Flight from Hong-Kong to Cairns was 7h, went by in a snap. Got some good movies in and short sleep again. Arrival was great as always, after so many hours of flying any destination probably seems like the best one ever :) Once out of the plane had a small chat with immigration about my finances, when I'm expected back at the office (thought I can forget about the office for now, but nope), why I'm here, when did I start planning the trip and what sort of visas do the people hold that I'm gonna visit. Nothing too surprising I guess, customs was smooth as well - including the cleaning of my hiking boots. I've heard from various people of how they are very careful about the soil that gets brought in here with various shoes, so they deep clean them :) so they did for mine as well, my hiking boots came back nicely packaged :D
After 36h of traveling I figured I should just stay awake as long as possible. Napping in the middle of the day won't work for me as I won't be able to get out of bed, this in turn would mess up the whole rhythm of sleep. Only way to manage staying awake would be walking around. Quick shower at the hotel first, change of clothes and to the town I went.
Cairns is a small place as seen by locals, about 130 000 people (town size is expected to double within few years). My hotel is located 1.5km from the center - there is a nice Esplanade connecting this area to the city center, just about 1.5km walk. Town itself is nice, many eating places, a big mall, quite large marina, parks, water Laguna and little arts shops. Laguna is great - it is located right by the sea, but as the sea is not very suitable for a swim (muddy shore and not very inviting, I found also warning signs about alligators), they have set up a shallow pool with all sorts of fountains for people to swim in. During the day it is packed with people.
At the moment there is Carin's Festival ongoing with a tight program. Happened to find one outdoor live music performance in city center, in the evenings there are pub performances all over town - perhaps tomorrow I'll catch one of those too.
While working on staying awake and walking around town I booked my next 2 days. Tomorrow I will be going to explore Great Barrier Reef and the day after there will be white water rafting - a bit more of an adrenaline kick :) Both are day tours including lunch and a tight program. While looking for a place to have dinner I ran into 2 Estonians on the street :)
Managed to keep myself busy till about 4 in the afternoon, by the time I got back to the hotel the time was 4:45. Bit of unpacking and then preparing for tomorrow's trip, I was done at 5:30 and that is when I fell dead on the bed. Tiredness took over and my 13h beauty sleep started :)
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Reporting from Hong-Kong
It was kinda nice to arrive here. Flight map showed all the familiar cities and I knew what to expect when arriving, last year I was here 6th of September. Airport has been transformed quite a bit though, it looks nice. My flights so far have gone well, no major turbulence or delays or any other hassles. Only thing was that I had to claim my baggage in London Heathrow and do another check-in 'cause Estonian Air does not have baggage contract with Cathay Pacific :( All went smoothly with that so no biggie at all.
I'm not sure how I managed to get even few good hours of sleep on the last flight. Managed to have a dream even where one of my friends got stuck in airplane restroom :). Maybe the ability to sleep on the flights comes with age? No clue, but I'm definitely happy about it. Hopefully now I will only need to sleep 1 day instead of 3 days to get back on track once I arrive in the destination :D Kidding, no time to sleep during vacation ;)
Hunger bites so food hunting starts now. Some stretches for my back and legs are in order as well (oh how I'm dreaming about running). Next flight coming up in 4 hours.
Hugs!
I'm not sure how I managed to get even few good hours of sleep on the last flight. Managed to have a dream even where one of my friends got stuck in airplane restroom :). Maybe the ability to sleep on the flights comes with age? No clue, but I'm definitely happy about it. Hopefully now I will only need to sleep 1 day instead of 3 days to get back on track once I arrive in the destination :D Kidding, no time to sleep during vacation ;)
Hunger bites so food hunting starts now. Some stretches for my back and legs are in order as well (oh how I'm dreaming about running). Next flight coming up in 4 hours.
Hugs!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
about 40 minutes to go
last set of e-mails have been sent. sitting at the airport, listening to music, tweeting, facebook and staring at the dark clouds outside. i have not snapped out of the daily hassles yet. yesterday was a long day.. preparations for Long Distance Triathlon started at 6am for me and event finished 11:30pm. it was a tough, fun, exciting and a happy day. i'm so proud of all of you who competed and all of you who assisted with organizing the event. i'm a lucky person to have such good people around me!
this morning alarm went off 9am, good solid 8h sleep, new morning full of hassles started. all in all i managed and i managed good. now there are 17 flights waiting for me in the next 6 weeks and then i'll be back where i started from. but that i won't think about before i'm off the last flight ;) .. and that won't be anytime soon :D
life is sooooo gooood :)
you all take care and be good!
stay tuned! liftoff coming up shortly :D
this morning alarm went off 9am, good solid 8h sleep, new morning full of hassles started. all in all i managed and i managed good. now there are 17 flights waiting for me in the next 6 weeks and then i'll be back where i started from. but that i won't think about before i'm off the last flight ;) .. and that won't be anytime soon :D
life is sooooo gooood :)
you all take care and be good!
stay tuned! liftoff coming up shortly :D
Friday, August 28, 2009
about 40 hours to go
I have finished packing of my check-in luggage. Now either I'm getting very good at packing or I have just totally missed about half the things I will need on my trip. The problem (not entirely sure that is a problem of course) is that the bag is half empty :) All the things in my list are in there plus things to bring to Ave plus things for her friend and my back bag is half empty still! Too unrealistic. Good thing about it is of course that once I get to Brisbane and hand some things over I'll have even less weight to drag around :D weheee! Still it makes me think I have totally missed something. I guess I will find out soon enough :)
Last load of laundry is spinning away in the washer, big back bag is packed, carry-on bag contents are spread all over the couch and I have about 40h till it's time to do the check-in. Meanwhile my time is filled with a 20h triathlon event I'm in charge of, starting tomorrow morning at 6am, a bit of rest tonight and tomorrow night, say about 2x6h, so it seems that I still have 8h to spare - that is a whole day! Perhaps I'll treat myself for 8h sleep before getting to the airport :)
Vacation does not start before I finally sit on the plane so there is still bits to go till I can confirm to be on vacation.
Last load of laundry is spinning away in the washer, big back bag is packed, carry-on bag contents are spread all over the couch and I have about 40h till it's time to do the check-in. Meanwhile my time is filled with a 20h triathlon event I'm in charge of, starting tomorrow morning at 6am, a bit of rest tonight and tomorrow night, say about 2x6h, so it seems that I still have 8h to spare - that is a whole day! Perhaps I'll treat myself for 8h sleep before getting to the airport :)
Vacation does not start before I finally sit on the plane so there is still bits to go till I can confirm to be on vacation.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
technology rules :)
In order to keep you all up to date with my doings I have added twitter updates to my travel blog. It shows last 3 updates from my Twitter account. Through Twitter I can send updates from my mobile so I can send updates from anywhere now :) Oh the fun! I'll be testing it in the following couple of weeks. Also feel free to use RSS reader to get my new posts to your e-mail immediately.
About my travel planning and progress, well, not much to tell. My friend Ave who I'll visit in Brisbane is doing great work on figuring out our plans there. We will also travel to Sydney together. It will be so great to see her!
Currently I'm doing some local tourism in Võru, heading over to Tartu shortly and then on to Leigo Järvemuusika festival in the evening :)
About my travel planning and progress, well, not much to tell. My friend Ave who I'll visit in Brisbane is doing great work on figuring out our plans there. We will also travel to Sydney together. It will be so great to see her!
Currently I'm doing some local tourism in Võru, heading over to Tartu shortly and then on to Leigo Järvemuusika festival in the evening :)
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Exactly a month till packing needs to be finished :)
I need to have everything packed by the evening of 28th of August :) and no I'm not overplanning. The deal is the same as last year: I will be organizing a triathlon event that starts 6am on 29th of August and ends around 3am on the 30th of August. I have to be at the airport bit before noon on the 30th, which gives me couple of hours to get some sleep and that is it :)
The progress so far is:
- plane tickets bought and initial dates for all flights fixed
- travel, health and luggage insurance done
- Australian visa gotten
- training in San Jose arranged and U2 concert tickets purchased
Nothing else needed really :) Easy trip this time huh? Maybe I'm just a bit more spontaneous, maybe it is just the nature of the countries I'm going to - I don't know, but besides few accommodation arrangements (San Jose and Atlanta) there is nothing more to do :) I have decided that I won't arrange any local trips up front, I have looked up what I'd like to do and I'm betting on walking into organizers office the same day to take the trip. Same with car rental. So I just need to pack my bag at some point and that is it :)
It all seems so far away though, I'm not even thinking about it yet, no excitement, nothing. Must be the current busy schedule? Very strange.
The progress so far is:
- plane tickets bought and initial dates for all flights fixed
- travel, health and luggage insurance done
- Australian visa gotten
- training in San Jose arranged and U2 concert tickets purchased
Nothing else needed really :) Easy trip this time huh? Maybe I'm just a bit more spontaneous, maybe it is just the nature of the countries I'm going to - I don't know, but besides few accommodation arrangements (San Jose and Atlanta) there is nothing more to do :) I have decided that I won't arrange any local trips up front, I have looked up what I'd like to do and I'm betting on walking into organizers office the same day to take the trip. Same with car rental. So I just need to pack my bag at some point and that is it :)
It all seems so far away though, I'm not even thinking about it yet, no excitement, nothing. Must be the current busy schedule? Very strange.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Curious about the land down under
I've always wondered about what is there in down under, what is it like to walk upside down that is :D No need to wonder any longer as this is where my travels during fall vacation take me. Somehow I've always explained of why I have chosen a certain area for the next destination so here it comes again: my friend Ave moved to the down under land this year :) Her initial plan is to stay there for a bit, so I figured to go and visit her.
As usual, I got limited time for my travels and as usual I'm going to try to take most out of those few weeks I've got. Planned routes and destinations:
1. Cairns, AU - good 3.5 days
Will arrive there through Stockholm, London and Hong-Kong (please make it so that there are no tropical storms in the area this time, although I will be in Hong Kong airport almost to the date a year later!). Activities should definitely include some adrenalin kick, for an example bit of whitewater rafting? Definitely some ocean activities on a boat to study the Great Barrier Reef and water animals.
2. Brisbane, AU - for about 5 days
Noosa and Rainbow beach here I come with my surfing gear to have the best pancakes in the world :-P ! Hopefully some animal parks will be open during my stay, will check out some sand hills in the ocean (islands made entirely of sand!), the city and the beaches and spend time with my friend, and night clubs and all that this area has to offer.
3. Sydney, AU - 3 days
Of course the city, perhaps some cultural events. Oh and close to Sydney there are mountains called blue ;) and something about a tramway, will see what i can manage there.
4. Tasmania, AU - 3 days
Everything that this little island can offer in 3 days, will be in Hobart area, driving around by bikes and cars like a maniac :-P
5. Christchurch, NZ - 6 days
The city and the most beautiful train ride in the world plus ice climbing on glacier and ocean life with itsy-bitsy dolphins and couple of museums and animal parks hopefully, perhaps even some activities full of adrenalin rush.
6. Auckland, NZ - 6 days
The caves and more Maori culture and Rotorua and Rongitoto and all kinds of fun.
7. San Jose, US - 3 days
Short training course, work related, will try to snap out of the vacation mode and be down to earth for just 2 days.
8. Santa Cruz, US - 4 days
"surf city" is the nickname of this wonderful town in California, so I'll be just surfing.
9. Atlanta, US - 1.5 days
Just to attend U2 concert on the 6th of October in Georgia Dome :)
As of today I will be traveling mostly alone, I got one potential travel companion, but this is to be confirmed still. I'm particularly happy about the U2 concert on the last evening of the trip, tickets to the event are purchased :)
As usual, I got limited time for my travels and as usual I'm going to try to take most out of those few weeks I've got. Planned routes and destinations:
1. Cairns, AU - good 3.5 days
Will arrive there through Stockholm, London and Hong-Kong (please make it so that there are no tropical storms in the area this time, although I will be in Hong Kong airport almost to the date a year later!). Activities should definitely include some adrenalin kick, for an example bit of whitewater rafting? Definitely some ocean activities on a boat to study the Great Barrier Reef and water animals.
2. Brisbane, AU - for about 5 days
Noosa and Rainbow beach here I come with my surfing gear to have the best pancakes in the world :-P ! Hopefully some animal parks will be open during my stay, will check out some sand hills in the ocean (islands made entirely of sand!), the city and the beaches and spend time with my friend, and night clubs and all that this area has to offer.
3. Sydney, AU - 3 days
Of course the city, perhaps some cultural events. Oh and close to Sydney there are mountains called blue ;) and something about a tramway, will see what i can manage there.
4. Tasmania, AU - 3 days
Everything that this little island can offer in 3 days, will be in Hobart area, driving around by bikes and cars like a maniac :-P
5. Christchurch, NZ - 6 days
The city and the most beautiful train ride in the world plus ice climbing on glacier and ocean life with itsy-bitsy dolphins and couple of museums and animal parks hopefully, perhaps even some activities full of adrenalin rush.
6. Auckland, NZ - 6 days
The caves and more Maori culture and Rotorua and Rongitoto and all kinds of fun.
7. San Jose, US - 3 days
Short training course, work related, will try to snap out of the vacation mode and be down to earth for just 2 days.
8. Santa Cruz, US - 4 days
"surf city" is the nickname of this wonderful town in California, so I'll be just surfing.
9. Atlanta, US - 1.5 days
Just to attend U2 concert on the 6th of October in Georgia Dome :)
As of today I will be traveling mostly alone, I got one potential travel companion, but this is to be confirmed still. I'm particularly happy about the U2 concert on the last evening of the trip, tickets to the event are purchased :)
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