Mauritius: An Island Escape

When I think of a holiday in paradise, Mauritius is one of the places that always springs to mind. Since we celebrated Christmas at home with my family last year, it was time to head to Mauritius this year, and Joe very kindly invited my parents to join us and his family for a relaxing getaway in the sun.

We touched down after a 6-hour flight through the night, having not managed to sleep much. I certainly couldn’t complain about these views though, even if I’m not a fan of being trapped in the window seat!

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Christmas Lights in New York

Even though Christmas is over now, I thought I’d show you a few pictures from my trip to New York. I bid for the flight in December specifically to see the beautiful Christmas lights, and although I only got rostered a 24 hour layover, I made sure to make the most of it!

The flight over takes around 14 hours, and we touched down after this beautiful sunrise, early in the morning.

As usual, there was plenty of traffic in New York, but since our hotel is right by Times Square, nobody minds the long drive from JFK airport.

Once we got to our rooms, I freshened up and got ready for the cold!

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January Roster

Well, it’s come around again just as quick as always…roster day! The very first roster of 2018 and I have to admit it’s not off to a great start as I only got one of my bids, the lowest one!

I just have to hope and pray that somehow I can manage to swap, as I’m supposed to be going to my cousin’s wedding and they’ve given me a 6-day trip which is practically impossible to swap, due to all of the legalities. Please keep all of your fingers and toes crossed for me!!

So without further ado, I’ll be heading to:

  • KBL – Kabul, Afghanistan (turnaround)
  • BNE – AKL – Brisbane, Australia & Auckland, New Zealand
  • MLE – Male, Maldives (turnaround)
  • BOS – Boston, USA
  • Leave
  • LHR – London Heathrow, UK

I have 2 turnarounds, Kabul and Male which are two of the longest ones we have, so that shall be interesting….!

Then this dreaded Brisbane Auckland, which I’m just hoping that by some miracle I can get rid of. I’m not a fan of multi-sectors anyway, and I’ve only just been to Melbourne and Auckland.

It’s been a while since I’ve been to Boston, and although it’s only a 30 hour layover (and a 14 hour flight!) I’m happy to be flying back there as hopefully it should be lovely and snowy.

Then I have 5 days leave – originally my sister and I were planning to go to Cuba but since I didn’t get any extra days off with my leave I think it will be a bit of a long way to travel for a very short time. So perhaps I can jet off somewhere cold and snowy for some skiing, otherwise I’m happy to hear any of your suggestions!

Lastly I have Heathrow, which was my lowest priority bid, so that mum and I can hopefully go and see a musical! 🙂

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

Elephant Mountain, Taipei

It was my second time to visit Taipei, and after a 7 hour flight we touched down in the evening, ready for some food!

Taipei being the birthplace of one of my favourite Asian dumpling restaurants, Din Tai Fung, we of course couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sample the original. There was a bit of a wait (around 30 minutes – although we passed by the next day and the wait was over 90 minutes!) but it was so worth it for all of the delicious food!

The next morning I was up bright and early to meet one of the girls from the flight to hike up Elephant Mountain.

Elephant Mountain is also known as Xiangshan in Chinese, and the name comes from the mountain’s elephant-like shape. Thanks to Taipei’s public transport system, it’s very easy to get there, and is just a ten minute walk through a park to the start of the hike.

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Mekong Delta, Vietnam

First of all I’d like to apologise for how quiet it’s been over here on The Dubai Diaries for the past few weeks – I’ve just finished sitting my yearly exams so I was out of action studying for a while!

After my 2 trips to Hanoi it was time to explore another part of Vietnam – Ho Chi Minh City, also known by the locals as Saigon.

We arrived after a fairly quiet night flight and although this time the layover was only 24 hours, I was still eager to fit in as much as possible. There’s a huge street food market around a 10 minute drive away, so a few of us jumped in a taxi to sample some local food for dinner, which was delicious. I’m converted to Vietnamese food after a month of flights there!

The next morning we were up bright and early to head to the Mekong Delta.

It was around a 2 hour drive, and we had a quick stop at a rest stop along the way – similar to the stop we’d had in Hanoi on the way to Trang An, very touristy! At least this one had some pretty gardens 😉

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