A Very Manly Day

We booked a flight from Auckland to Bangkok that came with a "free" day in Sydney.  Bonus!
The Auckland-Sydney leg is a quick flight so we had about 8 hours to kill between our morning flight in and our evening flight out of the big S.  We easily chose to go to the beach and quickly found ourselves on a ferry across Sydney Harbor to the chilled-out neighborhood of Manly.  The Manly ferry took about half an hour and before we knew it we were on Manly Beach.  We bought a beach towel (with the Oz flag, of course) and enjoyed a nice Manly rest for a few Manly hours.  Manly coffee and Manly baked goods added to the joy of basking under the Manly sun.

There were a few Manly volleyball players, and plenty of other Manly tourists.  We took a Manly walk up and down the beach.  The best hotel name by far was "Manly Paradise."  We found a great cafe that was well designed with an up-market sandwich menu.  Very Manly.  We spent about four or five Manly hours just hanging out in Manly, in plenty of Manly style.  We got really lucky with the weather, as we had mostly sun.

Once back at the airport, we prepared for our second flight on Arab Emirates (the other was Singapore to Brisbane).  Emirates has a great reputation and wowed us again.  We just do not have an equivilant airline in the States.  Not even close.  Once again, the service, food, entertainment, and comfort were on another level.  The seats have more space and we had a free seat in our row so we had tons of space to spread out.  Jeff had a few free beers and Annette had a free vodka and coke.  Both times we flew Emerates they were the cheapest option, which only added to our amazement at the fabulous airline.

We finally settled in to our Bangkok Airport hotel around 2am in the morning.  There is a two hour time difference between Auckland and Sydney and 4 hours difference between Sydney and Bangkok, so we were worn the fudge out by the time we landed in the Big Bang. The only hotel at the Bangkok airport is pretty pricy, but was worth every penny.  They allow you to stay for 24 hours from whenever you check in (duh!) and the rooms and beds are very clean and comfortable.  We woke up around 11am the next morning, well rested and ready to explore Bangkok.

Auckland to Bangkok in one day with a layover in Sydney?  Now, that's manly!