Firstly, this trip report is of the plain vanilla variety, no pix, just words, lots of rambling words; and secondly, it is as much about its planning and organising as it is about its execution. Hope there might be something of interest for you.

The Planning

So, it was early March 2007 and an email from my manager (based in Florida, USA) to me (based in Perth, Western Australia) said the product finalisation meeting was to be in Phoenix, Arizona the week 30 March through 04 April. Ok, so that would cost them close to $3000 in airfares alone.

Next email from her, hmm, okay how about running the small market trial in Budapest, Hungary, 21 to 25 May, instead? Well, that’s certainly somewhere different and at least less $500 cheaper in airfares too. So I set to trying to arrange this trip.

Australia to Hungary. Hmm, of course, Emirates fly to everywhere in Europe, no problem, just jump on their website and check out the schedules for PER-DXB-BUD. Huh? What! Budapest is about the only city in Europe they don’t fly to!

Well, this will be interesting. Ok, so let’s eliminate the likely suspects first. Yep, PER-BUD returns the good old Qantas “We could not find a fare for the requested itinerary.” error. So check out the schedules. Sure enough, Qantas/BA can do PER-SIN-LHR-BUD or QF/Malev PER-SIN-FKT-BUD for me but do I want nearly 14 or 12+ hours in QF economy? Besides overflying my final destination then coming halfway back across Europe after almost 20 hours travelling seems crazy to me.

And where does Malev fly to anyway? Well, to Sydney via Bangkok, maybe I could connect at Bangkok. So I hit the online booking sites, which presented me with the usual combination of both logical and bizarre options. The best price wise was a Thai-KLM combo, PER-BKK-AMS-BUD, but that still necessitated backtracking that did not impress me. None presented me with a PER-BKK-BUD option!

Meanwhile there was work to be done so I put aside the travel planning. After I “attended” the Phoenix meeting virtually I then realised that I needed to organise something quickly. Still wasn’t sure about that longhaul BBK-BUD leg with Malev. Back to the web and Emirates. After searching it seemed PER-DXB-VIE with EK, then to BUD with Austrian might work, this gave the least backtracking, and would give me both Emirates and Krisflyer points (well a couple of the latter anyway). Hmm, but I couldn’t get a through ticket online; both the airline and online agency booking engines wouldn’t give me that routing no matter how I tried. I could do PER-DXB-VIE but VIE-BUD had to be separate. Although the provisional schedule did provide a 4 hour stopover in VIE which should be enough time to clear immigration, collect my luggage and then check in again.

About this time my Birmingham, UK, resident daughter discovered that I would be transitting Vienna and suggested that she “pop over” for a day, as one does when one lives in the UK, because it was one of the few cities in Europe she had not been to, and it would be nice to catch up with her old man. This would mean that the return trip would be broken anyway, so it was only the outbound trip that was problematic.

So not to be outdone the next step was to contact Luke of RE: Air Chittock-QFLC 1 With Pics! A Must Read! (by Myk Mar 1 2006 in Trip Reports) fame to see if he could get me a through ticket. But, as he found out, unless I wanted to pay a 100% premium on the Y fare things would have to stay as two ticketed flights. Oh well, by now time was of the essence and there were only 3 seats left on the DXB-VIE flight on the date required so it was decision time. PER-DXB-VIE-DXB-PER and VIE-BUD-VIE it would have to be. That’s what comes from flying into a place from the wrong direction I guess.

So the actual trip:
==================================================================
Saturday 19 May 2007
EK421 PER-DXB Dep 2230 Arr 0545+ Duration 11hr 15min
Boeing 777-300ER A6-EBK Seat 28D

I had checked in online for this and the next leg – aisle for this longer flight, window for the shorter next one – my bladder can last 7 hours or less

So it won’t be too late a night for Mrs PGF, we left home at 2045 and pulled up at the departures drop-off at Perth International at 2052. I’m dropped off and my good lady will be home just after 9pm – yes I do really live that close and it’s great!!

I wandered in and of course at first miss the poorly positioned “Online Check-In” sign (just like SQ who always have their’s facing the wrong way – well for me anyway), but when I did see it, it’s straight to the counter so I don’t have to endure the endless rope maze with the other Y proles.

A supervised trainee is performing the luggage check-in on the Internet check-in desk, but what the hell, I asked anyway. “Is there any chance of having my luggage checked all the way through to Budapest?”

Trainee looked at my two separate e-tickets and then at his supervisor. She says, “Well, let’s try it …”. And lo and behold, via the magic of interlining, my 21kg case gets a BUD label! I’m reminded that I’ll still have to get a boarding pass at VIE, but that’s no problem, at least I won’t have to clear Austrian immigration, collect my case and then re-check-in. Well, not knowing the arrangement of Wien Airport at that time, I was half right at least.

So there not being much to do (is the main public duty free shop at PER ever open any more?) I made my way upstairs to departures. The young security guy at the door glanced at my boarding pass and waved me through into the start of my journey as a middle-aged couple struggled to squeeze their carry-on bags into the sizing frame – looks like they’ll be doing some re-packing. The immigration lady let me leave the country and wished me a good flight. Then it was up another escalator to face the pax security regime. Unpacked my laptop, removed my small clear plastic sealable bag of less than 100mL liquids for inspection, removed my belt, emptied my pockets, you know the drill, walked through the “magic door” then reversed the procedure on the other side. Then I wandered around one of the most boring international departure lounges in the world (although BHX must come close) for a bit. Priced the booze here for later comparison at DXB. Bought what turns out to be the last real cappuccino I’ll have for almost two weeks; and ended up gazing out the window across the airport to the activity at the domestic terminal nearly 2km away.

The flight was called and we boarded at Gate 32 in that semi-orderly way that occurs at Perth – passports were checked against boarding passes and we wound our way down the three flights of stairs (Yes three! Only in PER!) to the airbridge.

On board, everything stowed, hot towels distributed, doors closed then my favourite “Please fasten your seatbelt” announcement. I don’t mean to offend native Arabic speakers, but to an English speaking anglo that has to be the most fractured, harsh, and disjointed announcement one can ever hear – does anyone know where I can download it to use as the ringtone for my mobile phone?

At 2040 local we lifted off from runway 21 with the usual neat view via the forward looking camera, swing west over the brightly lit pretty west coast city I call home and were soon at cruise altitude over an unseen Indian Ocean. Seats E and F beside me were empty which meant some more room than I expected. Dinner came around, sautéed chicken and mushrooms or wok fried hokkien noodles with seafood. I go the seafood of course; trying to eat chicken using the required plastic knife issued on flights in and out of Australia doesn’t work. Mind you, the serrated edge on those little plastic suckers can be sharper than a normal metal knife.

Watched two movies about illusionists/magicians on the ICE; “The Illusionist” and “The Prestige”, not bad, both had neat twists at the end. The former was set in Vienna (though actually mostly filmed in Prague) which I’d be passing through within 20 hours and visiting in a bit over a week. By then the “stars” had been turned on so I stretched out and got myself about 6 hours sleep in all.

I had the salmon crepes and scrambled eggs for breakfast and then shortly after we’re at ToD looking at an arrival in Dubai some 25 minutes early. The gates for connecting flights come up but mine wasn’t there – it’s later than those on the list.

Now the forward camera is on but all we could see is light brown murk. Huh? The downward camera showed nothing but the same. Finally after the downwind and base legs were flown in almost zero visibility the VASI lights faintly appeared in the early morning gloom as we turned onto final.

The landing was very smooth and was followed by a long taxi past the existing terminal, past the terminal still under construction, until finally we pulled into a “gate” and stopped a few metres from a huge hole. Just as well we touched down early, when the engines were finally shutdown we were back on schedule.

We deplaned into the airborne sand and dust and smoke and fog, or whatever it is, and boarded the buses. Then followed a very long ride all the way back – past the huge hole, past the terminal under construction, to the very end of the existing terminal where we waited another 10 minutes for the tangle of buses, baggage trains and catering vehicles to clear before we could enter the building.

Up the escalator to confront the security process once again. It was the same as Perth but in addition we removed our shoes … oh well.
===============================================================
DXB
I’m afraid that as a transit airport terminal DXB doesn’t really cut it. Of course Changi does this so well it will be ages before another airport can even come close. DXB is long and spread out – the downstairs shopping is crowded and noisy. Upstairs there’s insufficient seating, the toilets are too small and there's no quiet areas, consequently there’s bodies all over the place. Actually the best toilets are downstairs behind the stairs at the end of the shopping precinct. No more room than the ones upstairs but less crowded, so you can shave, change your shirt and freshen up with a bit of elbowroom without 10 others wanting to use the same washbasin.

Upstairs the cigarette-brand sponsored smoking “corrals” are a joke! I made my way to the hidden food court. Being unsigned this area is almost unknown – I only discovered it last time through when I just happened to notice the MacDonald’s sign – which means it is relatively quiet despite a good choice of different food outlets, and there’s always an empty table. So I got a coke and fries (just for something to do really - I wasn't really hungry) and watched the smog slowly clear, which it almost did by 8am local time.
===================================================================
Sunday 20 May 2007
EK127 DXB-VIE Dep 0910 Arr 1300 Duration 5hr 50min
Airbus A330-200 A6-EKQ Seat 14A

Went to Gate 14 about 0815, endured the security process again, sat down, fired up my laptop and started drafting this report. Then I heard that accent. I had presumed that the majority of pax would be Austrians returning home and the background language would be German, but no. Well of course there were lots of Austrians but about one third of the departure lounge was being occupied by bloody Skips. In fact three of the elderly ladies and a businessman with whom I had waited with at the gate in Perth were also on this flight! Well, a recent news item back home did state that there are about 1 million Australian passport holders out of the country at any one time. And with a total population just nudging 21 million that’s a fairly high proportion.

We boarded "KQ", settled in, seat 14B was occupied by, you guessed it, an Australian middle-aged woman. Pushback was on time, but again it was a very long taxi back and along the parallel taxiway before we were lined up, 5th for take-off. When it was eventually our turn and we began rolling I looked back and saw there were still six aircraft behind us.

The airmap wasn’t working so the cabin screens displayed the “Get to the departure gate on time” message in English and Arabic for the whole flight. I switched my screen to the downward camera and watched real live Google earth as Iran and then Turkey passed beneath us. The clouds and murk continued for much of Iran but cleared over coastal Turkey and the southern shores of the Black Sea. We flew directly over the uniquely triangular shaped cape and isthmus of the historic city of Sinop.

Clearing Turkey we then crossed the snow covered mountains in Bulgaria.

Along the way, as we had a real knife for this flight, I chose the chicken for lunch.

There was no announcement from the cockpit advising us of Top of Descent, but at 1235 the commencement of our approach to Vienna was obvious. Fifteen minutes later, with the forward camera on, our downwind for runway 16 was so close to the runway that the left turn to base meant we overshot the glideslope significantly. So a continuing hard left to final was required then a wingover for a hard right back to line up was necessary. Exciting stuff to watch on the screen, and also out the window with the wing pointing to the ground - not sure if this is normal for Vienna. As the A330 straightened up we were over the stripes and actually landed quite smoothly. We pulled off the runway at 1300 local and taxied to gate A6.
============================================================
VIE Wien Airport
The Austrian transfer counter was directly opposite the gate as I walked off the plane so I immediately got my boarding pass for the OS flight to Budapest. Then went exploring as one is want to do when one has a couple of hours to spare at an airport. Quite impressed – nice to be able to wander around without the hassle and turmoil of somewhere like DXB. Nice view of the ramp activity from in the gent’s toilets except the urinal was along the wrong wall, oh well. Shops and food places, etc, then on my way to gate C60 I encountered a passport control? But I wasn’t entering Austria or so I thought.

It soon become clear that the layout of the terminal was such that the centre was the entry and exit area and the A, B & C concourses radiated out from here. Oh well, another stamp in my passport. I then wandered up the long curving concourse to the C gate lounge. Stopped off along the way and had my first real schnitzel and a local beer. Did this because I was meeting with another presenter when I arrived in Budapest and didn't know when I'd be having dinner. Fired up the laptop and tapped in a few lines. Also made the mistake of having a cappuccino - oh dear, absolutely no idea.

While waiting a very strange message in English would be heard over the public address every 15 or so minutes. "Attention please - new security regulation for hand baggage."
And that was it! No details about the new regulation, just that there was a new one!? I think something got lost in the translation somewhere.

After getting my passport stamped again, when I got to gate C60 I was somewhat surprised to see our F70 actually docked at an airbridge – I had assumed that we would bussed out to it.
==================================================================
Sunday 20 May 2007
OS721 VIE-BUD Dep 1700 Arr 1745 Duration 45min
Fokker F70 OE-LFI Seat 4A

Although my itinerary stated the flight was to be operated by Tyrolean, the F70 was in Austrian Arrows livery. We were called aboard and pushed back 5 minutes late, even though I doubt there were 20 pax. Four were obviously “full fare business” types. They occupied rows 1 and 2 and were given a light meal and coffee on tray. The rest of us plebs made do with a small hot sausage roll in a paper napkin and small bottle of water.

Given the mad rush to give out the refreshments then collect stuff as we were almost turning to base at Ferihegy I really don’t see why they bothered. Luckily there was only about 20 pax, I don’t know how the 2 attendants would manage with a full load?

Arrival at Ferihegy Terminal 2 was almost on time and without any issues. I cleared immigration and then came the anxious bit. Waiting for my case to pop up out of the middle and slide down onto the circling carousel. Did the interlining and 2 transfers work despite not having a through ticket? After a bout 8 minutes of watching others, there it appeared! So there you go, sometimes things do work.

Case in tow I then went to the airport minibus counter book a ride to my hotel. 3900 florint for a return mini-bus to and from any hotel in Budapest – what a good deal and service! Services like that demonstrate to me how serious a city is about welcoming and helping visitors and travellers, and as I was to find out, Budapest is certainly up amongst the top in this department.

As we left Ferihegy we passed an enclosure containing a Tu-154, a couple of Il-14s and Il-18s. Of course I didn't have my camera ready!

===================================
Budapest
What a city of character and characters. In some ways it reminded me of New Orleans (pre-Katrina I guess) smelly, grey dust everywhere, very humid, not quite as hot as Nawlins in July but larger and almost as uncomfortable weatherwise. Old (including very old, like Roman) buildings. Lots to see. But there were signs in English everywhere, English was spoken in all but the smallest most local shops, and the food and, of course, beer!

Unfortunately, other than the food and beer in the early evenings, I didn't see much of the city until the weekend. My day from 0800-1700 and 2200 to whenever was usually taken up with work; but I did make up for it on my last two days there. Did Castle Hill, the bridges and all that. Discovered that there is a Danube hydrofoil ferry service between Vienna and Budapest - now if I'd known that when I was booking this trip!

Did I say the food and beer was good? The choice of al fresco dining is superb - try Raday Street if you're ever there. And the presentation of the food equals that of 5 star restaurants anywhere. And all at a reasonable price too - not super cheap but reasonable and great value. Did I say the beer was great? Cappuccino's were quite average though.

Of course Budapest is also renown for other "delights". These are advertised on the tourist maps alongside the museums and all day bus tours. However, you can read all about those in "Superfly's Amorous Adventures in Budapest" which I'm sure will be posted here one of these days. Suffice to say "szex" is big business and all I'll report on the matter was something really surreal I saw.

I often just wander around cities without any real plan - you often see candid slices of the "real" place this way. So there I was late Saturday afternoon wandering down Jozsef Korut Ute when I chanced upon a row of szex establishments. Remember it was very hot, very humid, and dusty. Outside one such premise, seated in the meagre shade of the doorway on a plastic garden chair, was the "doorman". Time seemed to stop and I covertly looked around for the cameras and crew because I was sure I had walked on the set of some B grade movie in the making. The reason I felt this was because this "doorman" was the living caricature straight out of any number of paperback whodunits. He was an overweight slob, long lank straggly black hair, a weeks worth of facial hair, a cigarette hanging from the corner of his mouth dropping ash onto his (off) white singlet (sleeveless vest), and black track pants. His black eyes, half-closed against the sweat running down his face, just stared at me as I walked past. Totally surreal! Ok, maybe not as surreal as Superfly being chased by a naked Bangkok taxi driver - see Superfly Returns To Thailand;TG Royal 1st. 747-300 (by Superfly Mar 19 2007 in Trip Reports) - but actually seeing in reality something I'd only ever seen described in fiction was pretty weird.
===================================
Monday 28 May 2007
OS714 BUD-VIE Dep 1155 Arr 1250 Duration 55min
DHC Dash 8-400 OE-LGF Seat 12A

Long weekend across most of Europe apparently (as well as the US) so was very quiet on the streets. Caught the airport minibus shuttle to Ferihegy Terminal 2B in the mid morning.
I had my camera ready this time to try and get some photos of the old communist era aircraft but I forgot that we'd be on the other side of the road which branched to other side of the terminals anyway. Rats. Closer to the terminal I saw an operational Malev Tu-154 - man, talk about a B727 on steroids, they sure are big mothers!

Found the Austrian counter and checked in, then made my way to gate 14 downstairs between gates 13 and 16 where a Lufthansa A320 and Delta B767 were parked respectively.

There was no air-conditioning at the gate so it became quite warm. I tried my laptop and found "T- mobile" wireless LAN but they charged for connection so did some other work instead. (The Australian connection to T-Mobile is that Michael Rogers is the current captain of their Tour de France cycling team - just thought that I'd drop that in.) Also at the gate was a guy leeching power from the cleaners' outlet for his laptop - I wonder when airports will start to charge for that?

Looking at the passing aircraft I couldn't help thinking how incongruous the large blue nose of Malev aircraft looked - especially on their B737s, sure seemed reminiscent of earlier times.

Our Dash 8 arrived at 1100 off the terminal on the far side of Delta B767. And again there were only about 20 or so pax. We boarded the bus just before 1145 and were taken the short journey across the apron. LGF was in Tyrolean colours and had fading "Sounds of silence" titles painted on the engine nacelles. At 1155 we pushed backed - the Dash 8 was parked nose into the edge of the apron. On the taxi out the 3 attendants on this flight gave the safety demo - there was nothing about depressurisation and oxygen masks though; and there was nothing on the safety card either. Is this not required, or maybe the short flight meant that there would be no pressurisation?

There was the usual mad rush to give out refreshments and then collect the trash afterwards. Again luckily there was so few of us otherwise they wouldn't have coped. The half a dozen "business" pax got their tray of food and drink while the rest of us were given a strange sesame seed covered warm pastry roll. I couldn't determine what was in it. Was it sweet or savoury? The roll contained some tasteless black paste - really weird! No, it certainly was not Vegemite.

There was heavy cloud cover most of the way and we let down to a overcast Wien. Certainly different weather to across the border. After landing a bus took us to the terminal where I collected my luggage and cleared immigration efficiently.

No mini-bus or shuttle service to the city here so I bought a 6 euro bus ticket to Westbanhoff station. Couldn't see the point in paying more to catch the train just to save 10 minutes. From the station I walked the half block down Maria Hilfer strasse to my hotel, and by just after 2pm I was in the Siebensternbräu beer garden partaking of a wholesome late lunch and beer or three with my daughter.

================================================
Vienna

After Budapest, Vienna has a clean fresh feel to it; something like Singapore has after coming from Bangkok. But like Singapore, Vienna also has less “character” (whatever that is – I guess it’s how you feel about a place) than the other two cities. Dunno, maybe I’m a dirt-under-the-fingernails type of person who sees more appeal in the less than squeaky clean or less presumptuous. Ok, there was heaps less graffiti in Vienna but the food was more expensive, less people spoke English and there were less signs in English than in Budapest.

However, Vienna was still a great city to visit. In particular the free public transport pass the hotel issued for the duration of our stay was fantastic – soon had the U-bahnoff and trams/streetcars sorted. Although I now know where the US gets its eating habits and deep fried food fetish. Sampled the schnitzel at Figlmueller's - good grief, enough to feed 4 people!

And also like Singapore, they had a great sense of humour. The "There are no kangaroos in Austria" t-shirts appealed to me as a Skip. (Singapore’s equivalent is the “Singapore is a fine city” t-shirt, which the lists all the minor offences you can be fined for in Uncle Lee’s paradise.)

==================================================

Wednesday 30 May 2007
EK128 VIE-DXB Dep 1530 Arr 2250 Duration 5hr 25min
Airbus A330-200 A6-??? (What did I do with the registration?) Seat 14A (again)

Saw my daughter off in a taxi to get her 0740 flight to Heathrow, then had breakfast, packed and wandered the nearby streets until the shops opened. It was a cool drizzly morning. I had planned to get the 1230 or 1330 bus to the airport, but packing and checking out took less time than I expected. In the end I walked the half block up Maria Hilfer strasse back to the Westbanhoff and caught the midday airport bus.

At the two Emirates counters there were only 6 pax waiting. Check in had opened at 1230 and I got there at 1245. I had selected my seats the night before so check in was quick and painless. With time to spare I wandered around, bought a sandwich and, will I never learn, another terrible cappuccino coffee. Weak, foul tasting, frothy water instead of milk/cream - yuk!!

After that I went through passport control; got my VAT receipt stamped and collected my tax refund. Well you can't visit Vienna without buying some crystal. Except the instructions on the envelop explicitly stated that I had to show the item to the inspector, but they weren't interested. So my carry-on was bulked up for no reason.

Saw pax from incoming EK127 disembarking at gate 4A about 1310. There didn't seem to be that many! Not like my flight a week and a half ago.

There was free public WiFi but the connection provided local access but no Internet. There was 3 other unsecured wireless LANs including 5850 HP Inkjet!

In watching the passing traffic I have to say that the Austrian livery is very bland really. Looks like Air Mauritius with powder blue engine nacelles that seem very out of place - not a good look at all in my view.

While waiting there was an announcement for an Air Europe crew to go to their gate. Had they got lost? Missed their shuttle to the airport? Usually it is tardy pax who are called to the gate not air crew!!!

We were called aboard at 1450. Like the incoming flight, there were not very many at all on this flight. At 1513 the forward camera showed the tug being hitched. The last pax took her seat soon after and we pushed back at 1524; and were airborne at 1538.

The downward camera showed us crossing back over Lake Balaton in Hungry (where I understand a good proportion of the population of Budapest spent the long weekend). Our course then changed from east to east-south-east across the southern part of the Black Sea, passing just north of Istanbul. The forward camera showed a beautiful sight of the clouds in front of us lit by the sun behind us - really something to remember. Just before Ankara we turned south-east to skirt Iraq, and then turned back to ESE heading over Saudi Arabia.

Seat 14B was vacant so I stretched out and along the way dozed off. I awoke to see a dinner tray on the 14B seatback tray and the other pax munching away. A cabin attendant saw that I was awake and I was offered chicken or lamb. I went for the lamb ragine and couscous.

An hour out of Dubai the clouds had built up. In the darkness at 41,000 ft and 1000 kph lightning could be seen over Kuwait. As we descended this was followed by the orange gas flares against the blackness of the gulf just north of Qatar. We then seemed to jink around a bit in the pattern over a brightly lit up Dubai we still arrived on time.

It was another long taxi, but to a gate with an airbridge this time. However, after disembarking we had to walk the full upper length of the terminal to get to the only operating transit security point. Passed two others on the way. Was not impressed; and when we finally got there were no trays for laptops. It was crowded and generally a shambles. Eventually made my way through and went and bought my duty free booze to take home.

Then I found a seat (which took some doing) and connected to "Maxspot" wireless LAN - Internet access worked ok as did my VPN. Oops, big mistake - all sorts of work requiring my immediate attention cluttered up my email inbox. Hmm …
===========================================================
Thursday 31 May 2007
EK421 DXB-PER Dep 0235 Arr 1700 Duration 10hr 25min
Boeing 777-300ER A6-EBN Seat 33D

An hour before departure I made my way to the gate where there was another security check. Then I saw a table with staff working frantically packing stuff. It was explained that the carry-on liquids restriction applies to all duty free purchases so these have to be packed and carried in the hold. So all our liquor (and perfume and the like) was individually packed in cartons, labelled and taken away. I don't understand why this was not explained when I bought my booze, at least we have been prepared for it and maybe got the gate a bit earlier so there was not the mad panic.

[As an aside are "liquid" duty free purchases at Changi Singapore still delivered the departure gate and allowed to be carried on board? On the other hand when leaving Suvarnabhumi Bangkok for Perth 4 weeks after this trip no liquid duty free purchases were allowed to be taken on board at all, carry-on or checked!]

After boarding we pushed back at 0243 for an eventual departure from 12L. The pax numbers were so low that seats E, F & G next to me were empty. So after the snack of a hot pita bread wrap was served, the armrests came up, the shoes off and I lay out across the seats and slept for some 5 hours or so. It wasn't that comfortable, I couldn't stretch out my 6ft frame, but I think the last week and a half caught up with me and I could have slept anywhere.

Brunch was a choice of chicken with stir fried noodles, or cheese and vege omelette - I went for the omelette. I then sort of watched a couple of movies but mostly dozed.

The front camera picked up the Western Australian coast and we started descending. We swung south and flew parallel to the coast, then turned east just south of Fremantle onto base for a landing on 03. As we turned on to final and lined up another aircraft could be seen and rotating off the runway ahead of us. These cameras are definitely the feature that differentiates the Emirates product from the other airlines.

Landing was smooth and we exited 03 onto Papa during our rollout, crossed Charlie to enter Tango; and in no more than 3 minutes after the wheels hitting the runway we pulled into the gate 20 minutes early. Quite a significant difference to the 20-minute tour of Dubai!

Cleared immigration and went to collect my case. When I saw the small cartons doing laps around the carousel I remembered that one of them was mine! Jeez, lucky I waited and grabbed my booze. I wonder if any was forgotten and left behind for airport staff?

So I was home - it was some trip - lots of memories - and then lots of work reviewing the results of the trial with the 4 other sites around the world. And less than 4 weeks later I was in Bangkok presenting training sessions on it, such has been this year so far! But I didn't see any stripping taxi drivers there like Superfly.

PGF

[Edited 2007-07-09 13:49:58]