February and March 2015 trip to Japan, Malaysia, Australia, Vietnam and Hong Kong

Introduction
Welcome to yet another, probably fruitless, attempt at keeping a blog going during one of our long trips abroad. Some people who read this may know that I have tried this before, but a combination of poor internet and having better things to do whilst we are visiting fabulous parts of the world, have meant that the blog has fizzled out long before we have started the homeward leg of the trip.

However, I will try again and see how it goes. The main purpose of this trip is to go and watch England in the Cricket World Cup – which we will hopefully be doing at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on 14th February.  It is a long way to go for one cricket match, so after some discussion we decided to ‘make a trip of it’ by going via Japan on the way down and Vietnam on the way back. We are also pulling in another cricket match in Sydney and visiting lots of parts of Australia that we haven’t seen before.  Our previous trips have been pretty much confined to the cities of Perth, Melbourne and Sydney but this time we are hopefully going to get out into rural Australia – with a drive from Melbourne to Adelaide along The Great Ocean Road.   We are also flying up to Cairns / Port Douglas and hope to see The Great Barrier Reef.

As I say, this is our third trip Down Under since I retired, and on previous occasions we have always gone via Hong Kong. This time we fancied something different and wanted to visit new countries – our hand was then forced even more by Virgin Atlantic (our carrier of choice) cancelling their flights from Hong Kong to Sydney. So! After woe more debating, we booked business class air miles tickets on Virgin to Tokyo, and then returning from HKG, as soon as they became available at the 11 month mark. This was then followed by booking a variety of airlines during the subsequent months to make the itinerary detailed below .

Our dear friends at Virgin then complicated matters even further during the planning, by cancelling their Tokyo flights as well!! Hats off to them though – they very quickly, and apparently efficiently, re-booked us to ANA out of LHR on the same date, and kept us in Business Class, so there will be more new adventures on a Japanese Airline. The upside to this is that ANA fly into Haneda Airport, which is much closer to the city centre than Narita (the airport Virgin use). The slight downside is that the ANA flight doesn’t take off until 1930. The VS flight was due to leave at 1130, so we had booked a cheap (non-refundable) night at the Marriott on the Bath Road near Heathrow the night before we fly. Hence we are now faced with a day down there kicking our heels until the evening flight – Hey Ho! It could have been a LOT worse.

You will see below that we have ten flights over a five week period. Four of them are on Air Asia – not a problem until the tragedy of the crash of QZ8501, which disappeared on 28 December, having crashed into the Java Sea off Borneo. This meant a bit of worry, but more seriously it seems to have caused Air Asia to cut back a bit, and we got a text less than a month before travel saying that our flight from Osaka to KL had been cancelled for commercial reasons.  Cue more consternation and frustration trying to get switched to an alternative flight the following day. As I type, less than a week before departure, I think this is sorted but have yet to receive 100% confirmation.

The countdown is almost up – as I type this introduction I have a couple more days to work – there is a lot of snow out on the road outside which i am hoping will be gone by Wednesday when Chris takes us to Newark Northgate station.

I hope you enjoy this blog – please leave me a comment – either here or on Facebook, to let me know what you think of the trip, or to pass on any tips you may have for the places we are visiting. I am not promising that it will continue for the whole trip, or even how regular the updates will be. I will also try and finish the blog from the previous trips.

All the best

Nick & Sue.

The plan

This is a brief itinerary – acute observers will see that most things are booked to an almost military precision – others are just left blank so we can go with the flow and follow our noses a bit.

Wed 4 Feb             To Heathrow by train. Stay Heathrow Marriott.  Pheasant?
Thur 5 Feb            London to Tokyo Flight NH278 on ANA depart 1900 from T2
Fri 6 Feb               Arrive Tokyo Haneda 1555 stay for two nights at Marriott Courtyard at Tokyo Station.
Sat 7 Feb              Explore Tokyo        Courtyard Station.
Sun 8 Feb             Bullet train to Osaka. Approx 250 miles Two nights at Osaka                 Marriott
Mon 9 Feb            Explore Osaka                    Osaka Marriott
Tue 10 Feb            Day in Osaka stay at hotel to be decided.
Wed 11 Feb           Fly to Kuala Lumpur D7-533 depart 1100 arrive 1700. One night   booked   at JW Marriott.
Thur 12 Feb           Day in Kuala Lumpur  then fly overnight  to Melbourne.      Depart 2230 – Air Asia flight D7 214
Fri 13 Feb             Arrive Melbourne 0920 two nights Melbourne Marriott   Day in Melbourne.
Sat 14 Feb             England v Australia at the MCG         Melbourne Marriott
Sun 15 Feb             Pick up car (Thrifty) .  Head to  Adelaide.
Mon 16 Feb            Melbourne – Adelaide is approx 620 miles via Great Ocean Rd.
Tue 17 Feb
Wed 18 Feb
Thur 19 Feb            Arrive Adelaide ?
20 Feb                   Adelaide
Sat 21 Feb            Adelaide
Sun 22 Feb             Drop car Adelaide airport- Fly to Cairns – Early morning
Jetstar JQ960 0600-0830 Pick up car Great Barrier Reef.
Mon 23 Feb            Port Douglas?
Tue 24 Feb
Wed 25 Feb
Thur 26 Feb            Fly  Cairns – Sydney Jetstar JQ955 0910 – 1305
.                            Stay 5 nights Marriott Circular Quay
Fri 27 Feb            South Africa v West Indies at the SCG         Marriott CQ
Sat 28 Feb                                                                                Marriott CQ
Sun 1 Mar                                                                                 Marriott CQ
Mon 2 Mar                                                                                 Marriott CQ
Tue 3 Mar            Fly Air Asia Flight Sydney – KL D7 223 Dep 1155 Arr 1730
Stay at Tune Hotel at KLIA
Wed 4 Mar            Fly KLto Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Air Asia dep0910 Arr1000
.                             Booked into Marriott Renaissance Riverside.  2 nights
Thur 5 Mar            Explore Saigon                    Renaissance.
Fri 6 Mar             Fly to Ha Noi.     Jetstar flight BL796 1330 – 1530
.                             Hong Ngoc Dynastie hotel Hanoi
Sat 7 Mar            Overnight cruise on Emotion Luxury Cruiser out of                          Halong Bay
Sun 8 Mar            Return to Ha Noi about 1630 xfer to JW Marriott
Mon 9 Mar             Explore Ha Noi                                                                            JW Marriott
Tue 10 Mar            Fly Ha Noi – HKG on Vietnam Airlines. VN592  1040 -1330. Courtyard Hong Kong Sha Tin
Wed 11 Mar             Fly HKG – London Virgin Atlantic – depart 2335
Thur 12 Mar             Land London 0450 Revivals then catch train home.