Road to Mandalay (Part 1)

This post should have been there sometimes ago, however, since I was quite busy I can only manage to put it now.

I had an opportunity to board this Orient Express "Road to Mandalay" trip.  It is basically a cruise along Irrawady rivers in Myanmar.   This cruise was taken place on 31-July to 3-August.  You can either take "one-way" trip either Mandalay to Bagan or Bagan to Mandalay or you can take the whole trip Mandalay-Bagan-Mandalay (this is recommended if you take full trip, as the trip will start from Mandalay and you will see also why I recommend this later) or Bagan-Mandalay-Bagan.

If you take Mandalay to Bagan trip, the package will also include the flight from Yangon to Mandalay.  As the flight in Myanmar will start from Yangan early in the morning (around 7am), the passanger needs to be in Yangon the night before.

As there is no night flight to Yangon from Singapore on Tuesday night, we opted out to fly to Mandalay by ourselves.  I flew to Bangkok on Tuesday night and on Wednesday morning, I and my friend flew to Mandalay from Bangkok.

The Mandalay service is a Thai Smiles services.  At that time it was a 4x/week service, I think it is still the same now.  

This is the plane that took us to Mandalay, HS-TXF, code name Samut Songkhran.  It was still quite brand new plane when we took it.  The flight was delivered on 13-March-2013, hence it was not even 6 months old.  As you may see, the plane still looks quite shinny :)

The A320 was park away, hence we need to take stair.  It also means a good opportunity to take pictures.

The Thai Smiles planes have a 4 rows of so-called "business class" seat.  It is actually the same seats as normal economy seat (perhaps with better legs room?).   It is seperated with a small curtain.  We were sitting on row 5, the first row of economy seat.   I think it the last row of the "business class" is not a good sits as the curtain may be quite annoying.

As you can see there are someone sat on "business class" cabin.  In fact there were 2 person.  Later on, we found out they are Thai employee most likely engineer as they were talking to the ground crew in Mandalay.

 

 

The legs room is quite ok, as I am 6" (180 cm) tall.

 

 

The flying time to Mandalay is 1h55m.  Once we are airborn, the FAs start distributing this bag and hot drinks.  The bag contain bottled water, sandwich and cake for your breakfast.

 

 

 

 

 

 The rest of the flight is just a normal affair.  And now we are landed in Mandalay International Airport.  It is very modest airport with no aero-bridge.  The building is actually not too far and we can simply walk into it.  However, we were fetch by the bus.  The bus looks to me like a pre-war era, however, it is quite clean and ok.

 

 

 

 



 Most of the flights are using propeller planes.   Some of the planes that I saw that morning.

 

 

The Asian Wings will be the flight that took us back from Bagan to Yangon. 

 

 

The airport is very basic and functional with automated bagage claims.  I think there are only few International flights serving Mandalay, TG, PG and FD from Bangkok and may be some other flight from nearby city in China (Kunming?).   I noticed there were also quite some number of  Chinese on my flight.

 

 

 

 

Air Asia provides free shuttle to town from airport.

 

 

We were then greeted by our guide which will send us to the "port".   The drive took us about 45 minutes on the modest yet good road.  

 

We arrived at Swee Kyet Yee River Station which is the base camp of the Road of Mandalay boat.  We were greated by the buttler that served us drink and the boat is waiting for us on the river.  At this pier, at least there is nice wooden path way for us to go to the boat. 

 

I think the boat is really pretty.  It looks mighty sitting on the river waiting for us.


I will continue on the next part as it will become too long if I out it on 1 post.

 

 

 

 



Turkish Airlines Comfort Class (IST-YYZ-IST)

Finally, I managed to squeeze sometimes to continue some write up about TK Comfort Class.

I have read quite a few good review on TK Comfort Class hence I decided to give it a try since the price is only marginally higher than non-restricted economy and even though that I have to layover in IST for quite some times.

But before I go into the Comfort Class itself, let me write something about Istanbul (IST) airport.  The airport itself is not so big.  It is rather small but quite functional.  The connecting flight is a bit troublesome, as they asked me to queue to get a sticket before I can pass the security to go to the departure hall.  Other that that is quite ok.

The morning time seems quite busy with many flight departed to Europe.  So it is good connection from Asia flight.  Most flight from Asia will arrive IST in the early morning with good connecting to Europe.  However, most of the American bound flight, depart after noon time (13:00-15:00).  This is why I need to wait for quite some times.

These are some pictures of the departure area at that morning.  There are food courts, coffee shop, and of course duty free shops which sell Turkish delights (lokum) and Baklava.  So it is fully functional airport.

After walking around the airport, I went to Turkish Lounge.  It looks huge and grand.  you just need to scan your BP to enter.  As I was clocking my mileage into SQ and I only have Silver status, I cannot simply scan my BP.  I have to show my A3 Gold card and then , they let me in (I forget how. I think they did open the gate for me).  I found the lounge is quite beautiful and the food is quite OK. 

 The famous Turkish Delight (Lokum) which you should probably eat it with the Tuskish coffee (which I found it too bitter for me)

The lounge also has the shower are and also napping rooms.  There is a rule for you to be able to use the room.  I think you have to fly intercontinental flight with x hours of connecting flight.  the shower is ok.  The only complains is they have only few showers room.  If I am not wrong 4-5 rooms only.  so at the morning peak hours, you need to queue.  Give your name to the staff and she will call you name once the shower room is available.

So it is the time for the flight now.  The comfort class I think is only available on B777-300ER.  The seat layout is 2-3-2 which much more comfortable compare to CX 2-4-2 layout.

This is the plane that brought me to Toronto, TC-JJH (Rumeli) 

 

The Comfort Class seat which is quite similar to the Old Business Class in many airlines.  As I said earlier, the configuration is 2-3-2.  Each seat comes with blanket, pillow, headset and also comfort bag, which the contain is almost similar to economy but slightly better toothbrush and amenities.

The interesting part, as the seat next to me is empty, the FA paste a sticker to it.  May be to prevent someone from economy cabin to move into the seat.

The IFE is the one stow on the side of the chair (like old business class) and quite ok.

Time to eat.   On this flight they did not serve the Macademia nuts as someone is allergic to nuts.  That's what they announced it.   I wonder why  can't they served it to other customer other than the allergic one?   the food is served partly by the Chef who served the biz class cabin.  Again this show TK treat Comfort class as C- rather than Y+ like CX.   The food is served just like business class serving.

First meal (lunch if I am not wrong)

Second meal (refreshment I suppose) as we arrive YYZ around 6pm local time.

 The pretty mood light on the cabin

This is the plane that took me back to Istanbul from YYZ, TC-JJE (Named Dolmabahçe). This flight has WIFI on board.  On that flight the offer WIFI for free.  I guess they were still doing the trail.

The refreshment which served with Macademia nuts

Dinner

Breakfast

And finally the outside camera, just after we landed in IST.

The verdict, I think TK Comfort Class is very comfortable and worth the money.  I wish TK extend this product also on SIN-IST leg.

TK lounge in IST is very pretty.  Food may not be the best but it is quite ok.

I definitely will fly TK again in the price and timing is reasonable.