FLY ME TO THE MOON, TO JAPAN, TO KOREA...
i was reading a colleague's (from another paper and another section) blog entry about her airplane experience that could really really make anyone tear his/her hair out -- annoying loud and obnoxious passengers who demanded vegetarian fare from the hapless stewardess constantly.
hah.
i'm not really a jetsetter but i've been traveling quite a lot lately so i may have collected enough flying pet peeves that i could share and hopefully it shouldn't get longer.
i'm not really maarte when it comes to traveling but some things just get under my skin especially when i am sleep-deprived. leaving the house 5 hours before my actual flight would entail a lot of kicking and alarm snooze switching. more often than not, i often get early morning flights from manila, ergo, i am often cranky, hungry and sleepy when flying.
non-stop crying babies. forgive me, i may have a baby in the future and don't get me wrong -- i'd like to have children -- but sitting next to a crying baby the whole duration of the flight would really test your patience. when Other Half and i were going home from bohol to manila after a 6-day vacation in panglao, there was this infant several seats away from us who cried his/her head off from tagbilaran to manila non-stop. the father had to stand up along the aisle and rock the baby to sleep. i feel sorry for the man -- the baby just won't stop. i was wondering whether babies can already develop a fear of flying hence the endless crying. i was also thinking the baby may be sick, therefore, they shouldn't be flying at all. i also fear for the baby's health since he/she wouldn't stop, so it may be dangerous already for the baby if he/she kept on shrieking since he/she may get dehydrated, develop a sore throat or even fever. maybe he/she's hungry (hey you, mommy!) or soiled his/her diaper.
i couldn't sleep because that was the time before i had an ipod or an mp3 player of any form to shut out the ceaseless crying. ipods and other mp3 players are essential tools for a good sleep in a plane.
note to self: do not fly with a baby. as much as possible. if i can help it. if my baby and i have to be stuck in metro manila for two years, so be it.
i had a traveling companion (from one of the trips i had last year) who said he always chose the seats where smoking was allowed. that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay before people became health conscious and airlines then had seperate sections. not that because he smokes but in the smoking section there would be no babies. it's a pompous assessment but that's the way he liked it. i don't know if there was really a time when smoking was allowed but how can i check the veracity of his story? 'nuff said.
worry warts and di mapakali passengers. these are the types who every now and then had to stand up and open the overhead bin and take out stuff 100 times during the flight then hit you with a huge bag on the face only to get a scrappy tissue to wipe his greasy face with.
people who sleep on your shoulders. with spit flowing from his open mouth. who snores to your face. i get this all the time, not only in planes but also in buses whenever i go home to elbi.
people who take their shoes and socks off to pick on their corns, athlete's foot and what have you. yep, got one of those too. this woman was sitting one or two seats away from me during my flight to Hong Kong with my colleagues in August last year. she was removing dried skin from her corn/callous or whatever with her hands or some device. she had smelly feet, my colleagues said.
there's a reason why singapore airlines ask passengers not to remove their shoes during the flight. no, it's not because of smelly socks (but that is also a reason) but rather it's about common courtesy towards the other passengers. they ask passengers to be at least act civilized. don't believe me? go ask them.
people who scream, "mommy, i don't wanna die yet!" whenever the plane hits an "air pocket". i traveled with one gay colleague who kept screaming that whenever our plane hit a turbulence of some sort. we left a stormy manila that time. i nearly hit him with my passport to shut him up but i was across the aisle and i was too sleepy at that time to care. you see, screaming mommy-i-don't-wanna-die-yeat would make other passengers sweaty and question the plane's safety. and to think we were flying on a budget airline (and it doesn't help that the airline has a history of crashing into mountains on a bad weather), which may make other passengers queasy.
talkative seatmate when you want to sleep. yes, they would want to have a friendly chat with you but you were up for 48 hours and the only time you can sleep was during the flight. wouldn't you get cranky and be a snob as well? that's why the ipod was invented. thank you, steve jobs!
these are the reasons why i always choose the window seat whenever i have the chance so there would be less passenger contact and i can have my own little world there. same goes for long bus rides. when i was still thin and very much unmarried then (oh, you get the picture), i always encounter these guys who would always want to have a chat with me and give me those stupid pick-up lines when i ride the bus from elbi to manila or back. what i did (and still do even though i now look pregnant-fat, ergo, not worth the chat) was to stick a pair of earphones from my one hundred-peso FM radio (that was the era before mp3 players then) and pretend to be asleep.
so here are some of the annoyances that i encounter when flying. i may sound maarte but without these things, my flight would have been uneventful and peaceful. i can sleep in peace.
bottom line is: leave me alone, i want to sleep.
hah.
i'm not really a jetsetter but i've been traveling quite a lot lately so i may have collected enough flying pet peeves that i could share and hopefully it shouldn't get longer.
i'm not really maarte when it comes to traveling but some things just get under my skin especially when i am sleep-deprived. leaving the house 5 hours before my actual flight would entail a lot of kicking and alarm snooze switching. more often than not, i often get early morning flights from manila, ergo, i am often cranky, hungry and sleepy when flying.
non-stop crying babies. forgive me, i may have a baby in the future and don't get me wrong -- i'd like to have children -- but sitting next to a crying baby the whole duration of the flight would really test your patience. when Other Half and i were going home from bohol to manila after a 6-day vacation in panglao, there was this infant several seats away from us who cried his/her head off from tagbilaran to manila non-stop. the father had to stand up along the aisle and rock the baby to sleep. i feel sorry for the man -- the baby just won't stop. i was wondering whether babies can already develop a fear of flying hence the endless crying. i was also thinking the baby may be sick, therefore, they shouldn't be flying at all. i also fear for the baby's health since he/she wouldn't stop, so it may be dangerous already for the baby if he/she kept on shrieking since he/she may get dehydrated, develop a sore throat or even fever. maybe he/she's hungry (hey you, mommy!) or soiled his/her diaper.
i couldn't sleep because that was the time before i had an ipod or an mp3 player of any form to shut out the ceaseless crying. ipods and other mp3 players are essential tools for a good sleep in a plane.
note to self: do not fly with a baby. as much as possible. if i can help it. if my baby and i have to be stuck in metro manila for two years, so be it.
i had a traveling companion (from one of the trips i had last year) who said he always chose the seats where smoking was allowed. that was waaaaaaaaaaaaaay before people became health conscious and airlines then had seperate sections. not that because he smokes but in the smoking section there would be no babies. it's a pompous assessment but that's the way he liked it. i don't know if there was really a time when smoking was allowed but how can i check the veracity of his story? 'nuff said.
worry warts and di mapakali passengers. these are the types who every now and then had to stand up and open the overhead bin and take out stuff 100 times during the flight then hit you with a huge bag on the face only to get a scrappy tissue to wipe his greasy face with.
people who sleep on your shoulders. with spit flowing from his open mouth. who snores to your face. i get this all the time, not only in planes but also in buses whenever i go home to elbi.
people who take their shoes and socks off to pick on their corns, athlete's foot and what have you. yep, got one of those too. this woman was sitting one or two seats away from me during my flight to Hong Kong with my colleagues in August last year. she was removing dried skin from her corn/callous or whatever with her hands or some device. she had smelly feet, my colleagues said.
there's a reason why singapore airlines ask passengers not to remove their shoes during the flight. no, it's not because of smelly socks (but that is also a reason) but rather it's about common courtesy towards the other passengers. they ask passengers to be at least act civilized. don't believe me? go ask them.
people who scream, "mommy, i don't wanna die yet!" whenever the plane hits an "air pocket". i traveled with one gay colleague who kept screaming that whenever our plane hit a turbulence of some sort. we left a stormy manila that time. i nearly hit him with my passport to shut him up but i was across the aisle and i was too sleepy at that time to care. you see, screaming mommy-i-don't-wanna-die-yeat would make other passengers sweaty and question the plane's safety. and to think we were flying on a budget airline (and it doesn't help that the airline has a history of crashing into mountains on a bad weather), which may make other passengers queasy.
talkative seatmate when you want to sleep. yes, they would want to have a friendly chat with you but you were up for 48 hours and the only time you can sleep was during the flight. wouldn't you get cranky and be a snob as well? that's why the ipod was invented. thank you, steve jobs!
these are the reasons why i always choose the window seat whenever i have the chance so there would be less passenger contact and i can have my own little world there. same goes for long bus rides. when i was still thin and very much unmarried then (oh, you get the picture), i always encounter these guys who would always want to have a chat with me and give me those stupid pick-up lines when i ride the bus from elbi to manila or back. what i did (and still do even though i now look pregnant-fat, ergo, not worth the chat) was to stick a pair of earphones from my one hundred-peso FM radio (that was the era before mp3 players then) and pretend to be asleep.
so here are some of the annoyances that i encounter when flying. i may sound maarte but without these things, my flight would have been uneventful and peaceful. i can sleep in peace.
bottom line is: leave me alone, i want to sleep.
