TALES FROM THE TOP

I’ve been on Singapore Airline’s much celebrated A380 jet on a recent flight from Paris.

And apart from being a big jet, the A380 is just another jumbo jet. Nothing spectacular.

The only thing I was impressed about is the boarding process, despite the number of people, it didn’t feel like so when we boarded the flight.

Yesterday Air France took delivery of its first A380, making it the first European airline to do so.

Business Class

It’s first commercial flight is scheduled on November 20th between Paris and New York and  Air France director Pierre-Henri Gourgeon says the A380 would enable it to save money by running fewer flights on long-haul routes.

Great! Less choices for passengers.

Economy Class

Three other airlines outside Europe have already taken delivery of the 330-million-dollar A380 — Singapore Airlines, Emirates and Australian carrier Qantas.

First Class

We’ve all seen it before.

Travel to LA or San Franciso from $800. Paris or London from $800. Hong Kong or Tapei from $200. And so on.

But once you go on-line and enter your dates and destinations all you get is disappointment.

Search results often come up with more expensive fares. And I’ve been dismayed plenty of times! So much that I would just book whatever fare the seat is going for.

Airline companies are not misleading the public by putting out those ads. Those fares do exist, but only a few seats are allocated per flight…but there are ways to get them if you spend enough effort trying.

ALWAYS BOOK EARLY:

By the time the airfares are advertised in the newspapers, chances are they’ve all been snapped up.

It’s always advisable to purchase tickets at the stroke of midnight on the day the sale starts. So if you see an ad that indicates cheap fares with booking period from Dec 1 to 5, make sure you are on-line and ready to book at the stroke of midnight.

I once booked a bargain basement 200 SGD ticket to Bangkok after seeing someone post it on Facebook, I went on line, waited for midnight and got my seat.

BE FLEXIBLE WITH TRAVEL DATES and DESTINATIONS:

If you can’t get cheap fares on the dates you want, enter other possibilities. It’s no secret that traveling on Tue, Wed, Thur are the cheapest and Fri, Sat Sun the most expensive.

Also, if low fares are not available on the exact date you want to fly on, then try a day or two after, or before. I’ve done this before and managed to get $1 dollar tickets.

Sometimes, if you really just need to get out, just book a cheap ticket to whatever destination that offers the cheapest price.

I met a Scottish lady in Rome who told me she went on line and looked for destinations she can go to for 1 Euro. She manages 4 cities for 4 Euros — not bad!

All you really need is time to sit in front of your PC and compare prices.

Check out online travel portals and check out the airline’s own website.

Also remember that Low-cost carriers are not always your cheapest alternative.

Last week I while checking for cheap airfares for Bangkok, I found out flying on Thai Airways would be cheaper than on Jetstar or Tiger Airways, considering of course the amount of luggage weight I can bring, the food service and  the choice of travel times.

There will always be some sort of a cat and mouse game of supply and demand when it comes to buying flight tickets — and it is too complicated for us mere mortals to understand.

Just remember when you spot a cheap ticjet to your favourite destination, be mindful of the extra fees you might have to cough up before they even let you board the plane.

And if you intend to go on a Chirstmas holiday and you haven’t book tickets — I have two words — Good Luck!

Finally someone has identified my disorder.

International Herald Tribune columnist Tyler Brule calls it “IFID”  otherwise known as In-Flight Information Deficiency.

This is someone who, before and during a flight, has a fear of not having enough to read on board a flight, no matter how short or long.

I bring kilos of kilos of magazines and books with me whenever I fly to any destination simply because I dread the day I would have to look out of the plane window for hours with nothing to do.

 Yes I know there is inflight entertainment with audio video on demand — but what if one day I get stuck in a seat with malfunctioning system?

Yes I know most airlines carry a variety of magazines and newspapers on board for it’s passengers — but what if everyone has selected magazines I can read?

Have you been on a European Airline where magazine racks are stuffed with foreign language magazines? or American carriers and their empty magazine racks?

How I wish the day comes when internet connectivity will be available on-board for free.

I need to be entertained and informed at all times.

This Saturday night I will undertake something I haven’t done in 10 years.

I and some friends will embark on a journey that will take us to about 7 or 8 European cities in 15 days, in cattle class and budget airlines.

I was in charge of booking everything and apart from the Singapore-Barcelona and Paris-Singapore sectors, no airfare was above 60 Euros.

Our accommodation will also be on the cheap.

My most expensive hotel:  130 Euro per night, is the cheapest in the expensive and touristy San Marco neighbourhood of Venice.  The rest will cost me less than 70 Euro per night.

The last time I did a cross-continent European Marathon, I ended up exploring 6 cities in 9 days.

Back in those days, trains and a ferries were the cheapest ways to travel from one place to the next. Now, airfares on budget carriers like Spain’s Vueling and the UK’s Easyjet are a lot cheaper than tickets on the TVE or the ICE high speed trains.

Back in those days, we travelled with Francs, Liras, Drachma, guilders and the peseta. Now things are easier albeit more costly with the Euro.

Back in those days, we consulted travel books and called up hotels for reservations. Now it’s as easy as logging into your favourite travel booking site to narrow down your search. All the way down to the price you are willing to pay for a hotel. And going through countless customer reviews before you decide on the hotel that suits your needs.

My friends from Vancouver asked why I’m putting myself through this marathon…well I thought I’d give it a go and see if I still have what it takes to “rough” it out in Europe.

Most of my frequent trips to Europe have been leisurely ones lately so I think it’s time to prove to myself that I am still a sturdy world traveler.

Wish me Bon Chance!

Here’s a new chapter to this blog.

It wont be about random musings and observations anymore.

From this day onwards, this space will be known as “Tales From the Top,” dedicated to tales from my travels and other voyage related developments.

Earlier this year,  with the recession taking hold and everyone cutting back on spending,  I decided it would be a great time to indulge in a “staycation.”

No bags to pack and with just a few steps out my front door, I’d be right by the poolside.

Well the idea didn’t last long.

With the abundance of low air fares and slashed hotel rates, there’s no better time than now to actually pack a bag and just go on a trip.

Airlines are not just slashing fares, they are also cutting the air miles required to redeem a free flight. Or throwing in bonus miles when you fly — and in some cases, even when you are not flying.

So recession it may be but it is no reason for anyone of us not to take that well deserved holiday. Especially with companies cutting back on paid work days or encouraging employees to go on no-pay leaves.

After trying a Staycation and failing miserably in March — I’ve found myself basking on the beaches of Boracay, Bintan and Phuket.  Relaxing in the spas of Bangkok twice.  Enjoying the lively scene in Manila. Checking out post-Olympic Beijing twice and checking out the high tech production lines in Munich and Stuttgart…and the year is not even over yet.

I’ve found myself inside and airplane to somewhere at least once every month this year either for a holiday or for work.

So if you haven’t taken advantage of cheap air fares yet this year, better hurry up — the economy is almost on the upswing!

It’s been brought to my attention that a small pot-belly is the “in” look for young men in New York these days.

Not a big beer belly gut, nor a paunch, but just a cute pot-belly to complement the hottest runway looks.

Imagine…A V neck T shirt, shorts and sneakers a fedora hat and a small belly.

So whatever happened to the washboard abs look that was so popular among men in up until last year?

As it turns out the real men out there just realized working on those six-pack abs and maintaining them got so prissy that it wasn’t masculine anymore. So six-pack abs is going the same way as manscaping and spray tans — they have become passe.

And now it isn’t cool to be seen spending too much time on your body — because that may suggest a man is not working hard enough to get ahead in life.

And women don’t find that attractive.

In Fact a recent study reveals more and more women have gotten past the need to maintain a certain body image and more successful women are breaking free from expected body image.

A new Japanese study reveals men who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer when compared to skinny men.

And skinny men’s life expectancy is even 5 years shorter than obese men.

This should give us all reason to eat to our heart’s content — moderately.

Shinichi Kuriyama from Tokyo’s Tohoku University says heightened vulnerability to diseases and the fragility of their blood vessels are the  reasons why skinny men have shorter lifespans.

Personal hygiene has come to light in recent weeks at the height of the H1N1 flu outbreak world wide.

Health Departments the world over went out of their way to remind all of us how to properly wash our hands and to make sure we practice good personal hygiene.

And that, for me, means regular brushing of teeth and regular showers.

Last week, on an early morning flight to Beijing, I was irritated to be sitting down beside a man who smelled like he didn’t have time to shower before heading to the airport.

While across the aisle, a group of unfresh smelling men who, I can only assume, was taking a connecting flight from where ever they came from. So on my right sour sweaty smell, on my left stale smelling people.

I just don’t get how some people think they can get away with not showering before leaving home, or not using anti-perspirants or deodorants.

Before I flew to Beijing I was warned about the way its citizens smell. To my surprise, they actually didn’t.

Even when I took the crowded subway, there was no heavy, nasty human aroma in the air.

Is it because of good personal hygiene? Daily morning showers? Anti-perspirants? Colognes?

I guess the grooming techniques taught to them before the 2008 Olympics is really paying off.

….And it will probably take a while longer before I can blog about anything of substance.

The truth is, the blog’s popularity peaked some 2 or 3 years ago, and now netizens have gone on to Facebook and Twitter.

It’s simply easier to upload pictures and videos onto Facebook. And faster to provide updates on Twitter than it is to blog.

So where will blogs be in a few more years? It will either lose its relevance in this ever changing world — or it will evolve into something else.

Or it might just become an avenue for opinionated folks like us to pen down our thoughts about certain goings on around the world and let the public read what we have in mind.

But the question is — does anyone really care about what we think?

While on holiday in Bangkok for Songkran or New Year earlier this week, I found myself caught in the crossfire, not from bullets being fired by the army to disperse rowdy protesters, but from the thousands of revelers and their waterguns squirting each other with ice cold agua.

I landed late Saturday night just after the Prime Minister cancelled the ASEAN plus Three summit in Pattaya. I didn’t think much of it.

I thought to myself, Abhisit Vejjajiva is a rookie afterall and probably downplayed the seriousness posed by  Thaksin Shinawatra’s red shirt supporters. He was caught off guard by it and had to cancel the summit to avoid further embarrassing himself in front of Asian leaders.

I was at Chatuchak market when a friend called and reported that he’s inside Siam Paragon and security wont let people out. This was when I found out tanks were rolling in. So I thought, just another coup d’etat or State of Emergency — no big deal, it happens all the time in Thailand. The shopping continued.

Thai media reported the events unfolding, but what we saw on tv, wasn’t the same scenario I saw in my immediate vicinity.

It is important to remember  that most of the Thai media lean towards Abhisit and against Thaksin. So the media showed images of chaos and burning buses. Some refering to the protests as riots, the protesters as mobs, and the situation as a “Black Songkran.”

The international media sees things slightly different. Well aware that Thaksin and his party in all it’s reincarnations, were democratically elected many times, while Abhisit’s Democrat Party fell short in National elections. CNN’s Monita Rajpal challenged Abhisit in an interview on Monday asking him if he has what it takes to bring Thais together, when Thaksin has the majority of supporters and won landslide elections.

On the eve on Songkran on Sunday, tourists started splashing water along Silom and Sukhumvit. On the first full day of Songkran everyone was out on the streets getting wet.

While on TV we saw soldiers firing shots in the air dispersing crowds. We saw burning buses. We saw red shirted protesters causing havoc.

My boss called and asked if I can co-anchor Prime Time News in Bangkok.

Since I was there and since I know for a fact most of Bangkok was calm – I agreed if only to be given a chance to tell a different story. Sure, violence was happening somewhere in Bangkok, but it was 10 kilometers away and contained in a different area of this sprawling metropolis.

After the broadcast, I quickly went back to my hotel, changed into my dri-fit outfit, filled my gun with cold water and off to the street I went armed with my gun, my camera and confidence that the situation will get better when everyone gets into the holiday mood.

And I was right — Newspapers and TV flashed violent pictures from Bangkok, I have pictures of a different kind.