I seem to have done a lot of long haul flying so far this
year and June is looking like a month with less flying and I am really looking
forward to it. I enjoy the traveling and seeing the different cultures on the
companies dollar, even with economy class flying we still tend to use
reasonable hotels. I see a lot of things that most people don’t get to see and
I think that it gives me a different perspective
This trip was fairly typical
albeit a bit longer than normal. I started off on Friday evening with a BA
flight direct to Bangkok the only noticeable thing about the flight was flying
over “the Stan’s” and India at night it was dark and looking out of the window
I had a really good view of the stars and could clearly see the milky way, I
tried to take a photograph but the camera was not up to it. After arrival in
Bangkok I grabbed a cab across to the domestic airport and watched the aircraft
for the day. There was a small kid of maybe about 4 or 5 sleeping on a
blanket on the floor of the observation deck, his mother appeared to be a
cleaner and came over to play with him during her break. I was there for 5
hours and the kid was there before I was there and still there after I left.
Bangkok is a city I have been to many times before so I tend not to do the
tourist stuff anymore but I do love my aircraft.
The conference hotel was a new
one and the reception was on the 23rd floor, I am not sure what was
on the first 21 floors because it was not in the same entrance and the lift
went directly to floor 23. The conference was on the 22nd floor and
I was staying on the 45th floor. Apart from one visit into the
shopping mall on Sunday I did not come down below the 22nd floor
until Wednesday lunchtime. From my window on the 45th floor I
could see a small shanty town with families living in huts made form corrugated
iron. They did seem to have electricity from somewhere I have no idea
about running water. I live a very privileged life.
When I left, With a 24 hour pass from my wife, I had planned
a brief visit to Jakarta as there were a lot of aircraft there I had not seen
before. I had slightly misjudged the distance and Jakarta is three hours flying
south of Bangkok and more or less equidistant between Thailand and Australia.
Being at the Eastern edge of the time zone it went dark earlier than I had
anticipated and at 6PM the shuttle bus ride to the Hotel was in darkness. Every
junction had a traffic policeman on it standing in the middle waving there arms
around, there were no street lights and they were wearing no high visibility
clothing. I could barely see them and I have no idea how they did not get run
down. The hotel was nice and deliberately near the airport. The next morning I
was back to the airport early as they apparently had a good viewing deck. The
whole of humanity was at the airport, lots of people and lots of cases it was
fascinating to watch. Indonesia is a huge country with a very spread out
population. Aviation has taken off massively on the last couple of years and
many people are flying for the first time. you could see this with many of them
stopping and taking selfies at the aircraft side. Indonesia has the largest
Muslim population in the world but there did not on the face of it seem to be
the same restrictions on women that you so often see in the gulf. Heads were
covered but there were no veils or Burkas.
With my 24 hours up it was back to Bangkok for
the last night and another airport hotel before the long 12 and a half hour
flight back to the UK arriving week and two hours after I left.
