I’m sure it was great- but which airline did you take?
I think that the WHY of travel comes from somewhere deep inside a person and can be hard to explain. People have different reasons of why they travel. I know mine, but I am not sure they are easy to explain.
I do often find myself very interested in the HOW of travel.
Which airline did you take? How long was your layover? Did you take a train or bus? If you have recently told me that you went on a trip, I have probably asked you which airline you took. I like talking to people and hearing their experiences. Probably because I mentally note disaster stories and try not to make the same mistake, just as I note success stories that I might one day try to mimic myself. The logistical parts of travel are unavoidable, very important and, done wrong, can cause a lot of stress on your trip.
Below I will give a summary of what I would ask someone else about the logistical part of their trip and will write a later post about paperwork for the trip. Hope you enjoy!
Continent: Asia
Dates: February 3-24, 2018
Route:
Winnipeg • Vancouver • Hong Kong • Siem Reap • Phnom Penh • Jakarta • Yogyakarta • Jakarta • Hong Kong • Vancouver • Winnipeg
Winnipeg • Vancouver • Hong Kong • Hong Kong • Vancouver • Winnipeg
I booked my round-trip flight from Winnipeg to Hong Kong via Vancouver right after Christmas on a Boxing Day sale with Air Canada. I played around with this a little bit. The cheapest proposed route was something ridiculous like Winnipeg-Edmonton-Calgary-Vancouver and THEN Hong Kong. There was only about ~$100 difference so I knew I had to choose the safe option and fly directly from Winnipeg to Vancouver without all the mess. Every flight that you add is another chance for a problem and I didn’t think it possible to make all those connections on time, especially with it being winter in Canada. I am very glad that I paid extra because we landed in Vancouver one hour late, but since I had allotted a 4-hour layover it was still fine.
As it was, they oversold the Winnipeg -> Vancouver flight and were taking volunteers to fly first class via Edmonton. I would have done it if I hadn’t had a connection to catch. I thought they would stop doing that with all the media coverage it is getting these days, but obviously not. It was an early flight, and I slept for most of it.
When we arrived in Vancouver I had lunch (probably the most expensive part of my 3-week trip). The flight left for Hong Kong at 12pm and there were 3 flights leaving for Hong Kong within 3 hours. Leaving at 11am there was a Hong Kong Airlines flight which seemed very full. At 1pm there was a Cathay Pacific flight which I overheard was also full. I am not sure if this is normal, but it was right before Chinese New Year so this probably contributed greatly.
The flight was ~13 hours and went by pretty quickly. What I hadn’t planned for was that they fed us as soon as we were flying, so I shouldn’t have bought that expensive lunch. Oh well.
When I landed in Hong Kong it was around 6pm on Sunday. (Yes, that ol’ international date line).
Hong Kong • Siem Reap
1/ View from the bus to the Hong Kong Airport
We caught an early flight from Hong Kong to Siem Reap. It takes awhile to get to the Hong Kong Airport by bus since you have to cross so many islands, so allow lots of time for that and try to have some cash left, or buy an Octopus card. Our airline was Hong Kong Airlines, which was fine. This was my third day in Asia, and I was still getting into holiday mode. All I remember is stepping out of the plane into the Cambodian air and thinking “Katie’s on holiday!” It had been quite cool in Hong Kong, so the Cambodian heat really sent me a message! The airport in Siem Reap was really lovely, very open and airy. Note: BE SURE TO GET YOUR ENTRY VISA BEFORE YOU FLY! There were masses of people trying to do the paperwork on arrival, including taking a photo etc. We skipped all that having done our visas beforehand- and I definitely recommend it!
Siem Reap • Phnom Penh
2/ First meal in Cambodia served with banana tree leaves.
I really enjoyed Siem Reap, and if you only have limited time in Cambodia I would advise going to Siem Reap and skipping Phnom Penh. We took a flight with JC International Airlines. It was possible to take a bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, but we were on limited time so we decided to fly.
Phnom Penh • Jakarta
From the Cambodian capital to Jakarta we took our first AirAsia flight. I had heard about AirAsia as I was looking into ULCCs and how they had been successful in Europe and Asia already. This first time was actually two flights, because we had a layover of a few hours in Kuala Lumpur. It kind of reminded me of being in the Asian version of Ryan Air. There was nothing complimentary, which I am ok with, but they had advertisements of some beauty products displayed on the overhead bins… where have I seen that before?
Side note: I don’t think this has anything to do with AirAsia specifically, but when landing in Kuala Lumpur they told us to cover our mouths as they were going to spray a disinfecting spray throughout the aircraft before landing. I was later told this was probably for insects travelling between countries- but that was the first time that had happened!
3/ Stayed in the Ibis by the Jakarta Airport.
Jakarta • Yogyakarta
We spent one quick night in Jakarta, just in transit to Yogyakarta. Our group had a recommendation to go there specifically and it was very worth it! It didn’t feel like a huge overwhelming big city, but yet still very easy to travel around. We also took AirAsia on this leg of the journey. I note to myself again the similarity to RyanAir. These airlines don’t just travel from one capital city to another, but they provide routes that are popular and that people will want to take. Seeing as Yogyakarta is so popular it makes sense they are flying here.
4/ If you are in Yogyakarta you must go to Borobudur. This was taken as we were watching the sunrise.
Jakarta • Hong Kong
5/ Enjoying my last intra-Asia flight
From Jakarta back to Hong Kong I flew with Garuda Indonesia. Like I talked about before, they are actually a SkyTeam member, which I didn’t know before flying with them. It wasn’t a problem because I was able to credit my miles after the flight too.
I didn’t know that I would get a meal on the flight and had sadly eaten before! The flight was a few hours long, but I was very comfortable and really enjoyed it!
Pondering…
The amount of flights that I did in 3 weeks was quite a lot, but didn’t come out to be that expensive considering. We used a range of airlines according to price and convenience. I talked in my last post about how being loyal to one alliance increases your points, so should we have chosen one alliance and stuck with it? Would it have been possible? In the future I may “plan” the route again, seeing which alliance would have been the best!