Malta

Back from Malta late last night and off to Nice in the morning. Can´t really complaint about my flights this week.

Here some pics from Malta:

Best restaurant table I´ve ever seen

We had dinner at La Dolce Vita on the top floor with a nice view

There was fireworks all night for some reason.

Airbus 380

On my way home for vacation this month I wanted to try out the A380 so I flew EK to Paris. It´s an amazing product that they have especially in First and Business Class with a shower and a Bar/Lounge.

The Airbus 380 is the largest commercial aircraft in the world with over 500 seats. On the aircraft i flew the main deck was all Economy Class and the upper deck was for both First and Business Class.

A garden at Dubai airport

Boarding in Dubai

The view from the tail cam

The stairs up to First Class

The First Class shower

First Class cabin

First Class suite

The Business Class bar

The Business Class lounge

One of the 2 Business Class lounge sofas

The stairs down to Economy Class

The front Economy Class cabin

The aft Economy Class cabin

Landed safely in Paris

Luomo

Here is a new post on my food blog.

Today was my last day of vacation. Tomorrow it´s back to work with a 5 am wake-up call and off to a warm Malta. I will try to add some more posts with pictures from my vacation as soon as i get back from Malta.

Ramadan

Back from Calcutta. Flight was easy but due to the first night sector my body is so mixed up again as usual. Not that much to do in Calcutta so I just mostly spent my time at the gym, in the sauna and watched TV in my room. I walked to a nearby mall though which can be an eye opener. A lot of street kids playing by the roads. They are always so friendly and smiling. So cute to hear a six year old girl shouting"Hello Sir and Good night Sir" when i pass by them on the road. I feel so spoiled when I´m staying in a 5 star hotel and see people living in a slum area opposite the hotel. There I eat my room service meal and see from the window when street kids play football during the day when they in fact should be in school, but can´t afford it.
Last time I was in Calcutta about 2 years ago I visited a Mother Teresa orphanage. There we had the chance to play with the kids and donate some money. Maybe I should have gone there again this time to donate some money but I just didn´t.


I just realized that yesterday the holy month of Ramadan has started over here. This year it´s from 11.8-9.9. The dates change every year with about 10 days depending on the moon if I have understood it correctly.
So what does this mean for both Muslims and non-Muslims? No one is allowed to eat or drink in public(not even chew gum) during daylight. Most restaurants are closed during the day and if they are open they only offer food for take-away unless they have a closed section where no one from the outside can see people eat. No music is played in public areas. Most if not all nightclubs are closed the entire month. Not that this will effect my life much because I very rarely spend any time in a night club anyway.
Most businesses will have shorter opening hours and some will only be open during the evening.
So all in all it means that during the day time it will be quite in the streets and malls. A perfect time to watch a movie in an almost empty cinema, except that you can´t eat your favourite pop corn or nachos. Everyone should dress decently when in public. I don´t know if it´s decent or not but I will continue to wear what I always wear which is a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops.
The Muslims they will break their fast at sunset. This time is called Iftar. They will have to break their fast at this time whether they are hungry or not. Well yes you would think that they are hungry and thirsty after fasting all day. There are a lot of restaurants offering Iftar buffets or other Iftar promotions which anyone can enjoy. A lot of other businesses as well have special promotions during Ramadan.


Now I only have one more flight to Shanghai the day after tomorrow and then it´s time for some holiday. Heading back home as usual for about 10 days this time. I feel like I just can´t "waste" my 30 days of holiday a year on going anywhere else than home. Upcoming highlights will be spending time with family and friends both in the city and the country side, a U2 concert(as long as Bono is not gonna start crying about back pain again), fine dining, enjoying the summer nature and weather. What i look forward to as well is sleeping according to "normal" timings and not staying up all night working and then sleeping all day.

Some pics from CCU:

cool taxis

It´s like going back in time 50 years when you see the cabs

The view from the hotel room

My in-room breakfast

and dinner

A question

that I get from different colleagues on a regular basis is "why do someone like you from Scandinavia live in the middle east?"
My answer is always the same: That´s what I ask myself every day as well!

Something that you often realize after living outside your home country is how good things are back home. That´s exactly what I have figured out for some time now. So to all those people that are complaining about how bad things are back home I can warmly recommend to spend some time living abroad.

So why are the reasons I moved to this part of the world?
1. I got fed up with the cold winters in the north.
2. Wanted to try out something totally different from what I was used to.
3. Wanted to live a cosmopolitan lifestyle.


Reasons why I would want to move back home
1. I want to breathe fresh air again.
2. Want to enjoy the nature.
3. I miss family and friends.
4. I miss the peace and quiet lifestyle.

5. Tired of being jet lagged 24/7.

6. Home is always home.

7. Too cold is better than too hot.


What are the reasons keeping me still here?
1. Tax free salary, so the main reason is honestly money.
2. I want to finish my contract first. If I start something i want to finish it properly and not half way.
3. Haven´t figured out yet what to do next professionally.

I found some licorice from back home in a supermarket here. Maybe this will cure my home sickness for a while..

Monday

Back from Bangkok last night. Had a 2 hour massage which was so relaxing that I fell asleep half way, had some good Thai food and slept a lot. So that was my 24 hours in Bangkok.

Return flight was very busy. Full in all 3 cabins. No big drama though luckily. Very nice crew which always makes a difference.

The highlight of my flight was when a 8-10 year old girl passenger in business class told me that I was cute. My confident boost didn´t last too long because after that it was just downhill for me when the same girl was treating me as her personal butler for the rest of the flight..

Tomorrow night off to Kolkata India for 24 hours.

Yoga

I did my Yoga come-back tonight. I started Yoga about 6-7 years ago but haven´t been practising much in the last 3 years. Most of my days off I go for a run in a park near where I live and I´ve seen a group of people do Yoga there every night at the same time. So tonight I decided to join them. I figured out that it´s a non profit organisation called Friends of Yoga that organises these sessions there in the park. The best part is that it´s for free. It´s mostly Indians(read:only Indians), so I´m the only white guy in the group but it doesn´t matter.
It feels good to going back to doing Yoga every now and then. Especially as a change to all the running I do.

Haven´t been flying much lately. I had a Seychelles flight(there and back)the other day and that´s the only flight in 9 days. I now still have a couple of days off and then I´m off to Bangkok for 1 night.