Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Travel notes to the land Down Under…

After waiting for an eternity (actually its plus minus half an hour) at Sydney, we decided to report the delayed baggage as we do need to catch a connecting flight to Canberra. Tried my best to describe the bag, and after being assured it will be looked into,  were given a reference number.

We then make our way by bus to the domestic terminal, (its quite a distance away) but little do we know that actually there are two different domestic terminal which caters to different numbered flight. Went to T2, but were told that our flight is at T3. WTF!! Our flight is slightly more than an  hour away. Luckily its just within a walking distance. Phew!!

DSC07933Nick hazard a guess that most probably we will be flying a 737 to Canberra, but I told him that we might be flying in a turboprop ( I checked early on) and rightly so, we are on a turboprop. A DHC-8. At least a turboprop will fly much, much lower than a jet plane, so it could mean more photo opportunity :)

Canberra is not unlike Putrajaya to us, as its the administrative capital of Australia. Surprisingly, it has no international airport. Nick commented that the airport at his hometown, Nelson (pop:50K) is about the same size. To put it into perspective, one of our domestic airport are bigger than Canberra (International) airport. Really.

The crew (minus one bag of course) checks in at our accommodation which is equipped with a kitchenette. So, what else, the three of us raid the supermarket afterwards, which is conveniently located at the back of our apartment. Sweet. It is made sweeter by free wi-fi available so me and my mate (hehe) could be online all day long.

Did a web check on my delayed/missing luggage (yup, you could do that). but it is yet to be located. Hmm…

Monday, September 21, 2009

It has to happen sometimes…

As I was writing this, I am at the Sydney Terminal 3, waiting for my flight to Canberra. It has been a hectic travel day for me as I have been travelling since 11am yesterday, driving more than 400km and to catch my 2210hrs flight to Sydney.

Make good time and reach KLIA well in time for boarding. Have dinner and board the plane as scheduled. The flight is surprisingly full but we make good time as the strong tailwind works to our favor and we are scheduled to reach Sydney 50 minutes early.

We are early, so we taxied to another part of the terminal and ferried by bus.  The immigration was a breeze, but as I next prepare to declare the existence of some food items in my checked baggage to AQIS, lo and behold, it happen…

My bag was nowhere to be found.

To be continued…

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A different kind of Eid

This year would be a different Aidilfitri altogether.

I would be in Australia for basically a Computer Science in Sport Symposium during the Aidilfitri holidays.  Will be flying off to Sydney and then onto Canberra on the first day of Aidilfitri itself so it leave me with a limited time to actually celebrate Eid.

On one hand, it would be different (read: difficult) to be away during the celebration but on the other hand, I relish the opportunity to pick on the brains of experts in computer/sports/mathematics/medical field.

So, I am taking this opportunity to wish all my dear family and friends, SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI, MAAF ZAHIR BATIN :)

How do Computer Science in Sports works? That would be another story altogether, huhuhu…