Feel good story:
A few days ago we flew from Amsterdam to Melbourne via Xiamen (China) to start our 3-month housesitting adventure in Australia. Halfway through the flight to China, we started chatting with our Dutch plane- neighbours. When they asked us whether we were on a holiday or going to Australia for business, we explained the principle of housesitting to them.
Turns out we didn’t need to, they knew exactly what we were talking about and were on their way to do exactly the same thing in Sydney, also via THS! What are the odds of meeting another housesitter in the skies!
We met some fellow Trusted Housesitters on the beach in Spain on Christmas day 2 years ago! We were all out walking our respective dogs and, when I spotted them, I somehow knew immediately they were also sitters! So it was no surprise to have it confirmed & we had a good chat!
We once did a housesit where we looked after the pets at the house, but the owners also had ponies that were stabled a few miles away. They suggested that we could pop over from time to time and take the ponies a carrot or two. There was another THS housesitter staying in the house with the stables looking after the dog and ponies, so we had a great chat about our experiences!
Thank you for sharing @Els As THS grows we will probably be running into each other more often. I do wear my THS sweatshirt for petsitting trips and although I’ve gotten a few smiles nobody has approached yet.
A bit off topic but how was your flight? I’ve read that transfer through Xiamen could be rough.
@BunnyCat Oh I didn’t know there was a THS sweatshirt, will have to look into that!
Xiamen were great! Tasty meals, nice crew and lots of leg space. Would definitely fly with them again! We had a 10h layover in Xiamen. It is a bit confusing because very few people at the airport speak English. They are helpful though, trying to assist via a language app There is a free transfer lounge with comfy lounge chairs, so we spent most of our time in there.
@Els That’s great to hear! We are always on the lookout for budget friendly ways to get to Australia. I’ve read that if the transfer is around 2 hrs it could be really stressful to make the connecting flight. For transfers over 6 hrs. I think you are entitled to a free hotel, maybe?
Yes, THS has some merchandise here Products – TrustedHousesitters
My sweatshirt was from a holiday giveaway promotion they did a few years back. I hope they do some more of those in the future.
Yes, you are entitled to a hotel, you just need to pay the transfer to/back from the hotel. This involved looking for an atm and getting Chinese yuan out (had to be paid cash), so we couldn’t be bothered.
2h would be very short to transfer, it took us a long time to get through immigration and customs. (You need to clear them and then go through check-in and security again, even if your bags are transfered to your end destination)
There is a free transfer lounge with comfy lounge chairs, so we spent most of our time in there.