pacman

Yes, good point about the transponder but if someone was in control, what earthly reason could they have to just fly on until they ran out of fuel? If suicide was the reason, they could have crashed the plane long before then. I know we can't understand the workings of the pilot's mind but it's almost as if they (whoever "they" were) were interrupted before they could complete their task. By the way Arch, I was talking to my pilot mate & asked him about the oxygen bottles again. He claimed he never said they could have been empty, there is one well known case where they had been filled with nitrogen rather than oxygen but the bottles are checked as part of the pre-flight check list. I am sure he said they could be out of gas but I wasn't going to argue with him. He did say there have been cases where the valve was turned off but they are all trained to check that. And I never knew there's only enough O2 for everyone to breath for about 20 minutes. Enough time for the plane to get to a low altitude where there is air. The presence of the lithium batteries in the hold does make for some interesting possibilities. They are a very real danger of them starting a fire & there is a call for them to be banned from cargo holds.

Found it - Sarah was shacked up with Paddy McNally, also a rally driver.

Wasn't Paddy in a LTR with Sarah Ferguson before she went on to marry Prince Andrew? I'm sure he was the other man.

Well I never. I spent time in Bern visiting a girl friend years ago & I never saw the "old city". I don't even remember seeing a river. I will open Google Earth & have a look at where I was compared to where this is. Can't believe I could have been there & not known this.

I didn't think that was so hard. The place I was after is Pokhara. It was a delightful village catering for tourists when I was there. To hear it is now a large city today came as a shock. I must return.

It's all settled, the plane has gone down in the Indian Ocean. This fits completely with the scenario of a fire on board that has caused everyone to lose consciousness. And the news that the plane was carrying a load of Lithium batteries which are notorious for igniting only adds "fuel to the flames"... pun intended, bad taste not intended. This morning I read that *experts* say the loss of the plane into the ocean helps prove that it was pilot suicide. I do not understand how they arrive at that conclusion unless they know something they are not saying. We still haven't been offered an explanation for why the pilot's family moved out of the family home the day before the flight took off. Or if we have I missed it.

Someone's gotta do it. Sarcastic? You? Hard to believe... I'm well thanks mate & enjoying your continuing contribution to the forum. PD must be paying you a fortune...

It has nothing to do with them being "slutty", it all comes down to who's more hungry. If either party has just had a big payday, they won't bother trying to come onto anyone, if they haven't eaten for a few days, they'll be all over Quasimodo if he's the only farang in sight. They are young / young-ish Thais who fancy their fellow countrymen. However they can't survive catering to them so they do what they have to do. Once we start imagining they are hot for us, it's time to take a cold shower & reconsider just where we are. IMO. Hansum? You mean delusional... Don't worry BB, I still think you can pass with a push...

MAS - Malaya & Singapore? I can't recall the full name but I'm sure the S stands for Singapore.

It's an unfair accusation she makes. The Thai radar operator had no way of knowing what plane they were looking at. With the transponder turned off & with MH370 tracking over Vietnam, how on earth is he or she supposed to know it's the same plane that's on its way to Beijing? I don't know how many planes their radar is picking up at that time of night but with private jets, etc, it could be a few. And all the radar shows is a ping on the screen. Now if I was sitting there trying to figure out what just flew past with no call sign being transmitted, the last thing I would be thinking would be that I just saw Malaysia Airlines regular flight to China........ heading in the wrong direction with their transponder turned off. She's right that Thailand was slow in saying something but with their culture of being subservient to those above them in the chain of command, who knows who was at fault in bringing this to world attention earlier. And with their Asian culture, they are not disposed towards jumping to conclusions. Rather than being deliberately cruel, what Greta has just caught a glimpse of is the heavy handed bureaucracy that bedevils the workings of the Thai government. I hope her remarks are the catalyst for some action in Thailand's moribund way of doing things. I'm sure someone is feeling an acute loss of face after all this.

When I did that trip we could only buy alcohol in India on Wednesdays. And you had to apply at the local police station for a permit. Then when you got a beer it wasn't cold. Things are a bit better today. With the attitude in Pakistan being so hostile towards westerners I'm not sure I would recommend you going to Karachi to catch that flight. I would fly from either Delhi or Kathmandu to Iran & give Pakistan a wide berth. Do you really want to risk being held hostage by the Taliban? As for the Rangoon to Kolkata flight, I have done it twice, only arriving at the second attempt. The first time we were in the air before the pilots could communicate with India & they turned us around as there was a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal. Rangoon airport had no way of contacting Kolkata before take-off. The one positive that came out of it was I got to spend another 3 days in Rangoon at the expense of the government. We were put up at the best hotel in town & all meals were supplied. There was no chance of getting fat though, I think they were told to keep the servings to a minimum. On the second time on Burma Air I was seated next to a westerner & mentioned to him I didn't like the look of the large dent in the leading edge of the wing. He said it was OK, he was an inspector travelling the world looking at the safety procedures on third world airlines. He told me Burma Air was one of the worst ones but not so bad they needed to shut it down. He said some of the national carriers in Africa were terrible & he wouldn't risk flying on most of them. The worst airline according to him back in the 70's - Zimbabwe Airlines. He thought it a miracle everytime they landed one of their planes safely.

Shiraz (Syrah) is the top drop here. Sunshine in a bottle is how I describe it. And the answer to your first question is Shiraz in Iran. Your clue about your favourite wine not being available there refers to it being a Muslim country. What a waste! All those wonderful old vines & none of it can be used for wine making.

I remember some confusion caused by meeting you & Redrock on the same trip. But thanks for the kind words, most people one meets through the forums are good blokes. Including you.

OMG! With the Himalayas in the background I thought that must be Kathmandu but it can't be, it's way too big. It appears that since I was last there Kathmandu has grown.When I visited there was one set of traffic lights. And to get around we hired bicycles, there were very few cars & none to rent. I vaguely recall we rode to the edge of town in 5 minutes or less. And we were stared at everywhere we went. Here's my question - name the city on the shores of a lake in Nepal where all the hippies used to go to back in the day? And it wasn't a city when I was there, it was a village. A Nepalese waitress told me it is now a big city complete with traffic jams, everything. Don't you love progress?

Stingray. More trivia - where are all the old Corvettes, Mustangs, Dodge Chargers, etc finishing up? Answer: Australia. We have imported 1000's of them & they sell for far more than what they cost new, the best of them are going for silly money. Plus either the buyer or the importer pays 15,000-odd dollars to convert the things from left hand drive to right hand drive. Though I am seeing more & more on special plates that allow them to be driven as they are. Some days I see 10 or more in a few hours on the road. Cashed-up mine workers have the money to indulge themselves & after seeing all these made-in-America V8s inl the old movies & TV shows, they are snapping them up like free beer at an orgy. If any of our American BMs know of a nice classic car or cars for sale, please let me know.

I picture him with two arms, two legs & one head. Is there something we need to know?

Thanks GT, I think that's exactly what I was saying, my point was a lame observation about the title of the thread. Food threads are always handy if they manage to bring a few treasures to the notice of those who aren't very brave in their eating habits.

If I put my pedantic hat on (when do I take it off?) I would offer the comment that the word "unexpectedly' in the title is all relevant. No offence to the OP but why would cheap food be a surprise in a third world country? I understand you are referring to the difference to what we expect to pay & the nice surprise that comes with finding it is cheaper than we thought it would be. I have spent too much time in Asia to get excited about cheap food. I have been sick enough times to suspect anything that appears underpriced. I worry about why it is cheap. Is it old, is it off, has it been rescued from a dumpster? And what is the real price anyway? I remember being told on an early visit that 10 baht meant a lot to one of the less attractive bar girls. I asked what could they do with 10 baht. The answer back then - they could feed themselves for 3 days. Now that's cheap!

It's the Queen Victoria building in Calcutta. Or it may be called something else but that's her in the stature. I should know the building name, I stayed around the corner from there back long ago.

They're all racehorses?

Hmmm.....

Happy St Patrick's Day for tomorrow when the Irish celebrate the life of that well known Welshman. And I'll raise a glass in honour of my ancestors in Limerick before they decided to migrate to the Antipodes. Slainte to all the Irish BMs.....

I don't know the answer sorry but I am gatecrashing the thread because I remembered a scene from The Deer Hunter that was shot in Patpong Road in Bangkok. It's the scene in the short time room with an American soldier on R+R & a Thai bar girl. I'm sure I read it wasn't filmed in Patpong, they filmed it somewhere else, but the girl in it was someone I knew from one of the bars on Patpong Road. I nearly dropped my popcorn in excitement when I realised who it was back when I saw the film. I thought to post this a few times but over the years there was never an appropriate thread, I guess there never will be so excuse me for taking the liberty to mention it here. I don't suppose anyone would know who I mean, I could remember her name for years but it is gone in the fog of time. Damn it, I am not even certain it wasn't Apocalypse Now I saw her in but I think it was the Deer Hunter. Two excellent anti-war films.

Two comments - the phone reception in NYC is vastly better than the Gulf of Siam. Not many phone towers out there plus Asian airlines are more strict about operating mobile phones during the flight. Second - I think they were unconscious, why else wouldn't someone come to the flight deck to see what was happening? Not even the cabin crew who would have realised something was wrong. They were either passed out or dead.

That's my opinion too but the hi-jacking theory runs into trouble when you consider that the plane was never hi-jacked. Or if it was in the process of being hi-jacked, the hi-jackers ran into trouble & never finished the job. It's as if whoever was changing course, etc, ran out of air & passed out. And that scenario fits exactly with my friend's hypothesis above. I think something happened (a smoke bomb or poisonous gas was released) which allowed the hi-jackers to take control of the plane. They had oxygen masks on but never counted on running out of O2. I can't comment on how thorough the flight checks are but an empty O2 bottle is a real possibility. My friend confirmed it has happened before. Whoever took control of the plane had time to make several course changes, yet they never flew anywhere in particular let alone try to land. This morning I see the plane flew on for another 7 hours to god knows where. Does anyone believe that after turning the plane around that there was anyone flying the thing? I don't.