hi onionz
i spent 11.2 weeks on my trip but it took discipline! if you want to do everything in a short period it is possible but there is none of this ohh i like this place lets stay an extra two days or staying in and watching telly...... i saw everything each major city had to offer, pertronas towers in kl, royal palace/temples in bangkok, shopping in singapore, whole of melbourne, opera house/bridge/blue mountains of syd, whole of tokyo, hollywood in la and alactraz/golden gate in san fran. i am not really a beach person so hence avoided places like langkawi, koh sumi etc all of these places can be reached on the ticket using silk air, a local se asia airline which is part of singapore airlines.
i spent the following times in the following places
del - 10 days
kul 4 days (far too much time, just shopping and the petronas towers!)
overnight to penang - then two days there
bkk 5 days
sin 3 days
mel - 6 weeks
syd bank holiday weekend
nrt 5 days, most fantastic time there, would have loved to stayed longer but lack of time and MONEY[:(] meant leaving tokyo.
lax - 10 days but also visited san francisco for 3.5 days (drove up took only 6 hours
then back to london
doing lots of short trips means the time difference is less so there is less jet lag. melbourne to tokyo is only 1 hr difference but a 16 hour flight!
you can fly/transit through singapore as many times you like but you can only stop off at singapore once on the trip. i visited singapore airport several times during my trip to transit but only cleared customs once to visit singapore. at one point i was at the airport at least once a week transiting! not many agents are clear about this, i can give you mine if you email me he was great.
the same is true for any hub, on the great escapade ticket that means singapore for sq/auckland for nz/london for vs.
main thing with doing a trip like this was to use the overnight/late night departures, saves on hotel costs for the night and means you can often go straight to the hotel, check in, drop off luggage and spend late afternoon/evening looking around going out.
australia in july august ummmm, melbourne is notorouis for its weather, locals referred to having 4 seasons in one day and that i completely agree with. i was in melbourne in late august/september saw the end of winter and the first day of spring and the weather was just like it has been here in london over the last two weeks. average 10-12c, cold nights with bursts of t shirt weather and barmy eveings to spend on the beach. the air con defintely went on and off during the day! the most weird day was waking to what seemed to be a hurricane force winds, leaving with sweater on then sitting outside for lunch in the golorious sunshine with t shirts having sushi, hailstorm in the afternoon and then it rained all evening........
hope the above helps any more queries then e me or post.
GurmStar
