We jumped on our Air Asia flight last night from MAA-BKK. The route opened up earlier this year and we immediately seized the opportunity to buy severely discounted tickets during Air Asia’s promotional period. We paid £89 per person for the round trip ticket – about 3.5 hours each way! Course with Air Asia you get a basic flight – no food or drink, seats that are agonizingly tight for tall people and most of the time a middle or window seat (aisle seats are an extra cost).
Airports in India are always an adventure. Men are seperated from women through customs – lots of pushing and shoving, many long lines – a part of the airport generally not suited for the “impatient”. We printed out our boarding passes from the computer and one of us made it all the way to the final gate check before boarding the aircraft with this flimsy piece of paper. He was questioned but ultimately was let on the plane. 15 minutes later – several airline employees and security came on the plane and started questioning him. Fortunately he was not asked to leave.
That aside, this was a fun flight as many Indian men – most middle aged obviously were on their first ever flight. They were going crazy with cameras (several were filming non stop inside the terminal) and huge cheers erupted upon takeoff. The FA’s were having a very difficult time getting these guys to sit down as they were like children in a candy store but behind the viewfinders of their cameras.
We landed in Bangkok in the scary hours of the morning – had a quick breakfast and in the interest of time, paid a taxi to drive us the 2 hours to our village in Eastern Thailand. On the way we passed a dead motorcyclist laid out with a tarp over him and his feet sticking out.
We hadn’t been back to our village since February (dry season); this time of year is a lesson in contrasts. Everything is super green and exploding with growth. Our jakfruit that we planted from seed about 18 months ago is now over 5 meters tall! Our International collection of mangoes from our travels are doing well. The seeds from Namibia that we mailed from the Caprivi Strip earlier this year are now half a meter tall.
It has been a crazy jet setting week and now we are ready to just lie mindlessly in the hammocks under our raised Thai style house, sipping our Spy wine coolers.
Our aunt carefully cutting up freshly picked galanga root
Our quickly growing Jakfruit tree and other exotic fruits
Wonderful experience, excellent photos and a good text.
Air Asia is a budget Airlines offering cheap Fares. So one has to make some sacrifices. Noone can question their punctuality You can place order for food of your choice, out of the available menu at the time of booking on payment. That is how they make their both ends meet. You are doing well, Air Asia. Keep doing that..