Plane Spotting With A Twist...

Yesterday, I realised that my yellow fever vaccination certificate had expired. The certificate is an essential travel document to visit certain countries where yellow fever is endemic, without which one can get detained for a period of upto a week...

Given that travel schedules are at best uncertain, at worst last minute, I decided to get myself vaccinated today, taking advantage of the New Year holiday lull. The quarantine clinic at Incheon Airport administers the vaccine and the vaccination becomes effective after a 10-day period...

So I headed to Incheon Airport earlier today for the shot and on the way, I was greeted by the wonderful sight of an Asiana Airbus A380 lifting off...

When you see the A380, you find it difficult by any stretch of imagination to believe that this "whale" can actually fly... 

But it does, it does gracefully lift off, leaving me amazed and awestruck!

Plane Spotting At NAN .... Part 2

And here we are at Nadi International Airport for our flight back to Incheon...

As the sickly realisation that the vacation is over, I find the perfect antidote - Plane Spotting...

There comes in a Fiji Airways Airbus A330...

I can imagine the plane will be full of curious tourists waiting to explore Fiji...

Man, I love that livery...

And guess the coincidence - this is the Island of Yasawa-i-Rara - DQ-FJV...

This is the same plane that flew me in a few days back from Hong Kong into Nadi...

And what do I say about the livery - I just love it!

There's the Korean Air Airbus A330 that will fly us into Incheon today...

And shall I say I am really feeling blue...

And here we go...

Plane Spotting At NAN

And this edition of Plane Spotting comes from Nadi International Airport located on the western coast of Viti Levu island...

Nadi Airport is located on a narrow strip of land, nearly a kilometre from the coastline and 6 kilometres from the foothills of the Nausori Highlands...

A Fiji Link de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter  turboprop...

Fiji Airways Boeing 737 "Mamanuca Islands"...

Fiji Airways Airbus A330 "Island of Taveuni"...

Fiji Airways' A330 "Island of Yasawa-i-Rara" on the left of the frame that darted me across the Pacific from Hong Kong...

The Fiji Airways livery is indeed something to talk about!

Unfortunately, the terminal is bit dated in design and obstruction spotting is a huge challenge...

Boarded for Apia, Samoa. onboard Fiji Airways ATR72...

Will be back to say Ni Sa Bula, Nadi, again in 5 days...

Up In The Air .... Part 48

Up In The Air's latest edition is back with pics of our flight between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City...

HCMC is nearly 1500 kilometres south of Hanoi, our flight took us over Lao and Cambodian airspace...

Unfortunately, there was little we could see beyond the magnificent clouds...

But we weren't disappointed...

The vistas up there were breathtaking...

The clouds were incredibly beautiful...

And we begin our finals into HCMC's Tan Son Nhat International Airport...

A grainy 10X zoom into HCMC from nearly 700 feet...

The Saigon River...

This is a city we would love to visit...

It does look quite bustling from up here...

Unfortunately we will spend just two hours here...

We have a short connection - our next flight to Siem Reap takes off in exactly 2 hours...

But I am sure we'll be back in HCMC soon...

Up In The Air .... Part 47

Up In The Air images from today's flight from Incheon to Hanoi's Noi Bai airport, on board Vietnam Airlines' Airbus A350 XWB...

Liftoff from Incheon on a cloudy evening...

The large window...

Crossing into Chinese airspace...

And the sun sets...

Golden rays of dusk...

The curved wingtips of the A350 look amazing...

Hanoi city below us...

Hanoi looks lovely...

An amazing view...

The final approach...

Hanoi, here we are...