I have always liked to travel.  Seeing new places is always a thrill and sometimes and education.  But traveling can be tough.  The jet lag, the food and the constraints and fun of security are not things I look forward to.  On my most recent trip I experienced all of the above and still come away feeling pretty good.

I will say however, the Boeing 747 has to be the most cramped plane I’ve flown on.  There was simply no leg room at all.  Now, I’m not a tall person and at 5’9 I was miserable on the 747.  The 777 was much better.

As to the flight crews and service, well Thai Airways has some of the best I’ve ever seen hands down.  The American Crews I encountered were hit and miss.  The Thai crew was professional, extremely courteous and right there whenever you thought you might desire something.  I was impressed.

Airport security was interesting to say the least.  Since I’m not exactly new to this I usually do pretty well getting through security without too much trouble.  I wish more people would pay attention before they fly on what you can and cannot bring with you.  The security people must get a little irritated with some of the passengers and the silly anger they have when they must remove an un-authorized item.  Of course most of these items should never be un-authorized but they are so we must deal with that.  In this regard Japan’s security was probably the nicest, while San Francisco’s was…less than stellar.  I noticed in some of the smaller countries their security resembles a jobs program.  At one place I went through at least five different security stations.  They all simply re-checked what had already been checked before.  But they were generally nice so what the hell. 

Luckily I stayed at some pretty nice hotels and cannot complain at all about any of the food I had anywhere along this trip.  Even the airline food was ok. 

I’m happy to be home.  While it can be nice to be waited on living out of a suitcase isn’t a long term love with me.