing to Silver status.

For my Qatar Airways status, this is because of a recent free status match initiated by the airline. Five airlines were selected to be matched to Qatar Airways status, one of which happened to be Singapore Airlines. 

So I submitted the necessary information via email and about 20 days later was informed that I had been matched to the Silver status with the Qatar Airways Privilege Club.

For Skyteam, it was thanks to me flying Kenya Airways business class last year from Mumbai via Nairobi to Geneva return, as well as some economy class flights on KLM airlines and Middle Eastern Airline. These miles were retroactively claimed as recently as end of May, about 5 months after I had taken these flights.

Fortunately, AirFrance/KLM flying blue had an online form for submission of retroactive claim of miles and their reply was thankfully swift, if not immediate. Thus I managed to accumulate sufficient miles to attain silver status.

So, what are the benefits that come with silver status. Sadly, not many useful benefits for me. Let me go into each of the alliance silver status benefits.

For Singapore Airlines Krisflyer Silver status, the benefits are as follows:

• 25% mileage bonus on Singapore Airlines and SilkAir flights. I would say this is the single most useful benefit, as the bonus miles could be significant on longer flights or taking premium classes.
• Waived or discounted service fees        
• Priority waitlist for Singapore Airlines, SilkAir, or Star Alliance flights

The last 2 benefits are not exactly useful to me.

For Qatar Airways Silver Privilege Club, the benefits are as follows:

Lounge access

Access to the Oryx lounge in Doha and I guess most business class lounges worldwide when taking Qatar Airways flights, even in economy classes. 

On top of this, I was given two complimentary guest passes for use at Doha.

This is quite interesting since Qatar Airways Silver Privilege Club is aligned to OneWorld Ruby status, which provides minimum benefits and certainly no lounge access.

25% tier bonus on eligible flights by Qatar Airways. 

Again, this is a useful benefit, as the bonus miles could be significant on longer flights or taking premium classes.

Excess baggage allowance
15 kg or 1 additional piece

Priority check-in
Priority boarding

Both these benefits reduce the time needed to queue for check-in and boarding (more cabin hold baggage space). Probably giving a 'classy' feel as well.

50% mileage per family member on all eligible flights

• Priority stand-by

Flexi awards
Shop & pay with Qmiles at Qatar Duty Free and Oryx Galleria

Preferred seats

The rest of the benefits are not really useful for me.

For Skyteam, the benefits of Flying Blue silver are:

• Access to priority lines at check-in, baggage drop-off and boarding

Both these benefits reduce the time needed to queue for check-in and boarding (more cabin hold baggage space). Again giving a 'classy' feel as well.

• Choose your standard seat free of charge

It's good to be able to select seats free of charge, especially when nowadays many airlines charge extra to reserve even standard seats.

• Earn 6 Miles for each euro spent
• Get 25% off of seating options
• Bring an additional baggage item on all SkyTeam flights

Excess baggage allowance is always welcome!

Comparing among these three silver status, I would say the Qatar Airways Silver status comes in most useful since it allows lounge access.

Moving forward, I do intend to try and maintain, if not, upgrade my status.

For a start, I would maintain my Qatar Airways silver status solely for the lounge access when travelling on Qatar Airways economy class.

For my Krisflyer Elite Silver status, I would like to strive for Gold status again. One way is by taking the Singapore Airlines Singapore to Newark Premium economy class, twice! Currently it is reasonably priced at ~S$1500. Hopefully the price stays this way. This would also allow me to sample the world's longest flight as well.

As a Star Alliance Gold member, I get lounge access even when travelling on economy class on other member airlines, quite a lot in fact, since Star Alliance is the biggest airline alliance.

It even allows me to sample various lounge offerings within an airport. For example, in Bangkok, Singapore Airlines, Thai, Turkish Airlines and Eva Air set up their own lounges there. Other than Bangkok, there are multiple Star Alliance lounges in London Heathrow and Los Angeles as well, among others.

While travelling domestically within the United States, having Star Alliance Gold status will allow me access into United Clubs.

For my Skyteam Flying blue membership, I do intend to try and achieve Gold status as well, for the sole purpose of checking out Skyteam lounges.

One affordable way is to fly on Saudia busienss class. Saudia usually has reasonably priced business class flights from Europe such as Athens to South East Asia such as Manila, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta.

Yup, that's my frequent flyer plans for now. It would be excellent if I can have lounge access for all three major alliance even when flying economy class! So many airlines to fly on😀

Review: Novotel Cairo Airport

Novotel Cairo Airport is located within the grounds of the airport. It offers a complimentary airport shuttle to and from the airport. 

In fact, on the day I landed at Cairo, I had chanced upon the airport shuttle at the arrivals area. However, I didn't want to stay at this hotel on my first day in Egypt as it is located far away from Giza. Staying at Horus Guesthouse has been great for me.

As I had an early morning flight out of Cairo on the third day, I intended to stay at one of the airport hotels instead of staying at the Guesthouse due to the distance. Novotel offers the cheapest rate and it provides complimentary airport transfer. So I decided to stay at this hotel.

There seems to be a carnival on the hotel grounds on the day of my check-in

Hotel corridor

The standard room is sufficiently large

Bed is comfortable. There is a daybed at the corner of the room just beside the bed.

Wall-mounted TV, working desk and chair

Paid minibar and complimentary basic coffee setup

Checking out of the hotel in the early morning

Brightly lit pavement in the otherwise deserted hotel grounds

Check out was fast at this hour and soon I rode alone in the airport shuttle to the airport.

My paid rate does not include breakfast. It's not necessary for me as well since I need to check out in the early morning. As I would be flying on Aegean Airlines, a member of Star Alliance, I would have access to the EgyptAir Star Alliance lounge for breakfast, even if flying in economy class. I would review the lounge in my subsequent post.

Overall, a pleasant and convenient stay in Novotel Cairo airport. The complimentary airport shuttle comes in useful as well.

My adventures in Cairo, Egypt !

No trip to Egypt is complete without visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza. Yup, so that's where I went.

After landing in Cairo, I had initially hired a driver to pick us up at the airport. Unfortunately, the driver was nowhere at the arrival area. 

Thus began my adventures with the Cairo public bus. I had seen the bus pick up passengers at the airport bus stop so I thought it would be heading into the city. However, the bus terminated at a bus station near the airport. 

After indicating to the driver my intention to go to Giza, he directed me to transfer to another bus. This second bus did go into city and terminated at a stop just outside Hilton hotel, Cairo. 

Then, this driver pointed me to transfer to another bus to Giza. This involves crossing an extremely busy road. At this point, I decided to just go into hotel to rest a while. In this hotel, there is security check before anyone can enter the hotel premises.

Fortunately, the lobby has available seats and free hotel wifi. I decided to use the wifi to arrange for a uber ride. Fortunately, I had a reliable uber driver. 

Now, near Giza, the roads consists of both paved and unpaved roads, the latter is not reflected in the uber map. Though the final destination of my accommodation is indicated, but the uber app could not provide the driver with a clear route to my exact destination. 

At first, the driver wanted me to alight along the main road close to my destination. But since I was totally unfamiliar with the environment, and it doesn't look exactly safe for tourists to wander around, I persuaded the driver to locate the destination. Soon, we entered the small roads and after asking many people, both locals and security personnel, we finally arrived right in front of my accommodation.

I had booked this guesthouse as it is very close to the pyramids. But the uber app isn't reliable in this particular area.

Anyway, I'm glad I made it to my guesthouse. 

This is the reason why I'm in Cairo. One of seven wonders of the world.

At the base of the pyramids

My room in the Horus Guesthouse

The walls are beautifully decorated with Egyptian figurines

After checking in and depositing my bags, I booked the camel ride tour to the pyramids with the owner and the receptionist. This turns out to be very expensive, but well worth it.

 

complimentary headscarf haha!

This is my ride

 

I was picked up by the camel right at the doorstep of the guesthouse

 

The great Sphinx of Giza

After a great outing at the Pyramids, the camel brought me back again to the doorstep of my guesthouse.

One advantage of staying at Horus Guesthouse is its unobstructed view of the pyramids at the rooftop. At night, we are treated to a lightshow. It is a ticketed event at the pyramids area but we can view it for free right at the guesthouse.

In the morning, the sun shone on the pyramids and the views are simply spectacular!

My breakfast with a pyramids view

After the delicious breakfast, I booked a ride at the guesthouse my next accommodation, Novotel Cairo Airport. Again, an expensive ride.

Cairo, Egypt is an expensive place for tourists. This is well expected as people from all over the world would want to come and visit the pyramids. It is truly well worth the cost to visit. I'm glad I have made this trip and visited the Pyramids of Giza !

Review: Bella Riva Hotel, Beirut

After a great half day tour of Beirut, Lebanon, my driver-guide sent me to my hotel for an overnight stay.

The hotels in Beirut, Lebanon are relatively inexpensive compared to other countries. I guess it's due to the lack of tourist demand. I chose to stay at Bella Riva Hotel, which costs only $70 a night. It turns out to be a great choice!

The hotel lobby is grand looking and inviting. There wasn't any other guests around during my check-in or checkout. In fact, I didn't actually come across any other guest at all.

Our standard room is large. There is a living room on the left. Straight ahead is a kitchen. Beyond that is the balcony. 

The living room consists of sofa, table and a single bed.

In the bedroom are two single beds.

A functional kitchen

The balcony has a great view of the Mediterranean sea to the right.

The hotel is kind enough to provide a welcome amenity consisting of a plate of whole fruits and a large bottle of water.

Floor plan of all the rooms on this level

I checked out of the hotel early next morning to catch my flight to Cairo, Egypt. Though it's a short stay in Beirut for me, this hotel really impresses me. The location is near the waterfront and eateries, room is large and comes with all the standard hotel amenities. It is certainly value of money. Highly recommended !

A half day tour of Beirut

Beirut, Lebanon wasn't initially on my travel itinerary last December. However, as I was finding flights to get me from Istanbul, Turkey to Cairo, Egypt, I came across a transit flight operated by Middle East Airline with reasonable pricing. Coupled with the flight timing being compatible with my travel plans, it didn't take me long to book myself a seat on the airline.

This gave me an opportunity to visit Beirut, the capital of Lebanon and also try out Middle East Airline, which turns out within my expectation.

My private tour of Beirut turns out well too!

From what I researched online, there seemed to be no public transport available from the airport to town. So then I decided to arrange for airport pick up service coupled with a half day tour of Beirut.

Immigration queues at Beirut airport was very short at that time. I guess not many tourists come here. Certainly not Asian tourists. The driver was already waiting at the arrivals area. We walked over to his car in the carpark and began our tour.

Pigeon rock, Beirut

First stop is the Beirut waterfront

Beautiful coastline

Local food eatery

I thought this Santa Claus was quite interesting !

There is a Beirut sightseeing bus, though with few tourists on board

Beirut National Museum

Passed by Beit Beirut, a museum

The beautiful Mohammad Al-Amin Mosque

The driver parked his car and we had a short walking tour around the mosque and the surrounding area.

There were few tourists around while I was in Beirut. But it does have some great tourist attractions. Safety wise, I was with my driver-guide at all times, so it felt very safe. In my opinion, Beirut, Lebanon is certainly worth to visit, even if on transit.

Middle East Airlines Istanbul to Beirut to Cairo economy class review

From Istanbul, Turkey, I moved on to Cairo, Egypt to visit the Pyramids. So I booked a one-way flight on Middle East Airline. This is a new airline for me, and it also gives me a chance to visit Beirut, Lebanon while on transit. So I selected the flight timing such that I had half a day in transit in Beirut, arriving in the early afternoon and departing next morning.

Middle East Airline flies on routes primarily within the Middle East region so it may be unfamiliar to travelers outside this region. It is a full service airline that comes with inflight entertainment and complimentary meal service in all classes.

This is the business class recliner seat on Middle East Airline

In economy class, each seat comes with IFE.

Complimentary newspapers are provided as well in economy class

Its inflight safety video features its personnel giving the briefing amid a backdrop of impressive Lebanon landscape.

There is no hot meal but rather a snack service on my flight from Istanbul to Beirut

I will be reviewing my tour of Beirut in my next post. Below is the second leg of my flight from Beirut to Cairo.

Economy class on Middle East Airline

Middle East Airline aircraft livery

Breakfast on Middle East Airline economy class

Overall, quite a nice experience on Middle East Airline economy class. Both my flights are short sectors, so it's nice to receive complimentary meal service. Certainly better than short haul flying around Europe in full service airline economy class where it's just a drinks service.