May, 2012 | Jason Around the World

Bhutan, Day 2

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May 312012

Up early to check out of the hotel to drive back to the town of Paro for our big day hike to Taktsang Monestary. The monastery is at approximately 3,100 metres above sea level, and the hike up starts somewhere around 2,200 metres so it’s a pretty steep hike! We drove the one hour from the hotel in Thimphu pretty quickly, and soon were at the base of the hill to begin our hike.

It was approximately a 2.5 hour hike pretty much straight uphill, with a stop at the canteen halfway to buy water, etc, and take a brief rest. A few pics from the hike up:

Kathmandu, Nepal to Paro, Bhutan (PBH) and visiting Bhutan Day 1

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May 302012

Up early to catch my flight to Bhutan, and if the shots with sherpas the night before weren’t enough to signal this was going to be an interesting trip…the rest of the day definitely would!

Check-out of the hotel was relatively easy, despite them making up a story about why they couldn’t take American Express (“the link to American Express is not working this morning” – really? at 6am you’ve already tried it?) and they found me a taxi no problem. Except, there was a problem. After 5 minutes in the taxi, it became pretty apparent that the previous day’s strike and protests were continuing, and the streets were lined with riot police and angry looking protesters. With a bit of sign language, and broken english (“there better” – pointing at the back of the van) that’s how I ended up in the back of the minivan/trunk area, covered by a tarp, peering out. Yes, the driver was concerned protesters might see a westerner in the taxi and cause trouble. I have to say this was a first – riding to the airport in complete secrecy!

Check-in was a non-event, and spent a little time in the only lounge in the airport – the “Radisson Lounge” – and then a two hour delay was announced. However, only 45 minutes later, the lounge agent came around again, and informed us all that boarding was now ready. Um, ok, sounds good to me!

Druk Air Flight 410
Kathmandu, Nepal (KTM) to Paro, Bhutan (PBH)
Departure 8:45, Arrival 10:20, Flight Time 1:20
Airbus A319, Registration A5-RGG, Manufactured 2004
Seat 4A

Since there’s not much online about Druk Air, I’ll be a bit more detailed with this part of the report. First, a shot of the plane as we walked up to it:

Delhi to Kathmandu, Nepal (KTM) and touring Nepal

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May 252012

After landing just after 8pm, getting to the hotel at 9pm, and catching up on e-mail over wine finally crashed around 1030pm. My strategy had been to book an early flight the next morning, knowing I wouldn’t get a full night’s sleep due to jet lag anyways. I was correct, and this proved to be a perfect choice. Woke around 4am without an alarm, coffee was delivered to the room shortly after, and I was out the door and to the airport with no troubles at all!

Check-in was a bit confusing – with people manning the doors to the airport, and seemingly being random who they let through. They wanted an itinerary, printed only – e-mail on the phone not good enough, but my sense was if you were polite while putting up enough of a stink and acting important enough you were let through. One lesson I’ve learned in developing country travel: be polite, firm, give off an air of importance, and you almost always get what you want. One hint of rudeness, or being “nobody” and the petty bureaucrats eat you for breakfast.

Got to the Air India counter, where I learned the flight was completely full. Managed to get an exit row window for the short flight, so I was plenty happy. Immigration was quite quick, and soon I was in the Priority Pass lounge for a quick snack. Three Diet Cokes and a few hard boiled eggs later, I was happy, and it was off to the gate, where at 40 minutes prior to departure I was one of the last to board!

Air India Flight 213
Delhi, India (DEL) to Kathmandu, Nepal (KTM)
Departure 7:30, Arrival 9:00, Flight Time 1:45
Airbus A319, Registration VT-SCJ, Manufactured 2007
Seat 11A

Honestly not too much to say about this flight. Crew was good, seat mates were tolerable (except the guy in the middle who insisted on hogging the armrest and part of my space) and even got en edible meal on this short segment, with the typical in India “veg or non-veg” options.

Soon, we were landing in Kathmandu, with a short bus to immigration.

Washington DC, National (DCA) to Delhi, India (DEL), Transit in Delhi, and the ITC Sheraton Maurya

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May 242012

Even before the trip began…there was to be drama. Storms were forecast in the DC to NYC corridor late afternoon, and when that happens flights tend to get really messy really quickly. Today was to be no exception…my flight was preemptively delayed early morning for 2 hours…pretty much ensuring my 2 hour, 16 minute connection was going to be REALLY close. However…when it came down to it…the delay shrank to 90 minutes, then 1 hour, then just 30 minutes a couple hours out. We boarded on time…pulled away from the gate on time…and waited. Pilot came on 15 minutes later telling us that for flow control, and “confusion with ATC” our new slot time was 90 minutes away…but maybe we’ll get lucky!

In the end, we did get lucky, going wheels up only about 45 minutes after scheduled departure time.

ExpressJet Flight 4695, Operating as United Express
Washington, National (DCA) to Newark, New Jersey (EWR)
Departure 16:59, Arrival 18:14
ERJ-145, Registration N17196
Seat 1A

I know lots of people don’t like the BDJ-145 as it’s affectionately known (Barbie Dream Jet), but I actually don’t mind it at all for short flights. I almost always have been getting my preferred seat 1A for my regular hops up to Ottawa lately, and it’s a pretty comfortable ride. With nobody sitting in front of you it’s private and quiet, and all in all…can’t complain. Crews are usually excellent, and this one was no exception. I think I got 3-4 refills of Diet Coke, and the 50 minute or so flight was over quite quickly. Really not much to say – parked at the A gates at Newark, took the shuttle over to the C gates, and had a good 45 minutes in the Presidents Club…er…”United Club” to recharge the iDevices before the long flight.

United Flight 82
Newark, New Jersey (EWR) to Delhi, India (DEL)
Departure 20:30, Arrival 20:15 Next Day, Flight Time: 14:25
Boeing 777-200, Registration N76010
Seat 2E

This was my first time on the ex-Continental 777s with flat bed, and overall I was pretty impressed. They certainly beat business on the ex-United 777s, mainly because there are no “middle” seats. For me, most important thing on an overnight is aisle access with nobody climbing over me. Hence, I don’t like the window sections of two (either I have to climb over someone, or they have to climb over me) and the ex-Continental 777s with two seats in the middle are perfect. Overall, the hard product here is excellent. It’s too bad the ex-United planes screwed up business so badly.

Also, this was to be my longest flight ever. At 7,323 miles it would top my previous longest flight that I had done four times (San Francisco to Hong Kong) which clocked in at “only” 6,914 miles. With 14:25 of flight time, there would be plenty of time to eat, sleep, watch tv, etc. One of the most amusing parts of the plane was the entertainment system still was all Continental:

12 Countries, 10 Airlines, 4 Islands, 27,080 miles, 11 Days

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May 222012

So it had been four months, and I was itching to travel. I’d recovered from my visit to Somalia in January, and the friend I visited next door in Djibouti was headed to Seychelles for some R&R…and of course, having never been there – I wanted to go with. But can I do it the easy way? Of course not…I started looking at alternative routings that would allow me to visit as many countries as possible…as cheaply as possible…in as short of time as possible!

You might remember the last three years where I spent New Years Eve…yes, Iraq and then Iran/Afghanistan, ending with Somalia this year.

So…I found a great fare to India….which told me I had to finally visit Nepal and Bhutan. Great fare from there down to Seychelles that allowed a stopover in Mauritius…and we were well on the way. The fare back from Seychelles allowed a stop anywhere in Europe…so a chance to finally get to Bulgaria. Tentatively, the parts to this report will be:

Part I: Washington DC, National (DCA) to Delhi, India (DEL)
Part II: Transit in Delhi, and the Sheraton Muraya
Part III: Delhi to Kathmandu, Nepal (KTM) and touring Nepal
Part IV: Kathmandu, Nepal to Paro, Bhutan (PBH) and visiting Bhutan
Part V: Paro, Bhutan to Male, Maldives (MLE)
Part VI: Sheraton Full Moon Resort, Maldives
Part VII: Male, Maldives to Port Louis, Mauritius (MRU)
Part VIII: Visiting Mauritius
Part IX: Port Louis, Mauritius to Mahe, Seychelles (SEZ)
Part X: Seychelles, including the Le Meridien Fishermans Cove and Scuba
Part XI: Mahe, Seychelles to Sofia, Bulgaria (SOF)
Part XII: Sheraton Sofia, and visiting Sofia, Bulgaria
Part XIII: Sofia, Bulgaria to Washington Dulles (IAD)

The Route:

The Route

Hope you enjoy…I’ll try and get through this with lots of pics relatively quickly!