"Hi there!" chizz's Profile

Age 41, married to Richard with no kids. Love travel (and collecting fridge magnets wherever I go), photography, eating out, chocolate and cinema.
Was born and went to school in the UK and got a university degree in Spanish and Latin American Studies. Have done many jobs in my time from student jobs in Burger King and in pubs to Cabin Crew, Admin Worker, English Teacher and Holiday Rep after completing my studies.
Lived in Mexico City and Cancun for 7 years, Sydney, Australia for a year due to my husband's job, Kuwait for a year (again due to my husband's job), Dubai for 4 years and am now in Doha, Qatar. Have traveled quite a bit around the world, but have only gone digital in the last few years, hence I don't have the majority of my photos in digital format. Went back to the UK in August, 2008 and hunted out some of the old travel photos, so have just started to scan a few of them into the computer!!! It's hard to remember all the tip info though from years ago, so will just have to be a brief outline of my trips....
Aim to keep traveling around the world until both me and my husband get fed up and then we'll probably go back to live in the UK - (hopefully when we are close to retirement age!).

Church of the Spilled Blood - St. Petersburg

1. Baltic Cruise: Brugges, Tallinn, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Warnemunde, Copehagen & Oslo
2. Kuwait
3. Muscat & surrounds, Oman
4. Dubai
5. Abu Dhabi
6. Bahrain
7. Al Ain
8. Sharm el Sheikh
9. Jordan

Geisha - Tokyo - 2005

1. Syria
2. Salalah, Oman
3. UK

Smiling Local lady - Vietnam

1. Vietnam
2. Cambodia
3. Kuala Lumpur
4. Delhi, Agra & Jaipur
5. UK - home, Cotswolds, Worcester and the Lake District.
6. Egypt - Cairo, sights on Nile Cruise, Abu Simbel, etc

Richard and I in Phuket - Thailand - 2004

1. Sri Lanka
2. New York/Las Vegas/UK
3. Lebanon

2010 Trips:

1. Singapore and Indonesia - June 2010
2. Nepal - Nov 2010

2011 Trips:

1. UK/Slovenia - Ljubljana and surrounds - Feb 2011
2. Madrid, Valencia (for Las Fallas), Barcelona and La Manga - March 2011
3. Istanbul - June 2011
4. Maldives - Lily Beach Resort and Spa - Dec 2011

2012 Trips:

1. Myanmar (Burma) - March 2012
2. UK/Switzerland - Aug 2012 (booked)

Me on the Great Wall of China - 2005

1. Sri Lanka (done)
2. Iran
3. Peru
4. Lebanon (done)
5. Valencia, Spain (done)
6. Turkey (done Istanbul so far)
7. Morocco
8. Slovenia (done)
9. Nepal (done)
10. Antarctica
11. New York (done)
12. Maldives (done!)
Plus a hundred or so more places!!!

Best trips so far

1. Vietnam
2. Cambodia
3. Mexico
4. Australia
5. New Zealand

Me on ostrich - Outshoorn - South Africa - 2006

1. Emirates (Dubai, U.A.E.) - *** and a half. Mix of good/not so good planes. Nice food. Ok leg room - not good on older planes. Good entertainment on newer planes.
2. Etihad Airways (Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.) - *** and a half. New planes. Good leg room. Good food.
3. Qatar Airways (Qatar) - *** and a half. Good leg room. Nice food. Good entertainment.
4. Jazeera Airways (Kuwait) - ****. My favourite budget airline. Leather seats. Good leg room. Good routes. Good prices.
5. Oman Air (Oman) - ***. A bit shabby with older planes. Route timings not good.
6. Malaysia Airlines (Malaysia) - ***. Not much leg room. Shabby planes. Good prices though!
7. Korean Air (Korea) - ***. Worst food I've had! Ok. Cheaper fares.
8. British Airways (UK) - ***. Snobby staff on occasion. Clean planes, Good food. Not much entertainment. Only airline EVER to charge me excess baggage (as a poor student!!).
9. Easyjet (UK) - ***. Nice budget airline. Good leg room. Variety of routes. Sometimes late!
10. Ryanair (Ireland) - ** and a half. Ok budget airline. Cheap. Ok Leg room.
11. Thai Airways (Thailand) - ****. My favourite so far. Lovely staff. Nice food. Good leg room. Good entertainment. Orchid on departure.
12. Air 2000 (UK) - ** and a half. Ok holiday airline. Bad food - made me ill.
13. Monarch Airlines (UK) - ***. Worked for them! Nice food. Lots of service. Leg room is ok.
14. Thomas Cook Airlines (UK) - ** and a half. Leg room minimal. OK.
15. Wardair Canada (Canada) - ***. Now defunct airline. Remember it was good flight.
16. Gulf Air (Bahrain) - ***. Not bad.
17. VASP (Brazil) - ***. Good leg room. Nice food.
18. Aeromexico/Aerolitoral (Mexico) - *** and a half. Good leg room. Nice food.
19. Continental Airlines (USA) - ***. Rude staff and old staff. OK
20. All Nippon Airways (ANA) (Japan) - ****. Good staff and service. Good entertainment and good leg room. Clean planes.
21. Air China (China) - ** and a half. Old. shabby planes. Ok service and food. Leg room ok.
22. Allegro (Mexico) - ***. Cheap and cheerful, snack on board, leg room good.
23. Taesa (Mexico) - ***. Cheap and cheerful, snack on board, leg room good.
24. Virgin Blue (Australia) - *** and a half. Cheap, nice staff.
25. Air New Zealand (NZ) - ** and a half. Rude staff and shabby planes.
26. Dan Air (UK) - Taken over by BA in 1993 - ** and a half. Holiday flight. OK
27. EgyptAir (Egypt) - ** and a half. Just OK, nothing special. Food not too good and planes a bit shabby. Entertainment choices are bad.
28. Air Arabia (Sharjah, U.A.E.) - ***and a half. Quite good for a budget airline. Late taking off, hanging around in bus on tarmac. Snacks to buy onboard which were ok. No good entertainment.
29. United Airlines(USA) - ***. Nice flight, but not good choice of entertainment.
30. American Airlines (USA) - **and a half. Old plane, food ok, not good entertainment.
31. Lufthansa (Germany) - ***and a half. Lots of service, nice staff, food ok, not much entertainment.
32. Fly Dubai (Dubai, U.A.E.) - ***. Newest budget airline here in Dubai. Quite cramped with limited luggage space. No entertainment. Paid food. Paid hold baggage. Few destinations at present. Great price! Would use them again.
33. Buddha Air (Nepal) - ***Small plane for Everest Flight. Bigger plane for return from Chitwan (Bharatpur) to Kathmandu - only 20 min flight time, so no meals or entertainment. Plane clean and staff professional.
34. Virgin Atlantic (UK) - ***and a half. Nice, clean plane, great selection of movies on demand. Food not bad, Staff pleasant enough. Leg room not great, amenity kits not great and breakfast was a brownie (expected a bit more to eat!).

Whirling Dervish - Damascus, Syria

35. Turkish Airlines (Turkey) - ***. Clean planes, food ok. Entertainment not very good depending on the plane you get - some have 1 movie showing on a drop down screen, others have on demand movies. Staff quite abrupt, pax allowed too much hand luggage, so no room in overhead bins.
36. Spanair(Spain) - *** and a half. Budget airline - got a very good price from Alicante to Barcelona. Oldish plane. No entertainment as I recall. Overhead bin space very limited. Food sold on board. Great that you don't have to pay for hold luggage like most of the budget airlines today. Would recommend for a short flight.