To Indonesia

Thailand via Myanmar

The leg from Chittagong to Bangkok, VTBD, took us south-east again. Either it was just a coincidence or the border to Myanmar is also the border between climate zones, but shortly before crossing it, the haze that had accompanied us since we left Jordan, was gone. The coastal regions were clear, while the valleys between the mountains of northern Myanmar were filled with low clouds.

Of all the countries we flew over, ATC in Myanmar was the hardest to understand, both with respect to accent as well as transmission quality. It took us a while to get used to it, but in the end it worked well, they mostly let us alone.

We had left Chittagong later than we liked, the airport does not open before seven local time and you can’t depart before 7:30. The flight took five hours and convection started well before we reached Bangkok. However, we had reached Thai airspace by the time we needed avoidance headings and Thai ATC was really excellent. We had chosen FL170 for cruise once again and it worked well for us.

VTBD is a huge and busy airport and there were CBs all around when we reached the terminal area. The controller did a very good job in squeezing us between the big boys. He asked us for 150 knots indicated for as long as possible but was happy with 145 in level flight. Moreover, he let us descend to thousand feet ground at our convenience, so we could get below the clouds in the clear.

Refueling was the most efficient and quickest we ever had from drums so far. Avgas was also the cheapest we had on the journey at just above 1.50€ per liter. We had just completed fueling and secured the plane when the thunderstorm started and we were taken to the GA terminal.

Leaving Chittagong

Approaching the border to Myanmar: the haze is gone

Mountains in Myanmar

Towards the costal plains

Build-ups start to form

This one was right in the climb-out of VTBD

Below the clouds

Final 21 right

Refueling at VTBD, PIC appears to be happy with the service

Bangkok is a bustling and interesting city, many will know. We had been there a couple of times before, so we had already visited most of the main tourist attractions. It was very different this time, though, as we had a local contact. It turned out that we have a common friend with one of the few Thai small GA pilots. He was keen to get in touch with us and gave us the most friendly welcome one can imagine. He picked us up and dropped us off at the airport and he took a whole day to show us his Bangkok away from the tourist trail. And, a highlight for us, he invited us for lunch with many of the well-known and not so well-known Thai specialties.

Bangkok from our hotel

A noodle shop mentioned in Guide Michelin

The three pilots

Rama V and the Victorian palace he built (in the background)

The new parliament building

Khaosan road changed a lot in the last 35 years but it’s still the main tourist drag

In the old town: Wat Ratchanatdaram Worawihan (Loha Prasat)

Real Thai food

Our Thai friend knew the handling company and he helped us bargaining. Thailand has the reputation of being extremely expensive for small GA and in fact it is. With his help, cost came down to what we were used to. Service was excellent though, hands down the best we had on the journey.

Malaysia

Langkawi, WMKL, in the very North of Malaysia was the first on the route we hadn’t chosen for the availability of Avgas. In fact there is (normally) no Avgas there. It was a luxury we treated ourselves to and it saved us from a six hours plus leg in the ITCZ. We knew the island from previous visits and had fond memories of it.

This time we got an early start again and we reached our destination before the soup started boiling so it was a relaxed flight. We flew at our standard level 170 as usual, but this time we didn’t have to avoid any convection. ATC in Thailand and Malaysia was very good again. We overflew the Gulf of Thailand and the northernmost part of the Malacca Strait. The islands in these waters are dream destinations for many travelers and we really enjoyed this flight. And the approach into Langkawi is one of the nicest we had.

Early right turn in VTBD to get out of the way

Bangkok before sunrise

Ko Tao island

Build-ups still far away

Coasting out in southern Thailand

Approaching WMKL

RM looks good in Malaysia

Langkawi is a tourist destination with hotels and restaurants of all categories. The beaches are first class and there are attractions like a canopy walk and a crocodile farm and some more of that sort. We skipped them this time as we just wanted to relax for a day and a half.

Pantai Tengah

These guys are mentioned in the ATIS

Tropical cliché

Up-marked Malay food

There is no GA terminal or FBO at WMKL and it’s the handling agent’s job to guide you through customs and immigration and through the main terminal. While he was a friendly guy, he wasn’t too good in doing his job. It took forever for the immigration police to arrive when we wanted to enter the country. Once the officer was there, he asked us why our agent didn’t notify them in advance, they would have been there in five minutes. It wasn’t much better when we wanted to depart but at least we didn’t have to delay our flight plan. Apparently not many GA planes arrive in Langkawi from abroad.

Singapore

Headwind was forecast for our flight to Singapore’s GA airport of Seletar, WSSL, the higher up the stronger. As it was a relatively short leg of only around three hours, we would arrive rather early so we decided to fly at FL110 this time. Convection started quickly and we had to struggle quite a bit to avoid the weather. I’m not sure if it would have been easier higher up.

Leaving Langkawi in the morning

Convection starts

Sneaking along the clouds

Short final at WSSL

The FBO we used at Seletar runs a maintenance shop and we had arranged that we could do an oil change there. It’s not possible to taxi to the maintenance hangar, all aircraft have to be towed there. Although we had arranged this beforehand, it was a bit chaotic and took quite a while. However, we finally made it through C&I and were reunited with RM in front of the hangar. We managed to pull her in just before one of these tropical downpours started and all the staff went for their lunch break.

We had a new oil filter with us and the shop had ordered engine oil for us. By the time the mechanic returned, we were almost done. We cut open the filter together and found it clean. We had a bit over 40 hours on the oil by that time. At home we change every 25 to 30 hours but I think this is still OK. We put the cowling on again, did a brief test run and RM was towed back to her stand while we took a taxi to our hotel.

Pouring rain outside

Almost done

RM being towed to the stand

Singapore is heaven on earth if you like exotic food. The majority of its inhabitants are of Chinese descent, but there are Malays and Indians, Europeans and many smaller groups. Singaporeans love eating and all the ethnic groups have brought their cuisines with them. The city is full of hawker centers with countless inexpensive yet delicious options. W&B limitations were our biggest concern.

Not everybody likes Singapore, in fact it doesn’t have the charm of other Southeast Asian cities. Many of the old quarters with their shop houses have been replaced by skyscrapers and the few that remain look like museums. However, if you move out a bit, to places where regular Singaporeans live, the shops and restaurants and watering holes are still there.

From our hotel room in little India

Chili crab is a local speciality, we had frog porridge as a starter

The CBD and the Fullerton Hotel

The Stamford Hotel is one of the few high-rise buildings that was already there when I first visited in the eighties

Szechuan style hot pot

A few old houses off Orchard Road

Buckets full of cold Tiger

Two days before we wanted to leave for Indonesia, our handling agent there informed us that no Avgas was available in Jakarta. The only place in this huge country where we would be able to refuel was Surabaya. And even there the drums would only arrive eight days later. We had planned to stop in the Sumatran City of Pekanbaru and continue to Jakarta to refuel there. Surabaya would have been our last stop in Indonesia. Once again we had to replan. Our only option was to fly to Surabaya directly, and buy two drums there. We decided to extend our stay in Singapore by one day and spend the rest of the time till the fuel would arrive in East Java.

Pakistan via Oman

On this leg we had to fly across open water for a significant distance for the first time since we reached Egypt. Before the Arabian Sea, we overflew Oman at FL 170. This had been our cruising altitude for most of the previous legs as well mostly because airways were not available lower down.

FL170 is also a level our Mooney is quite economical at, she does a bit over 150KTAS at 8.5GPH up there in the actual (warm) conditions and quite heavily loaded. It is really slow for a Mooney, but only this way our fuel planning worked out. You either buy one or two drums of 200 liters. As we have a total capacity of 405 liters only, buying two drums would mean wasting a lot of precious Avgas, as nobody will arrive empty. In the end it worked out, we got away with buying 200l at each of the ‘drum stops’ all the way to Indonesia.

Except for departure and arrival there was not much to see on the flight to Karachi, OPKC. This was in part because of the once again hazy weather but it’s of course a drawback of flying high.

Great Mosque in Abu Dhabi on departure

Over Oman

Muscat

The Arabian Sea

Karachi

Short final at OPKC

On the ground we were greeted by our handling agent, a customs officer, a couple of fuel guys and half a dozen armed soldiers. We were a bit bewildered, but everybody was friendly and to our surprise after half an hour the aircraft was refueled and we were land side! Handling worked the opposite way here compared to the Gulf region: there is no FBO, the agent guides you through C+I to the main terminal, you pay in US dollars cash while sitting on a filthy chair in the worn waiting hall and all that in a couple of minutes. We actually liked it better this way.

OPKC on the ground

Unfortunately the security situation in Karachi and most of Pakistan is poor. There are travel warnings in effect by most western governments and we therefore opted to stay just one nite. A pity, as we had never been to Pakistan before.

The hotel we stayed at was better protected against terrorist attacks than European airports. We had to pass a two stage barrier system to reach the premises. To our surprise there was a pool bar with local beer and a restaurant with tasty curries and naan.

The second, inner barrier

Pool bar with Pakistani beer

Apparently our little Mooney was considered a major threat by local authorities as it was still guarded by armed soldiers when we arrived at her parking stand early the next morning. Again, everybody was friendly and we didn’t have to wait long for C+I or anything else.

OPKC in the early morning

The permit business also got enhanced by a second stage for the coming legs. So far our agent (the excellent Mike of White Rose, as mentioned) had sent us relevant permit numbers a day or a couple of days before the flight and we would write them as a remark into field 18 of the ICAO flight plan. Now two codes, ADC and FIC were required in addition. The local handling agent gets them (from what ever source) not long before scheduled departure and passes them on to the crews nowadays usually via WhatsApp. I never understood what the reason for this is and how it really works. In the beginning I thought it’s an Indian thing, but in fact we received these codes till Myanmar inclusively. ATC may ask for the codes from the first contact on the ground but at least in our case they rarely did. It was only once or twice on the three flights we were provided with these codes.

India

Before departure from Karachi we learned that Avgas at our next destination Nagpur, VANP would arrive only with two days delay and we would have to stay four instead of the planned two nites. We were a little upset in the beginning but it turned out to be a really good thing.

The flight to VANP was really the most uneventful on the whole journey so far. No cloud, no thermal but also almost nothing to see because of the haze.

Leaving Karachi

Approaching Nagpur

On the ground at VANP

India requires business visas to enter the country as air crew and to get these an invitation letter is required. Our handling agent provided the letters beforehand and we applied for the visas online back in Germany. Complicated forms have to be filled out but we managed and in the end it worked.

We know India quite well, we had been there before both on business and on vacation. Nobody goes to Nagpur for vacation though, the city is noisy and chaotic like many in India but has no attraction at all. Therefore we were less than happy about the delay initially. However, I found on Google Maps that there is a jungle national park, Padam Pench, not far to the north. They claim that Kipling was inspired by this jungle when he wrote the Jungle Book, however, according to Wikipedia there is little evidence that this is true. Anyway, we booked a resort for two days and an Uber took us there for cheap in two and a half hours.

We had booked a ‘mud house’ which was lovely and the food at the resort was delicious. Jeep tours to the jungle are offered and when you’re lucky you can spot one of the 83 tigers that live in the park. Resort staff told us that half of the tours are that lucky, the other half come back without a sighting. At least we saw a large male from some distance. Moreover there was deer, monkeys, elephants and even a leopard but that really didn’t come close. In the afternoons we strolled around the Indian countryside what we also enjoyed a lot.

Our ‘mud house’

On the Jeep

Really resembles the Jungle Book

There he is, the tiger

We love Indian food and it was really good at the resort

At the beginning of the dry season harvest is almost complete

A little lake

Hazy as always

We drove back to Nagpur in the morning after a hearty breakfast of Poori Bhaji and Parathas, we had booked a hotel there for the last nite. In the afternoon we went to the airport for refueling. Getting airside required filling out forms to get temporary badges in exchange of our passports but we didn’t have to wait of too long and refueling worked quickly. Once it was complete, the handling agent, three of his men and both of us had to wait for an hour for a car to pick us up. Luckily wages aren’t high in India. Back at the hotel they served tiny portions of many tasty Indian dishes accompanied by a Kingfisher (Indian beer, not so tasty).

Refueling at VANP

Indian food at the hotel

Handling in India followed the same paradigm as in Pakistan and later in Bangladesh. It wasn’t that quick though, processes in India are bureaucratic and take time. Moreover, Mrs. terbang lost her Swiss knife as there was no way to get it through security control. It’s still with the handling agent and he promised to find a way to get it to the plane when we land there on our way back. We’ll see.

Bangladesh

Chittagong or Chattogram as it is called now is the place to get Avgas in Bangladesh, so this was our next destination. There was some convective activity on the way but FL170 proved to be a good altitude once again. It’s high enough to see and avoid the nasty stuff and temperature was around zero so you don’t pick up ice immediately if you hit a little cloud. It was hazy once again, so not much to see even where there were no clouds.

Leaving Nagpur

A little convection to give us a taste of what was to come in the tropics

Approaching Chittagong, VGEG

Final at VGEG

Refueling was quick and easy in Bangladesh

We had been to Bangladesh before, on vacation. In fact we did a really memorable trip from Dhaka to the Sundarbans on a paddle steamer more than a decade ago. As Chittagong doesn’t have the reputation of being a major tourist destination, we decided to stay just one nite at a hotel close to the airport. It belonged to the ‘Chittagong Boat Club’ and was pleasant enough. There wasn’t much to do than watching ships from the terrace, though.

Watching ships

Bangladesh was the last of our South Asian stops. Again handling worked fine without much hassle and with the mentioned cash payment in the main terminal’s waiting hall. Still expensive, but cheaper than in the Middle East and at least as competent and quick.