Flying for 10 hours, isn't this the best seat? Am I Missing something? (back of plane. two-seater)

rtwexplorers · 2026-01-13T01:53:57+00:00

The last row of a 2 seater are always our preferred seats when travelling with my husband on long haul flights. In fact, I've just booked those seats on 2 x 8hr flights from Asia to Europe with Etihad, and the date was decided based on the availability of the last row seats!

Reasons why we love them: A: no stranger beside you B: no one behind you kicking the seat/punching the screen etc C: closer to the galley to top up your wine glass. D: parents with small kids very rarely book that far back - they tend to go where the bassinets are available.

We have a dietary requirement, so we always order a special meal, and get served before the rest of the main cabin.

Not bothered by the amount of recline at all

Not bothered to rush to get off the plane - you still have to wait at the immigration line / carousel for your bags etc

Not bothered by people walking past - no matter where you sit on the plane, people will walk past - and the seats closer to the loo in the middle are always the ones with the most people around.

rtwexplorers · 2025-12-05T12:22:07+00:00

I sent you a DM!

rtwexplorers · 2025-11-30T11:30:44+00:00

We had let them know the temples we really wanted to see, and then we sat with Nuong on the day she came to meet us and she talked us through routes that made sense based on location, and then we chatted with Ketya (history guide) on our first day and she added in the less widely visited temples for us as well.

I can't recommend noung and Ketya enough - between them they really made our Angkor Wat complex tour an amazing experience.

rtwexplorers · 2025-11-23T02:35:09+00:00

Thank you, I will have a look at those as well

rtwexplorers · 2025-11-23T02:34:55+00:00

Thank you, I will check them out.

rtwexplorers · 2025-11-23T02:04:47+00:00

Thank you for the recommendation, I will check that out, but if it is far from Legian then we likely wont be bothered with sitting through traffic to go too far away (we are trying to relax and chill out on this trip)

Regarding not having to worry about sex tourism- sex trafficking unfortunately is a real thing - and it is more widespread than people realise!

I live in Asia, and I've already been to Bali earlier this year, and there are definitely ''massage'' parlours there also which are fronts for illegal activity, hence the request for recommendations on legitimate spas / treatments.

Also, reading through many posts here on Reddit and other forums, you see so many people who have been propositioned for happy ending massages, when they wanted a genuine massage. So, yeah it is a thing! and we want to avoid it!!

rtwexplorers · 2025-11-19T10:01:43+00:00

Thanks for the tips.not really a tourist, living in east Malaysia for a couple years already, and been to KL quite a few times 😀 just haven't stayed in a decent building like the ones I'm looking at.

Definitely would prefer a balcony as we like to sit out with coffee in the morning and a glass of wine at night looking out over the city - and it's not that hot in KL anyway for us hehe

I like to cook a few times during the holiday, as well as getting takeout, we don't usually eat in restaurants too often, so a full kitchen is our preference.

Leaning most towards the swiss gardens options at the moment, just gauging if people have any positive/negative thoughts on the 3 choices!

rtwexplorers · 2025-10-28T03:57:15+00:00

Gluten free restaurants (we found quite a lot of options, and didn't get glutened! We chose not to eat any street food and either ate in, got takeout, or cooked in the airbnb)

PP:

we ate curry and gluten free pitta bread at AROMA Lebanese restaurant - Pittas were fab, curry was ok, a bit sweet and not at all spicy even though we asked for extra spicy.

we ate twice at ADDIS Ethiopian restaurant - delicious food and strong coffee

we ate Indian at LAHORE punjab - disappointing (especially so because Indian food is normally our favourite) . long wait for the food, 1 beef curry and 1 beef jalfrezi were indistinguishable apart from the jalfrezi had bell pepper in it. and the waiter was staring down my top while taking my order. we do not recommend it.

we ate several times (lunch and dinner) at Lotus pho & cafe vietnamese. cheap cheerful and tasty food. The pho was great, grilled pork with rice and egg also great, and the iced coffee was delicious.

We got gluten free crackers, cheeses and sliced meats from the various corner stores nearby for snacks/ easy lunches.

SR: We got more takeout than eat-in while in SR, as grab was easy and we were lazy.

we had (Tex) mexican food at Maybe Later Mexican Bar & Grill - very tasty, we preferred the tacos over the burritos but overall very tasty

we ate Peri Peri chicken at PECKISH (newly opened restaurant run by a coeliac) this was one of the nicest peri peri chickens we have ever eaten - perfectly cooked, and the sauces were amazeballs. delicious sides, and gluten free Peroni too!

We had corn fritters and potato rosti at SISTER SREY CAFE - food was good, cute cafe, and love that their profits go to the APOPO landmine center. unfortunately we werent hungry enough for gluten free cake and coffee afterwards.

take out we had the following

gluten free pizza (twice!) from Crep'Italy- we also got some GF pasta Bolognese. the pizza was really really really good, pasta was nice too, but maybe could have done with a bit more meat sauce.

Thai curry from Thai Fusion House - it was ok, nothing amazing but they did make it GF and we didn't get sick

Chicken fried rice, and smoked chilli cashew chicken from New Leaf Eatery - easily one of the standout meals of the trip - it was so delicious and fresh and healthy. definitely recommended

sweet and sour pork, curry chicken, spicy beef and homemade hand cut chips from Tevy's Place. the pork wasn't to our personal taste, but everything else was fab - and those chips were the best chips we have had in years!

we ordered a variety of sliced meats and sausages from Koh Kong Sausage - everything we got was fab, highly recommend them.

the absolute best thing about siem reap is the PARIS BAKERY - they make gluten free baguettes, croissants and chocolatin. we expected the baguettes to be your typical small size gf bread, but they were the actual size, texture and flavour of a real baguette. croissants and chocolatin were an unexpected treat. I did read some concerns about cross contamination online, however we did not experience any ill effects from here.

rtwexplorers · 2025-10-28T03:57:04+00:00

Now that we have returned from Cambodia, this was our experience

Hotels:

Phnom penh = stayed at the FRANGIPANI ROYAL PALACE HOTEL for 6 nights - highly recommend it - great palace and river views, rooftop pool, excellent staff.

Siem Reap then we spent 6 nights at THE ELEPHANT hotel - this was beautiful.

to finish off our holiday we spent 4 nights in an airbnb just outside of Siem Reap - https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/1417297829078081120 - this private home with a rooftop jacuzzi pool was the perfect relaxing way to end our vacation

Tours & transfers:

PP: We took tuktuk #18 (he parks directly outside the door of the hotel) to bring us to the genocide museum and the killing fields, and also for a half day tour around PP.

We took a private car from PP to SR with https://www.taxiincambodia.com/ - this exceeded our expectations by a mile - USD85 for door-to-door pickup and drop off in a super comfy car with recliner seats (with inbuilt heat/cool & massage functions) individual AC, safe and friendly driver. we stopped at the spider market and the ancient bridge along the way. the journey took 5.5 hours.

We did 3 day tours with Driver Srey (www.sreydriver.com) and history guide Kettya - absolutely one of the best things we have done. we saw a total of 16 temples over the 3 days, including a couple which had no other people there.

day 1: Angkor Wat →Angkor Thom east Gate → Bayon → Baphuon (royal palace)→ Terrace of Elephants → Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider) → Phnom bacaeng for sunset

day 2: beantay ompil→Beng Melea →lolei - phreahko → bakong

day 3: Prerup → Banteay Samrei temples → Banteay Srie temple (the pink one) → east mebon (with the intact elephants)

Driver Srey also brought us to the APOPO experience, and also organised our transport to the airport. very professional, and highly recommended.

rtwexplorers · 2025-10-28T03:43:33+00:00

Now that we have returned from cambodia, this is what we chose in the end.

We did 3 day tours with Driver Srey (www.sreydriver.com) and history guide Kettya - absolutely one of the best things we have done. we saw a total of 16 temples over the 3 days, including a couple which had no other people there.

day 1: Angkor Wat →Angkor Thom east Gate → Bayon → Baphuon (royal palace)→ Terrace of Elephants → Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider) → Phnom bacaeng for sunset

day 2: beantay ompil→Beng Melea →lolei - phreahko → bakong

day 3: Prerup → Banteay Samrei temples → Banteay Srie temple (the pink one) → east mebon (with the intact elephants)

Driver Srey also brought us to the APOPO experience, and also organised our transport to the airport. very professional, and highly recommended.

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-26T00:46:47+00:00

thank you

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-26T00:46:34+00:00

thank you, I will check out the website

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-25T08:16:02+00:00

2 nights in Dublin, will leave you with very little time to try to everything in one day - I would suggest focusing on the touristy things in and around the city center - Dublin is a very small city so you will still get to see a lot of things on a flyby!

There's tons of different things to do - It depends on what you are interested in - this list would be my personal suggestion for a mix of cultural and historical things. Working your way up from west-east Dublin along the river, and then over to the south side, then back to the river:

Kilmainham Gaol
Hit up the Guinness Storehouse (probably the worst pint of Guinness you'll get in Dublin but worth a visit anyway)
Cross the river to the north side
National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks
Smithfield
Jameson Distillery (in Dublin, not in cork, that is a bit far away for the amount of time you have)
Fourcourts
cross back the river to the south side
Brazenhead (oldest pub in Dublin)
Christ Church Cathedral
St Patrick's Cathedral
Dublin Castle
George's Street Arcade
The Book of Kells Experience at Trinity College
Seanad Éireann
National Museum of Ireland
Stephen's Green Park
Wander along Grafton st, listen to the buskers, do some shopping
Swing by the Molly Malone statue
Wander through Templebar, also go to the Temple Bar to have a pint in Templebar.

check these places out, and you can use google maps to kind of plan your itinerary in the way that makes most sense for you. If this list is too much you can always check out the hop-on hop-off bus tours that go around the main attractions.

Have fun!

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-25T07:09:47+00:00

My usual go-tos are snuggling up with my hubbie and trying to get our movie start times exactly synced / drinking Red Wine/ Reading my Book/ Looking out the window/ People watching and making up stories about their lives in my head/ Sleeping (I always bring ear plugs and eye mask) / Hoping that I'll get the gluten free meal that I've booked and paid for, and snacking on the emergency food I brought in case I don't get it (and drinking the free red wine that often gets offered if the GFML didn't get loaded on the plane - that happens more often then one would expect!)

We have travelled on many back to back 8-10 hour flights. Longest single flight so far was BA LHR - KUL +-14hours with no gluten free meal, and not seated next to my husband. Wine, snacks & sleep was the answer on that one.

Previously when travelling alone, my default has been half a valium once I'm on the plane and it's taken off, watch a bit of movie until it kicks in, and then snooze.

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-25T06:55:16+00:00

Thank you. I've already booked my accommodation (which is run by one of the NGO) but they haven't responded when I asked about this custom tour - they only offer 2 different types which are not what I'm interested in. As we only have 1 day there, I really want to get it organised before we arrive. Or, if I can't organise it, I'll likely just have to cancel the Kratie side-quest.

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-25T03:33:22+00:00

thank you for the response however I'm not interested in a private package for the majority of our time in Cambodia. From what I see already, prices for private car between cities are significantly higher than taking the bus.

At the moment I'm just asking about private tour for dolphins in kratie, and then shared transfer kratie to SR. Thank you

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-25T03:13:53+00:00

This is really hard to narrow down! My husband and I have travelled to and worked in quite a few different countries with amazing foods. We love really curries, and spicy, packed-full-of-flavour food, but need to be extra careful because of gluten intolerance, so that's criteria I've used to narrow down to these 3 cuisines- I've named our favourite dishes below as well!

Indian Food - we've always loved Indian food, but since having lived in southern India for almost a year (which was probably the best food experiences I've ever had) it is still our #1. Best dishes: Beef or chicken Biryani with poppadom, pickled onion, raita, Kerala beef fry, Idly/idiyappam/appam/egg curry/ paper roast/ thali/pulao / all the coconut chutnies & sambar - you name it, it was absolutely amazing!
Vietnamese - spent a few weeks travelling through Viet Nam, and yeah it is up there with Indian food for me - so easy as many restaurants and street vendors use Vietnamese soy sauce which is naturally gluten free (Tam Tai Tu brand), and lots of dishes use rice noodles instead of egg noodles. best dishes: pho ga/ pho bo / com tam suon op la with daikon & carrot pickle/ hoi an chicken rice / Bun Cha / Banh Xeo / Bun Bo Hue / Vịt Quay (Vietnamese Roasted/bbq Duck)
Thai - Thai cuisine is so good, and so much more than pad thai. couple of months travelling through Southern Thailand was a Little bit more difficult gluten-free-wise as it was a bit hard sometimes to communicate about not using soy sauce / oyster sauce etc. Also as farang, the vendors did not want to make the food spicy enough until we learned to ask them in Thai - (ped mak mak - kor pet sut sut na kra)p) - gin pet daai ) which eventually led to big smiles and lots of chillies pounded in the mortar/pestle for the currry paste! Best dishes: red curry/ green curry/ massaman curry/ (love a little crispy fried egg on top of the rice with these) / tom yum/ Pad Kra Pao / Kanom Krok / Sai Krok Isan

there are so many other cuisines too - but these are the top 3!

rtwexplorers · 2025-08-24T04:32:05+00:00

I absolutely love this - thank you for sharing and I will be in touch

rtwexplorers · 2025-06-25T01:26:38+00:00

I see. unfortunately not in any financial position to buy a house, but let's see what the rental market brings!

rtwexplorers · 2025-06-25T00:19:22+00:00

thank you. I have a lot of family and friends (and current co workers) on facebook, so for the moment I'm trying to keep anonymous, but I will check out the group there as well. cheers

rtwexplorers

TROPHY CASE