So it won't be particularly cheap but still very reasonable to take a train from Stockholm to Narvik via sleeper train in late March.
If I share, it can be very, very affordable. If I take a second class private compartment on both journeys on routes that require no change of trains, it will cost 3800 SEK or almost S$580, non-refundable non-changeable. At that point, it is a mere $50 more to make it completely refundable.
If you look at what it is, which is over 18 hours in a room with a washbasin, shared toilet and what looks to be an impressively clean and well-maintained shower in each car, it is basically $300 a night in a hotel room with shared bathrooms on top of the transport.
Alternatively, if I get a travel buddy, it's 4900SEK or almost $710 non-changeable non-refundable for our own second class private compartment, or 5270SEK or $760 for refundable. The cost per person is halved here, at almost $150-190 a night.
Have to be honest here, just as I used to always think before I was attached, having a travel partner really reduces the cost of travelling.
Anyway there are also first class compartments with their own showers plus breakfast and lounge access at the stations, but those are completely sold out in the period of time I'm looking at, late March to early April 2020, so I can't see what the prices are like.
Next year, I'll look really early and see if the prices can be much lower for early birds. Already checked when the tickets are released and have set an event in my calendar as a reminder.
Honestly, Buenos Aires and Montevideo looks pretty uninteresting. But I have a week to kill, so might as well take a few tours. Maybe not the polo classes lest I hurt my back just before boarding the cruise. Maybe I'll find a way to watch a polo match during the few days I'm in Buenos Aires.
1st Jan 2020
Climbed the stairs from the ground floor aka first floor to the top floor aka the 25th floor thrice yesterday.
75 floors!
Realized if I pace myself slowly enough, I can get to the top without panting too hard and get my heart rate exceeding 180bpm.
That said, it is also possible to climb the entire set of 25 floors while skipping steps, but just one step each though, and I take about 3-4 mini-breaks to catch my breath. Doesn't seem like a practical form of exercise, but it provides some variety to this kind of training.
2nd Jan 2020
Mistyped the year, as usual. Welcome to the new 20s!
4th Jan 2020
Climbed 100 floors yesterday and decided to repeat it later today. Also looking into the details of the upcoming trip.
1) There is a priority lane through immigration in Europe for me since I'm (finally) taking business class. Yay!
2) Also business class lounges, though they're far more crowded than in the past since most of them are pay-per-use.
3) The chartered economy class flight to Ushuaia is at 7+am, so we've got to be there by 5, so... not much sleep that evening.
07th Jan 2020
So I think the writers are complaining about the POFMA correction directions to gain more attention. The corrections do not erase the original text by the writers, and these orders bring eyes to the articles they are intended to correct. By requesting for the orders to be rescinded, the original articles are still going to be there and the chances of it being agreed to are unlikely, all that the writers gain is even more attention to the articles.
TBH this POFMA thing can backfire if the media continues to report on it, and it will be fun to watch.
Flying tonight, haven't packed yet, merely placed a few things on my suitcase and typed a list of things I'm likely to forget, like a nail clipper and my electric shaver.
Excited over the business class flight and maybe finally getting some sleep on a plane for real. Definitely looking forward to the little Dutch houses containing Bols liquor, and eating with proper utensils and with proper plates and bowls.
One thing that I did not expect was that the lounge access that comes with it doesn't surpass what I already have. Huh. Seems like I've been enjoying life in airports like a business class passenger all these years already. The only difference is only when I'm in Australia (where Priority Pass has pretty few lounges) and the home airport of each airline (where the best lounges of each airline are).
So here in Singapore, the boarding pass isn't getting me into any lounge that I can't already enter for free, but in Amsterdam, I'll have to take it out to access the KLM Crown Lounge, though I don't know how long I want to stay there. There is a 12-hour-long transit in Amsterdam, so it sounds like a good idea to get out for a while. I've done the Heineken and Bols visits already, so I'll see what else I can try. Or maybe I'll really rot in the lounge, which is cool too tbh.
Or maybe... I'll try the sleep cabins. These are little soundproof rooms with queen-size beds, a TV and a basin, and cost either 49.5eur for 3 hours or 75eur for 5 hours. They aren't cheap but sleeping after a good lunch in the lounge sounds like a good idea if I still couldn't sleep well in the flight to Amsterdam despite the bed.
10th Feb 2020
So it's been 2 months! Or 3 depending on how you see it.
Trip was epic, I'll never forget it for the rest of my life. First time trying so many things, like flying business class for 4 very long flights, 2 very long stays at the business class lounges, and the cruise of my life.
Yes, penguins do and will approach you, though they generally will just ignore and walk around you. Only king penguins will be more curious than the gentoo, chinstrap, macaroni and other types of penguins, and will try to communicate verbally. Btw I'm now an expert in the identification of penguins in Antarctica.
Adelie penguins are the silly ones. Their heads are completely black except for the eyes.
Gentoos have a white patch above the eyes, kinda look like they are wearing white headphones.
Chinstrap look like they are wearing a black chinstrap.
Macaronis look like they have yellow hair combed backwards.
Southern rockhoppers look like they have very bushy yellow brows.
Magellanic penguins look like they have black and white stripes.
King penguins really do look like the kings of penguins.
Never saw an emperor because they were deeper south and would only get to the altitudes we visited for feeding, so they were far too rare.
Seals will approach you too, but that's because they're territorial, so that sort of interaction can be a lot less pleasant.
Found a really elegant, floral white onboard the Air France flights. I've never tasted such a floral wine before, and it only costs under S$45 in Singapore with shipping without any promotion. It could be because of the air in the plane and the fact that I had fish with it, but the 2016 Couvent Des Jacobins Louis Jadot is probably the best Chardonnay I've ever had.
Also found a new liking to Malbec, specifically Argentinian ones. AFAIK only Argentina makes good Malbecs. How does anyone like Malbec from Europe or Australia?
In any case, if anyone reading this is planning to fly between Asia and South America, I highly recommend either having an overnight stay in a hotel in a stopover, or fly business class if you insist on doing the entire journey in one shot. Two long haul flights back to back is exhausting in economy, unless you can fall asleep during flights.
One thing I did learn is that having a good set of noise-cancellation headphones really helps you sleep. All the business class flights I took this trip, on both KLM and Air France, provided them. The catch is that I'm a side sleeper, so they were not an option for me - I'd almost fall asleep and wake up repeatedly. This probably isn't an issue in an economy seat.
Speaking of the two airlines, though they're both under Flying Blue, the business class experience by Air France is just better in every way, although neither would ever beat the better known airlines like Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines.
In a way, it is ridiculous that we have to pay 3-5 times the price of an economy seat for a glorified cubby hole smaller than what you'd get in a capsule hotel. Once the seat is converted to a flat bed, it feels like it's just half or 2/3 of a regular single bed and you've got to avoid hitting the walls around you as you turn because the head of the passenger is really next to your feet, separated by a wall of hollow plastic. Yes, I can feel the other guy's feet hitting the back of my seat.
This really changes the way you should pick your seats in the business cabin vs economy. In economy, you would avoid all the seats in the first and last row, but as you tell from the previous paragraph, these rows in business would have their advantages. Moreover, on some planes, you could find a single row of business class seat sandwiched between the economy cabin and the first toilets of the business cabin, like the ones I took on KLM, and they were not as bad as you might think because the curtains on both sides were close to us, so we couldn't see the economy cabin and the toilets at all when they were drawn, giving this particular row fantastic privacy and absolutely no knocking when you're trying to sleep.
Anyway, it took me a while to figure out the best way for me to sleep. I could ask for a second pillow and sleep on my side, with the extra pillow between my legs, or sleep on my belly with just a single pillow, though I always woke up on my back somehow.
All in all, business is how flying should be. The few hours of decent sleep makes an incredible amount of difference, so I could do two 13-hour flights back to back and still leave the planes in a good mood instead of struggling to stay alert to adapt to the new environment in the unfamiliar airports. It is just so sad that only a privileged few can do it on a regular basis, while everyone else has to pay all that money to suffer through a distinctly unpleasant experience.
I wish someone could come up with a viable way to let everyone lie down in economy. There is plenty of space between the overhead compartment and the seats anyway. Heck, I'd gladly sacrifice the 7kg carry-on luggage and just bring my toiletries if I could lie down in economy. It just feels frickin amazing to be able to get several hours of proper sleep. The luxurious meals in business were just cherries on top, for the photos - the real advantage was the rest you could get.
There have been attempts at this, like these new designs, and I really hope they can get through the testing phase. The one by TU Delft that arranges the seat along the sidewalls look quite practical IMHO, though they're going to have to test the safety and hygiene aspects of it. Hygiene because the bottom bunk is going to be covered in anything that rolls off the passengers, like bits of food, and it's going to be in contact with lots of shoes and feet when it's folded up.
However, if this is implemented, they're going to lose the main reason for charging so much for business seats, and the business cabin is one of the biggest sources of profit for airlines. Premium cabin passengers make up only about 5-10% of of the total number of passengers, but contribute about 30-40% of the revenue. If everyone can lie down, business class will lose most of it's value - why would anyone pay 5 times the price for a very nice meal using porcelain plates and metal utensils?
To implement this, the airline will have to come up with an entirely new business model, so this is a lot more complicated than it first seems.
Watched a video on leather quality and realized the belts I bought in Buenos Aires (ARS600/S$13.50 for 3cm width and ARS700/S$14 for 3.5cm width) were actually of pretty good leather. The underside of the belts were not coated with anything, ie unfinished, so the raw quality was on full display, and there was only a little fibre that could be flicked around, meaning the leather was from pretty close to the top, though from close observation I could see that even the treated outer surface of the bet did not have any natural creases so it is probably from under the top grain, but still in the upper half of the leather maybe.
They turned out to be good buys, surprisingly.
11th Feb 2020
So this time the photos got onto my PC surprisingly fast, partly due to the fact that I'm rather reluctant to go out.
Here's the lowdown of what goes on in a business class seat in my flight. Of course you can find plenty of such on Youtube by travel vloggers, but this is mine. Probably the only time in my life I get to do this.
Obligatory boarding pass pic for celebratory business-class-cherry-popping post. No, the short one to KL on MH doesn't count, as far as I'm concerned; that's like saying the Sky Jump in Auckland is a real bungy.
Got to say, the Sky Priority logo really expedited things quite a bit, mainly at the immigration part where there's a dedicated line for it, felt just like how it used to be back when I had the APEC card. But beyond that, there's not much difference because security screening is the same. Still, we all should appreciate it when we get to have our own, far shorter, lanes.
The KLM amenity kit that comes with the seat. It's nothing compared to the one from Air France, which will be displayed near the end since it was the return journey. One thing it did have that Air France didn't provide was lip balm which came in really handy for all 4 flights and my time in Antarctica. Sorry, I didn't take a photo of its contents and I've already given both away. These pouches are too small to be used as proper travel toiletry kit and it's ridiculous to have separate kits for flights and the rest of the trips in the future. I think my part-time domestic helper is going to use this as a purse; no idea what she's going to do with everything inside but she definitely will make better use of this than I will. Slippers were provided too but I didn't take a photo nor did I bring any back with me.
Dinner with their 100th anniversary cocktail. Was nice but that's about it. This was like the beginning of my warm-up for proper dining etiquette that I was going to have to use daily throughout the cruise.
Post-dinner tea with KLM's chocolate. Obviously I was going to have to brush my teeth after this - the last time I had chocolate just before sleep, I stained my teeth so much!
Picked pancakes with blueberries as breakfast. Nice and fluffy where the jam hadn't already soaked in already. Expected the egg to be soft-boiled but turned out to be a perfectly cooked hard-boiled one.
So much space for all my stuff I could leave my toiletry bag lying around so that I didn't have to reach for the overhead compartment just before and after my sleep.
The outer layer of one of the wheels cracked but it still worked so I didn't care. After the rest of that layer broke off, it was all smooth again.
Coffee in Buenos Aires is served like this in the airport. No idea why you would need the sparkling water. I think I've seen this somewhere before but just can't recall where.
Right after the flight was a ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay. This is the Buquebus (boo-kay-boos) ferry terminal at Puerto Madero.
I'm not the first person to notice this but it's funny how they make all ferry passengers put these on despite the fact that the carpet is already faded and stained everywhere.
Garcia was recommended to me by the guide of the city tour I took in Montevideo. She claimed it was one of the best bbq restaurants in Montevideo, and it certainly served pretty good meat. And look at these prices! Uruguay was supposed to be more expensive than Argentina and this was supposed to be one of the most expensive restaurants in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, yet a tenderloin was only S$20/US$15. Then again the 10% tip isn't included and all meats come by themselves with no side dishes other than the bread basket and chimichurri.
The bread basket and chimichurri.
This is pretty good stuff. Someday I might try to make it at home. Have to point out they didn't not grind up the ingredients like what they do in Buenos Aires. Maybe it's the restaurant's style, or maybe it's the Uruguayan style.
This took a little longer to work on.
This is common in both Argentina and Uruguay - pancakes with dulce de leche. What they call pancakes, however, is closer to crepes than the fluffy pancakes I'm used to that they call "American pancakes" in both Uruguay and Argentina.
In restaurants, they use caramel to seal the ends, but they don't do it at home. Also, dulce de leche is really sweet so I kept squeezing them out and pushing lumps of it away as I ate.
Funny thing happened on the way back to Buenos Aires. So when I checked in at the ferry terminal in Montevideo, they gave me this stack of papers that included the ticket, wifi password and etc. There was a uniformed guard at the departure gate and as I approached the gate, he said something to me in Spanish. Apparently he didn't speak any English, but I just handed him this stack of papers arranged exactly how it looks in the photo. He accepted and stared at this really intensely, furrowed his brows and all, like he was reading really, really carefully... my wifi password. He did not flip through the papers at all, not a single page.
I love how Uruguay takes the people's right to internet access so seriously.
My first hotel in Buenos Aires offered a fantastic view of the Recoleta Cemetery. It is absolutely incredible how opulent the graves were for the wealthiest of the country back in the day.
This was still a grave of a wealthy person since only the elites could afford a space here, but this and many others reminded visitors that (and this is my interpretation of it) it doesn't matter how massive and grand your grave is, the only things that matter after your death is what you have done in life. You see, the ones who have accomplished great achievements in the cemetery, like Evita Peron, we still remember them, but nobody except the people who handle the records remembers who this person was. Not even his/her descendants, clearly.
And look at Genghis Khan - he made sure he did not have a grave, yet he remains one of the best-known historical figures around the world.
Found this guy at one of the weekend markets that open everywhere in Buenos Aires.
Bought one and he engraved my name at the bottom. My cup is currently being seasoned by holding mate for a week in a dry place, ie my fridge.
Obligatory look at a street milonga at the Antiques Fair at San Telmo.
Found these at a wine-tasting session. Never liked Malbec until now, and I'll never touch Malbec again unless it's from Argentina.
Torrontes is... strange. It's a white that behaves like a red, so you could have it with steak, which would certainly be an ice-breaker at dinner.
Learnt to make empanadas too. Different folds for different fillings, eg the bottom right is for meat (beef) filling.
Brought my cousin to an asado, a common bbq dinner in Argentina that everyone does with family and friends. In this case, we got to join one that was with the host's friends and business partners.
Supposed to be the best Malbec but... I didn't like it as much as I did Tinto Negro's Limestone Block.
The Scenic Eclipse is the most luxurious cruise ship that goes to Antarctica right now as far as I know (claimed by a staff who worked on it before her contract with our cruise line), and it departed Ushuaia on the same day as us with the exact same itinerary, so we passed by each other once in a while throughout the cruise. Silversea is more like the father of this sort of luxury cruises, but clearly it's not the best anymore.
The breakfast room service menu for our suite. Yes, it's all included, ie free.
The room service menu. Fun fact: you could order anything else that isn't mentioned in the menu, as long as the kitchen could do it, they will fulfill your request. Took us a few days to find that out, so we sometimes ordered food that we saw during lunch and dinner, like caviar.
Room service lunch. No one said you could order only one appetizer.
There is a free laundrette, but these were a little urgent since I was running out of clothes and wanted to spend my first several days exploring the ship, so... this is how laundry is returned to us when they're ready. Yes it's expensive, but this is the time to live like a king.
Every night, this is left on our beds as part of the turndown service. Except for the keycard holder on the bottom right. Forgot to take it away before snapping this.
I know what you're thinking. My cousin, who went with me, brought home a lot of these and another type of chocolate they left on our beds. No I didn't take any, I bought several bars of Valrhona in Paris CDG during transit instead. Did help her ask our butler for more chocolates though.
This is how room service breakfast is served every time we order it, which we did because there were many mornings when we had to be ready by 7-8am. This luxury was one of those things that I did not expect and had never imagined could be a norm on a cruise, especially since we had the cheapest cabin.
Not enough space on that table so our butler had to leave most of the dishes on the dresser stool.
How we boarded the zodiacs which were inflatable rafts that had compartments so animals could puncture parts of it and it still wouldn't sink. When the sea was rough, embarking and disembarking was a real challenge, so the crew and the captain had to work together to make it work. The crew helped us get onboard and alight, while the captain adjusted the ship according to the swells to give us calmer water on the side of the ship that we were on. There was always a very real risk of injury during these parts of the cruise, and one person did slip and fall on the white steps once when the sea was particularly rough. Fortunately he was fine.
A zodiac sets off for the first land we saw on the cruise after leaving Ushuaia. The terrible weather at the Falkland Islands forced us to reverse our itinerary and go through the Drake Passage first, so everyone was really looking forward to standing on land after 2.5 days of rough seas. Lots of us had never been seasick before, myself included, but we all had no choice to take medication at Drake Passage, and for me, the pill was barely enough so I was tempted to take two pills by the second morning. The worst part was probably when I had to take off and put on my boots. Maybe bending over like that exacerbated the effects.
At 4pm every day, tea would be served. There was the standard stand of cakes and sandwiches, but the real highlight was the scones. Too bad they only had whipped cream instead of clotted cream, though the scones themselves made up for it. The Irish and Welsh ladies I had tea with introduced me to the concept of spreading butter before the cream and jam. Ended up liking the butter, but still skipping the jam as before.
Typical lunch at the daily lunch buffet.
For Chinese New Year, the Scottish chef did his best to get his chefs to make this Chinese meal with dumpling soup, char siu, some kind of sweet and spicy prawns, and egg fried rice. He tried, and we appreciate the very nice gesture. The char siu was probably the best part of this meal, and it was the brown boiled type that's more common in some parts of China and maybe Taiwan.
This is how dinner usually looks. I can never remember to take a photo of every single course in a single dinner, so this is the most complete collection that I have - only the sorbet was missing, so this sorbet was from another dinner. It was not my intention to post the most Asian dinner we had outside of CNY.
Photos from various dinners. We never skipped dinner at the restaurant.
The ship also had an outdoor restaurant serving dinner involving cooking your own meat on a hot block of salt.
And then it was the last sunset of our cruise. As for everything else we saw during this cruise, the photos are in my GoPro and I haven't sorted it out yet. There are more than enough photos here anyway.
Back in Buenos Aires, we went to Fervor, and the skirt steak was amazing.
The lamb kidneys and veal chitlings (intestines) were less tasty than expected - the Argentinians simply wash them, remove the linings and grill them with little in the way of spices and marinate. All you had was lemon and chimichurri, and these were inadequate IMHO.
After giving away 3 kits, I kept the kit from the second AF flight, still in the plastic bag, for myself. I don't know why since it's useless, but it's so... nice...
Snack served at the start of the flight.
That was the first flight. I did not know on Air France, they serve your food course by course, so at dinner, I was initially confused by how the main course was missing.
Air France and KLM have business class lounges at their home airports that feel underwhelming at first but offer some pretty nice amenities and features, like a live crepe station. So of course I had a crepe with egg, cheese and ham. To be fair, they have to have many lounges spread across the various wings of each terminal in their home airports so they can't have opulent and very exclusive lounges that some airlines do.
The AF lounge in this part of CDG also offers a free 20-min facial for everyone, and the therapist gave me this freebie at the end of it. Pretty nice to have a quick facial that included a head/shoulder/hand massage, after a shower.
That's it for now. No idea how long it's going to take to load this post for you, but this had to be done.
