One of the reasons I’m looking forward to come next week, is flying to Dubai.

Maybe I should clarify that… flying to Dubai on the biggest passenger aircraft in the world: the Airbus A380.

I just read in Die Burger that German carrier Lufthansa had their A380 fly over Cape Town as part of a naming ceremony.

Cape Town is not able to host an aircraft the size of the A380, hence the fly-over and my family and I having to fly a smaller airplane on the Dubai-Cape Town leg of our trip home.

Die Burger reports that the A380 is:

* a double-decker aircraft

* has four engines

* seats up to 525 people in three classes

* is 3m longer than the Boeing 747-400

* it’s wingspan is 15m longer than that of the Boeing 747-400

Being an online being, Howzit-HongKong.com is pretty reliant on online resources when it comes to planning the BIG trip home.

One such resource is online publications.

We have been staunch supporters of The Taxi (more on them later) ever since they had their first sound online as a radio station.  The Taxi, on their part put us in contact with a Cape Town publication (print and online) called Full Circle Magazine.

Full Circle has a print edition and online edition for both the Southern and Northern suburbs of Cape Town.

As we are based in Hong Kong, we of course enjoy the online edition of Full Circle.  In fact, since I still have a home in the Nothern Suburbs (which I maintain every time I go home) it’s been a REAL resource insofar as finding building- and maintenance contractors are concerned.

Of course we will also consult Full Circle in planning the entertainment part of our month-and-a-half back home!

You can read more about Full Circle online by clicking here.  The link to their online edition can be found from the main page.

The countdown to my family’s two-yearly trip home for Hong Kong’s summer holidays has officially begun.

Excuse me making a big deal of it, but when one has been away from home for a decade, seeing family and friends only once every two years… you will understand why we are all looking forward to the trip.

In a month’s time my family and I will board the biggest airplane on the world, Emirates’ A380 en-route to Dubai (via Bangkok).

Two years ago I bought a Lonely Planet guide for the United Arab Emirates that has been gathering dust in my rented storage locker. Thankfully I can finally retrieve it because we will be staying over in Dubai for 4 days.

The kids are still busy writing their final examinations and when that is all done and dusted, the serious planning around what we want to see and what road-trips we will be doing back home, will begin.

I’m going to share some of the information we gather about tourist attractions in South Africa right here on Howzit-HongKong.com

If internet service has improved back home (it was pretty useless and moerse expensive last time around), I also plan to keep you abreast of what we are doing and seeing on our trip around South Africa.

Stay tuned…

African sunrise. A stunning sunrise on approach to OR Tambo Airport in Joburg (Pic: Mike Jansen, 2009)

I have been living in Asia for almost nine years and one of the things I look forward to most is the annual trip home.  Home being Cape Town, Western Cape Province, Republic of South Africa. 

Besides the chance to escape the dreadful Hong Kong summer heat (instead swopping conditions for a cold and wet Cape) the much-needed break is also a opportunity to see family and friends again, doing some renovations to the family home, sightseeing and generally catching up with what’s happening in the country.

South Africa is undergoing rapid changes, not in the least due to the 2010 Soccer World Cup.  Despite reading the local daily papers on the internet and listening to SA radio stations via live audiostreaming on a regular basis, there are still many things that makes me feel like a tourist in my own country.

I’ll be posting some thoughts, experiences, photos and observations on this part of the Howzit-HongKong.com website over the 6 weeks back home.  Please do visit regularly.

I have a date with SAA on Friday July 10, 2009…

Mike Jansen