Botany Bay & Air Asia X

Botany Bay at Sydney

Botany Bay was actually James Cook's first landing into Australia and it marked the British's interest on the continent in 1770. And since Botany Bay is like 10 mins drive from the airport, it was very nice of Emily & her bf to take me here to chill out for half an hour before I board my first Virgin Blue flight back to Melbourne. It was really a nice bay with white sandy beaches and cool breeze in the evening eventhough the day was hot.

Sparkling wine & fresh oysters

Before we came to Botany Bay, we actually went to the Sydney Fish Market to get some Pacific oysters and some fresh fish. It was very smart of Emily to bring along 2 bottles of sparkling wine and a bucket of ice that we got free from McDonalds. The wine were perfectly chilled when we reached Botany. And there, we had a big beach towel which we used it as a mat for us to sit on while indulging in our oysters and wine.

The oysters were really fresh!

Chilling out!

Thanks to Emily and her kind bf, I managed to have a good time before flying off yesterday. At least I managed to cover a few more places like the Pennant Hills in the north where there was this awesome Malaysian restaurant called Makan@Alice and I had a bowl of "Har Mee" there!

I took Virgin Blue from T2 at Sydney International Airport to make my way to Melbourne before catching a flight back at 1.30 am on Air Asia X. Virgin Blue is a low cost carrier by Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines. It was indeed very punctual and I am impressed because they do have a in-flight entertainment where you can use by just paying AUD$4.90 and AUD$9.90 (more than 2 hours flight). Their food menu prices are just at $3.00-5.00. Virgin Blue landed in the same building as Melbourne International Airport and I just need to go up to Level 1 for international departure.

The beautiful sunlight this morning from the plane.

One thing I notice though is that people here check in really early. I was there almost 4 hours early and there were already people started lining up. Check in counter opens at 3 hours before the flight and it was about 80-90% full passenger load yesterday. Lucky I booked the Premium Promo, which is Air Asia's version of business class (minus the food and all) but with more leg space and less crowded.

Instead of 3 seats, there's only 2 seats on each row except the one in the middle. The chair can also be reclined to almost 45 degrees for the A330. I booked the Premium Promo seat on the way back because the price difference was just below RM200 and so I thought why not give it a try. It turned out to be a good choice because I really felt comfortable during the whole journey back.

Ample of leg space!

I think my journey to Australia with Air Asia X has been pleasant and I wouldn't mind flying again on Air Asia next time. It does saved me almost RM1200 for the return ticket which I used it for shopping! I might hate domestic Air Asia flights because they really sucked but so far for an 8 hours journey, it has been all fine.

Aww... I'm all back to work tomorrow! Bummer...