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Second Anniversary Asian Adventure: UA Y, LH F and C, OZ C, TG F and QR C

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Second Anniversary Asian Adventure: UA Y, LH F and C, OZ C, TG F and QR C

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Old Apr 7, 2013, 3:45 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by RTW1
Nice TR, but I could have done without the hairy legs.....
Stand by because I have a feeling there will be even worse images coming up
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Old Apr 8, 2013, 1:42 pm
  #17  
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Singapore – Quickly

Waking up in Bangkok we needed a massage at healthland but sadly they were all booked up and we needed to head off to Su-wan-na-phum (BKK) around 11 for our 1:30 departure. We decided to settle on the business class massage in the spa and went for breakfast at the hotel. This day was surprisingly a light eating day for me as I decided we would go to Jumbo Seafood for dinner and partake in some chili crab(s). Breakfast quickly came to an end and we were on our way to BKK.

Once we arrived at BKK we quickly found the business class check-in area and were greeted with a look of ‘you don’t belong here-ness’ however once we explained that we in fact did belong there we were shown to a check in agent. Passports were handed over and the keystrokes began to fly. It became rather apparent that there was an issue when the agent needed to call people over to her computer. I am still not sure as I was half paying attention to the explanation whether this was something United did, I did or if I was being ‘relieved’ of the last of my Baht. Somewhere along in the ticketing process some departure taxes were not collected on behalf of someone or so I was being told, at which point my wife lost it and started going on a tirade similar to the shirako episode a few days before. In the midst of this exchange I caught a glimpse of the screen and the total was about 40USD needed to be paid in order for us to go on our way. While my wife was yelling I walked over to the nearest currency exchange and moved some yen into baht and paid the ‘tax’. I explained the cost to my wife as best as I could or thought I did, still don’t know, and honestly don’t care too much. After the money was exchanged we were given access to the first/business class immigration and checked out of the Kingdom.

We slummed (walked) it over to the spa where we made appointments for our 30 minute massage, we chose the foot option. It was a very quick wait and cold pandanas tea was given out. Our masseuses’ came to collect us and were shown to the section of the spa where the massage would take place. We were seated and told to remove our shoes and were set for relaxation when the LOUDEST human walked in for I assume the same service. For the entire 30 minutes he would not stop asking questions of his masseuse, where are you from, what did you do, etc…it seemed like a first date. She tried to get him to quiet down but he was having none of it. My masseuse and I looked at each other and both shook our heads. The massage was great and with the exception of Mr. Loud the atmosphere was great.

We spent the rest of the time in the Business lounge across the hall until it was time to board. Boarding was soon called and we walked to the gate. While standing I got a chance to grab a photo of the A330 taking us down to SIN.

Widebody for a little over 2 hours:


One note about the plane as all I did was again watch breaking bad for as long as I could. There was a terrible lack of AC and or any sort of air other than hot and humid air. I was extremely uncomfortable during the flight down and I wasn’t sure what was going on. None of that mattered though as I was about to land in what is in my eyes the greatest City-State in the world, albeit for 20 hours.

I had the pleasure of spending three days here last year (previous report - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-...h-will-ya.html) before venturing back home and I loved the city so much I have this pipe dream of moving there in 5-7 years. My wife has never been so I had to impress her if my pipe dream would become a reality.

We booked ourselves a club room at the Grand Hyatt Singapore. It was a nicely appointed room; however one issue that came up was the lack of detail in the bathroom. The entire room was beautiful with the exception of the bathroom shower/toilet portion; it appears that they just phoned it in on that. Again, who cares I’m on vacation and in Singapore and it’s Chili Crab time. While I do not pretend to know the first time about Chili crab other than the fact that it is delicious I understand that it is a highly debated topic. Wanting to show the wife somewhat of a good time we opted for Jumbos on the waterfront. Jumping on the MRT we made our way over and what would become a theme in Singapore we assumed we could get right into this large restaurant on the water, after all it was huge and it was Sunday at 8. Imagine my shock when they said no dice and we were more than welcome to come back at 9:45pm to try again. Now I haven’t eaten for some considerable amount of time and that made me extremely unhappy, but it was my fault and I had to suck it up. We weighed our options and looked for an alternative when we spotted the brewery and said we’ll go in for an appetizer and a cold beverage. On the way back over the bridge we decided to put out names down for the 9:45 reservation at Jumbo. I am glad we decided to do that as just as we walked up someone cancelled their reservation for 8:30pm and we were given first crack at it.

This made me happy:


Yes I put the bib on and yes you would be a fool if you didn’t put one on.

Sorry for the instagram link chili crab:
http://instagram.com/p/XRFBFBle_6/

After the chili crab was demolished, we still went over to the brewery were I did not enjoy the 17USD beer, but I enjoyed their sliding scale of prices due to the time of day. We decided we were tired and would pick up the next day, jumped in a taxi and went back to the Hyatt.

We woke up again early and I had a game plan for breakfast that included what else, a hawker center, specifically Adam Road Centre for some Nasi Lemak. Imagine my horror when I get to Adam Road and they have a giant sign up for spring cleaning and everything is closed. Surely someone had to be open, I mean I was in town trying to show it off for the purpose of moving, did they not get the memo? Clearly they did not as no food was being prepared anywhere. Well backup plan was to head down to Merlion park and eat in one of the overpriced restaurants on the waterfront. Back to the MRT and 20 minutes later we arrived at the backup breakfast restaurant and guess what…well if you said it was closed you win the prize of getting the read the rest of my drivel. It’s not looking good for me or Singapore right about now. I’m not entirely sure how my wife operates in the morning but I’ll try and sum it up; she flies out of bed and eats breakfast so when she doesn’t get fed for hours she isn’t the happiest person to be around. Thankfully around the park is a bakery on the corner I believe it’s called the Corner Bakery, food was had and our mood slightly improved but time was running short and we needed to hussle.

A few pictures were taken:


Ignore the water behind me it was falling out of my camera bag:


Then we headed to Chinatown where I had the most amazing sandwich thing to hold me over until we got the Bali that night:


If anyone can tell me what that’s actually called I would appreciate it as I still have no idea even after asking the person that made it. After Chinatown it was back to the hotel to pack up and check out to catch our Qatar flight down to Bali. Thanks for reading so far, more coming soon.

Last edited by macdonaldj2; Apr 10, 2013 at 1:47 pm
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Old Apr 8, 2013, 3:30 pm
  #18  
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thanks for your trip report. great pics.
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Old Apr 10, 2013, 9:09 am
  #19  
 
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Great trip review so far. Informative and whitty (ESP your wife and the "soup"
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Old Apr 10, 2013, 11:00 am
  #20  
 
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Really enjoying this one... I probably would have killed you with that soup though; must be a hell of a wife to deal with that one!
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Old Apr 10, 2013, 11:45 am
  #21  
 
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I agree with the OP about the new new F on TG 747-400. I think the seat is a bit narrow too. The width of the whole thing is wide but half of it is a side table and just a space between the seat and window. The seat itself is not wide at all. The whole design is too boxy and I think any boxy design does not go well with the nose cone of 747-400 (in term of design, while it goes ok with 777). The color tone is not my preference as well. TG A380 F is white, clean, and classy... much better
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Old Apr 10, 2013, 3:03 pm
  #22  
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Singapore to Bali on Qatar

Our time in Singapore came to an end extremely quick. Thankfully the beauty shined through the lack of restaurants being opened when I wanted so there might be hope of moving there in the future. We packed up but since we never really unpacked this went quick and we were shortly at Changi. I think it’s been said enough but Changi is the best airport in the world with Barcelona coming in at a close second for me at least. There is just so much to see and do, usually I would kill time in the lounge(s) but since Qatar used the dnata lounge we decided to walk around and see where the day took us. Trying to still impress the wife we found the butterfly garden which is near the Hard Rock Café.

Butterfly Garden:


I have no idea why they have that but again who cares really? It’s a nice escape from the terminal (hot). From there my wife decided to look into shopping while I decided to find a corner to drink in. Luckily the only shop she purchased anything was at M and M world and for whatever reason she wanted some since we were strolling through Tokyo.

I beg of you please do not make this flavor:


Or do so I can trick my co-workers into eating it. After the light shopping excursion where I couldn’t find Macallan 18, what happened? Did they stop selling that at Duty Free? So much for enjoying at in Bali! We ventured on to find the dnata lounge, and I have to say not bad, but again my yard stick is the FCT so...I may be biased. The food was decent, the drinks were drinkable and the wifi was…wifi’able? My wife disagreed and didn’t want any of the food and I assume walked over to a place that shall not be named but its mascot is a King and it makes Burgers. She felt the need for chicken product and I stayed back in the lounge because the food was free and plentiful.

Boarding wasn’t called but we made our way to the gate anyway because for those of you that have never been to Changi you clear security at the gate. By the time we cleared through it was time to board and we zoomed past the economy line to the business door. I really did feel bad, but then I realized what we needed to do in order to get these tickets, all the miles flown, times apart then I cheered up. When we booked the flights we had a choice of Singapore or Qatar and knowing Qatar would soon be leaving (sadface) star alliance we chose the 77W as I don’t see myself flying to Doha and or flying in C. Easy choice and I am glad we made it. Remember the flight from Bangkok to SIN? How hot, humid and generally unbearable it was. Well this was the complete opposite, vents were plentiful and the cabin temperature was perfect. I took no pictures of this flight sadly, but I’m sure google works for your needs. Champagne was quickly handed out along with either warm or cool towels. Menus came shortly after, I do not remember what I ate but I can tell you two things about it. One, it was good, and two it was a Singaporean dish. Again if there is a theme to this trip report, I crammed in as much Breaking Bad as the 2.5 hour flight would allow. Somehow I got through 4 episodes on a 2.5 hour flight, how did that happen you ask…well we ended up circling the ocean for 45 minutes as the Captain said they were ‘working on the runway’. Not knowing what that meant I just sat back and relaxed. Eventually we landed and we had set up fast pass immigration through the hotel so we were greeted after a short walk. There was a porter and a rep that ushered us through the process. If we go back I’m positive we could have managed ourselves, but it was 50USD for the convenience and again I’m on vacation so why bother with the hassle? After blowing through the airport we walked out past the touts and were shortly in the safety of our car and headed to the W Bali.

So there you have it, a flight, meal, airport experience in one paragraph. Coming up me in a bathing suit…stay tuned or don’t…I wouldn’t
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Old Apr 10, 2013, 3:22 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by sky303
Really enjoying this one... I probably would have killed you with that soup though; must be a hell of a wife to deal with that one!
I ask myself how I pulled that off in getting her everyday and I have never come up with an answer, I've even asked her and there was stunned silence...she does put up with a lot from me and I'm glad she can take it
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Old Apr 10, 2013, 7:23 pm
  #24  
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Bali –

So we’ve come to the vacation portion of the vacation and if you have been along for the ride we’re up to 8 flights and a tad over 16,000 miles, we’ve slept in Munich, Tokyo, Bangkok and Singapore. I should let you know that my wife wasn’t fond of traveling all that way to get to Bali, but in the end I won that battle.

After all the city excursions, the walking, the site-seeing, the touristy things it was time to leave the world. We are SPG Platinum and booked cash and points stay at The W Bali Resort at 8k points and $150USD. We applied some suite night upgrades to ensure the slight possibility of getting upgraded. I knew what type of room to expect however we wanted to be alone and enjoy each other’s company however, I knew that might happen in a sea view room, but I wanted a pool villa. I hatched a plan to ‘bribe’ the check in agent to see if we could get an upgrade. When we arrived at the hotel I had the money all lined up in my pocket and a speech ready to go, but we got someone who must have been in training and in swooped a manager and another check in agent. My plans went down the toilet while going up in flames at the same time. Knowing that we had a sea view room I hung my head in shame and asked ‘how much’ for a one-bedroom villa. I got quoted a rate of $150USD a night and I accepted it, but since we were arriving late we chose to move the next day. Now I explained to my wife before we left that the one bedroom villa was around $400USD and we should just PAY for it, but she only saw the $400 portion. Sigh so now we’re paying 8k points AND $300USD, by FT terms I just made a HUGE mistake. Again another theme of this TR…I’m on vacation and I could care less.

After check in was complete we were sent off to the 5th floor to our Sea View room.

You’re expecting the view now:


Now the room was great, I could easily survive in there for a few days if I needed to. That night we decided to check out one of the restaurants on site. Dinner was excellent, and while I’m talking about food, I never had a bad meal at any restaurant there. Each time we ate the food got better and better. The first night I had some sort of fish, don’t remember, and a cocktail, again, don’t remember…sorry I was on vacation and I stopped caring. Dinner was over and we went back to our room to sleep? Yeah…sleep. I woke up the next morning to the sound of waves crashing heavily outside and just sat on the balcony and made my family jealous by calling them so they could hear. My wife woke up an hour or so later and we went down to starfish bloo for breakfast. As platinum at SPG breakfast is free, but I would have happily paid for the spread they put on. Again I am no small person and I got that way by learning to cook as in a prior life I wanted to be a chef, but I learned quickly that they make crap, the hours are terrible and you’re on your feet for too long. That being said I went to culinary school and put in my time on many cook lines. One thing I particularly disliked was brunch/breakfast, you need to be up at the wrong side of the sun and boil eggs all morning. Where is this story going? Well whenever I go out I make it a point not to order eggs benedict, why you ask? Have you ever tried to make 300 in a morning? No? Well try it and then go make someone do that for you, it’s hard. I wouldn’t subject that to anyone.

So what did I do? Well if you said order Eggs Benedict…you win


I felt bad, and then I ordered another. I still stand by what I said above, but the person cooking these has a gift. These were so good I ordered two every day I was there although I made it a point to apologize before my order. Long story short (too late) if you’re there, order it. You aren’t here to read about me and breakfast you’re here for the pretty pictures. After all that’s why I read trip reports.

The view from Breakfast:


Stitch (not good) of the hotel:


We went for a massage across the street from the hotel at AMO Spa, I won’t go into details, but it was alright and served its purpose. After the massage we grabbed some provisions (beer) from the convenience store and headed back to the hotel to find out if our villa was ready.

It was ready…:






So that’s where we stayed for 2 days, we didn’t move, we woke up, ate breakfast got a tan, swam and ate dinner.

What else would you do?


Life was rough, but sadly we had to check out of the room as they we were fully booked so we went back to the sea view room for the last night. That day we decided to book a tour through the hotel as we wanted to go purchase some local paintings, but somehow another lost in translation moment and we went on some grand tour of Bali. After visiting some ‘traditional Balinese house’ I asked the driver what was going on as this was cutting into my relaxation allotment for the day. He asked what we wanted to do and we said well buy paintings. He ignored our request and took us to the ‘rice paddies’ where we needed to pay a toll (?) to use the road but it was I believe 1USD. It was super touristy but nice to see. We walked down a slope and snapped a few pictures and left.

Rice Paddy


We eventually got to go look at some art at a collective that the hotel usually sends tourists to, we looked around for something that we liked and purchased two paintings for our new home. The day was over and we made our way back to the hotel. Needing more provisions we asked to stop at another convenience store where I could buy anything that looked odd.

I assumed this was made with Rhino Tears:


Sadly I soon found out that it wasn’t rhino tears but it was a drink for a sore throat, no matter, I drank it anyway. We spent the rest of the day taking pictures on the beach until the sun went down, so here you go.

Beach Front:


I did go in the water and it was ROUGH


It happened to be 5pm


Last bit of Sun:


That night we happened to venture out of the resort and go to a restaurant called Sardine. It was excellent; it was set in a rice paddy. I believe I had kingfish…that sounds like a fish species, I just checked the bill and yes…yes I did have Kingfish

See for yourself:


I sent that picture to my parents, they weren’t sure about the exchange rate and I got a stern talking to, that was until they realized how much I spent. Not sure why they cared, it’s my money? It provided a good laugh.

Over dinner we talked about how bad it was that our vacation was ending but how much fun we had. We agreed to try it again next year but we’ll do someplace different. My final rating of Bali, good, but not great, food was excellent, however I didn’t really experience Bali and that was because I didn’t feel like doing anything. There was a ton of construction going on as well so it was losing some of its charm? If I went back I might go up into Ubud and stay, although with all of the places I still have yet to go I don’t see myself going back. The W was excellent although I felt out of place…again it’s not the hotel it’s me, I am neither hip nor a ‘hardbody’. If you’ve stayed at a W you know what I’m talking about. We tried to get one last night’s sleep before traveling for close to 2 days.

For those or you that wanted to see me in a swim suit…sorry to disappoint…I couldn’t put it online as I believe the internet would break.

Last edited by macdonaldj2; Apr 13, 2013 at 1:39 pm
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 4:08 pm
  #25  
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Sigh…the return

It was time to leave and head back to the good ole USA. Our flight path was DPS-BKK-FRA-DFW-IAH or a shade over 12,000 miles and a little over 41 hours of total travel. I was not ready to come back and wasn’t looking forward to the return journey except for the Thai A380 from BKK-FRA. We would be in business class on TG from DPS-BKK then F all the way through to DFW and then United C or whatever passes for that on a regional jet.

The W was so gracious as to provide us with a BMW X5 to the airport which isn’t the most inconspicuous way to travel through Bali. The drive took strangely long due to traffic and the check in process was smooth enough and our bags got tagged through to DFW. What I didn’t know and you should know is that Bali collects a departure tax at customs so be prepared with some USD or IDR. It’s a great racket if you can get it, charge you both coming and going which is an excellent business model.

Eventually we found the ‘lounge’ at DPS which provided some finger foods, beverages and a decent view of the runway/gates. We quickly exited and made our way to the gate to find one of the oldest A330s in Thai’s fleet. It served its purpose but it was ratty. There were a few memories from that flight besides the condition, the first is from the moment the person in front of me sat down he felt the need to infringe on my space by not only reclining his seat the entire way back but also stretch his hands out to the point where he could have picked my nose. That continued for 3 hours. The next memory is that we needed to wait for a passenger that needed to clear customs, the wait wasn’t long but when the person boarded it was apparent that something wasn’t ‘right’ about him. I am not sure if he was intoxicated or just generally crazy but he was giving the FA’s a hard time and annoyed the people sitting around him. When we were deplaning there was a fight brewing between him and another passenger. Back to the infringer portion of this story; I made it a point to ‘hit’ the seat every time I got up hoping he would get the point and I used the ‘bathroom’ quite frequently on that flight. I eventually gave up and realized I was about to fly first on the A380 which is a first for me. I got the last laugh when we landed and ended up on the second to last apron position over by the maintenance hangar at BKK. I was unaware of Thai’s ground service but I was glad when we started walking down the stairs and saw a nice lady with our names on a board. She ushered us into a waiting and nicely air conditioned van and brought us back to the main terminal. We entered via some employee door and quickly through transit security and in a buggy on our way to the spa.

We got dropped at the lounge and enquired about our massages, they informed us that we could go over to the spa and we would be seen right away.

Post massage:


I enjoyed my massage; it was relaxing and even though I could hear the announcements it made me enjoy it more. My wife didn’t enjoy her massage as much, she informed the masseuse not to massage certain areas but in what I assume a lost in translation moment that request was ignored. Without getting into details it provided me with a good laugh. After the massages we spent the rest of our time in the lounge eating and drinking until boarding was called. I wanted to be the first to board so I could quickly grab pictures of the cabin.

My seat:


Stairs to…economy?


Seating area that should be a shower:


The meat of the TR and what you came to see…the Bathroom:


Bathroom part 2:


Your standard TR picture with Dom Pérignon and I only had a few glasses:


Live tail cam:


For those of you asking yes I got a Rimowa kit, it is silver. That covers prior to wheels up. Eventually we were on our way to FRA, we were informed of the flight time somewhere in the realm of 3 bottles of champagne or a season of breaking bad as that’s how I do math. Menus were distributed and drink orders were taken, sadly because of the flight time I don’t remember the entire menu, I know caviar was served and I got something cordon bleu’d, not sure if it was pork or chicken.

I didn’t go crazy with pictures as I stopped caring somewhere in Tokyo, caviar round 1:


After a second round of caviar it was time for the main:


It was Ok but I ate well in the lounge so I didn’t particularly care. After dinner I decided to try to sleep and I think I tossed and turned for 4 hours but I slept in there somewhere. My wife slept well for around 8 hours so take that for what it’s worth. I spent the rest of my time watching breaking bad and asking the FA’s if when we landed I could check out the cockpit.

They said yes…I didn’t expect my wife to join me:


Looking at that picture it makes the cockpit look small, it’s not, I’m just big.

"พยุหะคีรี" "Phayuhakiri" HS-TUD:


Turned out HS-TUD was just delivered to Thai a few days prior. It was in service for four days when I got a chance to break it in.

It was time to relieve the first class terminal of its scotch supply again. This was the final hurrah of this trip as we scored old F back to DFW.

For those of you missing my hairy legs:


Making my rounds:


Easter time:


Cured meats:


Settled into my ‘light’ breakfast:


Our waiter happened to remember us from a few weeks back and asked if I wanted to hit the throttle on the scotch. As it was around 8am I declined, sorry FTers. Post breakfast I needed to grab another duck and we lucked out as the room with the bath was available. My wife and I were allowed to share the room and cleaning took place and ducks were had. We got lucky and got a new Easter duck-bunny-egg thing. Sadly we only had 3 hours before our flight to DFW so we needed to ‘maximize’ our time in the FCT. My wife finally got into the swing of first class and asked our waiter if he could whip up some fresh pretzels at 9am and he agreed, he also brought me over my Macallan 18. Yes it was 9am in FRA, but I assumed it was 5pm somewhere and if you’ve been with me this long you know that…I didn’t care.


I don’t usually drink prior to 12pm, in this case I made an exception and I believe most of you would as well. Our time quickly came to an end and we were instructed that it was time to board. We were led to the elevator and got downstairs where we got our passports back and where we met Mr. Wolf (not kidding) who would be driving us to our plane.

I could get used to not walking:


As luck would have it the plane was at some far off apron position so it was a nice drive. We got to the plane just as the bus with the other passengers arrived and they were not allowed to board until we got on, just one of the perks of first class.

We’ll continue on part 2 of the FRA-DFW-IAH flights. Hope you’re enjoying the read, I didn’t think I’d get this far…
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 7:53 pm
  #26  
 
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Major kudos to you...undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable trip reports I've read here! The FCT / LH 747-8 section brought back good memories slightly foggy, but certainly good!
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Old Apr 11, 2013, 8:51 pm
  #27  
 
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Nice TR and score on getting the Porsche
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Old Apr 12, 2013, 12:22 am
  #28  
 
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Very much enjoyed the report! The DPS 'lounge' experience certainly leaves something to be desired, as my wife and I discovered in October on our honeymoon. I like Bali (loved Ayana and its Cliff Bar), but the real highlight was Ubud for us (and martinis at Naughty Nuri's for me).

The only thing that I would have done differently is holding the ice on the Macallan Well, that and I wouldn't probably try the Shirako soup.
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Old Apr 12, 2013, 9:08 am
  #29  
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Sigh…part 2…’The Sighining’

We left off as we were about to board our flight to Dallas. Why Dallas and not the direct flight to Houston? Well the answer is twofold. One, we wanted to crash the FCT for a few hours and since F was not available on the direct IAH we chose to go to DFW. Two, I have an odd obsession with In-n-out and since they recently opened up many locations in Dallas I make it a point to visit a few times a year.

This was my birthday ‘cake’ from a few years back:


As you can see I do not mess around when it comes to in-n-out. Moving on, we had a 3-4 hour layover in DFW and since UA doesn’t have any sort of lounge and I didn’t feel like sitting a gate I hatched a plan in Frankfurt to rent a car and drive to the nearest in-n-out. What else would you do after an 11 hour transatlantic flight, a 12 hour Asia to Europe flight and a 4 hour starter flight? Sleep? Shower? Pfff then you are weak.

Getting back to the actual flight, it was old F, I knew that going into it and the only sliver of hope I had was getting a Rimowa amenity kit which I didn’t. Oh well, the load was 4/8 and everyone had an extra ‘bed’. It was the standard LH F service done with German precision. The menu was the same as I had on the MUC-ICN leg, but I knew I would be enjoying the comfort of a greasy burger in 11 hours and that’s enough to make me not want to eat en-route. I ate anyway knowing I didn’t have a reserve tank big enough to hold me over. I passed on the tower this time and just opted for the pressed carrot appetizer and I had the same soup and main from the ICN leg. The soup was SALTY and not good at all, and the lamb was just meh. I passed on desert but I did enjoy some of the truffles they handed out. The rest of the flight was spent attempting to sleep and watching breaking bad. Now I started this report because one of two things got me gravely ill and I couldn’t leave my couch when I got back home. It was either the walk to the FCT in the cold OR the person sitting in 1A who was a coughing germ factory. I understand the need to get somewhere for business and I don’t blame you. However have some manners and cover your mouth or do like 85% of Asia and wear a surgical mask so you don’t infect everyone else. You can thank him though, because without him I wouldn’t be sitting here reminiscing and you wouldn’t be reading this..not sure if you are or just looking at pictures. I would have stopped reading ages ago.

The flight was generally uneventful and as soon as we landed in Dallas I was eager to get to in-n-out. Thanks to CBP we have global entry so we grabbed our bags and breezed through that, we would have been able to use it anyway coming off of F. A quick shuttle ride over to the rental car terminal and we were shortly off to locate the nearest in-n-out. Well long story short, we ended up somehow in Addison which isn’t the nearest in-n-out, but none of that matters. I quickly ordered the standard for me, 1 number 2 with a well done animal style fries and then another double double to hold me over.

Double double doubled?:


Animal Style Fries:


I’ll spare you the details about the rest; we drove back to DFW, dropped the car off, and sat in regional C on UA. We were back in Houston.

Stats:
Flights – 12
Miles flown – 29134
Time away – 2 weeks
Amenity kits – Bonger on LH F, Tumi on TG 747 and Rimowa on A380
Number of LH duckies – 7
Times that I rang the call button – One, accidently when I stood up and slammed my head.
Total season of Breaking Bad: 4, I have never seen the show before and started watching it during this trip.

Stay tuned as we head back to Germany in May for a wedding where we’ll be driving from FRA-HAM via Austria?

Last edited by macdonaldj2; Apr 12, 2013 at 4:00 pm
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Old Apr 12, 2013, 9:13 am
  #30  
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Washington D.C. via Sao Paulo via Houston via Washington D.C. via Boston via New York
Posts: 1,172
Originally Posted by newcastle
Major kudos to you...undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable trip reports I've read here! The FCT / LH 747-8 section brought back good memories slightly foggy, but certainly good!
Thank you and I know what you're talking about, the FCT is dangerous

Originally Posted by spizzy
Nice TR and score on getting the Porsche
Thank you, we got the van the first time sadly, also we caught some nasty looks showing up to the plane in that...worth it

Originally Posted by Zomba
Very much enjoyed the report! The DPS 'lounge' experience certainly leaves something to be desired, as my wife and I discovered in October on our honeymoon. I like Bali (loved Ayana and its Cliff Bar), but the real highlight was Ubud for us (and martinis at Naughty Nuri's for me).

The only thing that I would have done differently is holding the ice on the Macallan Well, that and I wouldn't probably try the Shirako soup.
Thanks...I knew someone would say something about the scotch...shocked it took this long We were going to try the cliff bar but I couldn't bring myself to leave our room.
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