Hello everyone from Mumbai. Shipra and I hope you had a great time during the holidays and bringing in the new year and we wish you the best for everything for the year ahead! We sure did have a ball of a time travelling over 30,500 miles on what we fondly christened the #redcarpettrip. This was not just a hashtag for us to track our travels, but you can indeed also look at the @livefromalounge twitter feed and the @livefromalounge instagram feed to have a peep at our travels. For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, I’d also been posting pictures on my personal Facebook feed.

The initial plan was to write a daily travelogue or at least one episode of the trip report. However, once we were on the road we decided against it to be able to focus fully on the experience and report it to you later! While a full trip report will be rolled out, I wanted to whet your appetite with some pictures which we took along the way!

We travelled from Mumbai to Los Angeles in the Singapore Airlines Suites Class, and the airline had an inkling this was a special trip for the both of us, so they were ready! More than just the usual Golden Ticket!

I did have my last morsels of Indian food, some of my favourite chaat, at the GVK Lounge in Mumbai Terminal 2 before take off. Because, how could I say no to it and stay away from it for so long?

Like I mentioned ahead, SQ set us up with a set of their congratulatory cards and teddy bears for us. We were thoroughly impressed with SQ for having it all figured out! We spent about 25 hours runway to runway after departing from Mumbai to arriving in Los Angeles, largely in Singapore Airlines Suites Class, apart from two lounge stops, one at Singapore in the Private Room, and then at Tokyo Narita Airport in JAL’s First Class Lounge.

Arriving into LA, we headed to the Andaz West Hollywood. I had already confirmed a suite upgrade, but they got us doubly covered by handing us the keys to the Penthouse Suite! We thoroughly enjoyed our 3 nights here with all the scenic views from Sunset Blvd.

Then, it was time to pull the honeymoon card! We headed out to French Polynesia for a very very quiet and scenic holiday (inside a holiday!)

We flew in Air Tahiti Nui’s Economy class to Papeete, from where we caught another short flight to Bora Bora, our eventual destination. We were very excited to sight the Intercontinental Bora Bora Thalasso Resort and Spa from the plane.

When we finally arrived, we had some champagne waiting for us, and this was one of the best sights, to sit out in the patio on the sun deck beds and just look away into the horizon.

Of course the Mount Otemanu, which is in the centre of Bora Bora, was always present, wherever you watched out from.

Five days later, it was time to go back to Los Angeles to continue the rest of our continental USA vacation, but on the airport, we still had one more gorgeous sunset to meet before flying out.

Back into the US of A, we headed to Sin City Vegas, where some gorgeous views of the Bellagio Fountains kept us company day and night!

Of course, one has to throw in a show from Cirque de Soleil when one is on a leisure trip in Las Vegas.

We then headed to Texas to spend some time with family over Christmas, but hey, everything is so big in Texas!

For our travels around Continental USA, we stuck with American Airlines since I am an Executive Platinum and we could both get to travel domestic First Class as a benefit! Nevermind we did get stuck getting out once due to weather and mechanical issues!

We arrived at Washington D.C. on the second last leg of our US of A stay, and stayed at the Park Hyatt Washington D.C. They had us set up in a Park Executive Suite, but moved us up to the Georgetown Suite, and got us the most awesome amenity ever! When we arrived, they had a picture of me and Shipra set up and framed for us to bring home. Before some of you start thinking it is creepy, I was in on this plan but Shipra was not!

To close the trip, we went to the Big Apple, but the weather slowed us down finally by having a massive drop! We stayed at the InterContinental Times Square for a couple of days, and then moved to the Crowne Plaza Times Square Manhattan, which I have to admit was the worst hotel of this trip! But hey, the view!

We did also take a shot at doing the touristy thing of being at Times Square for the Ball Drop, but we dropped out of the attempt eventually.

When you start a trip of a lifetime with Singapore Airlines Suites, of course, you cannot end it with anything lesser. So, we flew back to Mumbai last night in the Etihad Apartments on the A380, which is the hottest First Class product in the premium cabin space right now, and the both of us had ample of space to ourselves!

This was also the first time I got to shower on a plane, and I can’t stop marveling on this for a long long time to come, till they make the next big thing in air travel perhaps!

But how can everything always go alright. So, in spite of having snagged F space on the AUH-BOM leg of my trip, I eventually travelled Business because someone either at American Air or Etihad did not ticket it all properly! They also eliminated our chauffeur ride from Mumbai Airport in the process!

But hey, eventually we were home, and this was a good trip indeed! Now back to the regular transmission, and here is hoping you all have a healthy and a great 2016. Wish you lots of miles, points and status and travels to use them in the year ahead!

If there are any aspects of the trip you would like me to touch upon in detail,  apart from the usual, do share your inputs below and I will try and cover it as well!

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