Wednesday, Oct 28 Bucharest - Warsaw

  Itinerary

Mon Oct 12 -13 Toronto - Paris - Vienna

Oct 13 - Vienna

Oct 14 - Vienna

Oct 15 - Vienna

Oct 16 - Vienna to Budapest by train

Oct 17 - Budapest

Oct 18 - Budapest to Zagreb Croatia

Oct 19 - Zagreb

Oct 20 - Zagreb - Belgrade Serbia

Oct 21 - Belgrade

Oct 22 - Belgrade

Oct 23 - Belgrade - Bucharest Romania

Oct 24 - Bucharest

Oct 25 - Bucharest - Transylvania overnight Brasov

Oct 26 - Transylvania - Bucharest

Oct 27 - Bucharest

Wednesday, October 28

After breakfast we kicked off our morning at 10:30 AM with a quick ride to Bucharest Airport, then had to exit outside the airport and drag our bags into departures. We were early and our flight was not posted until 11:30. We flew through priority check in and fast track security and headed to LOT lounge. It was a big improvement on the premium lounge.

Crazy airport, this is the escalator that was not running when we arrived.

Forget about priority boarding, this was a free for all!

However, once seated service was impeccable.

We landed smoothly at Warsaw Chopin Airport at 1:55 PM. Navigating the airport was incredibly simple; we bypassed the ground-floor exit and headed straight upstairs to the Departures level to get a Bolt.

Our ride straight into the heart of the city center took exactly 20 minutes. By 3:00 PM, we were officially checked into the Hampton by Hilton Warsaw City Centre.

With no particular plans we walked a couple of blocks and found a Greek restaurant that appealed to us.

We shared a mixed platter that was very good.

Looking across at the  monumental perimeter of the Soviet-style Palace of Culture and Science. Right afterward, as we walked back toward the hotel, we stopped at the massive central intersection of Al. Jerozolimskie and Al. Jana Pawła II to witness a hilarious local urban phenomenon. Standing on this single street corner, you can literally see four completely distinct McDonald's branches all at the exact same time—one inside the Złote Tarasy mall, one inside the underground tram passageways, a street-level branch, and the futuristic glass-dome branch inside the train hall.

Bangkok - Chiang Mai Saturday Dec 14

  Saturday Dec 14 2025 - Bangkok - Chiang Mai

Previous posts can be found on the right side under BLOG ARCHIVE.

TOUR DAY 19 TRANSIT

ITALICS TOUR DESCRIPTION

Following breakfast, you will be met in the lobby of your hotel and transferred to the airport in Bangkok for your flight to Chiang Mai.

Dep:Bangkok Dec 14, 2025 - Chiang Mai Dec 14, 2025

 TG110

BKK | Dec 14 13:30 - CNX | Dec 14 14:45

ECONOMY

Dur.:1h 15m

Upon arrival at the airport in Chiang Mai, you will be greeted by our local representatives and transferred to your hotel. The rest of the day is free to relax or explore the area at leisure. (Breakfast)

This morning we were awake early and went for usual braefast at the hotel before getting ready to leave for the airport.

The airport in Bangkok is about one hour away, so we checked out and waited in the lobby for our ride. In the van were Tom (Calgary) and partner (not feeling well). 

Our flight was scheduled for 1:30 pm, however our driver arrived early so we were quite happy to leave and spend time in the airport lounge. Tom must have been on a different flight.

Following check-in. we headed toward our gate and found the Thai Airways First Class lounge.

Scenery around the airport from the lounge.

Once we landed and we met our guide in the terminal. We headed to the hotel with a couple from Portland and a single woman originally from Ghana (?).

The drive from the airport in Chiang Mai to the Movenpick Suriwongse Hotel was about 10-15 minutes as the airport is downtown.

After check-in, we went to our room, left the luggage and headed out for lunch which became lupper.. Along the way, we decided to stop at the First Bar and had a couple of cocktails. We met an individual from Brampton who was now residing in Chiang Mai. He mentioned being there for several months and was looking for employment. Unfortunately he became a bit tiresome and invading our space  John asked him to give us some space as we had just arrived and wanted to chill out.

Hotel lobby

John went to an ATM, and forgetting what currency we were now using, took out too much money, or so he thought, but we ended up using it up by the end of our stay.

After a few cocktails we decided it was time for some food. Some places we passed on the way.

After checking out several restaurants we settled on the Rock Me Burger place. We ordered a couple beers and decided on a couple of burgers. The 755.00 Baht is equivalent to $34.00 Canadian. By the time we finished our meal, it was time to head back to our hotel to relax and call it a day.

Heading back to our hotel.

Good night!

Chiang Mai - Phuket Wednesday Dec 17

  Wednesday Dec 17 2025 Chiang Mai - Phuket

Previous posts can be found on the right side under BLOG ARCHIVE.

WEATHER

TOUR DAY 22 TRANSIT

ITALICS TOUR DESCRIPTION

Following breakfast, you will be met in the lobby of your hotel and transferred to the airport in Chiang Mai for your flight to Phuket.

Dep:Chiang Mai Dec 17, 2025 - Phuket Dec 17, 2025

 H14700

CNX | Dec 17 10:50 - HKT | Dec 17 12:50

 ECONOMY

Dur.:2h 0m

Upon arrival at the airport in Phuket, you will be greeted by our local representative holding a sign with your name on it and wearing an Asian Trails uniform. Our representative will wait for you at the exit door #1. 

The rest of the day is free to take advantage of the facilities at your hotel, relax at the beach, or explore the area. (Breakfast)

We were up  early and went for our traditional buffet breakfast. Today we are flying to Phuket on a 10:50 am flight. We are flying with Vietjet Air. The flight time to Phuket is about one hour 20 minutes.

The Chiang Mai airport is located in the centre of the city and 20 minutes from our hotel. Here are some photos taken on the way to the airport.

The mostly intact wall and moat run along an irregularly-shaped perimeter on the sides not facing the Mekong River.

After we checked in we headed to find the lounge. The Thai Royal Coral lounge was located near our gate. We entered, presented our Amex Priority passes and were good to go. 

When we arrived in Phuket, our local guide was there to greet us and schedule our drive to our hotel. She was a little confued with the names and who was going to what hotel. Eventually she got the names right, the van that were assigned to,  and we were on our way. The drive to our hotel was roughly one hour away. A photo taken on our way.

We arrived at the hotel  (Ramada by Wyndham) and waited to be checked into our rooms. The check in was a slow process, cash needed to pay the local hotel taxes, room deposit in cash and then advised that the keys to our room were not available. However we were advised to wait and they would be available shortly. 

We were given our keys and headed to our room.

We had a balcony and took a couple of pictures of our pool area.

It was lunch time so we headed down to restaurant on the main floor. We ordered the spicy Thai style pork salad and basmati rice. We had 2 glasses of wine with our meal.. We were presented with two bills, one for the food and one for the wine.

Following lunch we headed back to our room to read, relax, have a nap . 

We woke up around 7 pm and decided to head to the pizza place next door for dinner.

It looked quite busy. There seemed to be a lot regular clients who were well known by the staff. We decided on a bottle of wine, caesar salad and a pepperoni pizza.

The food was excellent. As we were enjoying our wine, it started to rain, heavily. The staff  helped move our glasses and wine into the restaurant so we would not get wet. It was a torrential rain storm.

The rain fell for a good hour. It was near ten o'clock which was closing time for the restaurant. It was still raining heavily so we decided we should hurry and cover the 100 yards to our hotel. The water was fairly deep crossing the parking lot, and we knew we were going to get wet, so we headed out. A little soaked, mostly our feet, we made to our room, to dry off and call it a night.