oneworld! Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, Australia trip reports + CX F/J, QF J and AA F

Alright guys, here we are (finally!). After months of careful (and fun) planning, the moment I have longed for has finally come! I am about to embark on a journey that - in 57 days - will lead me throughout the Asia-Pacific region in what's going to be a BLAST! After graduating from Cornell with a MBA - and before going back to the "real" world in August - I have decided to take a break that will take me to 4 countries I have never visited before (exciting indeed!).

I see this trip as a two-parts adventure: the first part runs from June 1st until June 27th and the second part from June 27th until July 26th. For the first part of the trip, I will be traveling with my girlfriend Selina; after that (as she needs to be back home in San Jose, CA before going to Italy as part of an award-trip we won after participating in a Barilla-sponsored cooking competition) I will be alone. I will create various posts throughout the journey, all of which will be linked to this main thread.



Itinerary (out of Ithaca, NY via New York, NY)
The report will be divided in the following manner:

Part I - The take-off! JFK - HKG - SIN on CX F and J with BA Galleries First lounge at JFK Terminal 7 and CX Cabin Lounge at HKG
Part II - Singapura twenty-twelve: a culinary delight
Part III - SIN - SGN on JetStar Y
Part IV - From Saigon to Hanoi. A northbound cultural and culinary discovery of Vietnam
Part V - HAN - LPB on Lao Airlines Y
Part VI - A week in Laos, Land of Peace and Serenity
Part VII - VTE - BKK on a train in first class + BKK - HKG on RJ Y
Part VIII - Dim Sum! Hong Kong, once again. HKG - KLO on Cebu Pacific Y
Part IX - Visayas to Palawan: a journey through the Philippines (KLO - MNL, PPS - MNL on PR Y; MNL - BSU on 5J Y)
Part X - MNL - SYD on QF J plus Qantas Club in Manila
Part XI - An Australian adventure: from Sydney to Cairns via the Great Reef Barrier
Part XII - CNS - MEL - LAX - SJC on QF J and AA F

I hope you will enjoy to read these reports as much as I am enjoying writing them!

As you can guess from the (future) posts, I will be visiting Singapore (always a pleasure indulging in the culinary offerings of the city!), Vietnam, Laos, Bangkok (briefly, just for a spa treatment), Hong Kong, Philippines, and Australia. It will be a mix of luxury and budget traveling, mingling CX F with JetStar, hostels in Boracay with 5-star hotels in Hanoi and elsewhere, high-end eateries with small, street-side stalls selling noodle soups. The purpose of this is to get a flavor of different aspects and levels of the countries I will be visiting, always keeping in mind that traveling means to:

a. learn

b. have fun

As I have been in South Eastern Asia many times before (in fact, I used to work in Jakarta, Indonesia and Chiang Rai, Thailand) I know that the region will provide us with plenty of great food adventures, sightseeing, and world-class scuba diving opportunities... at a price that will be reasonable and affordable to two students like us (with some savings from our pre-grad school lives, of course!). I hope that my report(s) will help you learn something (new) about this area of the world and - why not! - convince you to take a trip there yourselves!

Stay tuned then; the fun is about to begin!

Lao Aviation? your game lol

Good Luck am looking forward to reading your adventures

I flew Lao Aviation/Airlines once. LPQ-VTE. It was fine. Service was a Chinese MA60...no biggie. Anyway, that should be a pretty short flight.

Part I posted! Link on the main post and here. Oh man, CX First was INCREDIBLE! Such an awesome experience!!! It changed my life... for good! Especially the two full bottle of Krug that I had haha.

I hope you will enjoy it!

Thanks so much for the wonderful TR. I am going to do the same CX flight shortly and so really appreciated the play by play! ^

New update here!

Report on Laos posted! Still working on Vietnam's, so bear with me!

Good report but Jetstar is an All A320 operation. Not 737.

Thanks for posting! I didn't know VN C had leg rests on narrowbody aircraft.

Really enjoyed the CX F write-up. I think we are getting really more TRs where CX's soft product has markedly improved at the front =) Good on CX !

Folks,

please find my report on QV (lao Airlines) here.

I very much enjoyed this flight and I must say that QV went well beyond my expectations.

More to come!!

Find it here!

Also, I reviewed the Qantas Club in Manila.

BKK-HKG segment trip report posted!

Great TR!!! looking forward to the missing instalments.