bangkok : The Art of Non-Conformity

8-Hour Flight Delay, Good vs. Great Work, etc.

Greetings again from Bangkok, where I'm approaching the end of my latest trip around various parts of the Asia-Pacific side of the world. Coming out of the Maldives the other night, I got stuck for eight hours. Eight hours! Here's the lesson from that experience: no eight-hour airport delay is ever announced as being eight hours. It's always two hours, then one hour, then another hour, and so on—giving you false hope while sitting on hard metal chairs all through the night ...

Tips for Stress-Free Travel

The title of this post is somewhat of a misnomer: I almost never experience travel that is truly stress-free. For starters, not all travel can or should be predictable. Sometimes the unexpected is better than the planned.

Secondly, not all stress is bad, because some of the most challenging times in our lives are the most stressful. No risk, no glory—that kind of thing.

Yet, when heading out into the world, it helps to control as many variables as you can. I'd rather experience travel stress related to something fun than something preventable that was my own fault. With that in mind, here's a primer on low-stress travel—and your contributions are welcome too.

Travel

Bangkok Adventures

The Japanese man sitting next to me looks back and forth between the video and me. Finally, he takes off his headphones and asks, “Wrong movie?”

Yes. Wrong movie.

The wrong movie plays for nearly three minutes before it is turned off by a flight attendant. She comes on the p.a. after another three minutes. “Ladies and gentlemen… sorry… we can’t find the arrival video for Japan. If you have any questions about Japan, let us know.”

Other than that, the 11-hour flight across the Pacific is uneventful. I arrive in Narita and quickly transfer to a Cathay Pacific flight for Hong Kong. Another five hours goes by as I fitfully sleep in the back of the plane.