Educational flight

Heathrow must be huge in terms of physical size. Though we checked in at Terminal 3, we had to take a transit bus, which took us on a 10-minute ride which included going through a tunnel before we could actually board the Thai Airways jumbo jet.

Thai greeting, “sawadee ka” with a clasp of both hands by a beautiful air stewardess must be one of the winning points in getting customers. It gives us a sense of promise and reassurance that we will be treated well, with respect and attention. Having tried their service on the flight to UK, I was actually looking forward to being pampered again.

I was seated between a gentleman next to the window and SP. We started chatting and I was told he is from Bhutan, which is a kingdom situated between India and Tibet. He said he was undergoing training in Canada and now on route to Bangkok where he will be meeting some friends who were visiting China. He said he is a primary school teacher.

To be honest, I know very little of Bhutan, always lumping it together with Nepal and Tibet, as small Buddhist countries up in the Himalayas. Tibet is actually part of China now.

The most amazing information I got from Leedup (his name I got to know only when we were disembarking and he even asked the steward to take a picture of us) was that Bhutan’s main source of revenue is selling electricity to India! The country has the natural advantage of fast-flowing underground rivers, which could be easily harnessed to run turbines to generate electricity. But instead of building dams that we know, most of the turbines are situated underground! He said Bhutan is able to build the power stations using its own engineers, thus dispelled my presumption that the construction and technology was supplied by India.

So, on my way back from UK, I learnt a few things about Bhutan: that it is not backward and has a relatively high per capita income of over USD2,000 because of its small population of 600,000.

One glaring point about passengers on Thai Airways, to and from Bangkok, is that I estimate some 80% are Caucasians, presumably attracted by the cheap exchange rates, almost no-holds-barred fun activities. Some could be on business, attracted by Thailand’s more accommodating foreign investment policies, unlike Malaysia.

It is a real eye-opener for me to notice the frequent flights out of Bangkok International Airport, almost every 5 minutes, when we were waiting to board the flight back to KLIA.

What a difference the impression we got, when we were about to land at KLIA, to see one lone Middle Eastern airline plane parked and only a couple of MAS planes to be seen. On the way by light rail transit to KLIA proper, we could see some semblance of an international airport where we could see a few more planes at the place for take-off.

We noticed there are obviously many development sites near KLIA, with their newly cleared terrains which look terrible like open wounds among the mostly oil palm plantations.

While walking towards Customs and Immigrations, the banners shouting out KLIA as the world’s Best Airport, seemed to ring hollow. To my simple mind, what good is “best” by a certain criterion, when it is not fully utilized? For some reasons, Malaysia is not attracting airlines, tourists and business travelers like Thailand.