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.

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-J...25281%2529.jpg

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!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K...ey%2520063.JPG

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! :D 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! ^

SGN-NHA on VN C
 

New update here!

Laos report ready!
 

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 !

Lao Airlines HAN-LPB in Y posted!
 

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!!

MNL-SYD on QF J now posted!
 

Find it here!

Also, I reviewed the Qantas Club in Manila.

B KK-HKG on RJ Y posted!
 

BKK-HKG segment trip report posted!

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