The Great Barrier Reef

Until, we took a chance and booked us a trip to the Great Barrier Reef. After all, this was one of the things we wanted to do on this holiday. Once we got to the Shute Harbour, the FantaSea staff said that it's going to be a rough ride. the waves will be 2.5 to 3.0 meters high and most probably snorkeling will be impossible or inconvenient, at least. Not only because of the waves but also because of the tide. 25 knots is quite a wind.
We wanted to get out of Airlie Beach so we thought, what the hell, let's give it a try. We had no idea how the waves would feel like, lunchwise, so we had Travacalm, just in case. Some passengers didn't... Once we got to the Hardy reef, sun began to shine and there were some waves but not so big that they would prevent snorkeling. Kia stayed in the water as long as I did so she was very brave. And the corals were excellent, well worth the 470 AUD that the trip cost. We were snorkeling off a pontoon where we could rest while we were not in the water.http://www.fantasea.com.au/Reefworld/I just developed the underwater pocket camera pics so here are some not-so-sharp pictures of the Hardy reef. I was much more beautiful than these pictures show.

Wondering at the Whitsundays

The only accommodation we could book on Airlie Beach was the Whitsunday Wanderers resort. Tripadvisor says it's the 22nd of 24 hotels in Airlie Beach. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g261596-d287864-Reviews-Whitsunday_Wanderers_Resort_Airlie_Beach-Airlie_Beach_Queensland.html
This is what I call "pöpelikkö" in Finnish. There were no general lighting in the resort so evenings were very dark and there were fallen palm leaves everywhere. We paid 3 nights beforehand, and that was a big mistake. At some point we were also considering to leave one night early, without the possibility of compensation. The first night Kia couldn't get sleep because some animal entered our room through the 2 cm crack under the door. She said that it jumped around. A kangoroo, perhaps. It was actually a grasshopper and it made an awful noice until I made it "leave to America".
It rained for two days and we almost had it...

No Fishing, except on Christmas

Who would have the heart to drive these ladies away on Christmas Day?

Close encounter with koala

Kia's dream came true. Taronga Zoo offered a possibility of a photo shoot with koalas.

Christmas in Sydney

The clothing wasn't a problem after all. Sydney, also, was chilly. We didn't really have any Christmas spirit and the only thing about Christmas was a box of Panda chocolates. Apparently you can bring candies and chocolates into Australia even though other food items are prohibited. Novotel at Darling Harbour was quite OK and we had a two room suite.

10 hours in Tokyo

Chilly Tokyo presented us with a problem: What to wear because the destination was Australia, in summer. We took the Narita Express to Shinjuku, walked around and went back to the airport. I had changed 100 euros for yens and half of it was spent to one-way tickets to Shinjuku... So the other half was needed for return.

30112007174

Mr Consulting Service, please contact Information desk.

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This is the mosque outside Radisson SAS hotel in Istanbul. The bridge behind will take you from Europe to Asia. This was the first picture transferred to my blog using Shozu. An excellent feature of the SW is that it can tag the pictures with GPS coordinates if you're using for example N95 as I am. You can also use it to upload pics to Flickr. Excellent tool.

More pictures from Linate

All this on one visit...

Pictures from Linate

As I was waiting for my wife and daughter to arrive at Milan, I took some pictures of the facilities at the airport. How's the airplane maintenance?

In search of a free lunch.

I bought a Samsung TV last Christmas. It came with a free accommodation anywhere in the world. We chose Italy;-)
As I wanted to see if there really is a free trip, I booked the flights with my frequent flyer miles. There was only one problem: Finnair had only one seat available. So I booked Minna and Kia SAS flights through Copenhagen. It was a good opportunity to spend my remaining Eurobonus points. I am not going to collect anymore SAS miles.
So here I am, and have been since 10am, waiting for my family to arrive. ETA is 23:21 so I have been driving around the outskirts of Milan the whole day but what wouldn't a man do to get his family a free holiday (taxes, extra bed surcharge and car hire excluded)? I also took a nap on a shopping mall parking lot.
This is my first blog entry with my new and excellent N95 phone. I am glad that the battery lasted for the whole duration of the blog writing... We still have to drive to Lake Garda this night or we'll face more surcharges for not checking in on a specified date. What's with this extra bed surcharge anyway? The accommodation was supposed to be for 2-4 people. We're only 3...
Unfortunately, I cannot attach any pictures with this browser. I took some funny ones from here, Linate airport Milan.

Singapouring rain

I can't get any sleep. No matter if I go east or west, always the same problem. Last night I woke up at 4:45.One of the best things here is the food. With 4.5 SGD you can get delicious meal in a food court. Minna will get an Ipod Nano. 170 euros compared to 258 euros in Finland even better price than in Hong Kong last year. XBOX 360 games are half price but apparently region locked so they will not play on my XBOX. Strange. HMV on Orchard road is great. I bought the latest Gin Blossoms which would be impossible to get from Finland. Why don't they regíon lock CDs? I bet they would, if CDs were invented today.

I start to agree with some of my colleagues that maybe this is a bit boring place even if it has the best taxi ordering system. Just call a number and they say when the taxi will arrive and what is the license plate number. Also the MRT is excellent. If you change a metro in Paris, for example, you have to walk hundreds of meters in a tunnel to get to the next metro line platform. Here your connecting line is across the platform, and the metro is air conditioned. The only annoying thing with the MRT is that you have to get the deposit back and usually it means queueing when buying the ticket and more queueing when collecting the deposit.

Summer is coming. Hopefully this will be one of the last trips before midsummer. I just watched Saimaa-ilmiö DVD. Where can I get Juho Juntunen's book?

The first time in Zocalo

This is not the first time I'm in Mexico City but it's the first time I went to the city center: Centro. Today was the only day I really had any free time here and I went to buy some suvenirs from La Ciudadela market and then I was close enough to walk to Zocalo. Last time I promised myself to buy a guitar from La Ciudadela, but I did not do it. Maybe next time.

It's really a shame how the Europeans built their churches on top of the sacred sites of the native people. There was not much left of the pyramids on Plaza Mayor. It's also interesting how this area used to be a lake.

Funny details from the hotel:

1. Water is apparently drinkable.


2. They change the soaps every day. So I take one shower and the soap is replaced with a new one.


3. The room is huge and the minibar expensive.


4. According to the hotel regulations: "It is strictly forbidden to make annoying noises, cause quarrels, bring musicians or animals into the facilities"

So, musicians or animals, stay away from Fiesta Americana Grand Chapultepec :-) Just kidding, the hotel is quite OK.

I have had some problems sleeping. Last Saturday we came back from Thailand and then on Tuesday morning I was on a plane again heading for Mexico. Because of the late booking, I got flights through Frankfurt and Houston. It took me 24 hours to get here. When I leave tommorrow, it will take only 18 hours to Finland...

Holiday in Hua Hin

The title refers to a Dead Kennedys song Holiday in Cambodia. This is so called "bridge of an ass" like my colleague aptly translated it from Finnish (aasinselkä). Sofitel hotel in Hua Hin was staged as a hotel in Phnom Penh in the Roland Joffé movie The Killing Fields. Well, we did not stay in Sofitel and not even in Hua Hin but Veranda Resort and Spa in Cha Am about 15 minutes drive from Hua Hin http://www.verandaresortandspa.com/. I must say that it was the best hotel we've ever been on holiday. One reason might be that this was actually our first package trip. Usually we have booked flights and hotel separately but now we decided to take a Top Club trip to Thailand. At the same time, a former Finnish MP and her husband stayed in Veranda as well so we were in a classy company. The only drawbacks were the 600 baht that we had to pay every evening to go to Hua Hin for a dinner and night market and the lack of free Internet access (that's why I am writing this blog entry in Mexico City).
Kia also liked the place because we just relaxed by the pool and on the beach. Not like in Florida, where we changed hotels almost every day. So, if you plan to go to Florida, my recommendation is The Sunset Cove in Key Largo http://www.sunsetcovebeachresort.com/. Then again, if you happen to be around Hua Hin, try Veranda Resort and Spa. Spend a little extra and you will get an own villa with a private swimming pool by the beach.

The funniest thing that happened was that when we went to the "Monkey mountain" in Hua Hin, I promised Kia that she can feed the monkeys. So when we got there, we asked one of the sales ladies, what do the monkeys eat and she said water melon. So we bought a bag of water melon and immediately a monkey came and tried to get the bag from Kia. Kia resisted for a while and finally gave up. One monkey got all the water melon... It was not the one on this picture, so this guy's innocent.

Can anyone explain, why this restaurant has such strange opening hours?

And then, I almost forgot: For a frequent flyer it's a good idea to book your holiday flight for Finnish winter holiday (week 8 in southern Finland). The whole family was upgraded to business class and we started the holiday with smoked reindeer and champagne. Thanks, Finnair.

On the go in Kuwait

I should really blog more often. Usually this only happens when I have a free Internet access in the hotel. Radisson SAS is always a good choice, but here in Kuwait it's quite far from the city. Apparently Sheraton has free Wifi as well because that's where I'm currently staying.
Yesterday I walked 6 kilometers in a brisk winter weather. The temperatures range between 12-20 centigrades at this time of the year. Kuwait, as other ME oil countries, has a lot of immigrant workers from India and Philippines. This means that the streets are lined with Western Union lookalikes and international phone call centers. They say that in three years this will be like Dubai. Well, they must hurry up. Even alcohol might be legalized then. FYI, NA means non-alcoholic.