Going to Oz

Can't believe that I spent 2 1/2 nights in a plane seat on the way to Oz. Only with a 10 hour stop over in Frankfurt (with far too much time for shopping...), and other stops in Dubai and Bangkok. About a 48 hour journey, although I'm not sure how much of that time was spent in the air.

Some UK air force people were on the flight from Tbilisi to Frankfurt. One of them had great difficulty opening the toilet door. Makes you feel all warm inside, to be protected by people with such technical know how!

The Dubai airport duty-free is awesome - I had heard about it before, and everything they say about it is true. It was packed with people, most shopping as if it was going out of fashion. Did not really have much time to go around for a good look, but would not have wanted to buy what they have anyway.

In Bangkok we had 20 minutes to get out of the plane with all our belongings, belt around the airport, including going through security, and then return to the same plane and the same seat (for cleaning, I assume). It probably did us good, before the next leg of the flight (8 hours 21 minutes, they told us). The poor folks who were going on to Auckland had to do the same thing again in Sydney!

On the flight to Dubai found myself sitting next to a Rwandan lady who now lives in Canada. One does not ask about personal effects of the genocide. I think she was doing some sort of business in Kenya and Rwanda, but she was also involved in some fund that supports something or other in Rwanda.

Then on the flight to Sydney I was next to a lady from Jordan who now lives in Australia. Except she is of Armenian extraction; her grandparents had fled to Jordan, and when she grew up she had 5 languages including Turkish, spoken by her grandmother. She is thinking of getting her Armenian citizenship though she has not been there - but this is possible under Armenian law. She had also spent some time in Edinburgh, where her husband had been a student.

Interesting neighbours, no?