Following on yesterday’s post on least favourite cities, many people in the comments described symptoms of “culture shock”. There are many places that I will visit that I will love the whole time you I am there -possibly with some minor with occasional irritants or discomforts. There are other occasions where we can experience irritation and frustration on a regular pattern. People experiencing culture shock can appear angry, confused, frustrated or irritable. We cannot understand why people are enjoying the very things we are hating. These feelings will make us negative about our trip, the country…
What is the WORST City you have ever visited? And Why?
I have been to almost 200 cities with more than 100,000 people. True to my OCD form. I have ranked them all from 1 onwards! Last week I added Vientiane in Laos, which was better than I imagined. In the same week, I also flew to Helsinki which I loved) bringing me to 194 cities! Can you imagine, I went from a daily maximum of 37°C (98.6°F) 3to a maximum of 5°C (41°F) in the same week? That took some ingenious packing and adjusting. This led me to consider that I have a definite list of the…
What to see in Confronting Kanchanaburi- Home of the Thai-Burma Death Railway
Kanchanaburi juxtaposes two things. On the surface, it is a lovely relaxed riverside town in the west of Thailand which attracts tourists from all over Thailand and the world drawn to the natural beauty of the surrounding area. But the other drawcard is that the town is also the haunting centre of one of the most horrific projects of World War Two, the infamous Death Railway built from the River Kwai across Thailand and into Burma. 160,00o Asian forced labourers and Allied POWs worked on the bridge. Between 90,000 and 120,000 died during its construction in…
Preventing Bed Bugs in your hotel bed in Paris, in New York or Your nearest Holiday city.
It has been three years since I last wrote on bed bugs. Last week Le Parisien reported that nearly every day a resident is forced to throw out their infested mattresses. Further RVIP a property management group told the publication that the bugs are coming from the United States. RIVP manager Oliver Perret said: “It’s been like this for two or three years,” RIVP group said that 20% of the 1,000 properties it oversees have dealt with bedbug infestations. The group told reporters that it had been deep-freezing infested furniture at -25C in order to get rid of…
Flying on an ATR: Vientiane to Bangkok: My first Lao Airlines Flight and my 1200th flight ever!
Booking:8/10 I mentioned last week, that I had reached a milestone” of 1199 flights in my life. This flight was my 1200th. To be honest, this regional hop in Economy was probably not the most exciting option for my 1200th flight ever! Timing, however, dictated this event! There are just a handful of flights between the Laos capital of Vientiane and Thailand’s capital: Bangkok. Our choice effectively came down to Bangkok Airways (winner of best regional airline) or Lao Airlines. Having already flown ( and loved) Bangkok, I figured that I would give a new airline…
Every Airport’s Wifi information is now available
Anil Polat has created a map with the wifi information for 231 airports across the globe including the passwords in Airline lounges within those airports. The map is regularly updated and is looking for accurate information on then latest developments. Click on an aeroplane symbol representing the airport you are visiting or search for it and up will pop all relevant wifi information. Very useful! Remember that you are operating on an unsecured network so guard your identity, privacy and data carefully! Anil is a blogger and a computer security engineer who is on a journey to visit every country…
I just flew my 1199th Flight -This trip was with Thai Airways
Thanks to a sublime Thai airways Business Class experience this week, my travel clock ticked over my 1199th flight! Next year, I will have been flying for fifty years and on average I have flown 24 flights or 55,000 km (33, 000 miles) a year. The reality is that it took me 31 years until I flew my 100th flight! My 200th was in 2004. My 500th just five years later in 2009 and my 1000th was in 2014!So now I can say I have spent over five months of my life inside planes travelling a distance equivalent to…
Your Seat is Never Guaranteed- The Weird United “unboarding”
The world is aghast at the sight of airport security officials hauling David Dao. a passenger the airline described as “belligerent” off a plane at Chicago airport. It is likely you will have seen the videos of the guy being dragged down the aisle of the Embraer. I suspect the travelling world has paid more attention to this incident than the children being bombed to death in Syria or the people starving in Somalia or the gay men being rounded up and put in concentration camps in Chechnya. I suppose because we can all relate more…
Check your Booking carefully before pressing “confirm”
It happens more frequently than one realises. CBC reports that Milan Schipper of the Netherlands booked a ticket to YQY (Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada) and not SYD (Sydney, New South Wales, Australia). The ticket price was apparently $CAN300 cheaper than any other fare Mr Schipper had seen for tickets from Amsterdam to Sydney. And no wonder! It is about 10,000km (6,500 miles) closer. He boarded a plane in Amsterdam and flew to Toronto, Canada. From there he changed to a small plane for the flight “down under“. That is when he realised his mistake. This…
My Easter Travel Plans: Countries #67 and #68 -How many countries have you visited?
This April I will be adding my 67th and 68th countries to my “portfolio”! First will be Laos. To get there, I will be taking a train ride into Laos from Thailand. When complete, I will have then travelled by rail all the way from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok to Vientiane . Well to be fair, almost to Vientiane as the rail line finishes 9km from the city currently! Then will come the 1200th flight of my life which will be with Lao Airlines, a new airline for me. AirlineRatings assures me they have a six-star…
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