Last month of #CrewLife

by Diana · October 1, 2016

This past month of September I have flown across the world and back, twice! Coincidentally it was my last month as a flight attendant on a private jet. People are always quite intrigued when I tell them about my job and this is understandable, it’s a very different job, so far away from anything “normal”, there is a very glamorous side to it, especially in private aviation, but there’s also a lot of challenges.

It was a bittersweet feeling saying goodbye to the plane, and a sad one saying goodbye to my colleagues, although I know I will bump in to them again somewhere in the world. #Crewlife is truly an extraordinary life, where safety is key, but high service, a kind genuine smile and attention to detail are key factors in our daily work.

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Trust me, it can be challenging to keep a smile when you have 15 children onboard smearing chocolate ice cream on the beige leather chairs while screaming and pulling at you from every side because they want more sticky stuff to eat and spread on the plane.

It is also very challenging to do a perfect silver service of high quality food and expensive champagne to a member of a Royal Family during turbulence and going on the 25th hour awake. But the fruits of our labour comes in the smiles of our happy passengers and the thrill of visiting beautiful, exotic and interesting destinations.

For this trip, our first destination was Hangzhou, a city in China usually populated by 9 million people, but which had been semi- evacuated for the G20 summit. The streets were clean and empty, the noise minimal and many of the tourist spots closed off, but we enjoyed ourselves looking for Buddha’s, temples and eating great food.

The empty streets of Hangzhou

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After many hours onboard our next resting spot was Amman in Jordan. I wanted to have seen Petra, but it was too far to make it there, enjoy the sights and make it back in time for dinner, so we went to the next best, an ancient Roman city called Jerash.

Of course I found a horse, and I almost got up on her for a ride, but I wasn’t exactly in the right clothes for that.

A long flight with the 15 kids made the two night stay in Jakarta an absolute recovery session! I didn’t even leave the hotel.

A few days later we found ourselves in Bali. A 2 hour drive up to the villages and mountain in Ubud followed by a 25 km bike ride down the hill showed us the sights, how the locals live and made us hungry for lunch. The next day my #horsegirl yearning got fulfilled by a horseback ride through the rice fields and down to the volcanic beach of Canggu, were we splashed in the waves and cantered along the shore, finishing off with a relaxing day at the beach and a seafood feast grilled and served right there on Jimbaran beach.

Crew on bikes!

Kids playing by the rice fields

Learning to make offerings

Offerings to the many Gods in Bali

Civet cat, this little fella eats coffee beans and then poops them out and the n the most expensive coffee is made.

Traditional coffee roasting

Views of the Batur volcano and the great lake

PoloPeoplePlaces bike Riding in Bali

Refuelling after the bike ride

PoloPeoplePlaces Horseback Riding in Bali

Rice fields between horse ears

It was Alexandra’s first time horseback riding, so we took it really slow.

PoloPeoplePlaces Horseback Riding in Bali

The best view is the one between a horse’s ears

Dinner literally on the beach, toes in the sand and all

Two days later after dropping the passengers off and picking up some new ones, we were resting in Geneva, a lovely city, which I did not get to see much of due to A. my jet lag/exhaustion, B. the rain and C. I had not packed for cold weather (actually I had only packed for 6 days and ended up staying on duty for 29 days!).
The final stop on my adventure this month was NYC, where we actually got a full week to enjoy. I met up with my best friends from Denmark, who happened to be visiting the big apple as well and my mom flew up from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to hang out with me and enjoy the city together.