AF is flat but not horizontal but quite comfortable and nice dinner. Rome was fantastic and Bologna was a surprise - not touristy but very interesting indeed.

William  & Anthe

Gold Coast

We liked Swiss Air – and especially liked Zurich as a change flight airport – but don’t believe we saw anything of an upgraded Swiss cabin. The business class seats we had were quite acceptable – not as big in structure or style as Qantas  - but OK from a comfort viewpoint.

We hadn’t realized that mid to late September was still so peak in Europe – still very hot – and very crowded – so from our viewpoint late May / early June is still the best time to visit Europe.

We missed the Emirates / Etihad Limo service – that is a real feature . In Rome our hotel organized a limo pick up for us – this worked well.

Tony Bates
sydney

Singapore Airlines in Perth suggested that we check the bags through to Vienna. I had my doubts, however she seemed confident. We were without luggage for 2 days. In hindsight, we could have easily collected our bags and made the next flight, although there is a very long (>800m) walk between terminals even after the shuttle train.

(Note, connection time in Paris was less than 2hours, from international terminal to another terminal to catch flight to Vienna)

Singapore airlines was a good experience – I won’t be so keen to fly A380 again. The seats are wide and plenty of room to lose the book etc, but I found the bed a little harder than the A330. Having said that the overall level of comfort was great, and it is nice to get there and back with almost no jetlag.

We stayed in Hotel Alstadt, near museum quarter in Vienna. Converted old building run by an on site owner with his art collect through the hotel. I can thoroughly recommend it and very good value – listed in Epoque Hotels.
BA connection though Heathrow worked well – crowded, but they handled our excess luggage (had to replace the clothes we thought might not turn up).

Michael  Prichard

Perth

Please note that TWO (2) Single Entry Visas are NO longer accepted by the Consulate.  If you require TWO (2) entries it is advised that you obtain the appropriate multiple entry visa to cover both entries.

If the cruise company is organising a blanket visa,  and you need to apply for an additional Visa to cover a second entry you are required to notify Vina World Travel in writing at the time of making the application.

Hi Tina,

Everything went very smoothly.

Etihad was great.  The only complaint (about which you can do nothing) is that the business class seats are very narrow and that made sleeping a little difficult.  Apart from that, all was very much up to scratch.  The limo service is a great added extra.  It just makes getting to and from the airport so much more relaxing.

We stayed at Tremezzo on Lake Como and we agreed that it was much more relaxed than Villa D’Este further south on the lake.  Villa D’Este is beautiful but it seemed a bit stuffy, whereas Tremezzo Palace was beautiful AND relaxed.  I’d go back in an instant.

Venice we stayed at the Londra Palace and it was also very nice.  Very humid and very expensive in Venice.  Great place but not hurrying back there.

All in all a very good holiday and the flights in particular were excellent.

Thanks for your help.  We would be only to happy to use firstclass.com.au again for our next trip.

Ross Clarke
Sydney

We had a wonderful time in Paris.
I would recommend the Hotel we stayed at; the Hotel Keppler.  We were also upgraded to a Suite with a terrace and a view of the Eiffel Tower.  The best thing about the hotel was the exceptional service with each and every one of the staff being helpful and friendly, and going out of their way to help us with any tickets or booking we wanted.  The breakfast was also terrific (and included in the room price).  Have a look at their Web site if you get the chance and the rooms are in fact as beautiful as the pictures.
We did all of the usual attractions like the Eiffel Tower, Lourve, Notre Dame, Arc de Triomphe, Versallies and the Opera.  My favorite was the Opera for the most beautiful building, but of course it depends where your interests lie.  If you are into old works of Art I don’t think there would be anywhere better in the world than the Lourve.  One of the out of the way things we did was to book a car and do a trip out to Chantilly Castle which is only about 40 mins out of Paris and it was beautiful.  There is also one of the biggest and grandest stable complexes in the world which is open to the public most afternoons and has a living horse museum (a collection of nearly 200 horse breeds).  This was stunning and I love horses so a fantastic side trip.
The metro train system is a breeze to use and can get you anywhere in Paris.
Hope this gives you some ideas and areas which you can investigate.  My top recommendation really is the Hotel Keppler (I think it is one of the top 5 on trip adviser for Paris), a wonderful place to stay with the best service I have ever had anywhere in the world.

Vicki Hood , Ghana

(click on pic thumb to enlarge)

We recently returned from the 68 days Grand Sth. America & Antarctica Voyage on board Holland America Prinsendam, Jan-Mar 2009.   It was fantastic trip!!! The cruise, service, cabin, entertainment, food could not be faulted.

The only thing I would warn against is the exorbitant prices they change for the land tours, i would book them myself next time, people who knew what they were doing did that.

Our cabin ss verandah suite was excellent!

Ron Bennett

Feedback from my clients recently returned from Bora Bora:

We had a very enjoyable Tahiti holiday.

Air Tahiti Nui first class was great, money well spent. Caviar!!!

Le Meridian  at Papeete is a crapy  hotel with bad service.

St Regis Bora Bora is beautiful. Dom Perignon on arrival for honeymooners， amazing food, really good dinners. All 3 restaurants were fab but pricy ($140 for Sirloin Kobe Steak, worth every dollar but not for faint hearted)

Buffet Breakfast was not the best but ala carte was great.

Service was  excellent in person or at the lobby BUT over the phone it was a bit of hit and miss. This probably was the biggest negative, followed by weather? rainy season in Jan.

Internet access was OK but extremely slow.  and A$60/day.

The Bungalow was absolutely massive..

Activities great but ridiculously expensive…JETSKI  A$500 for 2 hrs

Massage  was great , excellent service , approx A$300 for 50 minutes.

We also visited the new Four Seasons. The resort is very new, too new. The spa was the highlight, it looked very pretty and  deluxe. We did not try it though . 

Intercontinental Thallasso has a good reputation (One less Star), its beautiful, but not  as luxury as St Regis or Four Seasons.

Kourosh & Sheeva

Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency (EAD) has called on the public to avoid touching any washed-up sea snakes they may encounter on local beaches, the Gulf News has reported.

Recently a live sea snake was reportedly brought to an EAD centre by a member of the public. Sea snakes, which are commonly sighted in Abu Dhabi’s shallow, warm coastal waters, are poisonous and their bites can be fatal.

source: travel daily asia news

My journalist friend Giovana wanted to cover a story about cricket fights in Beijing, which is very popular among the locals, for fun, with small bets of money.

Giovana searched online and found ‘GuanYuan Flower Birds Fish and Insects Market’ which may have information she wanted and hopefully to view a real fight there. I then searched on Chinese search engine Baidu.com.cn, and found ‘Hong Yan Market’ which a blogger says it was the place for cricket fight championship in 2007 and has everything you need for crickets.

So we took a taxi there, but found out, there wasn’t much going on. Cricket fights will not start till about 15th September, which according to the people in the market, are shown every day. Currently, the crickets are too young, most trainers will buy now and train them for a month before registering them for the fights. We had an interesting chat with two elderly cricket fight fans in the market, and I learnt that China has about 300 years of history in engaging in cricket fights, said to be fun, exciting and a great hobby which is good for your health. Usually they only play for about 50Yuan (less than US$10), the government however is cracking down on all types of gambling.

For the cricket championship, it’s estimated to have 3000 registrants, and the prize could be 100k Yuan (approx US$15,000), we have no idea however how accurate the information is.

In order to film how the crickets fight, we paid them 50Yuan to put on a fight between two crickets for us. They said it’s not the right season, the crickets are too young, and they didn’t seem very aggressive and strong. It happens in less than a second, once the two stuck their teeth into each other the one which quits looses. Usually owners simply let the looser go back to nature, because they believe, it will lose the fighting spirit and usually never makes a good fighter.

We also learnt from people in this market that, Shi Li Qiao Market which is in the vicinity has more crickets stuff for sale. When we got to Shi Li Qiao, we knew we had found the right place! The market was much better organised, with more variety of fish, birds and dogs, in fact just about any pet you can think of, and naturally more crickets with an amazing range of products for the cricket fanatics! There’s also this decent cricket shop, supplies all your cricket needs like a home, water/food trays, mating room, balance for measuring the weight before going on a fight, and a picture of an champion in 2002, which won 9 matches and retired afterwards and treated as a hero, and later buried in a proper coffin. They even have a dedicated website.

They said cricket is the most treasured insect among the famous four because of it’s beautiful sound, with the most varieties of tools and accessories.

Crickets are mostly reproduced in Shan Dong Province, a region in which each household breeds crickets.