Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel. Show all posts

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Japanese Ingenuity

Beginning October 1, All Nippon Airways is asking passengers to use the toilet before boarding the plane and help cut carbon emissions. They claim empty bladders mean lighter passengers, a lighter aircraft, and therefore a lower fuel cost.

The airline staff will be present at the boarding gates and ask the passengers if they relieved themselves before boarding.

They estimate the weight saved will lead to a 5 tonne reduction in carbon emissions each month. A spokeswoman for the Airlines said: "If the flight is lighter, we use less gasoline which is good for the environment,”

This news has brought lot of comments from people all over the world. Here are some:

“Because you go once does not mean you won’t go twice especially if you are drinking beer in the airport bar.”

“Do you get extra bag of peanut if you go number one and number two before boarding?”

“Considering some of the raw food they eat, it may not be a bad idea.”

“I wonder if they have considered enemas, hair cuts, and bra-less ladies.”

“If everyone held their breath during the flight, they could reduce carbon emissions.”

“What's next, shaving passenger's heads before boarding? Making them run a couple laps around the airport (so weight will be reduced by a pound or two)”

“Why not issue diuretics at the check-in counter?”

“Have everyone arrive 2 hours early so that they can give you enema to lighten the load.”

“Will the airlines start charging extra if you want a human pilot on board next?”

“Why not fly naked? (Clothes weigh a lot)”

“Next they would ask us to cut our finger nails.”

“You really want the likes of Michael Moore naked on an airplane?”

“Why don't they just weigh the passengers and charge by the pound. Like freight.”

“How about a new type of status on the screen: GO TO TOILET.”

“Next they'll be asking you to prepare for a flight as though you were going to have a colonoscopy.”

“In related news, Air India has asked its passengers to go on a hunger strike prior to boarding.”

“Passengers could flap their arms while in flight to reduce weight.”

Are they going to install dialysis machines at the airport and employ nephrologists and nurses to help passengers with acute kidney failure? (This is not in quote because this is my own comment.)

“Do we get any points for vomiting before getting on the plane?”

“Could you get a reduction in the ticket price if you swore you drank or ate nothing the previous 24 hours?”

“Are they going to rename All Nippon Airways to Stop and Go Airways?”

“Airlines staff can ask the passengers the following:

Sir or Madam,
When was the last time you emptied your bladder? Do you think you could do so again before you board the plane? If you don't we'll have to impose a full bladder surcharge on your ticket. Yes, you have to show the container full of liquid to prove that you voided your bladder.”


Here is one I think is the best: “If they would just let us open the windows we could relieve in-flight”. (But there is a political problem here)

An Irish airline, Ryanair is considering charging passengers for using the toilet while flying. They are thinking of installing “coin slot on the toilet door”.

I just thought of an idea to increase revenue for the airlines. Install coin operated toilets in the plane. They should accept only coins. No paper currency. No credit cards. Then include coins in the banned items (like knife, blades, firearms, etc.) so that passengers will not carry any coin with them while boarding. Once inside the plane, stewardess will give change for paper currency. Passengers will get 3 quarters for each dollar. How about that? Any takers?

Frequent flyers can use their mileage to buy toilet tokens.

You have any comments? Be my guest.

Friday, September 25, 2009

Musical Chairs in the Plane

I am still in Greensboro. Since I had some free time, I thought I would post this.

This happened on our way to Greensboro, North Carolina.

We had booked our flight from San Francisco. It was an A 321 (Air Bus). The plane was fully booked. Whenever I pay for myself, I travel by “cattle class” only. Thank you Mr. Shashi Tharoor for coining that phrase. We could not sit together. My wife’s seat was 7B. My seat was 8B.

In an A 321, there are 3 seats in each row. A is window seat. B is center seat. C is aisle seat. The best is aisle seat. Window seat is second best. Center seat is the worst. We both had the worst seat.

As soon as we entered the plane, my wife sat in 7B. I went to the next row. There was a good-looking girl sitting in 8A. There was a guy sitting in 8C. Now I have to sit between them. The guy was already flirting with that girl. As soon as I approached them, the guy told me he would be glad to sit in the center seat and I can have the aisle seat. It was a win-win situation. I got the aisle seat for me. He has an uninterrupted 5 hours of flirting with that girl and get cozy.

However, man proposes and God disposes. (That good-looking girl must have been a frequent flyer with lot of points to her credit. She must have asked to be upgraded to executive class.) After a few minutes, the airhostess comes and tells the girl that she has been upgraded to executive class. She picks up her stuff and leaves saying goodbye to that guy. Now I took pity on that guy and asked him if he wants his aisle seat back. He said no and he would be happy to sit in the window seat.

However, the airlines think otherwise. Since the girl in 8A has moved to executive class, now that seat is “officially” vacant. After a few minutes, a big fat guy has been allotted that seat and comes and sits in that seat. Now our friend is in the middle seat. I asked him one more time if he wanted his original aisle seat back. Now he is embarrassed to take back what he gave me originally. He said no and I can sit in the aisle seat.

While this is happening in my row, in row 7, a guy came and sat in 7C, the aisle seat. I asked him if he would like to exchange to 8C. He said he would be happy to. Therefore, I took 7C and he took 8C. Now my wife and I were sitting side by side in 7C and 7B.

The poor guy, who gave up his aisle seat in 8C for me so that he can flirt with that good looking girl, ended up sitting in the center seat 8B, between 2 fat guys.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

London, Venice, and Oh yes the T20 World Cup (Part 3)

Visit to Venice, Italy.

We left London on June 16 and went to Venice, Italy. It is a 2 hour flight from London to Venice (courtesy of British Midland Airways). Whenever we travel on Indian Airlines or Air India we complain about the service. Once you travel on British Midland, you will never complain again about Indian Airlines or Air India because we have a new bottom feeder in the airline industry. On board the BMI flight, you better have your money ready at all times as you will need to pay even for a cup of water.

Venice is located along the Adriatic Sea in Northern Italy. It is best known for being a city built on water. It is famous for its canals and gondolas. The main transportation is motorized water buses. There are also water taxis available in Venice.

Street in Venice

There are several attractions in Venice. Since we stayed here for only 2 days, we were able to visit the following; St. Mark’s Square, St. Mark’s Basilica, Doge’s Palace, St. Mark’s Campanile, Museo Correr, and of course we went on a gondola ride.

St. Mark’s Square is known as Piazza San Marco in Italian. It is very popular with tourists…as well as pigeons. It is the main gathering place in Venice and was built in the 9th century.


St. Mark's Square

St. Mark’s Basilica is the main Cathedral in Venice. Even though it originated in 828 AD, based on Byzantine architecture, much of what we see today was constructed in the 11th century.

St. Mark's Basilica

Doge’s palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice. Doge is an Italian title, roughly meaning Leader of Venice or Chief Magistrate of Venice. They were elected for life by the city’s aristocracy. A total of 120 Doges lived in this palace from 697 AD to 1797 AD.

St. Mark’s Campanile is a bell tower building located in St. Mark’s Square. It is almost 100 meters tall.

Museo Correr is a civic museum located in St. Mark’s Square. This museum has art, documents, artifacts, and maps that chart the history and daily life of Venice across the centuries.

Finally, we went on the gondola ride. We booked the gondola ride tickets online before leaving the USA. That was a mistake. We thought we were going to be riding on a gondola operated manually by a gondolier named Mario or Luigi who will be sporting a traditional hat. Instead, we were “taken for a ride” (literally and figuratively) in a water taxi. Since we travelled by water buses several times during the course of our 2 day visit, this water taxi gondola ride was not a big deal for us. It wasn’t exciting, special, or memorable in a positive way.


Marco Polo was born in Venice. The Venice International Airport is named after him.

Overall, we did fall in love with Venice and plan to return there again someday. It is one the world’s most beautiful cities. We were told that Venice is slowly sinking into the Adriatic Sea and will be completely submerged within the next 200 years. There is a famous saying about another Italian city: See Naples before you die. We now have a saying about “Venezia” (the city’s name in Italian): See Venice before it sinks.

June 19 arrived back home in the USA via stopover in London.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

London, Venice, and Oh yes the T20 World Cup (Part 2)

Visits to Madame Tussads Wax Museum and Stonehenge:

On June 14, we visited the famous Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. We stood in line for 2 hours before reaching the ticket counter. This place had a HUGE line and only 3 people handling the ticket counters. Inside the museum they had Hollywood and Bollywood stars, sports personalities, top intellectuals, world leaders, and politicians. The mannequins look so real and lifelike. All of the Indians, including us, wanted to pose for picture with Sachin Tendulkar. But we were all disappointed. Sachin Tendulkar was taken out for maintenance.

Mahatma Gandhi at Madame Tussads Was Museum

On June 15, we had originally planned to visit Kensington Palace. However we changed our plans and decided to go to Stonehenge instead. It is a 2 hour drive from London. Stonehenge is a megalithic rock monument of 150 enormous stones set in a purposeful circular pattern. The rock formation happened around 3000 BC. It is Britain’s national icon. It symbolizes mystery, power, and endurance. There are various theories (version) regarding the purpose of these rocks. Some call it an astronomical observatory for marking events in the prehistoric calendar. Some say this was a sacred burial ground. Some describe this as a temple of worship. It is in the list of United Nation’s world heritage sites and narrowly missed being included as one of the New 7 Wonders of the World. A must visit, in our opinion.

Stonehenge

(Still to come—Stay tuned)

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

London, Venice, and Oh yes the T20 World Cup too (Part 1)

We were planning to go on vacation somewhere this year. Ever since we went on a Gondola ride at the Venetian (casino) in Las Vegas, we wanted to go to Venice, Italy. Then I saw an article that the T20 Cricket World Cup will be held in June 2009 in London. I have not seen a live cricket match in a long time. Therefore, for nostalgic reasons we decided to go to London and see a cricket match as well as other British attractions, and then visit Venice.

We invited our grown kids to come along with us. Our daughter declined due to prior commitments but our son accepted to come with us to London. Regarding the game of Cricket - He has no knowledge of the sport. I had to explain the game to him. He still does not understand what an LBW is and how an umpire could decide whether there was an LBW or not. He does however know the names of 2 cricket players - Gary Sobers and S. Venkatragavan. Remember my previous blog about frozen memories transferred from one generation to the next!

We wanted tickets for June 12 when India was most likely going to play. However, we got tickets for the June 13 Super 8 double-header. The likely teams on that day were Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, and England. My son was disappointed because he could not take his huge Indian flag with him.

So, we landed in London on June 11. It was just our luck that the London Underground Tube employees were on strike. Therefore, we had to catch a different mode of transportation to reach our hotel. The Tube from Heathrow Airport to our hotel is about 4 pounds but our different mode of transportation ended up costing us 21 pounds each to get to the hotel.

That evening we went to Piccadilly Circus. There was a famous TV show in the USA called Cheers. In this show, the name of the bar is “Cheers” and is located in Boston. They had opened a bar and restaurant called “Cheers” in London with the same sign and similar layout. When we reached the place where “Cheers” was supposed to be, we were told that the bar/pub had shut down.

The next day (Friday June 12) we did the touristy stuff. We went to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guards then we also saw Big Ben and the Parliament House.
Next to the Parliament House, we went to see Westminster Abbey, built in 960 AD. This is a Gothic monastery church that is traditional place for coronation and burial site for English monarchs. There is a Poet’s Corner where they have honored famous poets and playwrights. This is a must see for its beautiful architectural designs. Millions of people visit this place each year. This is the place Princess Diana got married and also had her funeral services.
One thing I noticed is that anywhere you go...Piccadilly Circus, Buckingham Palace, Parliament House, Big Ben....half the crowd were Indians. However in Westminster Abbey, we did not see a single Indian on that day.


WESTMINSTER ABBEY

We went to Oval on June 13 to watch the Cricket games. It was a doubleheader - South Africa played against the West Indies and South Africa won the match. In the second game Pakistan easily won the match over New Zealand.

During the game and definitely after the game Pakistanis celebrated in excess. It was just one match at the Super 8. But they celebrated, after the game in the streets, as if they won the World Cup. (Latest Update: Pakistan won the T20 World Cup) New Zealand supporters were also equally crazy. Pakistanis kept shouting as loud as they can in unison: “Pakistan Zindabad.” “Pakistan Zindabad.”
New Zealanders then replied: “Pakistan blah blah blah.” “Pakistan blah blah blah.”
Pakistanis continued to shout: “Pakistan Zindabad.” “Pakistan Zindabad.”
New Zealanders then responded with: “Pakistan Build a Bomb.” “Pakistan Build a Bomb.”

(Still to come—Stay tuned)