sydney

Back Breaking Baggage

Posted on by Bigglesan

I was browsing through my Google stats and noticed that someone visited my site after looking up “baggage limit in china airlines Sydney”. Wow, what a bizarre search to return my website I thought.

Of course I do have an article talking about my experiences flying China Eastern Airlines. So obviously there’s a link, but what I find amusing, in my own quirky way, is that it made me think of the back breaking load I subjected myself (and the airline staff) to.

China Eastern Airlines has a maximum baggage weight of 20kgs for economy class travellers. When my bag was weighed on departure it came in at a whopping 31kgs! The check-in assistant didn’t blink an eye, she simple slipped a ‘Heavy, 2 person lift’ tag on it and sent it on it’s way to give some poor baggage handler a hernia. I was, quite naturally, relieved at not being asked to pay an excess baggage fee.

Returning from France I topped that even, with 32kgs! My carry on luggage luckily wasn’t weighed, because I estimated that to be about 25kgs all up as well. With camera, books, laptop and leather coat etc.

Did I get lucky? or are Chinese airlines a bit more relaxed about these things? perhaps it was the fact that on each and every leg of my trip the planes weren’t full. So they had a bit of extra capacity. Anyway, there you go. To the person that was wondering about weight limits, I hope this gives you an answer, albeit not an official one. if you want to check out their actual site and I realkly think they’re a fine airline to fly with, go here: http://www.flychinaeastern.com/ or here: http://www.ce-air.com/cea2/en_US/homepage

Leaving Sydney

Posted on by Bigglesan



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Originally uploaded by Gomisan

OK, I’m finally catching up on some blogging. Only a week late!

In my last post I was on King St Sydney and about to meet up with Nina and friends for dinner.

Well Megan had dropped me in town and I wandered down towards King St, stopping by a number of shops on the way. Gallery Serpentine, Reactor Rubber. Then on King St Istarted spending money, first at Slim’s Vintage, then at Faster Pussycat. Both great little shops, and to be honest if I’d been there earlier in the day, and it hadn’t been cold and raining I would have explored more shops and probably been broke before I even left Australia.

Dinner was at Cicciolina ( http://www.cicciolina.com.au/ ) and it was FANTASTIC! I had the Seafood Hotpot and it was just mouth wateringly to die for. Fresh water scampi, king prawns, black mussels, calamari, fish fillet, garlic, chilli in a basil tomato sauce. If you are in Sydney, and get a chance don’t miss it.

After dinner we drank cocktails at a cool cocktail bar across the road whose name escapes me. But suffice to say they were damn nice too and I sucked down quite a few.

All this left me with a bit of a hangover as I boarded my flight to Shanghai. I’ve posted a pic from the plane. Pretty much standard fare I guess, if maybe a bit less sophisticated than Malaysian Airlines. But I gather China Eastern Airlines are one of the biggest chinese airlines so I wasn’t too fussed.

I must say the food on the flight to Shanghai was actually really good, and the flight attendants friendly. The plane was mostly filled with Chinese heading home and the whole atmosphere on the plane was good. I was lucky and had 2 seats to myself, which gave me room to stretch and get some sleep. Something that was appreciated also was the inflight callisthenics that they did as the flight grew near an end. I woke from a half sleep to see almost everyone on board waving arms about in unison, and I quickly joined in. The difference it made to my stiff tired joints was miraculous!

Anyway, I’ll leave it there. My next blog will continue from Shanghai airport. I’ll try and get it written after dinner.

Sydney

Posted on by Bigglesan



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Originally uploaded by Gomisan

Ok, so this has to be one he most photographed landmarks in the world. But it is very photogenic, so I haven’t been able to resist. I took this Sunday when I was wandering about with my cousin Megan.

We’d just been to an Aroma & Spice festival, lots of coffee, tea, spices etc. The Sydney crowds were so huge though that it was pointless even trying to get a taste of anything. We ended up meeting up with friends of Megan’s and went to a bar for drinks instead.

It was the Harbour Bar, part of the Park Hyatt I think, a bit pricey, but nice and comfortable. Good to meet new people, Tammy, and Paul, who it turns out was the drummer for Icehouse and plays with Sneaky Sound System and a few other names who I’ve quickly forgotten.

I’ve been kept busy here. Helping Megan bumping in & out a show at The Shangri La where she was donating her time and displays to promote her business to the hotel industry (it was an industry function). Lot’s of walking about Sydney too, though without much money to spend I can’t exactly enjoy all the shops 🙂

Anyway, that’s enough for today. I’ll post another blog when I’ve uploaded some more photos. Go check out my Flickr page there’s more shots of the Opera House. LOL.