I like to get an idea of where I will be seated before I travel – maybe you have been assigned to a seat that is not ideal and maybe you can change it to a seat with better legroom. There is of course a website for this kind of information and it is called SeatGuru . On this website you can check out how the various planes for the various airlines are configured, which seats that are good or bad and get lots of useful information. There are also other websites with similar information and one of them is SeatExpert. Good luck with grabbing that perfect seat on your next flight

On July 4th the crown of the Statue of Liberty was opened for the first time in 8 years. So now you can climb 156 steps to enjoy the view from the top. We did go to the Statue of Liberty when we went to NYC in 2007 (see our NYC trip report) and the view from the top of the pedestal is also spectacular . Well, you can read more about the news in this article.

Over the years I have stayed at quite a lot of hotels in Bangkok and it is always fun to try new ones in different locations in the city. As a new SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest) I decided to try out Plaza Athenee Bangkok, A Royal Meridien Hotel on Sukhumvit when I went to Bangkok in April 2009. If you want to read more about Bangkok feel free to check out our Bangkok trip report from 2007 – and if you want to read the review of the hotel please continue reading 
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So this is what Norway is like? Well, I wouldn’t say that Norway is this picture perfect all the time but we can brag about some beautiful scenery here. The western fjords of Norway are beautiful and I do get amazed every time I go to places like Preikestolen (Pulpit rock) or Kjerag – at the latter place you are about 1000 meter (about 3000 feet) above the fjord so the view is just spectacular. Well, enjoy the video of Norway

Are you claustrophobic? Need a lot of personal space? I guess this means that the Tokyo Metro is one place that you should stay away from Well, honestly it was not that bad when we went to Tokyo a few years back (see our trip report on http://gardkarlsen.com/japan_tokyo.htm ) but there have been lots of reports of women being felt up on the subway and hence some of the cities in Japan have introduces female only cars on the subway systems. But as this video on YouTube shows it can get crowded on the subway in Japan.

I’m a bit of a Google fan and I use it for searching, the maps, gmail etc etc. Now there is a new tool available and you can find it on http://citytours.googlelabs.com/ . It is called City Tours and here you can get recommendations on what to see on a e.g. 3 day trip to various cities shown on a Google map of course. But it seems like you have to be reasonably fit to use this…when trying it out on e.g. Paris it suggests walking from Musée National du Moyen Age-Thermes de Cluny to La Cinémathèque française and the walk is supposed to take 84 minutes! Has anyone tried out this product in real life?

I have stayed at the Traders hotel in Kuala Lumpur a number of times in 2007, 2008 and 2009. I really enjoyed my stays there but this was written after my first stay there. Back then I had room 3106 on the 31st floor (which is on the club floor – meaning executive floor) and I had a room with a city view. All my stays at Traders have been business trips and I have been to KL a number of times before and I have experience from various hotels such as Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel, Ascott, Federal and Agora. If you need some general info on Kuala Lumpur, please feel free to check out my Kuala Lumpur trip report with pictures and links. Check out the location of the Traders hotel on this KL Google map that I have made. The hotels I have stayed at are marked with yellow pins.
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I stayed at Sheraton Skyline hotel at Heathrow in London in the end of March 2009. It is actually not the first time I stay here…I stayed here for one night in 2005 when I was in transit on my way to Rome in Italy. Back then we were amazed by the bed in the hotel and it was time to check it out again in connection with a work trip to Malaysia.
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People in conical hats, country being the place for ”the American war”, millions of motorcycles in the streets, people transporting every imaginable (and unimaginable) item on mopeds, the Mekong delta, snakes and scorpions in rice wine – I have now posted a trip report from the busy Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) in Việt Nam in South East Asia on my homepage http://gardkarlsen.com/Ho_Chi_Minh_City_Vietnam_trip_report.htm . Feel free to check it out and get in touch if you have any questions or comments.

Have you ever wondered what flying Emirates Airlines would be like? And do you wonder what it is like to fly the brand new Airbus A380 (you know….the plane with two floors)? Well, this is my experience with flying Emirates Airlines and A380 for the very first time…and it was even on business class The flight took me from Stavanger to London with SAS and from there to Dubai and Bangkok with Emirates. more…