James Mason's Blog -or- The Journal of Contemporary Lunacy

It really was the long (wrong) way but I finally arrived in New York on Thursday morning local time after leaving Sydney Wednesday morning (Sydney time). A one night stop-over in Ho Chi Minh City padded out the scheduled a bit (arrived Wednesday evening and didn't depart until 24 hours later) but also allowed for a bit of rest. There was method to my madness though - this was to take advantage of some incredible Qatar Airways business class fares that were only available departing Vietnam. These were some lovely flights, especially the DOH-JFK leg in a shiny A350 - even though it was a 14 hour flight! The seat, food, service and in-flight entertainment were all top notch, a wonderful way to fly. The Path Less Traveled Doha by Night Final Approach to JFK from the Tail Camera

Found out the hard way last night that it is _not_ a good idea to walk from Ho Chi Minh City's airport to the airport hotel, no matter how short a walk it seems on Google Maps! After several wrong turns and following paths that disappeared, the way involved crossing three chaotically busy roads (apparently busier than usual due to people celebrating Vietnam's win the AFC U23 Championship by riding around on scooters waving flags and screaming) which appeared to have pedestrian crossings that were completely ignored by drivers (not that I'm familiar with how crossings work here). So yeah, I've booked the shuttle bus on the way back...

A very busy travel year by my standards, involving some 56 flights (up from 27 the previous year). I visited the US for the first time, had a couple short trips to NZ and also headed to a number of Australian cities - some for the first time, some that I just hadn't seen for a decade or more. Statistics Flights: 56 segments Distance: 48,682 miles / 78,346 kilometers Flight Time: 4 days, 15:35 hours Unique Airports 25 Carriers 15 Countries 3 Vehicles 19 Distance Total flown 48682 mi Around the world 1.96x To the Moon 0.204x To Mars 0.0014x Journey records Longest AKL↔SFO, 6529 mi, 11:33 Shortest SEA↔PDX, 129 mi, 00:31 Average 869 mi, 01:59 Airport records Northernmost SEA (47.45°N 122.31°W) Southernmost IVC (46.41°S 168.31°E) Westernmost PDX (45.59°N 122.6°W) Easternmost WLG (41.33°S 174.81°E) Firsts Quite a few new travel experiences for me in 2017, the stand-outs were: First time in Business Class on VA, QF, N...