Come, Fly With Me

March

 

Hallo,

 

My March included trips to Namibia, Madagascar, and Mauritius along with several stopovers in Johannesburg, a short reprieve in Bangkok and finally Bangladesh.

 

There’s no traveling through Southern Africa without stopping in Joburg. I know all the porters by name and none of them like me.

 

It’s the only airport in the world, that I know of, that will not make “Boarding Call Announcements”. However, every 5 minutes they make announcements telling passengers that they don’t make boarding call announcements.

 

So, that’s pretty useful.

 

Because of changes in cabin pressure, ball point pens often leak during flights. I recommend the Uni-Ball Vision Elite for a leak-free flying experience.

 

Of course, pencils don’t leak.

 

I had a young baboon approach me in the garden of my hotel in Namibia. We bonded like Lego until his family of 25 came out of the bushes and also wanted to be fed.

 

My advice to anyone who feeds such a curious primate is to have enough fodder for his family members.

 

If you don’t, you run the risk of a riot. Or at least a whole lot of screeching.

 

And they know how to make a scene.

Madagascarians or Madagasys or whatever they’re called love their rice, any accompanying food is only an afterthought. Once again the Lemurs survive a visit from me. Despite the many orders from various would-be Lemur lovers.

Mauritius is a lovely place, if you’re a newly wed. I stayed in a lovely resort along the beach. Despite my best efforts, it’s not a good place to pick up stray newly weds.

I flew Kenya Airways back to Bangkok, now I don’t mean to slander, but I figure that you can catch pretty much any disease known to man on one of those aircraft without actually touching anyone.

 

Athlete’s Foot to Ebola.

 

It’s not so strange that I had to go through a health inspection upon arrival at Bangkok.

 

I need to take a moment to comment on travelers and their hand luggage. You know the over head compartment above my head? Yeah, well that’s mine. It’s not for your 25 pound roll-on U-haul container.

 

Also, please note: There’s a 7 kg/one bag restriction for Carry On. Let me give you some examples of what Carry On is: A lap top, a purse, a briefcase or maybe a small backpack (for camera, wallet, toothbrush and spare undies). You can NOT carry all of these in one hand and claim that they are one item.

 

My travel agent in Bangkok is a sweet lady, at least I think she’s a lady, her voice is rather husky. Anyway, she doesn’t know where half of the places are that I need to book tickets to. We pronounce places differently, which adds to the confusion. The one pronunciation we do agree on is:

 

Bangladeath.

 

Happy Easter and Hippidy Hop from Dhaka

 

Lars

 

“Smile, it improves you face value.” -Advert on a shopping bag in India

 

Here’s a classic example of Bengali plumbing at work: (So much for a bathroom view!)