Hola! I’m back for another round of literary delight. Marvellous March took me to Edinburgh, Manchester, Ho Chi Minh City, Perth twice in a week and Dar Es Salaam… I travelled new cities, made new friends and experienced flying business class for the first time yay!
Edinburgh, Scotland
I started off the month in Scotland. It was my first time in Scotland and I absolutely loved it. I am super keen to head back there when the weather is a LOT warmer. Unfortunately, I happened to travel to Edinburgh in the midst of a huge snowstorm so it wasn’t an ideal time to adventure around the city. Most of the shops were closed due to the storm and I could barely manage to stay outside for longer than an hour before needing to defrost. Despite this, I still had the most amazing time because I got to visit the famous Elephant Café where my childhood idol JK Rowling supposably wrote parts of the first Harry Potter novel. Unfortunately, the café was closed due to the snowstorm and even though the owner of the café was sitting inside drinking a coffee when I visited, the asshole wouldn’t let me in to take some photos! The layover is very short so I was praying my flight back to Doha would get cancelled due to the storm (like all the other flights from Edinburgh) and I would get to spend some more time here. Unfortunately, Qatar Airways manufactures super dooper aircrafts insusceptible to snowstorms so I had to leave the next morning… noooo!
JK Rowling’s inspiration for Diagon Alley
Getting blown away at Edinburgh Castle
Qatar Airways is the only flight not cancelled due to the snowstorm
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
The highlight of this month was without a doubt Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I seriously love this place, I even bid for it again for April’s roster but unfortunately I’m not going back next month. I had such a good time last month in Hanoi that I couldn’t wait to head back and eat all the delicious food. I was fortunate to get a rostered day off here so I got to spend TWO whole days in the city. I slept a total of approx. 12 hours in 3 days but it was well worth it, I just wanted to make the most of my time there. It was an overnight flight on the way there so the first thing I did when I arrived in the morning was head to the streets in search of PHO for breakfast. It didn’t take long until I found my heaven in a bowl. I ate a large bowl of beef pho to start and before I finished that, I ordered a second bowl of chicken pho (sorry boys this soup is the one pho me <3). After demolishing both bowls, I was forced to go to the famous massage place frequented by the crew for this so called “best 90 minute massage of my life”. I can confidently confirm that it was NOT the best 90-minute massage of my life, in fact it was the worst massage I have ever had in my life. I have never had a Thai massage but to give you a rough idea, the Vietnamese massage is apparently a lot worse.I was expecting a nice relaxing massage given that I hadn’t slept prior to the flight and I was extremely exhausted, instead I had a little Vietnamese man jumping on my back and cracking every bone in my body. Parts of my body I didn’t even know could be cracked, were cracked… I swear it was the longest 90 minutes of my life #VietNAHTgood
Say hello to beef pho heaven bowl! 
Of course since I had a day off the next day, it would be rude of me not to go out and explore the nightlife that Ho Chi Minh City has to offer. I had a really fun time out with the crew and I finished the night off with a cheeky motorbike ride back to the hotel #Vietbrrrrrmmmmmm
Bright and early the next morning, me and the crew cleverly booked a 7.30am tour to Mekong Delta… what sleep? We took a shuttle out of the city to Mekong Delta – in a nutshell it’s basically Vietnam’s “equivalent” to Venice… I say this loosely 😛 It’s made up of lots of rivers, swamps, islands and floating markets. We spent the day out on the boat, exploring the island and eating the local food. I was even crazy enough to hold a snake around my neck which I am usually terrified of… the things I do for a photo! I think this job is making me cuckoo if I wasn’t already… but I kind of like it 😀
After the tour I utilised my last few hours in Vietnam with some much needed pampering – mani and pedi followed by the most amazing one hour facial. After this, I went to the Street Food Market for dinner. It’s an indoor food market, similar to the Queen Vic night market in Melbourne. I tried the rice paper rolls, Banh Xeo (savoury crepe) and seafood Nam Vang soup. The Banh Xeo consisted of caramelised ginger duck and it was amazing, I will eat more next time I visit Vietnam.
Caramelised ginger duck Banh Xeo
Unexpected trip to Perth, Australia
In my last blog post, I mentioned I would be travelling to Thailand and Italy this month, however due to roster changes, I ended up travelling to Perth, Australia for 2 nights to work at a promotional event for the A380 aircraft which Qatar Airways will fly to Perth starting from 1 May (same aircraft they fly to Melbourne and Sydney). Myself and another crew (both of us from Melbourne) were selected to work the event. I don’t know if you can even classify it as “working” because it was actually a really fun evening. Basically, our role was to mingle and take photos with the guests. There was a demo A380 business class seat set up in the room and the two of us showed the guests how to work the seat functions. My favourite part was all the people that came up to us and asked “are you real cabin crew!?” They were so amazed when we told them that we were!
Coming from an event management background prior to joining the airline, it was a strange feeling being back on the scene. This time, however I was on the other side and actually in the event, opposed to being in the background running the show. I really love the event life so I am so grateful that I got the opportunity to do this and hope to be selected for more events in future!
I was also fortunate that I got to spend a good 2 days in Perth. When you operate this flight, the layover is only 24 hours so the fact that we were given an extra day was amazing. Trust me, when you fly, one day can make all the difference! The highlight was definitely day 2 where the two of us travelled to the beautiful Rottnest Island to spend the day before flying back to Doha. I travel so often to other parts of the world, I often forget how beautiful it is in my own backyard. Even though it was a short stay, it felt good to be (semi)home in Australia. It’s crazy how many things I took for granted when I lived there and now that I live abroad I appreciate all of the little things Australia has to offer.
Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania
My second last flight for the month was Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Amazing! Good food, hot weather and a very nice flight. I spent the majority of my time here just relaxing by the pool at the hotel and enjoying the 30 degree weather. For dinner we went to the Cape Town Fish Market (the primary reason I bid for this flight) for a seafood feast by the beach with a beautiful sunset❤️ #heaven
Dinner view at Cape Town Fish Market
April
The most exciting day for cabin crew is of course roster day and I am pleased to inform you that again I got a nice roster for this upcoming month. Destinations for April:
- Manchester, UK
- Jakarta, Indonesia
- Phuket, Thailand
- Incheon, South Korea (new country for my count yay!)
- Narita, Japan
That’s all of my layovers for this month because I am heading back to school for a few days at the end of April to do my conversion training. After 3 months of flying, you are allocated training on either the large A380 or the A330/A340/A350 family. I am so happy I have been allocated training on the A330/340/350 because of all the amazing destinations the aircrafts fly to (Maldives I am coming)! However, it does mean I won’t be travelling to Melbourne very often, only when I have leave or days off. When I first moved here, I really wanted the A380 conversion as that’s the aircraft that flies to Melbourne, but I didn’t realise that the aircraft only flies to 6 (soon to be 7) destinations and 3 of those are in Australia (Melbourne, Sydney, Perth). Since my main reason to come here is to travel the world, it is far better for me to get trained on the other aircrafts so I am not just flying to and from Australia every month. The only destination that the A350 flies to in Australia is Adelaide so that will be it for me. However, we do fly a 777 aircraft to Sydney & Canberra (or as all the non Australian crew pronounce it “Can-ber-rer”) so Sydney friends, you can still catch me😁
Well that’s it from me for another month. Thanks for reading! I hope everyone has a nice Easter and enjoys the long weekend. Funny enough, I actually have Easter long weekend off as well🤷♀️ Buona Pasqua xxx
Danielle Murnane 
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