After a bit more than 3 years spent in Thailand, it is now time for new adventures.

Luggage checked-in (65 kg !), airport formalities completed and now ready for boarding.

Next update in 1 or 2 days, most likely from South Africa.

Tags: 2008, africa, airport, botswana, namibia, safari, trip, update

According "The Nation" Bangkok newspaper, the railway link between Suvarnabhumi, Bangkok International Airport, and the City Air Terminal located in Makkasan area should be available as from December 2008.

Passengers will have the opportunity of checking in their luggage at the City Air Terminal, before boarding the rapid train to Bangkok airport. The 29 kms journey will take 15 minutes (express train) or 27 minutes (commuter train).

Interconnection with existing transport systems will take place at Phetchaburi station for MRT (subway) Blue line and at Phayathai Station for BTS (skytrain) Sukhumvit line.

About 80% of the overall work is now completed.

Tags: airport, Bangkok, bts, city terminal, link, mrt, passengers, rail, railway, Suvarnabhumi Airport, train, transportation

Saw yesterday night on TV. 

Last Saturday, during powerful storm Emma,  39 years-old Lufthansa pilot attempted to land his Airbus A320 with 131 passengers in Hamburg’s Fuhlsbüttel airport.

Facing winds up to 90 km/h at the moment of the landing,  the left wing grazed the runway for a moment, but the pilot was able to stabilise the aircraft and take off.

The plane landed safely 15 minutes later on its second attempt.

All passengers and crew were unharmed and the aircraft was only slightly damaged. After having its wing tip replaced the A320 was expected to be back in service on Monday. 

Well Done Captain !  

Tags: air, airbus, aircraft, aircraft crash landing a320 lufthansa hamburg airport l, airport, ATT, lan, landing, light, minutes, passengers, power, safe, storm, take off, www, XP, youtube

Just after posting the article about new safety measures on US aircraft I found an interesting post on New York Times "Jet Lagged" blog titled "Airport Security Folies"

Here after a short excerpt of Patrick Smith article

" Six years after the terrorist attacks of 2001, airport security remains a theater of the absurd. The changes put in place following the September 11th catastrophe have been drastic, and largely of two kinds: those practical and effective, and those irrational, wasteful and pointless.

The first variety have taken place almost entirely behind the scenes. Explosives scanning for checked luggage, for instance, was long overdue and is perhaps the most welcome addition. Unfortunately, at concourse checkpoints all across America, the madness of passenger screening continues in plain view. It began with pat-downs and the senseless confiscation of pointy objects. Then came the mandatory shoe removal, followed in the summer of 2006 by the prohibition of liquids and gels. We can only imagine what is next…."

Continue reading it on NYT website 

On my own opinion, Airport security today is a mix between relevant and must have security measures on a side but also theatrical, annoying and ridiculous measures. Some of these measures are time consuming, put passengers and crew on their nerves for no safety added value. What does really justify them?

• Government "zero  political risk" (if something happens they will be able to tell that all possible protection measures were already taken) ?
• Fear factor = better military/law enforcement budget ?
• Security private experts / companies have highly increase their financial income since September 2001. They certainly not ready to give this golden egg away.
• Did I speak about million dollars detectors and scanners manipulated by low trained personnel ?    

but do you think air travels are safer to face well prepared, organized and motivated enemies ?

Tags: 2007, 2008, air, air travel, aircraft, airport, art, ATT, attack, batteries, blog, detector, enforcement, fon, ia, ict, im, jet lagged, lan, law, LED, lithium, MIT, new york times, nomadcom.net, nyt, organize, passengers, post, risk, safe, safety, screen, security, spare, terror, train, Travel, web, website, what is, wp, www, XP

ITU Telecom ASIA 2008 will encompass an Exhibition, featuring the latest technologies and innovations and an extensive Forum which will explore the key technologies, policies and applications which are driving Asia's ICT sector.

This major ICT event will take place in Bangkok, Thailand, from the 2nd to the 5th of September 2008.

Venue: IMPACT near Don Muang Airport (former BKK Intl. Airport)

Tags: 2007, 2008, air, airport, asia, Asia 2008, Bangkok, blog, event, exhibition, ia, ict, im, Impact, IT World, ITU, lan, location, Mobile Communications, nomadcom.net, telecom, Telecommunications, Thailand, wp, www, XP

Cory Doctorow wrote this Creative Commons-licensed fiction story for Radar Online magazine.

  Une version française est disponible ici

“Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him.” –Cardinal Richelieu

“We don’t know enough about you.” –Google CEO Eric Schmidt

Greg landed at San Francisco International Airport at 8 p.m., but by the time he’d made it to the front of the customs line, it was after midnight. He’d emerged from first class, brown as a nut, unshaven, and loose-limbed after a month on the beach in Cabo (scuba diving three days a week, seducing French college girls the rest of the time). When he’d left the city a month before, he’d been a stoop-shouldered, potbellied wreck. Now he was a bronze god, drawing admiring glances from the stews at the front of the cabin.

Four hours later in the customs line, he’d slid from god back to man. His slight buzz had worn off, sweat ran down the crack of his ass, and his shoulders and neck were so tense his upper back felt like a tennis racket. The batteries on his iPod had long since died, leaving him with nothing to do except eavesdrop on the middle-age couple ahead of him.

“The marvels of modern technology,” said the woman, shrugging at a nearby sign: Immigration–Powered by Google.

“I thought that didn’t start until next month?” The man was alternately wearing and holding a large sombrero.

Googling at the border. Christ. Greg had vested out of Google six months before, cashing in his options and “taking some me time"–which turned out to be less rewarding than he’d expected. What he mostly did over the five months that followed was fix his friends’ PCs, watch daytime TV, and gain 10 pounds, which he blamed on being at home instead of in the Googleplex, with its well-appointed 24-hour gym.

He should have seen it coming, of course. The U.S. government had lavished $15 billion on a program to fingerprint and photograph visitors at the border, and hadn’t caught a single terrorist. Clearly, the public sector was not equipped to Do Search Right.

The DHS officer had bags under his eyes and squinted at his screen, prodding at his keyboard with sausage fingers. No wonder it was taking four hours to get out of the god damned airport.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2007, 24, access, account, air, airport, analysis, arc, arms, art, ATT, batteries, blog, book, brown, bt, camera, card, cars, ces, columbia, communication, computer, CTU, design, digital, dress, engine, explain, Festival, fiction, find, flash, free, Fun, google, google maps, History, HP, ia, ict, identify, im, International, internet, ipod, ITU, keyboard, King, lan, laptop, launch, law, LED, LG, light, live, map, MIT, money, network, nomadcom.net, nyt, officer, online, organize, pair, personal data, pet, photo, picture, police, politics, post, power, press, privacy, project, public, raw, release, science, sco, screen, scroogled, search, security, simple, social, soviet, storm, story, suspect, technology, term, terror, theme, touch, upgrade, USA, usage, user, violation, web, webcam, wifi, wonders, world, wp, www, XP, yahoo

At 15h35 local time (08h35 GMT), flight OG/OX269 crashed during landing at Phuket Airport. Apparently landing took place under heavy rain and the Boeing MD-80 went out of the runway, crashing into the jungle near by breaking in tow parts before bursting into flames.

123 passengers (70 foreigners) and 5 aircrew were on board and according last official report, 87 of them have perished. Wounded have been transfered to Bangkok's Phuket Hospital. 

Bangkok Pundit is live blogging information about this crash as they are released from thai and international media.

One Two Go airlines has released additional phone numbers for enquiries regarding this accident 

085-155-4622
085-911-5092
085-918-3422
02-535-7662
02-504-3227
02-504-3641

Tags: 2007, air, airlines, airport, art, Bangkok, blog, Boeing, crash, flight, google, ia, im, International, King, lan, landing, light, live, md 82, nomadcom.net, OG OX269, one two go, OX269, passengers, phone, phuket, post, release, space, Thailand, uk, wp, www

On Sunday at Kathmandu International airport, Nepal Airways sacrificed two goats in front of one of their flagship Boeing 757 aircrafts to appease Akash Bhairav, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems that force the company to suspend flights in the recent weeks.

"The goats were sacrificed in accordance with Hindu traditions, and the snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights" according a senior airline official.

We all feel safer now, isn't it?

It is certainly more as efficient as most rules that passengers must obey during air travels (no matches; no liquid; no electronics as well as windows shade up and seat back up right during take-off/landing etc..). Who knows!

Tags: 2007, air, air travel, aircraft, airport, Akash Bhairav, blog, Boeing, flight, Hinduism, ia, im, International, kathmandu, lan, landing, light, Nepal, nomadcom.net, passengers, problems, resume, sacrifice, safe, safety, space, sun, Travel, windows, wp

As frequent air traveler it is always very interesting to discover where your favorite airlines appears on the annual Skytrax World Airline Award.

The 2007 edition of the awards honors Singapore Airlines as the Airline of the Year. In few days the name of the best Airport of the year will also be published.

HEADLINE RESULTS
	AIRLINE OF THE YEAR	BEST CABIN  STAFF	BEST INFLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT
	Singapore Airlines	Malaysia Airlines	Emirates
	BEST FIRST CLASS	BEST BUSINESS CLASS	BEST ECONOMY CLASS
	Qatar Airways	Singapore Airlines	Korean Air
	BEST LOW-COST AIRLINE	FIRST CLASS CATERING	BUSINESS CLASS CATERING
	Jetstar Airways	Gulf Air	Austrian
	FIRST CLASS LOUNGE	BUSINESS CLASS LOUNGE	ECONOMY CLASS CATERING
	Thai Airways	Virgin Atlantic	Etihad Airways
	BEST AIRLINE ALLIANCE	TRANSATLANTIC AIRLINE	TRANSPACIFIC AIRLINE
	Star Alliance	British Airways	Qantas

Additional awards and detailed results on Skytrax website

Tags: 2007, air, air travel, airlines, airport, Annual, award, awards, best of, blog, emirates, flight, gap, ia, im, lan, LED, light, nomadcom.net, release, sco, singapore airlines, skytrax, space, Travel, traveler, web, website, world, world airline award, wp, www

• You're traveling a lot.
• You're spending long boring hours in airport lounges.
• You're often having dinner in solo in unknown cities.
• You never speak with your neighbor during flight.

  Rings a bell ?

Could it be different if you could travel with someone who shares same interest or who works in the industry or even works for the same company than you ? 

So such reasons, PairUp proposes to reinvent business travels by introducing the concept of "Connected Travel" allowing businesspeople for the first time to easily share travel plans and instantly search for potential business connections at their next trip destination or industry event across companies and across booking engines.

For sure the "about PairUp" speaks only about business opportunities as it's "Made in USA" but it could also be used to meet people sharing same non-professional interests.

Once logged on, the workflow is rather simple:

• Add information about your trip itinerary
• Select confidentiality level (who can know about your trip, i.e people of your industry, in your network, attending same event, etc..)
• Select your Networking interests for this trip (activities, business opportunities, professional networking, companion seating, etc..).

Then, search (with narrowing options) to have your "Confirmed Connections" and "Potential Connections" displayed and easily contact any person of interest.

Sounds easy no ?

Now, is anyone use, or already used, this flying social network ?
What were the results?

Tags: air, aircraft, airport, arc, ATT, Aviation, book, business travel, cities, connection, connections, engine, event, flight, ia, im, industry, King, lan, light, network, opportunities, Our World, pair, pair up, search, seat companion, share, sharing, simple, social, social networking, space, Travel, USA, www