Japan + Thailand trip journal tidbits

Airport is a curious place. The airlines automatically sorted passengers implicitly with first class, biz, and economy. Nope you economy class bottom feeders have to wait until your higher achieving Frequent flyer gold/silver/bronze/silk/royal/sky alliance/sky mesh/sky interbreeding rat union to board first (and watch them strud proudly with their fur and leather covered tiny carry on bag with probably nothing more than this week's glossy woman and business magazine and a laptop). The baggage laden economy mob have to fight their battle with overhead lockers with sharp stares and gentle airline sanctioned shove and murmur. Plastic knife style weapon is obviously denied in this post 911 world.

Long haul flight - the bane of my existence. Sigh. As old as 747s, you can't say they don't age well. A330-300's crappy seat stands no chance against 747's expansive economy seats. SQ's seats are flawed in principle in my book. Those seats are not designed for anyone taller than 172 cm. yuck. In addition, mr hairy grandma in front has the seat back eternally stuck on flat even through all 2 meals. It's like driving a convertible SLK all the way with seats stuck closest the steering wheel.

In flight entertainment - they are good concepts, fair enough. But I find it more fun when you stumble upon some movie or show u wouldn't pick otherwise.. Life needs a bit of serendipity. Stumbled across Brave the Scottish/Irish accent animation. Awesome. Snow white and the huntsman is ok too. Can't really find flaws.

At Nara presently. I think the last trip was more exciting due to the sheer shock of first experience. And Tokyo is worthy of its hype. Kansai area has everything in small & biteable pieces. Smaller crowd in subway, shorter shopping boulevard, smaller temple. There's not much to see in Nara. Maybe next time when the novelty of sightseeing completely wears off and we come over simply to enjoy the time and appreciate the simplicity it would be awesome again. It's the curse of second visit: you've seen it before, yet still expecting a new experience.

Thailand

1 they really really really love their queen and king who's in their 80s

2 always ask for taxi meter!

3 shangrila is awesome

4 a democracy with shit voters are still shit...

5 calipso at asiatique is worth it's price, so is Thai kickboxing. Floating mkt shit.

6 grand palace a fusion of south east style Buddha temples, rare stones, and lots and lots of gold leaves. Extra busy for onlookers. The fusion of east and west is interesting. That Buckingham Palace building with thai roof... Awesome

Nyt: Atlantic's new qz digital magazine. Msft cloud not that evil.

Each individual should heed Facebook culture's advice: internal system is the most important. Sort out our own life first, bring organization and readiness to our lives.

Wsj: Airplane delays shows the complex project lifespan and the tussle between stake holders (airlines, designers, economy, competitors, etc) 777 replacement illustrates.