Musings and news from the Republic

Sana'a, Yemen

In the last month having spent a great deal of time in airplanes and untold hours in airports, I have reached the conclusion that despite hardship it must have been immeasurably more satisfying to have traveled by boat and camel caravan like Ibn Battuta. Flying and the whole associated business of getting on a plane is now perfectly loathsome unless you are in the rarefied atmosphere of First Class, and I never am.

And just to start on a controversial note - can I possibly be the only person on the planet who would like to see the occasional ‘child-free’ flight? I suspect nobody dares admit it and the marketing and PR departments of airlines would probably turn an alarming shade of puce at the thought of having to dream up politically correct ways to sell the concept, but I believe nonetheless that an anonymous poll would reveal that most passengers (including parents traveling without their offspring) would delight in the prospect of a flight where there was no possibility of sitting in the vicinity of a tantrum-addled small person for 10 hours. I do not in truth blame the child – traveling in steerage is enough to induce anyone to wail, but as every parent knows it is useless to remonstrate with a two year-old on the ground let alone in a pressurized chicken coop at 35,000 feet……

In the meantime air travel in the Middle East grows exponentially – the Arabian peninsula economies, or at least most of them, are booming despite creeping inflation rates. New low-fare airlines such as Air Arabia are springing up like mushrooms, and the larger carriers are giving the more established European and Asian carriers a major run for their money. Meanwhile I dream that the governments will give some of their oil revenues to the French so they can criss-cross the entire peninsula with a high-speed rail network……

A sunny, wintry day in my native land. The Birks o' Aberfeldy in Perthshire, Scotland

A rather different vista - the hills of Kampala, Uganda, taken the same week. Neither has anything to do with Ibn Battuta but it does reference my airline tales of woe.....