We flew from Cork to Gatwick with Ryan Air - one of the original deep discount airlines. I was surprised by the efficiency with which they managed to turn around a full plane with 180 passengers, from landing to take off, in about 30 minutes - amazing. I guess that's one of the reasons they manage to keep prices so low and still be in business. Passengers are cramped in like sardines and pay extra for almost anything, including not having a boarding pass on arriv...

For some reason, I was expecting Bangkok to be as noisy, polluted and chaotic as Mumbai, Kathmandu or Hanoi. Instead it seemed surprisingly modern, orderly, quiet and clean - at least compared to nearly all the large cities we had seen in the past months. We stayed in the Sukhumvit District in a smaller and very comfortable boutique hotel. We made it to some large shopping centres and nightlife areas. But we had very little time to spare overall and after the gi...