WELCOME ABOARD

The statue of the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, the first European discoverer of Brazil. This is in Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo. I especially took this picture to include the TAM Brasil aircraft (top right corner) which had just took off from Congonhas airport.


JULY 2010 Edition

This month of July 2010 sees the re-launch (whew, what a word!) of my blog with a new visual appearance. Though still on its initial phase and pictures are yet to be scanned and articles that should go with the pictures are yet to be written (especially for my travels from 2001 to 2007), the blog already has some sections working. This is all about travel but geared more toward the flying part of it (for my personal travel photos, I decided to have them in Facebook).

To coincide with the launch (sorry but I have to use this word again, lol), I travelled for the first time to South America, specifically to Brazil, and explore the megalopolis of São Paulo, a city that has been fascinating me for a long time. Since I'm a Lusophile, this visit is also culturally significant as São Paulo is the largest Portuguese-speaking metropolis in the world being the home to more than 20 million people...and counting!

I also took this opportunity to fly on Turkish Airlines and experience its non-stop Istanbul-São Paulo service, launched in March 2010, operating three times a week with Airbus 340/Boeing 777-300ER. This is so far the longest non-stop route of the company at 6561SM and at approximately 14 hours flying time.

Manila to São Paulo requires approximately 25 hours of flying. But who cares?


Map by http://www.gcmap.com: The flight route to Brazil on Cebu Pacific Air (Hong Kong-Manila-Hong Kong) and Turkish Airlines (Hong Kong-Istanbul-São Paulo-Istanbul-Hong Kong)


You'll find my account of my Brazilian adventure and Turkish Airlines flight experience by:

1. Checking out the Featured Trip Report located on the upper right corner of the page
2. Clicking on "Brazil" tab under the Continents Visited- South America category.
3. Clicking on "My Brazil Travel Chronicles" under Featured Trip Report

If anything, feel free to ask me...

Enjoy!

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MGees