SKYTRAX World Airline Awards

Top 100 airlines for 2019. I've been on the following:

2, Singapore Airlines
3. ANA All Nippon Airways
4. Cathay Pacific Airways
6. EVA Air
10. Thai Airways
11. Japan Airlines
19. British Airways
23. Air France
31. Air Canada
33. Cathay Dragon
34. China Airlines
40. jetBlue Airways
47. Southwest Airlines
54. Alaska Airlines
68. United Airlines
74. American Airlines
84. American Eagle
99. Air China

I guess Sichuan Airlines didn't make the list.

The Toll Roads

My account with the Toll Road is on credit card autopay. I guess whatever credit card I used expired. Instead of notifying their customers like every other reputable business, the Toll Road decided to suspend my account, charge me a $20 fee, then call me on the phone to tell me to update my account. They have my credit card info on file and could have easily given me a few days notice to update my credit card info. Instead, they do nothing then charge their customers $20 for their neglect. Maybe some asshole in their finance department thought of this to scam $20 from their customers every few years. I wanted to switch to autopay from a bank account but of course, that's not an option. Since all credit cards have an expiration date so unless you go online each month to check whether or not the card expired, chances are you will get hit with the $20 fee again and again.

It would be interesting to see what % of their autopay customers get hit with this bullshit fee. I sent in a dispute since I did not receive notice prior to the fee. That sounds like basic customer service unless you are looking for additional revenue from fees. I don't expect them to give me my $20 back. If not, I am going to cancel my account and pay as you go in the future.

Migrationology

I've been watching a lot of YouTube lately and most of the views are related to street food. I found this one channel called Migrationology that has pretty good content. He also has a website with city guides on travel and food. The best part of the videos is his reaction when he eats something good. You have to watch to see.

He visits a lot of cities in Asia. There are series of videos for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, etc. I recognize some of the places he visits in Taipei, especially the night markets. Very cool.


First video in the Taiwan series

Abercrombie & Kent

Not the clothing retailer but a luxury tour company...

I couldn't sleep last night so I was browsing the available trips from Abercrombie & Kent. They advertise themselves as a luxury tour company and they're not kidding. Their flagship trip is a round-the-world by private jet where you fly around on a Boeing 757 with 50 first class seats. The trips are listed here. The trip next year is 26 days starting at $160,000 (double occupancy). Crazy!

They also have trips where they fly you between destinations on small chartered jets for about $35,000. They also have "normal" tour groups that are cheaper but still twice as expensive as similar trips on Trafalgar. Many many years ago, I went on a tour of Europe on Trafalgar. It was pretty cheap since it was mostly free time but the side excursions were pretty expensive.

Slow Train Through Africa

Since I can't travel anymore (health reasons), I've been watching travel videos on YouTube, mainly epic train journeys and first class air travel reviews. One notable series is Slow Train Through Africa. I think it was filmed in 2014 and shown on British ITV in 2016. I've only found three episodes online: 1) Namibia, 2) North Africa, and 3) Kenya/Tanzania. The second episode includes travel through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Those are not typical American tourist destinations and reminded me of my 2 week trip to Tunisia. I didn't take the train at all but did visit both Tunis and Tozeur shown in the video.


Slow Train Through Africa S01E02


My photo of one of the old gates of Tozeur

Asia Trip Day 11 - Taipei (November 2015)

Wednesday 11/4

First morning in Taipei. I found a Chinese breakfast place on the way to our first destination. Eating... this is the main reason to visit Taiwan.


First stop was a tour of the Presidential Palace. I registered online and we got a private tour in English. Our tour guide looked an office worker. He went to the same military college as my dad.


Shin Kong Life Tower, the 2nd tallest building in Taiwan after Taipei 101. Our Airbnb is next door to the building.


I researched a lot of beef noodle places in Taipei before the trip. My dad suggested we come to this place for lunch.


Yongkang Beef Noodle: the building is kind of ghetto but the food was good.


After lunch, we got some shaved ice at Smoothie House down the street


Nest stop, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall


The man himself


National Theater and Concert Hall


National Palace Museum. We had to meet my aunt for dinner so we were kind of rushed. We saw a few exhibits but didn't see the famous jade cabbage.


After dinner, we walked around Shilin night market

Asia Trip Day 10 - Osaka > Taipei (November 2015)

Tuesday 11/3

Another travel day, this time from Osaka to Taipei. Kansai airport is pretty far from Namba Station so we had to get up pretty early to catch our flight.


We took the 7am Rapit train to Kansai. It was designed to look like an anime character.


First ride in a 787 Dreamliner. The flight didn't feel any different but the large dimming windows were cool.

We arrived in Taipei and found our driver. I was going to take the high speed rail or an airport bus but decided on getting a van instead. Our driver's name was Double (as in 2x). We asked for an English-speaking driver but I ended up speaking Chinese the whole time. Like Japan, we stayed at an Airbnb near Taipei Station. The building was a commercial building so the "apartment" was kind of weird.


2/28 Peace Park


Longshan Temple


Waterfall inside temple grounds


The temple was pretty chaotic, very different from the temples in Kyoto


Afterwards, we walked several blocks to Modern Toilet, a bathroom themed restaurant. The food was so so but the kids wanted to eat here.




After dinner, we walked around Ximen for a bit, and bought some fresh shredded pork and pork jerky

Asia Trip Day 9 - Kyoto (November 2015)

Monday 11/2

Our final full day in Japan was spend visiting Kyoto. I had planned 3 or 4 stops and dinner in Kyoto but we ended up only seeing two temples and ate dinner back in Osaka.


Train ride from Osaka to Kyoto took about 45 minutes. This is the rapid (rapid express?) train on Keihan Railroad.


First stop: Kendonya udon restaurant


Yummy


Fushimi-Inari Shrine




Prayer gates


Deep-fried sweet potatos


Sanjusangendo Shrine. There were over 1000 buddha statues inside but we could not take any photos.


Dinner in a tiny one-man curry restaurant in Namba Station back in Osaka

Asia Trip Day 8 - Osaka (November 2015)

Sunday 11/1

We arrived in Osaka late Saturday night and was able to check-in to our Airbnb place without any problems. This apartment was a bit larger than the one in Tokyo, though it did not have a dinner table.

The next morning, we decided to skip Osaka Castle and headed to the Osaka Aquarium instead.


Hugh ferris wheel next to the aquarium


Aquarium exterior


Model of huge whale shark in the large tank inside the aquarium


We spent a long time in the aquarium. It was dark when we left. The ferris wheel was all lit up with animated lights.


Dontonbori


Famous crab restaurant


Sushi


We couldn't decide where to eat and ended up with take-out sushi, and some pork buns from a Chinese restaurant in Namba Staton


We also got some Portuguese egg tarts for dessert

Asia Trip Day 7 - Tokyo > Osaka (October 2015)

It's been six months since our Asia trip; time to finish posting trip photos.

Saturday 10/31

Today is a travel day. We are taking the bullet train (Shinkasen) from Tokyo to Osaka in the evening. Train tickets are actually pretty expensive. It would have been faster and cheaper to fly but the best fares were from Narita to Kansai which would add hours and lots of cost to the trip.

We checked out of our Airbnb this morning, placed our luggage in lockers at Tokyo Station, and went to see a few local sights.


Tokyo Station. It's our 3rd time through the station and I still got lost. It took forever for us to find enough empty lockers to store our luggage for the day.


Imperial Castle. After lunch, we went on a free tour of the East Garden given by volunteers in English. Here is their blog post for that day.


One of the tour groups. They broke us up into 4 groups. Their guide spoke perfect American English.


We left the tour after about an hour and took the train to Shibuya. There was a Starbucks nearby so we took a break. The workers kept coming over to tell us not to take pictures. I don't get why.


Shibuya scramble crossing. Lots of people crossing the street.


We then took the train one station to Harajuku Bridge. We were hoping to see people in crazy clothing but there was no one there. This is the Daiso on Takeshita Street (竹下通).


Fancy crepes


Heading back to Tokyo Station. Some had subway lines over 1km from each other.


Nozumi Shinkasen


Train interior. Top speed of the train was about 180 mph. Too bad it was dark so we could not see anything outside.

Asia Trip Day 6 - Mt. Fuji (October 2015)

Friday 10/30

Another must see in Japan is probably Mt. Fuji. I had originally tried to plan my own day-trip to Mt. Fuji but due to time constraints, we ended up joining a guided tour. We bought the tour through Viator but I think several travel agencies sell the same tour organized by JTB. The tour was ~$100/person and included a nice Japanese lunch. We did have to get up early in the morning to take the subway to Keio Plaza Hotel near Shinjuku to get on the tour bus.


Our tour bus. One return option was to take the shinkasen to Tokyo Station, but since we wanted to look around Shinjuku, we stayed with the bus option.


First stop was the Mt. Fuji Visitors Center where we had 10 minutes (I hate these tours). It was still cloudy so we could barely see Mt Fuji.


Second stop was one of the 5th Stations partway up the mountain. Lots of people and very cold. This time it was more clear but the sun was behind Mt. Fuji so it was hard to take good pictures.


Lunch: this was probably the best part of the trip. Main course was some type of noodle cooked in a miso soup.


View of Lake Kawaguchi(?) from the restaurant. Too bad we couldn't see Mt. Fuji from here.


Boat ride on Lake Ashi


The boat ride was nice but very windy, and we still could not see Mt. Fuji


The final stop was supposed to be the Komagatake Ropeway, which would have taken us up the side of Kamiyama. Unfortunately, it was closed due to high winds so they let us into a small crappy aquarium next to the ropeway. Oh well...


After the bus dropped us off at the Keio Plaza Hotel, we walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office to visit their free observatory. We walked past a huge bicycle lot with individual racks and you pay at a machine. Much different from China where you give some random person to watch your bike and hope it's still there when you return.


I though about going to Tokyo Tower or Tokyo Skytree but ended up here because it's free. This is looking northwest-ish.


Southeast view. You can see Tokyo Tower in the middle of the photo.

For dinner, we tried to find something to eat at department store food courts. Typically these were in the basement levels and served cheap and quick meals. Since it was Friday night, it was super crowded and after wandering for 10 minutes, we decided to find a nicer sit-down place, and ended up at Wako in the Odakyu Department Store. It was katsu restaurant, very similar to Kagura in Torrance. I got the $20 pork cutlet set and it was excellent.