The Dubai Diaries
My life as a flight attendant in the Middle East!

Cherry Blossoms in Narita, Japan

This month I was lucky enough to be rostered two trips to Narita, Japan. Having previously visited Tokyo on a family holiday a few years ago, I decided not to make the journey into the city (which can take around 1,5 hrs), and instead to explore the small town of Narita.

It’s a funny place – while it is very obviously Japanese, the majority of visitors are foreign cabin crew and pilots, so it feels like a mini air crew village!

After arriving at our crew hotel, our first port of call was to get some tasty Japanese food, and I had a recommendation for a place called Ramen Bayashi, serving up delicious hot ramen soup.

We headed inside to the cozy restaurant, which is decked out with model aircraft and even a few crew uniform items.

View Post

March Roster

Once again roster day has come round quickly, and with March being my top bid month, I was keeping my fingers crossed for some good flights.

Considering I have leave in the middle of the month, I actually got 3 of the flights which I asked for, which I am really happy about! I even have a new destination at the end of the month, which is always great 🙂

In March I’ll be starting off the month landing from a flight to Zurich, and then heading off to:

  • BCN – Barcelona, Spain
  • NRT – Narita, Japan
  • NRT – Narita, Japan
  • Leave
  • DEL – Dehli, India (turnaround)
  • DEL – Dehli, India (turnaround)
  • MCO – Orlando, USA

I bid for all of those destinations except Dehli, so I’m very pleased with most of my roster!

Barcelona is one of my favourite European cities, and even more excitingly I’ll only be working half of the trip, as we get to fly back to Dubai as passengers, also known as deadheading! This is usually due to an aircraft change or extra flight.

Then two trips to Narita – I’m keeping all of my fingers crossed it’s not too early for cherry blossom season. I’ve been to Tokyo with my family in the past, and have done a flight to Osaka with Emirates, but this will be my first time operating the flight to Narita. Any tips are more than welcome! 🙂

After that I have 5 days leave, and will probably head home, as it’s been a while since I’ve been to stay with my parents. My brother and his girlfriend will also be there at the same time (they live in Munich) with their puppy!

I get back from my leave to two not ideal trips to Dehli – departing at night and getting back after sunrise. Who knows – maybe somebody will swap with me for a layover, but I’m not very optimistic!

To round off the month, I have a 50 hour layover in Orlando! It’ll be my first time there, and I’m hoping to go to Disneyland 🙂

An exciting month ahead, with a couple of new destinations for me.

P.s. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook & Twitter for more day-to-day updates of where I am in the world! 🙂

Rainy Osaka

This morning I got back from a flight to Osaka, Japan. We arrived at our hotel early evening and arranged to go to dinner. We couldn’t decide between sushi and another Japanese speciality (which I have now forgotten the name of!) but on the first officer’s recommendation we chose the latter. Close to the hotel there is a whole area full of restaurants so we walked over, ready for some dinner.

ImageI’d forgotten that so many restaurants in Japan display all of their dishes in plastic versions in the window!

ImageImageLet’s be honest, it doesn’t look very appetising, at all. I don’t think I could tell you what’s inside either, but it’s always fun to try something new!

The next morning a big group of us had made plans to go to Kyoto, however when I got downstairs only 4 of us had made it. The others had obviously seen the pouring rain and decided to stay in bed! We walked to the train station and got on a train, hoping it would take us in the right direction! Once we arrived in Kyoto, we had all assumed we would just be able to have a nice little stroll around and see all the temples. It is actually a pretty big city and walking was definitely not an option, especially as the rain had not stopped. We got on a bus (luckily it had a TV screen in the front with the name of each stop in English!) and made our way to the Kinkaku-ji Temple, also called the Golden Temple.

ImageImageThe temple was beautiful, such a shame about the rain as I’m sure sunlight reflecting off it would look lovely!

ImageImageImageImageImageDespite the rain we had a lovely stroll around the grounds. We decided not to go and visit any other temples this time, so I’ll have to make sure I get another flight to Osaka!

I also got my roster for April while I was away, and this month I only have one new destination. I have leave at the beginning of the month (11 days, yay!) and then I’ll be going to:

  • Bangkok (going to try and go to the tiger temple if I have time)
  • Bangalore turnaround
  • Chennai turnaround
  • Kuala Lumpur
  • Bombay turnaround
  • Perth (again?!)
  • Durban (my one new destination!)

I don’t count turnarounds as new destinations, as we don’t actually get off the plane. I didn’t bid for anything as I’m at the bottom in bidding seniority this month, so I’ll have to try and see if I can swap some of my flights and go somewhere new. My leave starts in 2 days and I still haven’t decided where I’m going to go yet! I’m contemplating the idea of going to Alberquerque to visit Lizzie (my sister) which would mean trying to get on a flight to America, my best bets are probably Houston or Dallas, and then get a connecting flight. If I do that then I’ll try and stop off in Austria on the way home to see my friends and family. Got to get my lovely Lahore turnaround out of the way first and then I’ll officially be off for 11 days! I’ll keep you updated as to where I go on my leave 🙂

I’d also like to apologise about the dreadful quality of the pictures; even though I charged my camera overnight, when we arrived in Kyoto it refused to turn on, so I had to use my iPhone. I’m hoping it’s just a glitch and that it’s not broken 🙁

 

P.s. If you want more regular day to day updates of what is happening in my life, follow me on Twitter and Instagram @rachelwwilson!