Hong Kong in 48 hours

On our way back from Thailand, we had a nice 2-day layover in Hong Kong and were able to go into Kowloon, HongKong Island, go to Victoria’s Peak, ride the Star Ferry, and all great things.  We landed at the Hong Kong International airport which is built on an island by land reclamation. For the "Extreme Engineering" fans, Hong Kong Airport itself can be an attraction. The huge terminal is an...

Read More

Day trip to Phi Phi Islands, Thailand

Next day we decided to take a day trip to Phi Phi Island. We were so surprised that actually this hopping island tour from Phuket came with many different kind of packages and varying prices as well. We booked the most economical version of the day trip to Phi Phi Islands via ferry at our hotel. As usual, the package we bought included shuttle transfer from hotel to the pier....

Read More

Phuket and Phang Nga Bay, Thailand

We arrived in Phuket after 15 hours on the plane (or 18 or maybe 20 hours, I have lost count). It was a big mess outside the airport with tons tourists who had just arrived, resort buses & taxis everywhere and very bloody hot !. Luckily Le Meredien (our hotel) had a kiosk at the airport and they helped us to get a cab right away. The Le Meredien resort was really nice, we checked-in and just...

Read More

Flight to Paris on Air France

I almost always fly United Airlines, so was really excited this time to be booked on an Air France flight to Paris. I had planned to check-in early to try my luck on getting a seat on the emergency exit row, but ended up arriving pretty late at the airport (thanks to the various constructions on 101). If you are on a 10+ hour flight, the biggest benefit of being seated in the emergency exit row is...

Read More

Eiffel Tower & Paris from the top

Off to Paris  It was the first time in Paris. Weather was a bit gloomy, cold and was snowing intermittently throughout the day. Its December and given that we’d paid relatively little for our air tickets and hotels, we were delighted. And of course, it also meant less crowd everywhere in Paris. I don’t think there are many monuments that are as...

Read More

Converting your US currency abroad economically

While introduction of "Euro" has made travelling within Euro zone much easier, exchanging US currency into Foreign currency is still one of the prerequistes (Ofcourse besides having a passport) before planning a trip abroad . If not properly planned, converting your US currency to a foreign currency can be very costly and problematic.So far rule of thumb has been to charge your credit card as much as possible. Using your credit card does avoid converting a lot of cash, however you cannot use the...

Read More

Formula1: Canadian GP @ Montreal

Was in Montreal last month to watch the Canadian GP and Wow - Grand Prix weekend in Montreal is a blast! It's certainly not a weekend for the faint-of-heart. This is the weekend when the F1 and its entourage come to Montreal for the Grand Prix du Canada. This entourage consists (allegedly) of hundreds of thousand of F1 crew and tourists along for the party. Many of these tourists are from Europe,...

Read More