fedssocr

Or F class. :-) I agree it is sad to see the A380 being ditched by almost all of the operators who flew it.

some more photos (from the Dear Straight People FB)

long haul travel has been killed along with most other travel over the past year. Eventually it will bounce back, but it will be interesting to see which airlines have survived by then. TG has struggled with the A380s since they bought them. I am more surprised by ditching the A330s. Without the A380 or 747s though they won't have first class anymore. Where will all of those most important people sit? I was watching a video the other day suggesting that lots of long haul routes are going to be serviced by narrow body aircraft with the intro of the A321LR including lots of trans-Atlantic routes because they claimed people don't like connecting. Give me a widebody with a connection any day over a direct narrowbody, but I also live close to a major international hub. I suppose regional Asian routes will also be able to be served by smaller aircraft though. If there are more A350s in service that would be a good thing as far as I am concerned since that aircraft is the most comfortable generally.

I take back what I said about the general not caring about what the people do. Shutting down the internet shows real weakness and fear of the people. All of the millions of people who have had a taste of the internet and are probably social media addicts like everyone else in the world are not likely to be quiet. Not to mention how much commerce relies on the connectedness of people to the internet. Although I suppose it will be much harder for them to organize

it's interesting to see people trying to push back, but I doubt the general cares about people banging pots or doing the 3 finger salute on social media. It's certainly a beautiful but complicated place. It's sad that so much of the world including SE Asia is getting more authoritarian

he certainly has a lot of stamina

Glad that the rest of you got around to I Told Sunset. It still annoyed me, but there's no doubt it was beautifully shot. For me Bas was the MVP of the series. But I'm a sucker for those heroic characters and their unrequited love. I never felt much chemistry between the leads.

wow. that's a lotta car traffic sitting still. It's been over a decade since I was in Hanoi. It was mostly motorbikes then. I guess the growing middle class are buying cars like they do everywhere

you can find most of these things on dailymotion.com with subtitles. There's a little cottage industry of people of subtitle these things and post them. This person seems to be a reliable source. https://www.dailymotion.com/jiminskook The first 3 episodes of this series are available.

I don't know how anyone can keep up with all of this. Apparently Ohm and Fluke are from some previous series? The comments on this video are asking if they have a new series coming which seems likely. I have to say the actors are adorable

The last episode almost saved the series for me, but I wasn't a fan of the ending. I get that a lot of the praise was pinned on how "realistic" it is as a coming of age story. I didn't quite buy that, but there's plenty of melodrama. But for sure the cinematography is excellent. I wasn't quite as sold on the leads' acting, but the little mini-documentaries attached to each episode made them more likable.

I can't wait to go back to Taiwan. I'm afraid it's going to be a while though

the Pfizer vaccine require freezing down to minus 100 degrees and 2 doses 28 days apart. The logistics of distribution will be daunting

Speaking of chemistry... I don't know if any of you are watching I Told Sunset About You. Here's a link to ep 3 You can also find the behind the scenes documentaries on dailymotion. The one for ep 2 talks a lot about how they worked hard to find actors with good chemistry. Personally I don't see all that much chemistry between the leads. Part of it could be that their characters are a bit of a mess. Their confusion leads to a barrier of sorts. The main character is a controlling, jealous jerk to a great degree. So I am having a hard time believing that the cute gay boy would be all that interested in him. Although frankly both of the characters are immature - which makes sense given their age. Hopefully the loyal friend of gay boy blows his top soon because he needs to stand up for himself.

given how many people voted by mail for the first time it's not a surprise that it is taking so long to count the ballots. The system isn't really set up to conduct elections this way in most places. In states like PA the Republican legislature wouldn't allow the local election officials to even open the ballots until election day while others like Florida sensibly allow for the mail ballots to be counted in advance of election day as they arrive. Trump got so many votes for a variety of reasons. There is so much brainwashing going on all over the world right now. Social media is turning a lot of us into idiots and the craziest voices get amplified. Add in the propaganda TV networks. Poor educational system. And for sure plenty of racism, but also the wealthy class has set the poor people against each other so they're distracted while they're all being robbed. Sadly our whole system has been corrupted, primarily by the Republicans. Reagan was the beginning of the end. But the unrepresentative Senate and gerrymandered House (and state legislatures) have created a dynamic where minoritarian rule is in place in a feedback loop so it will just continue to get worse. I saw an estimate the other day that by 2040 the Republicans will probably have 80 Senators due to the way populations are shifting. Essentially what needs to happen is masses of progressives moving to the rural states. But we all live in the blue states for good reasons. So getting enough of us out to the red hinterlands will be difficult. Maybe the crazies will all kill each other off with the virus. At least we appear to averted disaster for the moment. There's plenty of work to be done.

I Told Sunset ep 2 and behind the scenes

it's crazy how many of these there are. I watched episode 1 of I Told Sunset About You last weekend.

Sadly I've found that that Airbnb reviews aren't always accurate either. Last year I stayed at a place in Busan, South Korea based partly on the stellar reviews. When I arrived I found it to be nowhere near as nice as everyone said. The host had some documents in the apartment basically begging for 5 star reviews which it appeared other guests were happy to do. I left a more realistic review. I was in Toronto a couple of years ago and stayed at an apartment with a spectacular view of CN Tower. But otherwise was very poorly maintained even though the building was almost brand new. I probably should have paid more attention to the mixed reviews in that case. For a weekend it was OK though. Unfortunately a lot of places now really frown on Airbnb (including the building I live in which prohibits such short term rentals). So I've soured a bit on the concept even though I have stayed in some very nice places that were really cheap.

Whenever I write a review I try to be even-handed and thorough. Maybe too thorough. Usually there are good points and bad points to any stay or things that could be improved. I used to review ever hotel stay on TA, but it got to feel like work after a while so now I will if a stay is remarkable (one way or the other). I think it's also important to have reasonable expectations. If I'm traveling in the developing world (unless it's a big capital city or major tourist destination like Siem Reap) I tone down the expectations. My most recent trip was to Sri Lanka which has a bit of a mix but is still developing its tourism industry. Some remote areas don't have too many choices.

"gone missing"? The police said they removed it. No big surprise.

here in the US young people (20-40) are being infected at high rates in the states having big outbreaks right now. Deaths are less frequent but not unknown in that younger age group. I see that Thailand is allowing large gatherings. Concert venues and bars are operating like before the pandemic if my FB is showing the norm. Packed clubs with people drinking and singing, etc. I won't be hugely surprised if there's a spike like seems to be happening again in most countries.

that is sad. I've already figured that I won't get to travel until autumn 2021 at the soonest. The world really has changed

I've been thinking about this a good bit lately. Poor people who are barely surviving everywhere are in big trouble now.

I am not aware that they ever had a visitable office. I don't think this Utopia is the same as the former Utopia Tours which became Purple Dragon after the unpleasantness that attempted to shut them down. The tour company is out of business and had an office on Rama IV

certainly pollution and waste are huge problems in most of the developing world. Even Bhutan which has a reputation as heaven on earth (as long as you don't pull back the curtain) has a huge solid waste problem. Or at least it did when I was there several years ago. I suspect it's even worse now.