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South East Asia and Beyond
July 2006

To Oman via Prague, Greece and Bahrain

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< Trips 2006 >
Air Asia free flight tickets It all started with this Air Asia add… Isn’t that cheap enough?

It was in december 2005 when Air Asia did this campaign. I realized that this was the chance to visit South East Asia.

I spent acouple of hours booking these tickets for the summer of 2006. I planned the itinerary according to the best prices and staying enough time in each visited city to see as much as possible and try to feel its atmosphere. You’re about to see the result!
Flying to Prague There was just one question after that : How do we get to South East Asia?

The answer came quickly, as I knew one of the best places to find tickets to Asia was Athens, in Greece.
So I compared prices and it was really cheaper to fly from Athens than from Paris.
Metal Traveller in Athens
We had different airline options with good prices, among them Emirates, Royal Jordanian, Egyptair and Qatar Airways.

We chose Gulf Air for 2 main reasons : We could have a free stop in Oman or Bahrain, and they allowed an open jaw at no extra cost (we flew to Manila and got back from Singapore).
Flying over Greek Islands But...How to get to Athens? Fortunately we had flown Air France before, thus getting enough miles for a free award flight to Athens.

We choose to fly with CSA Czech Airlines, which is an Air France partner, and we got a fly to Athens via Prague.

A lot of planning, and stop overs, but a great way to see different places for a great price. Some people prefer a direct flight. For business it's OK, but when I travel for holiays, I don't mind to have several stops enroute.
Flying over Lebanon Athens was the best place to start a trip to Asia.

One of the things I loved the most on that trip was that we got to Asia gradually. Athens was for me the best place to start the trip: You can feel oriental influences there, it has a different feeling from other European cities. I’ll describe as more Mediterranean than European.

Athens is a gateway to the East, although culture and history are here to remind you that you are in Europe.

After that we went to the Middle East and finally to South East Asia; doing the trip gradually we did not have any "cultural shock".
It was almost like travelling by road, we saw the people, the climate and the landscapes change gradually.
A great experience.
Arriving in Bahrein Athens is an amazing place, but we only spent a night there, the aim of our trip was Asia.
We spent some time at Monastirraki Square and going up and down through Plaka.

The next day we had a ticket to fly again...
Gul Traveller Boeing in Bahrein We flew over Greek islands, Cyprus and entered Asia overflying Syria.

For a couple of hours we flew over the desert of Saudi Arabia and finally we landed Bahrain.

We missed our connecting flight to Oman but we were kindly put on the next one, a couple of hours later.
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