It's been nearly a year since I have done any travelling.

I've started 2018 with booking a return flight with Qatar. I have mentioned this before, if you can plan two trips you can get a brilliant deal in the reverse order. Most Business class airfares out of Australia cost around AUD$6800. If you book as I have just done the same trip in the reverse order it will cost just over AUD$3486. Thats a saving of AUD$3300 

There are several reasons for picking these routes. firstly I wanted to travel on several aircraft types and this booking covers the A380, B787 & A350. I'm also looking forward to spending time at the bar on the A380...

Now all that is needed is to get to Europe to meet the flight.

So far it's looking like a oneway fare to Asia to meet a LifeMiles award flight to Copenhagen. This will work in nicely to catch a ship to Oslo, allowing me to finish a rail journey that I could not do last time due to a landslide on the Flam railway line.

For all those who are not aware or have not used airbnb : 

Their is an a component of the payment procedure which is unclear and can cost you unexpectedly. As you proceed though the process of making a booking and provide your credit card details you are never advised that the charge will be made in USA.

When searching the website for accommodation, in my case all rates where shown in Australian dollars. Airbnb has a physical presence in Australia so I wrongly assumed they would charge locally as well. They do not.  Most credit card providers attract an international transaction fee and you only find out once it has hit your account. It varies from bank to bank but in my case it was 3% of the transaction amount. If your intend on making several bookings this can add up to a free nights accommodation.!!!

I did write to airbnb and yes as they advised it is in there T's & C's - the usual small print that I don't read....Boo Hoo... 

If I were made aware I would have used a different credit card.

This one:

The 28 degrees MasterCard as it does not attract any foreign currency or international transaction fees by the provider. The best card for me to take travelling as well.

Cheers and Happy Travels 

Two point Five days in Melbourne 

A getaway from FNQ to indulge in a Food & Booze fix of the southern kind.

Found the airfare through Skyscanner which redirected to byojet
I'll revisit the deal on the next page

I forgot how fat the wallet has to be if you intend to eat out, possible every meal you are on the ground in a big city!! But hey it was worth it, I don't do it very often - so a little splurge is rather a pleasant experience

Arrived 4pm and towards the city we shall go. got into the CBD at about 6pm and people were hanging out of restaurant doors in every direction. No reservation, 40 min wait!! this says keep looking, so we did. 

Night 1 

Fantastic food, all we had was tapas size eats and for me the drink of the night was sherry.. Ah the desire to return to Spain has been reinforced 
Loved the buzz - great way to start a visit to Melvegas. The vibe of walking several block to get there because the wait at other places was to long just made the evening great....

Day 1

The 1st full day in the big city and I wanted to firstly try  Lune Croissanterie as a day starter and I heard the product was brilliant. Time for a coffee and croissant to start the day. The coffee was goodish and the croissant was underwhelming. They looked great!! I chose a filled croissant - it looked good on the outside so I purchased with my eyes. It was over filled and stodgy and you just could not taste the croissant. The venue was brilliant and I definitely would go back to try a plain croissant as they also looked fantastic, personally I just made a bad choice for me. Feeling fat and lardy it was back to our accommodation to then walk several Km's along the Maribynong River until ones belly felt better.   

Time for a coffee, next stop was The Boat House on The Maribynong, great view, great venue, great location :-: bad coffee..!! 

Now it's time to jump on a tram, Myki Card at the ready, No. 57 towards the city, a walk around a few streets then onto No. 1 to Port Melbourne weaving through the burbs to the waters edge and then a walk to St Kilda. A massive walk, longer than anticipated but a great way to get ready for the rest of the day. From here it was time to jump on a tram towards the city. Wrong tram it turned left but that put us near a pub called the Fifth Province. So what to do? walk in and have a glass of vino, seated street-side watching the people go by. 

I have an app on my phone called FourSquare and it popped up with Milk The Cow as 2nd best wine bar in Melbourne. It was about 4pm, great time to sit and eat light, which we did. a flight of 5 sparkling wines and 5 cheeses to match. Just Brilliant, they do all the work and select the combo and we get to taste some food and wine that we would normally not pick out. Highly recommend this place, the staff are great and have fantastic knowledge and the cheese selection is Ginormous... love it Love it 

Back on the tram heading towards the city, more walking once there and we head towards AC/DC Lane. We were smack on 6pm as we walked towards our chosen restaurant Pastuso. without a reservation ... yes they had a table only condition is we had to be gone by 8pm, easy. Peruvian food - guess what ?? Peru is now on my bucket list. More love.!!! food was really really good, great flavours and part of the menu is a Ceviche Bar. Overall we ate small, 5 plates to share and wine and walked out feeling very happy.

Its time to call it done for the day, jump on a tram and homeward bound.

Day 2

Last full day - so lets eat and drink some more..!!!

Breakfast at Mama Bear was fantastic. I said that I would only have coffee this morning to save ones belly for the rest of the day BUT the menu was to good looking!! I weakened and had a massive breakfast. Great coffee, great food and a must go to in Ascot Vale. Oh hale to the hipsters love this place.

More walking for more Km's to prepare for the rest of the day and lesson the impact of breakfast.!!!

Next: Mkyi Card at the ready - tram to the city and then outward bound to Richmond for lunch at Bouzy Rouge (mmm 3pm so just a bite) - 2 glasses of wine and a couple of Tapas. YUM Croqueta's were SO tasty..!!! This place is so groovy and I want to come back. The fit-out of the interior is so good - love it....  

More walking the on a tram back to the city 

Embla was the place for a drink once we got to the city. Talk a load off the feet!!! the wine list was really interesting. 1 glass and onwards

Bomba was were we could not get into on the 1st night - but we did get a seat at the bar as we were so early.  The food and wine was GREAT, the aged Jamón was so good and I again had a sherry or two to have with the tapas.

Out the door in a hour and a bit and on a walk to Hardware Lane. We were told about a new Bar called the French Salon which is located above Kirk's wine bar. Closed on Saturday nights Booo Hooo. Until next time..!!! So we had a glass of Champagne at Kirk's wine bar which is a really nice place to sit and people watch.

Tram time - burbs bound towards Union Road, Ascot Vale to get off and try another Spanish restaurant : Arcadia 

Really nice and lucky we got a table. It's a family run restaurant serving traditional home style food. Nothing tricky on the plate just good Spanish tapas. Busy busy and loads of families enjoying the place. As I said really good food and just a nice place to go close to home.

Last Morning

Time for one more outing before heading to the airport. Back to Union Street in Ascot Vale for coffee at Little Byrd. Ye Ha - This coffee was really good - had to have a 2nd and then 3rd before heading out the door very happy.

This is about being keen2travel as an envelope across Australia

Well not across Australia, a little hop from Cairns, Queensland to Sydney, New South Wales using our beloved national postal service Australia Post.

I received the  letter as returned only a few days ago. Take a look at the postmarks...!!

Postmarked as sent 01 AUGUST 2012 postmarked as returned 23 FEBRUARY 2016 

- That's over 1,200 days to NOT deliver. 

+Australia Post truly delivering a service that takes so long you do forget 

#australiaconnected 

Hashira Cafe & Deli

If you are in Narita Japan this is a great little cafe to go to. It would be one of the few places I would definitely have a coffee - they make it and they make them good.

Lunch is also great, they have a little deli cabinet to choose you lunch set from, always an interesting and makes it hard to decide. But you get there in the end and enjoy this cafe hidden on a side street really close to the JR Narita train station.

Matcha or Coffee

what will it be

Matcha for me this time

This is where to find them

http://hashiracafe.com

https://goo.gl/maps/jkn77cPBtHA2

Street address	Narita, Chiba Prefecture Hanazaki cho 839-30
Nearest station	JR Narita Station / Keisei Narita Station
Directions to	JR Narita Station than a 1-minute walk  from the 2-minute walk Keisei Narita Station  to the east exit of the Rotary of JR There are alternating.  It is a short around the way of that aside.
phone number	0476-22-0789
business hours	7:00 to 19:00

Planning a trip to Japan

Way back in June Jetstar had airfares out for about A$500 return which included checked luggage and credit card fee. A short think, I like Japan - People, food, culture & countryside, I took up this offer. Part of the catalyst was I always tell my mother about this country and whats there and she seems to always hear about it and that's as far as it goes. My farther has no interest in going, a quick decision and a ticket was purchased. The stars must have aligned as cheap fares from Adelaide to Cairns also came up so that go mother to Cairns for the little adventure at a good price as well.

I travel independently but in the last few years I also do it well organised - all accommodation and travel is prearranged and booked before I leave. So when we get to our destination there is no time deciding where and when to stay saving a hugh amount of time particularly if your time is limited.

  

We were set to travel in November. All internal accommodation is booked  mostly Ryokans some with Onsens (one of those little pleasures, I look forward to in Japan). some with meal plans (breakfast and dinner). These Ryokans are small and family run so real Japanese home cooking. 

I used this website to plan all train travel :  http://www.hyperdia.com. And it is a brilliant tool. I worked out the cost of all travel we would do including reservations and I found that it was nearly the same as a 7 day ordinary JR Pass. 

  

So I decided to buy the passes as this must be done before you enter Japan and you must have a voucher to exchange for the pass when you enter Japan. So I did my hunt around the web to find the best priced authorized agent to buy the pass from. The price quoted on the official Japan Rail Website was 29,110 YEN which is about A$332.00 per pass. the company I eventually purchased from was : http://www.japan-rail-pass.com

A UK based company, the passes are sent via FedEx International Priority and so far the purchase system and delivery is running seamlessly. The passes have boarded a plane in 

26 OCTOBER : ROISSY CHARLES DE GAULLE CEDEX, FRANCE

and they are on there way..
27 OCTOBER : 5:12 pm - In transit - DUBAI AE
28 OCTOBER : 11;23 pm - Shipment released - ALEXANDRIA AU

Attempted delivery 1 November by Startrack 
which was not really attempted just carded as I was at home all day.!!!
Australia Post are so UN reliable & UN trustworthy

A trip to the local post office on 2 November to collect 
Great service until FEDEX gave it to STARTRACK
The postage was FREE but the service provided was suppose to be premium door to door

Free delivery, JR map, timetable & travel guide

All this for A$330 per pass

When I have them in my hand I will update this blog

  

Email from InsideFlyer This is the email I received recently to clarify the confusion that came from the Lifemiles Website AND The best thing that came with this is the price. I logged into LifeMiles and found that the price per 1,000 miles to purchase was US$33 NOT US$38.94  My lifeMiles membership is based in Australia On todays exchange rate US$33 cost AU$45 per 1,000 miles you purchase but with the bonus miles you get 2,500 so the real cost per 1,000 is AU$18 And I think the 1st trip I will take is with ANA Sydney to Tokyo on there 787 and do it Business Class of course Cheers and happy travelling LifeMiles Update.   * Elimination of the 24-hour purchase rule and an extension of the date to register by. Greetings and thank you for your early support of the relaunch of Milepoint >> InsideFlyer. It seems you like what we are doing for our members so please encourage us to do more. There was some confusing instructions for this program at its beginning and for those of you who clicked to the LifeMiles website, you know that the confusion started there ... we were just the messengers! SO, InsideFlyer worked almost all day on Monday to negotiation some better terms for ours members. Effective immediately LifeMiles has agreed to rescind the 24-hour purchase rule. This means that you will have until October 12 to pay for the miles you are interested in. This is a bonus for members like me that are waiting for the loan papers at the bank to come through to pay for these miles. AND we have more good news. We were able to get an extension of the date for which you have to register with us for this promotion. Initially they wanted us to only make available registration for two days. We argued the point that with all that was going on with the relaunch that we thought it fair to have a total of four days which they finally agreed to and now we have been able to get them to six days. If you know a member (or a fellow traveler >> this is your time to be a best friend to someone) who was on the fence for purchasing these miles, please let them know that through Thursday they can register with us to purchase LifeMiles and still be eligible for the discounted Star Alliance partner awards. For your patience, things got better for you. As for payment, once LifeMiles has you in their system as registered by InsideFlyer (we send files twice a day to LifeMiles), they will contact you with confirmation and payment instructions. InsideFlyer does not get involved in that part of the promotion. We hope this helps clarify and update a few things for you. As always, we stand by to assist you and feel free to contact us at any time about any thing. You can contact us HERE. Sincerely, the founders and the members of InsideFlyer

What would you do ?

Stay a night in Cairns or catch a cab from Cairns Northern Beaches (Clifton Beach) to the CBD?

In my case it's $5 difference

and thats staying as the Rydges Tradewinds 

$155 for the night

Hey it's like a mini holiday and only 15 minutes away... Make a night out of it. Get there early check-in take a walk and revisit the place you live in, grab a drink on the way, and then got to a show. It's finished now but what a show..!!!

 I had been before in late August and just had to go again because this cabaret was truly brilliant and loads of fun. Entertainment the way it should be - sitting with people you don't know, having a laugh, watching and feeling like you are part of the show, seeing something exceptionally good. The man, Jason Coleman made this show happen from getting his hands on a fabulous tent : The Spiegel Zelt. In itself it was so good to see.

Dinner was at :

Vivaldis Restaurant

Upstairs at Mantra Esplanade

53/57 Esplanade, Cairns Qld

Location & Setting :  Hidden away up a small set of stairs - we people in Cairns need to learn from the bigger cities explore up those stairs and find something great..!!! This place has only been open under this name for 4 months. The location is great, just far enough away from the busy strip of the esplanade. Nice and cozy restaurant - just go there. 

Food  / Menu : A nice sized menu - I easily had my decision made with one scan of them menu. With a second lined up for the next visit. Yep that good.....
Drinks : Rymill gt (Dry Gewurtztraminer) good commentary on this wine by the wait staff, and they were spot on
Special : Location, Size & Setting of the restaurant

Service : It was a quiet night for the restaurant, they should be busy, they deserve to be busy. The waiter was just brilliant, he knew his job, knew his wine, knew his food and most importunity provided quality service.He knew when to be at the table and knew when to engage in conversation. A professional art that is lost in a lot of places. 

The show :  Click here --->>>> This was my blurb earlier on 

Are you an 4WD owner?

 who doesn't use it as it should be used?

 Like Me...

4WD should spend time in the dirt

I bought a 4WD with the view that I was going to make use of its capabilities and go off road.  Ye ha : first  test drive was short trip from Mount Garnet to Irvinebank (click to se the map).

Great 1st adventure!!! - a few KM's out of Irvinebank and crossing a dry river bed we hit a road and busted and bent the underside of the new 3 month old 4WD. Got  to Irvinebank had lunch got back in the truck and limped home to Ravenshoe. Rang the insurance company and they said it would be uplifted to be repaired and 4 weeks later it returned. 

Thats the best it's done as a 4WD in its 8 year life now a mature aged truck.

It nearly became a so-called Toorak tractor, unknown to dirt roads, from a suburban residential area.

Recently it took an excursion from Cairns northern beaches to Hughenden via Mount Garnet on the Kennedy development road (click to see the map) with real dirt roads...

Great trip, the 4WD made it work. I Made a booking at the Hughenden Allen Terry Caravan Park and asked the manger the best way to get there and he said he does Hughenden to Innisfail via the Kennedy development road and it takes them 6 hours as long as you keep a good pace!! 

So we did just that and kept our average speed around 80 km's per hour or better and did the trip in just over 7:30 hrs from Trinity Beach to Hughenden. It did involve getting off the road completely when a road train was coming at you and coming to an near stop. The dirt roads are very bumpy with soft edges and when transiting between dirt and bitumen it can come with a Hugh thump and then the occasional corrugation and buffeting a little sideways. 

But the Dogs loved it....    

There were travelers attempting this road with a normal sedan pulling a caravan or camper vans ... !! Good luck to them - I would expect that if they had crockery and it wasn't stuck down there could be issues.

The two main shires we drove through were Etheridge and Flinders and you could tell as soon as you drove out of one and into the other. Flinders shire roads were well maintained particularly the dirt roads were much better and the verges were cleared well back so you were able to see if ROO's were about to cross. 

Big day of traveling :

The trip back 3 days later we decided to clock every piece of dirt to see how many Km's of fun were had..!! 0 to 73 km's got us from Hughenden to the 1st section of dirt road and then the dirt went like this .. with a total of 100 km in total. 

On Dirt - Off Dirt

73-86

108-113

116-124

130-149

164-174

177-182

187-210

218-229

239-245

On the way back we made one stop before lunch at Bundock Creek to give the dogs a swim

There was a pretty special memorial in Hughenden that you should take you dog to  

What makes this road fantastic : There was so little traffic

Great drive - Great fun 

Life Miles are back

Buy miles and receive up to 135% bonus

Yep - just got my email today and did a quick calculation : If I were to buy 150,000 LifeMiles I would get an additional 202,500 LifeMiles totaling 352,5000. This is at a cost of USD$33 per 1,000 block. Working on todays conversion from USA to AUD that is about AUD$20 per 1,000 block over the entire 352,500.  

Now that would get you 4 return trips on ANA's band new 787 from Brisbane to Tokyo in Business Class.

The only critical criteria is the following:

Applies only to members enrolled in the program prior to September 7th, 2015.

If you miss out this time join up, it's FREE and hope they do it again. This is the most bonus miles I've seen since I have been a member and it certainly helps with the Oz dollar buying US dollars right now. 

Click Me : This takes you to a page that shows how I have used Life Miles so far 

Ladies and Gentlemen

may I present to you

A performance I saw last night in Cairns as part of #cairnsfest

Performed in the "Speigel Zelt" tent by the lagoon in Cairns.

 A brilliant show 

It was a cabaret show put on by exceptionally talented bunch of entertainers with great voices and dance moves to match. The core of the show was the history of the tent itself "Spiegel Zelt" a 95 yr old amazing tent. A choreographed, singing, dancing & trapeze show. Brilliant Brilliant one of the best thing I've seen for years. So much fun to be had.... The Choreographer was Jason Coleman, One of the best at what he does. It was a wildly entertaining show.

Oh Yeh this show was so good I am going back to see it again..

Don't be shy - if you are going to go get in line at the door and make sure you sit in the front row by the stage. this makes the show that much more exhilarating.

twitter.com/dancejudgejason  

facebook.com/Spiegelicious

All I can say is "JUST GO"

#Spiegelicious was delicious 

A must see cabaret at #cairnsfest BRILLIANT