Monthly Archives: November 2012

New Zealand by campervan

Air New Zealand’s Safety Video (Hobbit Tribute Version):

Christchurch (still traumatized by the earthquake in 2011):

Antarctic Center (Christchurch):

East Coast (on the road):

…more about our very warm welcome by Julie and Mike in the next few days: stay tuned!

Pics of the day:

After some experiences at Mumbai International Airport (we paid 7 CHF for a 50 meters luggage-transportation; security check was not worth the name; lounge was dark with some broken lights, providing a “disco” feeling 🙂  ), we had a nice overnight flight with JetAirways: Business Class seats in fishbone configuration: full flat seats and good service.

In Hong Kong we stayed at Holiday Inn Express (Causeway Bay): small, but OK, rooms, centrally located and service as expected. Hong Kong was our last chance to get a visa for Australia (well, to get Rene a tourist visa, as Michelle was granted hers already during our stay in India), as we planned almost everything for 123 days of travelling round the world, but had overseen the requirement to apply for an online visa for “down under”…thanks to the support and effort by the Australian embassy in Hong Kong, we got the visa 48 hrs before departure to Sydney.

Hong Kong was a very positive experience: clean, organized, reasonably priced (e.g. least expensive Apple products in the world, but still not at the bargain level) and full of sights. Despite the fact, that we will be back in HK for another 5 days, Michelle managed to organize “Complete Hong Kong by foot in 2 days” 🙂 … we did The Park, The Peak, The Botanical Gardens, The Star Ferry, Kowloon and China Town. We also created a new version of dumplings, when Michelle dropped hers into the tea cup, trying to manage the little slimy wonton with chop sticks.

We left HK by China Eastern Airlines, flying to Sydney via Shanghai. Again, surprisingly positive: good service, Western and Chinese style food selection and almost flat lie seats (inflight entertainment system offered an excellent choice) for our 10.5 hrs overnight flight. We almost managed to leave on time in Shanghai, despite the fact, that 3 A330 planes (= 1’000 passengers) got boarded at the same time through the same gate: “organized chaos”!

…Sydney, here we come!

Pics of the day (in addition to our video, we posted few days back):

Watch our video about Hong Kong:

Day Three:

We flew from Mumbai Domestic Airport to India’s third largest city, Kolkata. Our Jet Airways flight was in time, food was Indian style and tasty. Our Swissotel pickup brought us in no time to the hotel. We were welcomed and the hotel’s facilities were explained in epic ways…check-in took some time; not because of any waiting time, but due to the variety of things to be explained :-). Our room was (still is) large, modern and a typical Swiss understatement: we enjoyed. In the evening, we met with Ruma and Nityananda, both have worked with Rene in the recent past. We enjoyed an Indian meal with a Swiss twist in the hotel’s Indian restaurant (Naan bread stuffed with Swiss cheese).

Day Four:

Nityananda picked us up from the hotel for a sightseeing tour around Kolkata. Sunday’s traffic is convenient and we were able to enjoy a lot of sights by car (including “holy” cows 🙂 ). We also stopped at Victoria Memorial, for which we left the car; our first experience with close contact to life in Kolkata. We consider this city more polluted than Mumbai; however, there was no situation of danger, begging or pickpocketing at all. Nityananda invited us for lunch at his house: we enjoyed his family’s hospitality, food and stories about life in this city and India in general. Later in the afternoon, we met with Ruma again for coffee, tea and crepes in one of the other malls of Kolkata. Malls seem to play an important role in socializing and meeting. We’ve very much enjoyed the good company: Thank you, Ruma and Nitya!

Pics of the day:

Obey the traffic rules … 🙂