United and Special

I felt some regret at what I'd written yesterday about United; was I jsut over-entitled? After all, the plane still had seats, and flew, and so on. But given the rudeness of the cabin crew, I started to feel less forgiving for United again. It's not that they were universally rude - we kept heard them having cheery conversations with the people in the rows directly in front or behind us. But every time they reached us, they became sullen and grumpy. Perhaps they hated vegetarians. Perhaps they were annoyed that I discovered when you request apple juice, they have to give you an entire can of the stuff rather than a slosh of juice from an already open carton. Or perhaps they didn't like my beard, or the haircut of the affable Marine who sat next to us. Whatever. At least if they'd been rude and grumpy with everyone, it would have been easy to accept. You don't always want to be made to feel special.

You can't go back

I felt gloomy when I arrived in Tin Hau, and the despond shifted a little, but not too much, by the time I woke up. Coming back to Hong Kong, I was struck by how muggy the air is. This is retribution for all the sneers I made at first time visitors to Singapore, startled by the heat and humidity. It turns out that I'm just as bad at adjusting, but I hadn't realised I'd have to go through it myself.

Driven crazy by Bangkok

Arriving at Suvarbharmi airport this evening, I cruised through passport control and got outside, where a man offered to drive me to my hotel. I asked him how much and when he said a thousand baht, carried on walking to the taxi stand. If it cost 300 to get to the Lebua last time we visited, I didn’t think prices could have gone up that much in a month and a half.

The Dirty Way Out Of Singapore

I was going to fly to Kuala Lumpur today, but I couldn't get a flight, so this morning I booked myself on a bus, and this evening I went up to the Golden Mile Complex on Beach Road. And wondered if the person responsible for naming things in Singapore needs to be fired.

Off to see The General

Today we took a boat from Shelburne out to the lighthouse, and to McNutts Island, where The General lives.

Wandering around Macau again

Today is the grand opening of the Galaxy Macau, an enormous casino-and-hotel complex round the back of the Venetian. The owners promoted this, in part, by buying every single advertising space in the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station. I don't think that reflects so well on them, as if you've been following my interminable Hong Kong fragrance updates on Twitter, you'll be well aware that Tsim Sha Tsui MTR smells of wet mud. Hardly the most glamourous association for a casino to make, unless it's trying to attract crowds of unwashed ramblers, fresh from twelve hours of being rained on in the Lake District.

Back to earth

I took a strong painkiller in Chiang Mai airport, and woke up on the plane as we approached Bangkok, drool extending from my open mouth down to my elbow. That's the way to travel. There was only a short stop in Suvarbhami before we got onto the plane home to Hong Kong, and there my troubles began.

Bangkok Airport

Like most of South East Asia, Bangkok's airport is over-air-conditioned, which makes it just like Hong Kong, except it has a Dunkin' Donuts. As you can tell, I'm taking every opportunity to sample the culture of Thailand.

Fighting jet lag in Hong Kong

My parents and my sister arrived in Hong Kong today, in a week largely marked by Qantas having engines explode on its planes; thus I was pleased that they came via a British Airways plane, which didn't have any explosions. Although given that BA managed to land a plane before it reached the runway a year or two back, it's not like they have a spotless record for safety. (Nobody died when they put the plane down short of the runway at Heathrow, although at least one man went on record complaining that nobody got him a cup of tea afterwards.)

Boxing Day surprises

People keep telling us things, and then they start happening to us. Last night we met an acquaintance from Hong Kong who lives in Taipei, who warned us about the mad people who hang out at the main station and talk to people, and now every time we go near the station somebody will come up and try to make conversation with me. They don't seem properly mad, in terms of the government-is-reading-our-minds-and-we-must-all-wear-tinfoil-hats; since the extent of their conversation is to ask me how long I'm in Taipei for and where I'm from, they're essentially harmless, but it's odd that they never approached me before. Or perhaps I'm just hanging around in the railway station more frequently.

Christmas Day in the Republic of China

To date, our journey around Taiwan seems to involve confounding our expectations: we keep setting off towards some destination, only to be waylaid by another attraction or just by walking in the wrong direction for an hour.