Introduction
ANA Business Class Chicago to Tokyo
United Club – Tokyo Narita
Thai Airways Business Class Tokyo to Bangkok
One Night in Bangkok
Thai Airways Business Class Bangkok to Bali
D’Wina Villa Kuta and Exploring Bali (Part 1)
Exploring Bali (Part 2)
Exploring Bali (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Bangkok to Addis Ababa
Ethiopian Airlines Cloud Nine Lounge and Addis Ababa to Seychelles
Hilton Seychelles Northolme Resort and Exploring the Seychelles (Part 1)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 2)
Exploring the Seychelles (Part 3)
Ethiopian Airlines Seychelles to Addis Ababa and Back to the US

For those who may not know, the Guru and the New Mrs. Guru got married a few weeks ago.   Naturally, being the Guru, I was happy to take on the Honeymoon planning, and it ended up being a pretty incredible trip.  I’ll be posting this Trip Report in a number of installments, so this Introduction will have a bit of background on how the trip came together.

The New Mrs. Guru (aka Lauren) wanted our destination(s) to be a surprise, so I began planning the trip in secret.  I looked into a number of different destinations – Greece, Cyprus, Southern France – but eventually decided to book a trip to Bali.  I had a little over 200,000 miles in my United account, and United charges 120,000 miles per person for a roundtrip ticket from North America to Asia in Business Class.  United belongs to the Star Alliance, which is a partnership of about 30 airlines around the world, so it allows you to redeem your miles on various partner airlines.  Similarly, American Airlines belongs to the OneWorld Alliance (made up of 13 airlines) and Delta belongs to SkyTeam (made up of 19 airlines).  The airlines in Star Alliance really have a good global reach, so there were several options for getting to Bali.

Although it may not seem intuitive at first, from the east coast of the US, it’s almost the exact same distance to reach Southeast Asia by crossing the Atlantic and connecting through Europe as it is to cross the Pacific.

Flying Chicago to Tokyo to Bangkok to Bali (Denpasar) is 10,995 miles:

Flying Chicago to London to Bangkok to Bali (Denpasar) is only about 750 miles longer, at 11,743 miles:

Since the distance is about the same in either direction, airlines will actually let you travel via Europe on the way to or back from Asia.  So, it can be possible to book a trip to Asia with a stopover in Europe either on the outbound or on the return, effectively creating a round-the-world trip.  After a bit of finagling with various flights, I ended up booking the trip to Bali with a stopover in the Seychelles on the return (technically, the Seychelles are part of Africa, so I don’t think that the agent should have let the reservation be booked with a stopover in Africa, but it worked out!).  In the end, the 28,026 mile trip looked like this:

1) Greensboro –> Chicago –> Tokyo –> Bangkok –> Denpasar (Bali)
2) Denpasar (Bali) –> Bangkok –> Addis Ababa –> Mahe (Seychelles)
3) Mahe (Seychelles) –> Addis Ababa –> Washington, DC –> Greensboro

From a travel nerd perspective, several aspects of the trip were particularly exciting (in addition to the destinations themselves!):

• The flight from Chicago to Tokyo would be on ANA’s new Business Class, which have completely flat beds and a small mattress pad to lay down on the seat to eliminate the creases in between the cushions.
• The flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was on Thai Airways’ Airbus A380, which is a full double-decker plane.  I had heard that the A380 was more spacious and quiet than any other plane out there, but I had not flown on it yet.
• And finally…how many people can say that they’ve flown on Ethiopian Airlines?

So, after an awesome wedding weekend, Lauren and I arrived at the Greensboro Airport a few minutes after 5:00 am, and she still had no clue where we were headed….

Continue to Part 2: ANA Business Class Chicago to Tokyo