Andrew de Villiers

Andrew de Villiers

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Sojourn in Southeast Asia
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- Day 6
- Tuesday, March 28, 2023 at 3:00 PM
- ☀️ 37 °C
- Altitude: 322 m
- Thailand Mae Nam Cho 18.84891, 99.04428118°50’56” N 99°2’39” E
Thai Secret Cooking School (CM Day 2)
March 28, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 37 °C
By Mel
Having decided to teach casually for the first part of the year I was amazed to rediscover this thing called “weekends”. Incredible!
I vaguely remember them from life before teaching but it was a revelation to have both time and brain space left for anything other than lesson planning, student reports, marking, admin, rinse and repeat…
And for the first time in a long time there was time to leisurely research and plan a few trip highlights! For me that was always going to be food related!
I’d found an ex-pat online review for the Thai Secret Cooking School and knew straight away this was the one I wanted us to do! So glad we did…
We got picked up nice and early (but after iced coffee #1 of course) and whisked away via a local “red truck” (covered Ute version of taxi) with our delightful fellow apprentice chefs to a local fresh produce market, where we were introduced to our teacher, May.
May led us through the market, explaining key Thai ingredients (and the things to look for in comparable products back home). Fortified by a second iced coffee we were then taken back to
May’s family home - just outside Chiang Mai -
a beautiful garden oasis surrounded by rice fields.
Kitted out, we hit the veggie patch to pick the herbs, vegetables and flowers needed for our chosen menus - yes, that’s right - we each got to select the 5 dishes we’d like to learn how to prepare and cook over the course of the day!
A day of good food, good fun and no washing up (yah!) saw us - let’s not say master - but at least adequately grasp some Thai cooking basics to produce (and then devour):
Appetiser - papaya salad and deep fried spring rolls.
Stir-fry course: Pad Thai and Ginger Chicken
Soup: Noodle soup with chicken and chicken in coconut milk soup
Curry: Green chicken curry and Penang Chicken curry.
Dessert: Sticky rice with mango and Butterfly pea flower tea.

This sounds pretty easy, right? But no cooking from pre-made curry pastes for us! We ground the curry pastes by hand, “milked” the shredded coconuts and diced and sliced to create some wonderfully aromatic memories!

May, her talented husband and her amazing team made this day an absolute trip highlight - heartily recommend this experience to anyone interested in having fun while learning more about Thai cuisine! https://www.chiang-mai-cooking-school.com/Read more
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Sojourn in Southeast Asia
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- Day 4
- Sunday, March 26, 2023 at 3:30 PM
- ☀️ 36 °C
- Altitude: 311 m
- Thailand Mueang Klang 18.785677, 98.99538618°47’8” N 98°59’43” E
Chiang Mai - Day 1
March 26, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C
We'd been warned before leaving Australia that the air might be quite smoky in Thailand, but it hadn't really been noticeable in Bangkok. If anything, it helped create amazing sunset photos from our riverside vantage point. The smoke haze was hard to miss in Chiang Mai!

As our plane flew further north the visibility dropped, and by the time we landed it was only about 5km. It wasn't like bushfire smoke that stings your eyes, but it did make us revaluate our plans for while we were in town. Off the list went went trekking (just in case we were crazy enough to brave the scorching 38 degree heat), to be replaced with more amazing food, some relaxing massages, and beers by the pool in our awesome hotel. We'd cope!

The centre of Chiang Mai is still surrounded by the remains of an ancient moat (mostly) and defensive wall (partially). It would have been an amazing sight in its prime (13th to 16th Century), and these structures create a distinctive square outline when you view the downtown area on a map. We'd also been fortunate enough to arrive on a Sunday, which sees the city centre shut down and turned into a massive night market. There were people everywhere, with stalls selling everything imaginable. It was great, and dinner that night reminded us how cheap food can be in this part of the world (for westerners).

As we entered the market I realised that I'd left our wallet back in the room. All I had was 300 baht in my pocket, which is about $13 AUD. This would barely have bought us a single Big Mac meal in Australia. I offered to double-back and fetch more, but Mel suggested we try our luck. As we entered one of the many food stall areas we realised that her faith was well placed. We sampled local delicacies from several different street vendors and washed them down with fresh juices. After we'd filled ourselves to the brim, we reassessed our finances and still had 100 baht to spare.

Downtown Chiang Mai had a very touristy feel, which made me surprisingly happy. Usually I'd be resenting the tourist hordes, but I was happy for the locals. Walking past all the cafes, restaurants, tour operators and street vendors you can only imagine how badly the covid restrictions must have hurt locals in places like this. It was good to see full restaurants, tour groups and occupied tuk-tuks buzzing about. Mind you, judging by the number of dark windows in the hotels each night, even these "hordes" might not have had Chiang Mai back to full capacity.

Another thing that was different for me, but wasn't taking any getting used to, was travelling in your 40's with a bit more money behind you. We were now staying in some hotels that only had 4 rooms, whereas my youth had me staying in dorms with at least 4 beds in each room. Can't say I was missing that...Read more
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- Day 3
- Saturday, March 25, 2023 at 1:00 PM
- ⛅ 34 °C
- Altitude: 10 m
- Thailand Grand Palace 13.749379, 100.49190513°44’58” N 100°29’31” E
The Grand Palace, Bangkok Day 2
March 25, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C
By Mel:
After reading a bunch of reports about how crazy the Grand Palace could be with the street vendors all trying to flog tours, tshirts and tuk-tuk rides (or anything else) we decided to arrive early and… it was super calm! ❤️
The first impression of the Grand Palace was one of complete sensory overload - every surface gilt, bejewelled and intricately ornate!!!! 😮
We skipped on a tour but grabbed an audio tour which was enough to navigate our way around at our own pace but also to be able to appreciate the historical and spiritual significance of what we were looking at. The pictures speak for themselves… which was lucky as it was 39 degrees before midday and we were struggling!

By Andrew:
We spent about 3 hours wandering through the amazing sights of the Grand Palace and Wat Pho (home of the giant reclining Buddha). As Mel mentioned, the heat was oppressive and this made us rethink our journey back to the hostel. Our initial plan was to take one of the ferrys back to our closest stop, which would have allowed us to see the city from the river.
There are 3 ferry stops that service the huge complex encompassing the Palace and Wat Pho. We had begun our exploring at the Palace in the north and were now towards the southern ferry stops. While Mel cooled off in the shade (ie paused overheating) I checked out the closest of them and quickly realised that it was under repair. We now had a choice; continue walking south to the next stop (which the internet told us might also be closed), or trek 15 minutes back to the ferry station where next to where we started. This didn't appeal, so we retreated to an air-conditioned gelato shop to revaluate our options. They were bleak, so I asked for permission to go to Defcon 3.
Mel isn't a fan of Tuk Tuks, touts or haggling, so this is what we'd been trying to avoid. But, desperate times call for desperate measures, so I was given authority to do all three! After a while cooling off and rehydrating we emerged back into the furnace. It didn't take long for a taxi driver to try his luck, demanding double the going rate for a trip home. When asked if he'd use the meter he refused, and didn't want to bargain either. I began to wonder if I'd lost my touch while covid had the world shut down, but looking around I quickly realised that the driver had a sea of Asian tourists willing to pay anything they were asked. So I let him speed off and I approached the tuk tuk queue instead. This line stretched as far as the eye could see, so I was hoping that we had a better chance.
The first driver quickly struck up a conversation, and his opening gambit was triple the going rate! But he said it with a smile, so I sent back an offer below expectation. We both laughed, and I knew the game had started. We eventually landed on a price that was about half of his opening effort, so I figured that was close enough. We piled in, held on for dear life, and miraculously arrived unscathed at the other end.
That night we topped it off with dinner at a lovely restaurant on the banks of the river. True to the "metalworking district" that we were staying in, this gem was buried down the end of an alley surrounded by car parts. And it was almost buried...Mel was up to her waist in car parts on the way in. Nam 1608 was an amazing place to eat, and we sampled some specialty dishes including a pomelo and prawn salad, as well as deep-fried sun-dried squid. Yum!
We really enjoyed our time in Bangkok, and particularly the metalworking district of Chinatown. We expected to be disturbed by endless grinding and the clanging of tools, but it was surprisingly peaceful. Maybe this is because the shop owners know that the tourists don't want to buy their car parts, so they just give you a smile and a friendly greeting as you walk past. Closer to downtown might have been a different story, because every shop owner would assume that you wanted their cheap Chinese imitation Nikes... Sadly it was now time for us to leave Bangkok, and we were due to catch a flight north to Chiang Mai.Read more
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Sojourn in Southeast Asia
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- Day 2
- Friday, March 24, 2023 at 1:00 PM
- ☀️ 35 °C
- Altitude: 17 m
- Thailand Samphanthawong 13.732614, 100.51266513°43’57” N 100°30’46” E
Bangkok - day 1
March 24, 2023 in Thailand ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C
As our flight descended towards Bangkok we could see the infamous smoke haze that we'd been warned about before leaving. Apparently, this is the season when farmers burn off their old crops, and this can cause visibility to drop and the sky to become a bit opaque. We hoped that this wouldn't have an impact on some of the places that we were going to visit over the next few weeks, but time would tell. One thing that did have an immediate impact was the tropical heat and humidity!
Australia had been in a LaNiña weather phase for the past few years. Sadly, that brought some devastating flooding, but it had helped to keep the temperatures down. Now we had stepped out into a 36 degree day, with 10000% humidity, and heavy backpacks weighing us down. Ok... this might be a little melodramatic because Bangkok's amazing public transport transport system kept us cool, calm and on the move to within 700m of our hostel in Chinatown. But, inevitably, that final 10-minute walk left us drenched in sweat as we tried not to get lost in the maze of alleyways. We eventually found our hostel, and we immediately knew that we'd chosen well.
Photo Hostel & Cafe is run by Klas, a friendly Dutchman who teaches photography courses to locals. The hostel occupies a former residence and only has 4 rooms above its narrow footprint (one per floor). To be fair, although it calls itself a hostel, Photo Hostel was stunning, and could easily have been marketed as a boutique hotel. Actually, it didn't take long to fall in love with Bangkok itself. It was clean, had very efficient public transport, and the locals were friendly. Sadly, we'd only have 3 nights here, but we couldn't wait to get started!

Part 2 by Mel
Getting food recommendations from locals is always the best bet (rather than relying on questionable online reviews) and the cryptic instructions to look out for the street food vendor “with the yellow plastic chairs” was spot on! Our first night and we had our first Bangkok street food win with delicious crispy pork, garlic chicken and stir fried morning glory (Andrew’s all-time fav). 🤤 a strong to start to our culinary adventures…

The next day we were up stupidly early (due to the time zone difference) and headed off to find coffee and to make some plans!
As anyone who knows us would attest, plants and gardens are our happy place and having seen pics of the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok it was #1 on my list!
It also did not disappoint… plenty of inspo for dream garden in this place!
The history of Jim’s life, his house and his role in Thai traditional silk manufacturing was an interesting insight - Thai silk shot to fashion fame after his company’s fabrics were used in the ‘King and I’ musical. The house, grounds and his story (which sadly ended in his mysterious disappearance in Malaysia’s Cameron Highlands in 1967) were a tranquil escape to the bustle of downtown Bangkok.

Back to Andrew:
Jim Thompson House was an amazing oasis of calm, in the middle of the city. But we were realising that the Thai's themselves were pretty chill. Even the ambitious Tuk Tuk drivers, who seemed to be in a perpetual state of hope that you wanted a tour of some kind, weren't oppressively pushy.
After we'd finished with JT House we returned to our corner of China Town for lunch. Corner being the operative word there. We noticed a street vendor that had accumulated a decent assortment of local patrons and went to investigate. On the wok was an elderly lady who looked like she'd been doing this every day of her adult life (and maybe she had). The smells were amazing, and the meals looked enticing. A new fold-out table was set up to accommodate the two tourists, and a menu with pictures was brought to us. Sadly, we couldn't see the dish that had attracted us in the first place, so we pointed to the dish being prepared and looked confused (which didn't take much effort). Realising what we were asking, we were only able to make our the word "special" in her response, but our enthusiastic nods must have told the story, so the menus were removed, and we waited eagerly. As with all our meals so far, the wait was brief, and this one really was special. To describe it simply as a "noodle soup with duck" really doesn't do it justice, but those were the main ingredients. It's anyone's guess what else grandma had put in there, but it was fantastic!

We didn't plan any more sights for that afternoon, because we knew that we'd have a big day at THE main attraction tomorrow. And Bangkok currently felt hotter than the surface of the sun, so we saved our energy and got ready to see the Grand Palace and Wat Pho!Read more
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- Day 1
- Thursday, March 23, 2023 at 10:00 AM
- Altitude: 9 m
- Australia Alexandra Canal -33.935276, 151.16677933°56’7” S 151°10’0” E
Good riddance, covid
March 23, 2023 in Australia
Since 2020, Covid had put most world travel on ice. To slow the spread of the virus, countries across the world closed their borders, which brought tourism to a standstill. In Australia, the government had also been enacting seemingly endless lockdowns, preventing us from even leaving our local areas! You don't realise how much you miss travelling until you don't have the option.
The genesis of this trip was actually planning to visit England, Wales and Scotland. We'd bought the guidebook and invested in a roadmap that we hung on the wall in our loungeroom. But, as we started to dig a bit deeper into what that trip may cost, we realised that a month on the road in the UK could add up quite substantially! We held a quick team meeting and decided that we should probably look for somewhere closer to home. But where?
We tossed around a few ideas, including Japan, the Philippines, and Bhutan. In the end, we went for something that would turn out to be "same same, but different" (at least for me). We'd heard amazing things about northern Thailand, as well as northern Vietnam. I'd been fortunate enough to visit both countries previously, but hadn't been to the north of either. So we did some modern research (ie googling) and decided that this would do nicely. So, we bought some new guidebooks and began trying to refine our itinerary.
Mel and I had learned on our first trip together that you'll have a MUCH nicer time if you just select a handful of highlights to see at a leisurely pace, than if you try to see everything at warp speed. As the itinerary began to take shape, it looked like it would be a culinary tour (for Mel), with a few adventurous detours (for me). This sounded perfect. As the weeks went by, and the departure date approached, we eventually got the whole thing booked in... maybe we should have been travel agents? We'd start in Bangkok, head north, cross briefly into Loas, then spend the last 2 weeks in Vietnam. It would be 31 days overall.
The first leg of the trip was very pleasant and uneventful, with a touch of good will thrown in. Our Uber picked us up on time, dropped us right in front of our departure gate, and we barely had to queue for check-in. We breezed through immigration, and didn't really have to wait long for security screening either. When I collected my belongings from the other side of the security checkpoint, I hadn't realised that I'd dropped my wallet. Fortunately, one of the young security officers saw this, realised that I wasn't deliberately depositing some kind of low yield IED, and promptly returned it to me. With my faith in humanity reaffirmed, we wandered to the Amex lounge and gorged ourselves into a food coma. The flight was pleasant, and 9hrs later we were in Bangkok! The trip had begun!Read more
TravelerHave a fabulous time!!! Enjoy all that amazing food.
3/24/23Reply
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- Day 14
- Saturday, June 25, 2011
- 🌙 14 °C
- Altitude: 1,440 m
- South Africa Graskop -24.931111, 30.84138924°55’52” S 30°50’29” E
Graskop
June 25, 2011 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
This morning we slept in and left at a more leisurely hour. About an hour north of Hazyview is Graskop (Grass Head in Afrikaans). We checked into the Berlyn Peacock Tavern, which is run by a bloke named Louie, then went exploring.

Grass Head is at the southern end of the Blyde River Canyon, which is the largest green canyon in the world (and the 3rd largest canyon overall behind the Grand Canyon in the USA and Fish River Canyon in Namibia...for you trivia lovers). Today was spent exploring the amazing scenery in this area. We checked out Wonder View, God's Window, The Pinnacle, Bourke's Luck Potholes, Lowveld View then The Three Rondavels. This gave us an amazing perspective of the Canyon, with some enviable photo opportunities.

Given that it was Private School holidays, it was remarkably quiet. I found Bourke's Luck Potholes to be a particularly fascinating phenomenon. Apparently some Irish bloke named Bourke figured that these circular formations in the rock (created by the swirling waters of the Blyde River) were a good place to find Gold...as it would be...?

Blyde River had been on my Bucket list for years and it didn't disappoint...my camera was running hot! As sunset approached, we finished the day by visiting Berlyn and Lisbon Falls. Berlyn Falls was nice, but Lisbon Falls had a particularly African feel about them. The Sunset helped too...refer photos...Read more
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- Day 13
- Friday, June 24, 2011
- 🌙 21 °C
- Altitude: 803 m
- South Africa Richmond -24.995545, 3124°59’44” S 31°0’0” E
Kruger Park
June 24, 2011 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 21 °C
Today we were up at 5am to visit Kruger National Park. Kruger is the jewel in the South African crown and has an area equivalent in size to Wales. We arrived in the twilight before the gates opened at 6am, and we weren't even the first ones in line! R180 later and we were in the Phabeni gate.

Things started off pretty slowly with some distant antelope sightings during the first half an hour. Then we started to hit some rhythm and we'd soon ticked off giraffe, zebra, elephant, hippo, water buffalo and warthog. With the clock passing 9am we headed into the Skukuza rest complex for breakfast. We pulled up a table on the deck overlooking the Sabie River and settled in for hearty bacon and egg brekky, chatting about where we might find the remainder of the "Big 5": lions, rhinos and leopards. We were hopeful about the lions and Rhino's, but leopards are notoriously elusive.

As we looked out over the river a pair of otters hopped out of the long grass and slipped into the water. Moments later we saw why the otters were on the run...a leopard emerged onto the river bank!! Seemingly oblivious to the amazed onlookers, the leopard proceeded to stalk up the river tracking the pair of otters. We continued to look on in stunned excitement for about 5 minutes until the leopard disappeared out of view. Then we sat back down, drank our coffees and ate our breakfast. WOW!

We never did see a lion or rhino, but we did manage to see a lot of other things including baboons and even a pair of honey badgers! The funniest event of the day happened when a herd of elephants decided to lazily graze their way across the road. Naturally, you give way to something the size of an elephant, but a small hatchback that was at the front of the queue decided that it was in the way of their progress. As such, they disappeared around the corner (in the direction of the big matriarch elephant). Moments later, they reappeared going flat out in reverse. We were all in stitches! HAHA.

In our quest to find the remaining Big 5 we had driven a fair way from our park entry gate. There are significant fines for exiting the park after closure, and even bigger problems if you get caught inside. We didn't have internal accommodation and soon realised that we had to make a move. Basically we would have to cover the same distance we'd done all day in the remaining 90 minutes. The race was on! Now covering 60ish km's in over an hour wouldn't typically be that hard, but Kruger is basically a zoo with no fences...and some VERY big animals. We made good progress until dusk, with a few stops for animal crossings including a cool pair of hyenas. Then it became dark, which was an extra problem since the low beam lights on Penny's car didn't work.

Now it turned from car-racing to heart-racing. We eventually made it to the gate with about 10 minutes to spare before the 6pm deadline, but the ordeal wasn't done just yet. The security guard was threatening to lock us in unless we paid the "late fee", which we assumed would end up straight in his pocket. We assumed we were in the right so we started arguing, unleashing Penny who instinctively went into her professional IR mode. After a heated back and forth, we were eventually let through. We later found out that the guard was in the right, and the gate was supposed to close at 5:30pm. We'd been 20 minutes late...oops...

To save time we had exited through a different gate, which put us a long way from our lodge in Hazyview. By now it was totally dark and we had to juggle between useless fog lamps and blinding high beams depending on traffic. Now it had gone from heart-racing to heart-stopping. We had to find a road which was unlit and not well marked, then dodge pedestrians (yep, lots of black African people, in black African clothes, on a black African night) as well as other similarly unroadworthy vehicles. After 30 minutes of luck, arse, fluke and swearing we finally made it back to our bungalow. It was time for a beer and a change of pants. Another end to another exciting day.Read more
TravelerWhat a fabulous day - I didn’t realise that park was so big. So lucky to see all those animals.
7/13/24Reply
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- Day 9
- Monday, June 20, 2011
- 🌙 26 °C
- Altitude: 533 m
- South Africa Hazyview -25.044173, 31.12835525°2’39” S 31°7’42” E
Doorstep to Kruger
June 20, 2011 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
Today the 7 of us left the city behind and drove northeast to a town called Hazyview, our stepping off point for Kruger. The drive took about 6 hours and descended off the plateau that Johannesburg sits on. We didn't go that much closer to the equator, but the descent definitely helped with the temperature.
On the way we planned to stop for a meal at a cafe called Milly's, which Penny recommended as a convenient place to break the drive. Unfortunately, someone had decided Milly's was also a convenient place to light a bonfire, because it was barely more than a pile of ashes when we arrived. It must have been quite recent, since there were some equally stunned workers sitting around after inadvertently showing up for work on a Monday morning.
In Hazyview we'd booked into a 3-bedroom bungalow at The Kruger Park Lodge. It was pretty flash, and not typical of the places that I'd be frequenting on this trip. This was fortunate, because I had saved up to do the entire year of travel on savings, and at this rate I'd be broke and heading home next month. With a bit of time before sunset I decided to go and explore the posh surroundings.
KPL is actually a golf resort, so most of the scenery was associated with the manicured fairways. There were some monkeys and antelope (obviously), which seemed to be South African golf course equivalent to Kangaroos back in Australia. It was a bit anticlimactic, so I wandered on to the "Hippo Hide" lookout. This was also a bit underwhelming, with the hippos clearly not trained to perform whenever some Aussie shows up waving a camera. With the sun now below the horizon I turned back towards our bungalow, and nearly tripped over a crocodile.. Yikes...that could have been another premature end to the trip! We rounded out the evening by cooking a bbq/braai on the deck, and then hit the hay. We'd be up before the sun tomorrow to go to Kruger.Read more
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- Day 7
- Saturday, June 18, 2011
- 🌙 17 °C
- Altitude: 1,381 m
- South Africa Arcadia -25.74767, 28.22569925°44’52” S 28°13’33” E
Bulls, balls, biltong and boerwors
June 18, 2011 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 17 °C
We had a few restful days allowing my jetlag to settle, and for me to acclimatise. Johannesburg sits on a plateau known as the Highveld, at an elevation of a 1,750 metres. This makes it a lot colder than Sydney, and overnight temperatures had been plummeting below zero.

After shaking off our third freezing morning, we headed off in the direction of Pretoria. It had been a while since I'd visited South Africa, and the drive itself was quite an eye-opener. Pretoria is about 60km away from the centre of Johannesburg, but there didn't seem to be any noticeable change in cities; Johannesburg seemed to have expanded to fill the entire gap!

Our first stop for the day was the Voortrekker Monument. It was built to commemorate the early European explorers making inroads into the north of the country. The car park may not have been full of pickup trucks with gun racks, but you did get the feeling that this place was probably not the flavour of the month in the new age of reconciliation. Despite this, I had to admit that it was quite an impressive monument, though.

After this, we managed to have a quick stop at the Union Buildings (parliament house). For those who have watched the movie Invictus, this is where Nelson Mandela met with the South African rugby captain (or Morgan Freeman met with Matt Damon if you were struggling with the characters).

Finally, it was time for our main attraction that day, which was attending a critical Super 14's game between the Bulls and the Sharks. The two teams were deadlocked at 5th and 6th on the ladder and this was the last chance to make it into the finals. We parked on a local street, with about 50,000 other people, and headed for the stadium.

South Africans seem to take their rugby very seriously...and socially. There were people lounging around next to their cars in camp chairs and every second car seemed to be having their own bbq on the street. Hilariously my Dad got offered a suck on a kid's bong in return for some dried boerwors that we were carrying. He politely declined, but handed over the snacks anyway.

It was a home game for the Bulls and the stands were a sea of blue amidst a cloud of smoke. Amazingly it seemed that smoking had yet to be banned in South Africa, so fans could smoke in the stands, but they weren't allowed to drink. This was bizarre to an Australian, where our rules were exactly the opposite. Despite the toxic smog, suffered in sobriety, it was a sell-out game and the atmosphere was fantastic.

We were backing the Sharks since they represented the region I was born in.
Plus, everyone loves an underdog, right? The match was a nail biter with the Sharks eventually winning 26-23...talk about intense!

About 10 minutes from the end of the match we were entertained by a streaker from the crowd. Amazingly, he managed to waddle the full way across the field with his pants down without being molested (excuse the pun) by security or the players. This was another thing that wouldn't have happened in Australia, where those brave/drunk enough to streak are usually crash-tackled within seconds of leaping onto the pitch. This streaker seemed equally shocked at his ease of passage so, upon reaching the other side, he pulled up his pants and waited patiently to be removed. Eventually, a pair of guards came over and politely escorted him away.

After such an amazing Saturday, we spent Sunday at home celebrating South African Father's Day. Our next stop was going to be South Africa's premier national park, and we wanted to be well rested.

[4 days on the road]Read more
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- Day 4
- Wednesday, June 15, 2011
- 🌙 16 °C
- Altitude: 1,745 m
- South Africa Johannesburg CBD -26.201158, 28.0371626°12’4” S 28°2’14” E
Africa, Ashcloud and Eclipse
June 15, 2011 in South Africa ⋅ 🌙 16 °C
After a lovely final night in Sydney, I had to drag myself out of a very warm and comfortable bed to catch my flight to Johannesburg. I'd been watching the news pretty religiously to try and get updates on the Chilean volcano that had been wreaking havoc on the Australian airlines recently. Flights to Melbourne, Tasmania, Adelaide and New Zealand had all been cancelled to avoid the ash cloud which had drifted around the southern end of the planet. I knew from my sister's flight 5 weeks previously that my flight to Johannesburg would typically track down past the Antarctic to catch the atmospheric winds, so I was sure that this would be affected in some way. As it turns out, the earth is actually round and planes can fly in different directions to avoid things that are in the way. My flight was listed on the departures board as "on time".

At check-in I stood on tiptoes (although not sure that was really required when you're 17ft tall anyway) and put on my best pleading face for an emergency exit row. The lady from Qantas was really nice and called the gate to free one up. She smiled and made a final comment that "I owed her one" since those seats actually cost more nowadays. In the end I owed her more than one!! I got to the Qantas lounge after a brief stop for some last minute Duty Free and went to the desk to check if there were any flight disruptions. When I handed over my boarding pass, she promptly tore it up. Noticing my look of dismay she asked if I had requested an upgrade. My blank stare answered that question, but she just smiled and handed me a new boarding pass...in premium economy. I later found out that my mate (and travel agent), Tony at Travelworld Helensvale, had called in a few favours and hooked me up. He must have cashed in every favour, because I wasn't just in Premium Economy, but I was also at an exit. Winning!

I'd never been this close to the front of the plane before, so I took note of the extra luxuries:
*more leg room and better chairs. Looked to me to be like the old business class you used to walk past on your way to cattle class.
*proper metal cutlery, glass glasses and solid plates
*Nice food (not sure if it was any different, though)
*Fabric napkins
*Better headphones
*Great service
*Power points...although the attendant politely waited until we'd landed, and I'd exhausted the batteries on all my devices, before showing them to me. Helping...

It turned out to be the perfect flight to have received an upgrade. The planners at Qantas had devised a Plan B to avoid the ashcloud, and step one was switching aircraft. Our replacement aircraft had extra range, and typically flew the leg between Sydney and Dallas Fort Worth. I didn't realise how important this would be (and how lucky I was to have Premium Economy) until the captain's opening address. "Ladies and gentlemen, today's flight time will be 16.5 hours!" Apparently that is pretty much the maximum range that a Boeing 747 can achieve, and it's a long time to be in a seat. Thankfully I had whisky, ample leg room and a reclining chair, so I wasn't exactly crying myself to sleep. But I did take the opportunity to have some (sleep, not a cry). It had been a hectic 3 days leading up to this, and I'd barely slept 8 hours.

In Johannesburg I was met at the airport by my sister and my dad. Dad was nearing the end of a holiday with friends, visiting various places around southern Africa, and it was good to be able to catch up with him while on my travels. Amazingly, they informed me that I was also just in time to watch an eclipse which was happening at the time. What a way to end a long and eventful first day!Read more
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