Walk straight into a mall! The Mandarin is connected to the Suria KLCC, a huge mall. All of the luxury stores you’ve ever heard of, cafes, coffee shops, 2 grocery markets, a Petroleum Discovery Center, a Movie Theater. It was frenetic.

Continue reading “3.1.24 Continued” →

I’ve arrived my hotel, the Mandarin Oriental KL. Immediately upon arriving one bellman opened the door to my Grab and welcomed me, while a 2nd bellman grabbed my bags from the trunk. I was escorted to the front desk where check-in was smooth and quick.

I had joined the MO frequent traveler club for this trip. Even for someone with no status, it got me a room upgrade (high floor, view of KLCC Park), free WiFi, and free breakfast.

Next stop was the concierge, to book tickets for the KL Tower for the next day. I couldn’t get the official website to accept my American credit card…but in less than 5 minutes I was booked and good to go. And off to the room.

The room is spectacular. Huge with a sofa, desk with two chairs, king size bed, bath and separate shower. And, best of all, floor to ceiling windows with a view of the pool area and KLCC park. Bags had already been delivered to my room by the time I go there. Best part, I am only paying 855 Ringit per night – or $171US. Really. Insanely cheap compared to what a hotel of this stature would cost in a major US city.

I could just collapse, or I could take a quick shower and….

Yesterday, I arrived Kuala Lumpur. I should have been here before noon local time. Let’s just say I arrived many hours later. I love posting about how amazing travel is, but there are times that travel doesn’t go to plan, and it just plain stinks. 🙂 Yesterday was one of those days.

First, when planning this trip from the States, I thought booking an early flight, requiring a 3:30am wake-up and a 4:30am car to the airport was a fantastic idea. Then there is the reality of the alarm going off at 3:30am! I am an early bird, but that was a stretch. Nonetheless, a shower in the amazing rain shower at my hotel (the Royal Athenee) got me ready for another day!

Check-out was very smooth, with the Staff amazing, and my taxi was waiting outside promptly at 4:30am. Booking a taxi through the hotel was 700 Baht – or $20 for the 1/2 hour drive to the airport. This is almost double what my metered ride was to the hotel a few days earlier, but I didn’t want to risk having to get a cab or a Grab at 4:30am. I had to turn off the part of my brain that hated paying nearly double, and accept that it was still only $20US for a ride that would easily be well over $50, if I were still at home!

BKK airport was a complete madhouse just after 5am, the lines for economy check-in on Thai Airways were absolutely insane, taking up the full roped off area and spilling into the general terminal area. Fortunately, I had checked-in online and could use the self-service bag drop – which had no lines. Self-serve is very different in BKK from what we are used to in the US. You literally use a kiosk to print off your bag tags (ok, well that is the same), but then you go to the belt, scan your bag tags, and load the bags onto the belt yourself…and off they go!

Security was another half an hour. Shoes off. Liquids in a bin. Each of my iPads in a separate bin from the liquids and the shoes and each other. Each carry-on in a bin (we’re up to 5 bins!). Ok, all good? Nope, my backpack was picked for secondary screening. Turns out I had missed needing to put my power pack in a separate bin. An agent removed the power pack, had me power in on and off, and I was cleared for immigration.

Immigration was easy. Scan fingerprints, picture taken, exit stamp acquired. Off to the interminable walk through duty-free to reach the gate areas. Thanks to my American Express Platinum card I have Priority Pass which gave plenty of options for quiet places to hang out for the now 1.5 hours until boarding.

First stop, the Oman Airlines lounge. A lovely lounge with a Middle-East theme in decor, frequent travelers rave over the food and drink in this lounge. And they were right. Amazing coffee, huge buffet, wide selection of alcohol (I did not partake at 7am!). But, no windows, few outlets for charging, and as the majority of the lounge was roped off for Oman’s own passengers, left it full and cramped. So off to the next stop Turkish!

The Turkish Airlines lounge is in my opinion, far better than the Oman lounge – at least for my purposes. Yes, the buffet was lacking (but did have an employee making made to order omelets), and there was no alcohol, but I did not want food or alcohol. What it did have was windows to the outside, and plenty of outlets…and only at most 5-6 other people in the lounge while I was there. Plus, some awesome – and strong – Turkish Coffee!

Soon enough it was time to go to the gate – and it is here that the adventure began. There is no better feeling than heading to a gate and realizing there is no plane. In this case, because even though I was at a major international airport, we’d be boarding from a bus gate. Yes, a fully booked 787 was going to be loaded from buses. The boarding time came and went, and we did not board. Not a good sign.

First announcement was that the delay would be 15 minutes more. It wasn’t. Next announcement was for another hour. This was more accurate. The bus I was on, was loaded until there was no room to move or breathe and was then sent halfway to Malaysia, to the plane. Oh, and air-con? If there was any, it wasn’t working and by the time we reached the plane I was dripping.

We reach the plane…and it’s a 777. Not a 787. Only 16 years old, it looked much older. The seats and carpet were falling apart. It took a bit to figure out seating as we all had boarding passes based on a 787 (fortunately, the 777 seats more people so no one was denied boarding).

Ok, took my aisle seat. All is well. The flight itself was great. The crew was awesome. A full breakfast was served (I did not partake), and all passengers got a blanket and pillow. On a 2 hour flight! (If only US airlines did this.)

Landed at KL, taxied to the gate. And the adventure began again. Got off the plane, walked halfway back to Bangkok only to learn the train to immigration was broken. Herded to buses. No air-con. Drove the rest of the way back to Bangkok. 🙂

Got to immigration, and thankfully, this is where my fellow frequent traveler contacts really helped me out. The line for non-Malay citizens was many hundreds of people long and not moving. Fortunately, as a US traveler, I was entitled to use the Automatic Gates – as long as I had pre-registered online. YES! But, no! The gates didn’t work for me. Was told that I could go to the Malay Citizen staffed line – found out that the gates don’t work until an Agent registers your fingerprints. That done, the automatic gates did work, and I made it out to the baggage claim well after the bags had started to arrive – but well before the vast majority of my fellow travelers made it through!

Caught a Grab for 75 Riingit (15$) and started the nearly hour journey to my hotel. Which I arrived at about 4 hours late, tired, and in need of a shower and change of clothes.

Greetings from Bangkok! A city full of contradictions. It’s been a fantastic trip so far, I apologize for not updating since arriving! I guess I’ll never be an influencer.

It’s been interesting so far. Finding a 17.75 hour flight isn’t so bad (at least not when you are on Singapore Airlines)! I’ve had a beer at 310 Meters above the streets of Bangkok (after standing on a glass floor, looking at the city below).

I’ve joined Thai’s making their way to various Temples to pray for a good 2024 ahead.

I got pooped on by a bird…at one of those Temples. (But, I’m thinking if a bird craps on you, on New Year’s Day, at a holy Temple, it’s got to mean good luck, right?

So stick around. Lots of pictures and stories to come!

I had arrived. Time for the fun to begin! Oh, wait. Not quite yet. First immigration! Chileans and foreigners share the same queue in Santiago – a queue which stretched the entire length of the switchbacked line! (All of the flights from the US arrive around the same time early in the morning). Fortunately, the police had about 20 stations opened and the line moved quickly. What always worries me most is I’ll get stuck behind someone with a Visa issue (what Chile does is once you’ve made it through the queue you are lined up three deep at each immigration station), but fortunately my station went quickly and after answering the normal questions and showing my test results and vaccination record I was through to baggage claim. My bags were amongst the first off (LATAM truly respects the Priority tags for business travelers – indeed on both my domestic legs all the Priority bags were off first – if only Delta did the same as I often think the priority tag makes sure your bag gets treated worst on Delta!) and I was through the nothing to declare in moments.

Once through immigration/customs, there is a small lobby before you get dumped into the terminal. In this lobby are desks for the 3 official taxicab companies. All three charge the same price so I just went to the one with the shortest line. The price is a flat 25,000 Chilean Pesos (roughly $25 – during my trip the exchange rate was in a tight band between 912-944 pesos per dollar but for the purpose of this summary I’ll just use 1000 because I am a liberal arts major and terrible at math.

A driver took my bags and we were immediately off to where his vehicle was and off to Santiago. The drive was on a toll road (autopista) and heavy with traffic as it was morning rush hour and it took nearly 40 minutes to drive the miles to my hotel in Providencia, the AC by Marriott which is attached to the largest mall in Latin America and the tallest skyscraper in Chile. The AC by Marriott is a limited service hotel and while the brand originated in Spain, you would think it had been Scandinavia given the simplicity of the design of the room. I was allowed to check-in immediately and as an Ambassador Member a bottle of wine and charcuterie tray was delivered to my room as a gift from the hotel.

First stop, Jumbo – think a Super WalMart but Chilean. On the 1st floor of the attached mall it allowed me to stock up on water at a much cheaper price than upstairs at the hotel (only 760 pesos for a 500ml bottle of Spring Water). I also stopped at an ATM to take out local currency (and if you think charges are way to high in the US for using an ATM that doesn’t partner with your bank – you’ve seen nothing yet – charges at both Santander and the Bank of Chile are about $8US!).

Next, I wanted to keep this a light day, so I walked about 20 minutes over to the Metropolitan Park of Santiago. Think Central Park but far larger and on a mountain. Not being dressed to hike to the top, for $2500 pesos I jumped on a cable car which took me to the top in about 5 minutes – with gorgeous views of Santiago and the Andes beyond. At the top I walked to San Cristobal – a lovely historic church on top of the mountain along with an absolutely huge statue overlooking the city. It was a beautiful day, with a nice breeze and temperatures near 90 – but with no humidity. The park was crowded with school groups, but still peaceful.

Next I paid another $2000 pesos to take a funicular to the street as I was now on the complete opposite side of the park. I next headed into the Zoo for a $4000 pesos entrance fee. The zoo is small but well run with reasonable sized enclosures and the animals being well taken care of. What I did not realize until it was too late, was the zoo was built into/on the side of the mountain and the path through the zoo necessarily caused one to walk nearly to the top of the mountain before heading back down to ground level.

Now thirsty and hungry, I went in search of lunch and found a wonderful cafe where I sat in a shaded garden with a fountain and enjoyed a coke, an out-of-this-world tuna steak with grilled vegetables, and two empanadas (beef for one, cheese for another). Total cost, 35,000 pesos including tax, tip (10% is standard here), and agua mineral.

By now, it was late afternoon, and I took an Uber the 15 minute drive back to my hotel (2300 pesos), and took a nap.

I slept more than expected, waking up around 6:30pm. Not being very hungry I headed to the rooftop bar of the hotel and had a ham and cheese panini and glass of Chilean wine for 25000 pesos. The rooftop bar was crowded with locals, and offered beautiful views of the city and the Andes beyond. AC by Marriott’s do not normally have a bar or full service restaurant but this one likely does because of its unique location attached to the skyscraper and seems quite popular as a result. In fact, the bar was full but as a hotel guest some seats are set aside so hotel guests always have space!

Food done, it was upstairs and off to sleep. An early day tomorrow as I was flying off to Patagonia before 10am!

Next Post: Pictures from First Day

I’m traveling again. For fun. For me. Don’t get me wrong, I am very dedicated to my job. I work hard. My work is of a good quality. But my passion is travel. Seeing other countries. Learning about other cultures. Seeing the natural beauty of somewhere far from home. This trip brings me to Chile for two weeks. It has been 10 years since my last trip to Chile – disappointing as Chile is definitely in my top 5 countries. AND, I have two close Chilean friends here. But, sadly, I have only so much vacation to see the places I’ve never seen and to return to the places I love.

This trip started with a business class flight from Atlanta to Miami on Delta, followed by a business class flight on LATAM (Latin America’s biggest airline – headquartered in Chile with major operations in Chile, Brazil and Peru) from Miami to Santiago. Round-trip cost? Only $2400US. (You see, if you can be flexible with dates and set up fare trackers you can often find reasonable pricing for business class tickets.)

I’ll spare you the details of Atlanta-Miami as it was your typical boring domestic flight. Nothing particularly good or bad. In Miami Delta dumps you out into Terminal H, which is directly connected to Terminal J (the international terminal for non-One World airlines). These terminals may now well be the worst it America given the improvements at JFK and LaGuardia. Dimly lit, with narrow hallways they look like they were last updated sometime in the 70’s. Worse, there is not one decent sit down restaurant for all those waiting for overnight flights to South America or Europe. In fact, there is not one sit down restaurant at all. Your choice is generally a food court with a McDonald’s offering a $15 BigMac “Value Meal” or other generic fast food. I skipped it all and headed to the LATAM lounge (I had access because of my business class ticket) in hopes of enjoying dinner so I could just go straight to sleep on my flight.

The LATAM lounge was a disappointment – and in hindsight I should have left and gone to the SkyClub. While generally well-furnished and bright with floor to ceiling windows, the food was very disappointing and looked so poor that I did not even bother trying it – and certainly could not have made an adequate dinner from it. The self-serve bar was very limited in its offerings – for red wine (my favorite) there was a choice between a very cheap US Red and a decent Chilean Carmenere (my choice). With a 4 hour layover I had hoped to use my computer but there were almost no outlets in the lounge and the work cubicles were in a dark corner and also did not have outlets. All that said, the club never felt crowded and certainly was a better place to stay than in the terminal.

Boarding began 50 minutes before the flight and I was one of the first on board. LATAM’s business product is outdated, featuring lie-flat seats but in a 2-2-2 seating so great for couples but no privacy for a solo traveler. For me, when confronted with this layout I always choose the middle section as I can access the aisle with out climbing over anyone nor will anyone climb over me to reach the aisle. The seats are very comfortable both as a seat and as a bed. No predeparture beverages were offered – odd given we had almost an hour before pushback and indeed it was nearly 1.5 hours before we actually took off, but, a water bottle was at each seat. Dinner was served shortly after we reached altitude and included choices of a smoked salmon salad, a non-descript beef in some sort of gravy and a cheese lasagna. I chose the lasagna ate it and quickly went to sleep.

I slept for a full 6 hours before being woken by a flight attendant for breakfast. I enjoyed an omelet with a yogurt and fresh fruit and soon we were on final approach to Chile with the snow-capped Andes visible outside the windows.

NEXT: First day in Chile

Well, I should be home later today 1.12.21. But, I won’t be. My African experience has been extended, in the most interesting of ways! You see, if you’ve been following the news, South Africa discovered a new variant of Covid. In exchange for being open with the World about this new variant, other countries rewarded South Africa by attempting to seal it off (slight overexaggeration) from the rest of the World. This is my story.

(TLDR: I’m fine. Everything is fine.)

After leaving Zambia, I headed into Botswana. In Botswana I had 0 cell or wifi service. Because, by design, I was in the middle of nowhere. It was glorious. (As I now have extra time, watch for posts about tracking a cheetah on a hunt, tracking (and watching) a successful pack of Painted Dogs hunt, and multiple Lions, and a ton of Elephants.)

So, fast forward to November 27th. I land in Johannesburg, to a flurry of worried messages (mostly from my mom. hi mom, I’m fine!). And, most importantly, a message from Qatar that all flights from South Africa were being cancelled effective immediately. There would be no help rebooking on other airlines. There would be no assistance finding a hotel. There would be no Qatar staff on the ground available to help. I was on my own.

I immediately swung into action. I’ve spent 21 years traveling internationally, and although this was certainly the most worrisome situation I’ve experienced, I knew what to do. First, I knew that tens of thousands of people would be in a similar situation (only Air Seychelles, Swiss, United, Delta, Lufthansa, Kenya, Ethiopian and South African Airways had not cancelled their flights – which at most ran once daily – some of which only ran a few times a week). I had to move quick.

As soon as I was off the plane, I immediately started looking at my options. Although there were a couple options for sale for connections through Europe, I avoided those. First, I didn’t know if the cancellations would continue. Second, I assumed (rightly as it turned out with the exception of Swiss), that when the European airlines did resume they would only repatriate Europeans and would not transport transit passengers.

Although an extension of my vacation in the Seychelles was tempting, I was worried that the Seychelles was going to be added to ban lists and the cost of quarantining there would be prohibitive. So that left me with African options. And, it worked. I fly later this week to another country in Africa where I pick up a flight to the USA.

Flights sorted, I had to find a hotel. I immediately called the hotel to which I was already to spend two nights in Joburg, they were able to accomodate me staying, at my original rate, for as long as I needed.

Now, everything was sorted before I got my duffel and made it through customs. Phew. And thank goodness. The Johannesburg airport was like a war zone. Thousands upon thousands of panicked passengers clogged the halls. Queues for ticketing were horribly long, snaking through passageways and intersecting with queues for other airlines. I went in search of Qatar to find there were only 2 contract employees to help thousands (Qatar had 3 flights a day from JNB) – and indeed when I later reached Qatar by email/phone they offered 0 assistance and only a refund of the unused portion of my ticket – when the last minute one-way replacements I had to purchase were far more expensive than the refund they offered. I didn’t bother to join the queue to speak to the two agents and instead took a cab to my hotel.

(I’ll deal with my travel insurance and Qatar when I get home to see what it anything is covered.)

In the end, I am extremely lucky. It is 1.12 here and it is still reported there are still thousands of stranded passengers in JNB, some sleeping at the airport. I have a hotel room in a good part of town. I am healthy. I have the means and knowledge of the travel industry to take care of myself. I will make it back to the US (negative Covid test willing). There are so many here that are not so lucky.

What a way to end the trip. Yet another memory from this trip that I will never forget. More to come.