Holiday blog

Its damn good to be on holidays. I'm on 3 weeks leave and it's felt like a month already which is good. I've spent 10 days abroad visiting my brother in Singapore and made a short trip over to Bangkok. I thought I'd post a few observations on the trip.

Planes/Airports
This post by Thursday's Child is quite apt. My main hates in planes are those that are in such a rush to get out the door in the plane when there's no chance of moving and the armrest hogs. I'd suggest the middle seat have both due to having the most uncomfortable ride. One additional hate I encountered on the way home was a person with smelly feet. It was a night flight so I'm assuming this person hadn't showered and, taking off her socks, curling up into the chair only made the stench more potent. What do you do in that scenario? Both adjacent passengers were talkative and relatively friendly, but do you risk offending the person you need to sit next to for the next 8 hours?

I like the idea of being able to check in just an hour before flights in Asia and getting to the boarding gates at latest 15 minutes before the flight. It reduces any idle time at the airport which I experienced on the flight out of Australia. I must admit that the security in Australia is very thorough, although arriving back at 5:45am my patience was tested as I was randomly drilled by 2 separate customs officers about my trip. (I seriously don't look that dodgy do I?)

Taxis/Traffic
I now have a greater tolerance for bad drivers. I'm not sure why Singapore or Bangkok have indicators or lanes. Everyone weaves in and out without indicating, drive in the middle of the road and at high speed. You can't hesitate in a lane change and oddly enough it seems most drivers are used to the events that occur on the roads, and despite all the infractions I only experienced a couple of toots.

One little addition to some traffic lights I liked was a countdown on pedestrian (Singapore) and some road lights (Bangkok). It was quite satisfying sprinting across the road as it counted down from 3. At one intersection in Bangkok we were waiting for 10 minutes to cross the road. (no joke) There was a steady stream of cars bumper to bumper and traffic perpendicular eventually got impatient and began to drive through anyway! We suspect that the lights were controlled manually by a small hut at the intersection, but it did lead to some frustration, particularly as we were on the way to get a massage and I was lugging around a new suitcase I bought.

The best story from the trip was the airport cab ride in Bangkok. Strangely enough, entry into the hotel is guarded and cars undergo a under-the-car mirror inspection prior to pulling up to the entrance. Ordering a cab from the hotel we managed to get the nuttiest guy in Thailand. Mentioning to us that he was told to "Go, Go, Go" by his last passengers (obviously contestants from the Amazing Race) he informed us that he was only going by the speed limit (which was fine by us). Mosquitoes appeared in the cab, and being the hospitable driver, he took both hands off the wheel clapping in an attempt to kill ones close to him. This while thundering down the freeway at 130kph. So much for sticking to speed limits. Finally he turned up his custom mix tapes full bore and began singing along which I tried to secretly capture from the back seat, but only got a video of the music. In any case the traffic is horrendous in parts of Bangkok, but cabs are cheap (~$10aud for 50kms)

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