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2013 Year in Review

Warning: This post is entirely self-indulgent.

2013 was a great year for many reasons, and January 1, 2013 was the inception of this blog. In 2012, I flew around 75k miles (all but 192 for leisure), and in 2013, I just about doubled that to 145k miles (all for leisure).

2013 Flight Map
2013 Flight Map

My travel was definitely heavier during the end of the year as I flew over 80k miles in the last quarter of the year. A little over 30k of that at the end of the year was to qualify for American Executive Platinum status. For 2014, I already have over 60k miles booked (albeit mostly award tickets), including my first trip to South America, and two major trips where I’ll fly Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Asiana, and Thai in first class. I’d love to plan a trip to Australia and/or New Zealand as well, and I definitely want to return to Africa at some point, but I just need to figure out how to balance all of this desired travel with my full-time job, as I think most of my teammates think I don’t do anything but travel…

Here’s a smattering of my favorite travel moments from 2013, in random order.

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Taking a shower onboard an Emirates A380
The entire Emirates First Class Terminal in Dubai
Using a jacuzzi in the Qatar Premium Terminal for about 3 minutes
Being the only passenger in first class on a Lufthansa A380

Eating
L’arpege in Paris
Breakfast at Gartine in Amsterdam
Eleven Madison Park in New York
Manresa in Los Gatos
Yang’s Fry Dumplings in Shanghai
Ushigoro in Tokyo
And of course, Mission Chinese approximately every other week

Travel Experiences
Dropping my heart at the Spice Bazaar in Istanbul
Getting scrubbed by a gruff Turkish man in a hamam in Istanbul
Having a man in a cafe in Amsterdam try to buy me and my traveling companion a piece of cake because he thought we were too poor to afford more than one thing
Badminton in front of a Starbucks in Shanghai
A burlesque show followed by a late night run to Voodoo Donuts in Portland
Dialogue in the Dark in Hong Kong
Sunrise yoga on the 47th floor of the Park Hyatt Tokyo gym
Staying at a capsule hotel in Tokyo

5 Comments

  1. Nice review.

    Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Asiana, and Thai in F are each big rewards. Looking forward to the reports!

    PS- Appreciate the PP lounge reviews, too. Seems like that’s a little closer to the level I’m on. heh.

    1. Thanks for the kind words! Priority Pass is awesome, particularly when you’re flying into less busy airports where sometimes nearly all lounges will accept it (e.g. Colombo, Zurich).

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