Travel Tips

I've had mileage points that were expiring in the coming months, so I decided to utilise them for the round the world trip, that will take a bulk of the points. Why not? Since the redemption allows you to stop by 7 cities of the world when you just have to pay about 750USD for taxes only? :)

It took me many months to plan it proper. I am a meticulous person when it comes to planning the entire trip in detail, as I've no one to rely on on the entire trip. Intended to have the trip on July, but stalled it to October cos since the flights are so many, there is a high probability half of them are fully booked when you are booking just 1.5 months ahead. So i took it really slow and planned it 4 months ahead. Unfortunately i had to add some more additional flights of my own since some of the destinations are not covered under the Star Alliance network, but these were necessary and it was definitely worth it.

That lead me to have ample time to research on the individual cities and map out how much money i need for each city so i dont have too much excesses. Co-incidentally, not any 2 cities i'll visit are using the same currency.

I managed to hit the following UNESCO sites on this trip:

Russia - Ensemble of the Novodevichy Convent
Russia - Church of the Ascension, Kolomenskoye
Russia - Kremlin and Red Square, Moscow
Poland - Historic Centre of Warsaw
United Kingdom - Maritime Greenwich
United Kingdom - Tower of London
United Kingdom - City of Bath
United Kingdom - Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites
United Kingdom - Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
United Kingdom - Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church
Portugal - Cultural Landscape of Sintra
Portugal - Monastery of the Hieronymites and Tower of Belém in Lisbon
Argentina - Iguazu National Park
Brazil - Iguaçu National Park
USA - Statue of Liberty
Mexico - Central University City Campus of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM)
Mexico - Luis Barragán House and Studio
Mexico - Pre-Hispanic City of Teotihuacan
Mexico - Historic Centre of Mexico City and Xochimilco

San Francisco was a long transit stop for me after departing from Singapore then to HK for a very short transit. The SFO transit was really long, for 15 hours! Tried to get some sleep at the airport and then ventured out to the Golden Gate bridge! :)

The actual first stop is Mexico City. There was quite a lot to do here and I coupled it with a day trip to Teotihuacan! Magnificent ancient site!

Duration: 3 days

Wow I've never been to the Big Apple, So this trip just have to include this magnificent city! Spent 5 days there but it's definitely not enough. But i did cover all the major museums and attractions there, just though it did feel a little tight for time for everything else. Will sure swing by NYC in the future! :D

Duration: 5 days

IGUACU / IGUAZU falls (Brazil and Argentina)

This leg was planned outside the RTW ticket. I just flew into Sao Paulo and managed the trip on a different airline. It was definitely definitely worth the hassle and money to fly here. It just a wonder of nature YOU HAVE TO SEE IT WITH YOUR OWN EYES!... Especially the Argentinian side. :D If you make the trip here, do the brazilian side first then do the Argentinian side. Definitely the best stop of my entire RTW trip.

Duration: 2 days

RIO DE JANEIRO

While in Brazil, one must stop by Rio right? For sure I will not give this place a miss since I'm from the other side of the world. There are many people who've heard about how famous the beaches are: and in fact this is true. To me this is the beaches with the most hotbods around! If you dont have a good body like me you'd definitely not want to go topless! hahahaha.. Fantastic views of the city from Christ the redeemer. The only thing i didnt manage to do is to go up Sugar Loaf mountain and will certainly do that the next time ( if i ever did in this lifetime).. Hahaha.. The city's crime ridden record was something not really comforting for me as I was alone and it wasnt easy to find friends to click along as everyone already had their own groupie.. Hence the reason i planned only 2.5 days for this city I'll return here with a bud!

Duration: 2.5 days

Portugal's Lisbon is a city I've never been yet to in Europe so this was a good chance to pass by there. It's my honest opinion when I got to Lisbon airport it feels like it's so systematic and Portugal is surprisingly very efficient in it's transport systems.

Took a daytrip out to Sintra out of Lisbon where some castles are located in the hilly areas. Another delightful place.

Duration: 2 days

I've travelled to many destinations in Europe, but somehow shy of visiting UK cos it's very well known of the high prices everywhere, and also UK is not connected by land so it's not really easy to make a trip with an adjacent country, which i like to do when covering extensively in a region.

Boy did my eyes really opened wide when i got there. Hahahaha.. I thought i'd be ready for extreme prices but i was not Hahahaha.. Well all in all the people in UK are very hospitable indeed to each other, something i've noticed is not so prevalent in mega cities around the world.

I made a day trip out to Salisbury, Stonehenge and Bath to cover as much as I can while still in UK.

Met an old friend for the last 2 days who showed me around and had a blast! :D :D :D

Duration: 4.5 days

Warsaw was the shortest stay in entire trip. This is due to that I predicted that I wont be needing to much time here by looking at the size of the city (thank goodness for Google Earth!). I arrived in the late afternoon when the sun had set, which i managed to get night shots and then hit out again to the same old town areas in the early morning to have more shots. Somehow got bugged by the few locals here who are not so open to having tourists around. But I didnt let this hamper me. The Oki Doki hostel is a very nicely done up place! :D

Duration: 1 day

Moscow was also one of the places that I been on my lists to visit, well known for their unique architecture.

After being "welcomed" by the "nice" russian immigration officer at the airport, luckily i didnt have anymore rude awakenings. Generally people in Russia aren't that warmed up to foreigners yet, so i kinda got used to the mentality they have by the end of the trip in Russia. I can count the number of times with one hand how many people that i've met that returned my smiles. But this is a VERY LARGE federation of countries so it won't hit you how humungous Russia is until you are in it! :D I met a nice Russian girl at the hostel who studied in London, who shared a few insights about russia which made me understand a little about her country.

Nonetheless, Russian architecture and arts are something out in a class of their own!

Duration 3 days

Flew back home to Singapore via Dubai and it was bitter sweet to end the trip......................................