Saturday, December 13, 2008

New Camera



After selling my old camera Sony F717 to my colleague, I bought a new Sony again 3 days ago – DSLR-A300K. Gosh… I look quite professional when it hangs on my neck though it was heavier.

I was thinking to buy a Canon or Nikon, but the price of the same spec costs 25% higher. I hope this new piece won’t disappoint me…

China Trip

Couldn’t sleep well on the first night (04-Dec-08) back home… too warm.

The next morning, I carried the big black round eye bags to the immigration to renew my passport. The photo was horrible… looks like an inmate.

This morning I have collected my China visa… YES!!!… I’m ready to explore China again. The first 7 days I will accompany my friends, hope they would have chance to experience snowing winter, and I can shoot the winter sceneries of Forbidden City and Great Wall with snow clad.

I will move to the south alone after departing with them. The route is not finalized yet… only a rough plan in mind. Will concentrate mostly on the minority tribes… which means I have to travel to the remote area, expecting less hygienic living environment, and the primitive toilet…

I will depart from GuangZhou on 13-Jan-09. Teddy, can we meet on 11 or 12-Jan?

Going Home (03-Dec-08)

The moment saying goodbye to colleagues was quite hard. The ladies cried too much… was contagious… my eyes were drenched too.

Back home, finally… the trip from Kyustendil till I arrived at home consumed 26 hrs… tiring.

The flight from Kyustendil to Frankfurt was fine. 2 Bulgarian seamen besides me had their mini fiesta on this 2.5 hr journey. They played music with their mobile phone and drained their half liter whiskey bought from the duty free shop (they ignored the warning given by the stewardess).

The flight from Frankfurt to Singapore was a disaster. Lufthansa was using the aging Boeing 747-400 for this 11.5 hr long flight. I was given the seat on the last row, which was against the wall and cannot be reclined. I had to sit straight up through out the journey. Worse there was no screen (entertainment) in front of me (unlike the Boeing 777 or the new Airbus 340), boring! And the flight was packed!!! I won’t choose Lufthansa for this route in future.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Birthday

Wow… this year I received many birthday greetings from family, friends and colleagues… no one could guess my age right except my secretary – she ordered a cake with writing on it reads “Happy 28th Birthday”.

Reputable Lufthansa

My flight back home on Wed is scheduled to have a stopover at Bangkok. Worrying the prolonged siege of Suvarnabhumi Airport would change the schedule, I asked my colleague to inquire further info from Lufthansa.

Surprisingly, the feedback was Lufthansa would divert the route to Phuket Island (Thailand) and assume no further responsibility to send me to the final destination Kuala Lumpur. They offer to reimburse my air-ticket if I’m not satisfied with this arrangement. What the heck’s this reply? It doesn’t sound like the reputable airline that I’m familiar with.

Probably I will change my flight to Singapore and purchase an additional ticket to Kuala Lumpur. This would be not so fine… because I have to collect my luggage and re-check-in again, and to pay overweight AGAIN!

In fact, the logo of Lufthansa has already given the hint “There’s no better way to fly.”