Accueil!

Hi everyone,

We got the idea to start a blog from our mates Kristy and Grant who are traveling through Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia at the moment. So anyway we are a bit late getting it going, but as it is 3am Paris time and Jarrah and I are wide awake, now is as good a time as any. So here is a roundup of the journey so far.

We left Sydney on Monday 8th Feb to fly to Melbourne. Our connecting flight was the next day. It was actually a pretty smooth flight and we got in just before midnight, hired a car and then snoozed at our hotel. In the morning we discovered we had a breakfast buffet included in our package, so we ate heaps before we left for Tullamarine.

Our flight from Melbourne was to Singapore with a stop over in Darwin on Jetstar. The great thing about it was that we didnt have to go through customs until Darwin. Overall the flight was good, but the inflight entertainment was about 10 years out of date, and the cabin crew were not all that friendly . Once we got to Darwin though the kids and I were really excited about leaving Australia for the first time. Customs was really quick, and it got dark about an hour after we left Darwin. Jarrah had a good sleep but Maya was pretty buzzed so she stayed up with me watching TV shows. They were both awake to see Singapore lit up as we flew in.

Callum was the only one who knew what to expect at Changi airport and we were excited when we got there. We had to go from T1 to T3 in the skytrain and the kids loved it. First stop was coffee and hot chocolates, while Callum went to find where we checked in to the next flight. Jarrah managed to spill his hot chocolate all over the table and my pants, which was fun. We were all really tired and hungry by then so we looked at some shops, grabbed some food and set off to find comfy couches. We had another 2 hours to wait after that and then we were off to Paris via Doha.

We booked the next leg of our journey with Qatar Airways, and we were not sure what to expect. They are 5 star rated, and cheap - the only downside is that you have to stop in Doha on the way to Paris. After flying Jetstar, flying with Qatar Airways felt like first class (with less leg room). The crew were so nice, we were given gourmet food with so many choices and brought hot face washers and drinks regularly. The in flight entertainment is the best around, which was good as we needed a distraction from the really bad turbulence between India and the Middle East. We could see lightning in the distance which was beautiful and scary at the same time. I managed not to have a panic attack about this, which is a big achievement!

Landing in Doha was a bit of a culture shock, but a great experience none the less. Doha is Qatar Airways hub, so flights connect here from Europe, Asia, India and the Middle East. Doha is having a new terminal built that will open in 2011-12 and the current one reminded me of Canberra airport without the politicians. We had read up on Qatar before traveling and found that one of the norms was for men and women not to be affectionate in public, which we thought would be easy. When it came down to it though it was difficult remembering not to do something that was very normal. We DID discover that coffee at the airport is huge, and we watched the sun come up over the airport which was beautiful.

FINALLY we were onto our last flight to Paris, it seemed surreal after so long that we would actually get there! We flew over snow covered mountains in Iraq and Turkey which were absolutely breathtaking. We landed in Paris through a thick layer of cloud which broke just before we touched down. I am not usually fazed by landings (I am happy to be back on the ground) but that one was a little scary. We looked out the window and realised that it was snowing in Paris :)

Well that's enough for now, next post will have a run down of our time in Paris so far.