Aladdin's long struggle against obesity and baldness continues aboard M/T Roy Mærsk

OK, it has come to my knowledge that we have senior citizens visiting my web page. How hard can it be? So it's not very easy for them to see the blue coloured links to the next page.

Jiffy (also jiff)

noun [in SING.] informal a moment: we'll be back in a jiffy.

ORIGIN late 18th cent.: of unknown origin.

So as you understand, in a jiff pretty much depends on your internet.

So I put a “Next” button here and I hope that there isn't any problem to understand how to use that one. So just CLICK the “Next” button on your left hand side and you will be on the next page in a jiff!

Marunong ka mag-tagalog? Walang problema! Magpunta sa kabilang pahina pindutin ang “NEXT” button sa itaas

Faites vous parlez le français? Pas de problème! Pour arriver à la page suivante faites s'il vous plaît un déclic le bouton “Next” ci-dessus!

Haga usted dice el español? No hay problema! Ver la siguiente página sólo hacer clic el botón “Next” encima!

Farla parla l'italiano? Non problemi! Per vedere la prossima pagina lo scatto per favore giusto Il bottone “Next” sopra

Sprechen sie Deutsch! Kein problem! Wenn Sie die folgende Seite sehen wollen gerade klicken der Knopf “Next” oben!

คุณพูดภาษาไทยได้ไหม ไม่มีปัญหา ถ้าคุณต้องการไปหน้าถัดไป ให้กดปุ่ม “Next” ข้างบนนี้

Вы говорите по-русски? NJET PROBLEMA! Просто нажмите синюю кнопку "Next" с левой стороны и Вы моментально переместитесь на следующую страницу!

E ni Svenskar och inte förstår Engelska så ska ni skämmas. J och Björn, med det menar jag inte att alla mina stavfel ska ältas varje gång vi träffas.

Well, the flag of Skåne, just a BONUS flag.

“The postings on this site are my own and don't represent Maersk Group's position, strategies or opinions. All views are my own”

Aladdin's adventure on board M/T Roy Mærsk/ Roy Maersk

Tuesday 22 ^nd of November 2016 and it is time to leave the ship. First of all I'm very happy that my reliever brought me two bottles of e-juice from India. I'm running low and I would for surenot have made it home without his 2 bottles. And I have 50 bottles waiting for me in Bangkok

He was at the Pure Premium Vapors shop in Bombay and he boughte-juice for me. American Tobacco e-juice is a complex and aromatic rendition of a sweetly rich and robust tobacco vape. He also bought an e-cigarette for himself and he told me that his wife was very happy that he had given up smoking

Anyway, imagine to have to fly home without a little something to kill the time with. Now I can vap all the way home to my doorwithout being afraid to run out of juice all thanks to my reliever.

And I will be off for my tiger safari next week. But this upcoming weekend and it is whale watching. If I'm lucky I will beable to do 3 whale watching trips. But for sure a trip on the 27th of November.

If I'm lucky I can get one whale watching tour on Saturday, I will check this out tomorrow and if there is any seat for my I will book tomorrow. Sunday with Wildlife Encounter Thailand and on Monday with my friend. So now I have a little something to look forward to when I'm coming home to Bangkok.

Watching the Bryde's whales with Wild Encounter Thailand

We were still waiting for news about the discharging or if we will leave Chittagong. I cannot say that I was very interested as I will be off the ship by then. I got out of bed at 8 o’clock afterfirst having done my good morning physiotherapy for my knees.

A new routine I have got going for myself, physiotherapy in my bed in the evening and before I get out of bed in the morning. I had my last cup of tea in my cabin before I went down to the CCR. New Chief Officer so today’s good morning gymnastics and tool box isn't my problem. Nice, I just went down to finish my very last paper work. And of course, I had my last lunch on board and they will come to pick me up at 13:00.

Our Cook come to grab my bag

He roll away my luggage

We stop to say good bye to the crew

Here we go leaving the ship behind

Here we go leaving the ship behind

Easy there cowboy! Watch your step!

He move along like a Commando

Hurry up will you? We don't have the whole day...

Our Cook came to take my bag and he rolled away with my bag. We stopped outside the accommodation to say good bye before we continued towards the gangway. We left the ship behind just before 1 o'clock and there were no sign of any car waiting for me.

This is bad, if they say 1 o'clock they should be here 10 minutes before as it takes time to get on board to pick me up. At least they should be here at 1 o'clock. Of course, if it is a free serviceyou cannot be so “demanding” But this is not a free service and I expect them to be here at 1 o'clock.

10 minutes past 1 o'clock and still no sign of any car to come pick me up. Yeah, just what I need, staying on a stinky oil jetty in Chittagong waiting for my car. Fuel oil all over the place stinking up the place. Waiting and waiting and at 13 thirty I asked the AB at the gangway to call the CCR. Our 2nd Officer called the Agent and, big surprise, he told him that he would be here in 10 to 15 minutes. Yeah, where have we heard this before?

A junker loading on Karnaphuli River

Bangladeshi coast guard stop to pay them a visit

I go outside the gate trying to kill some time

I was lucky, there is a train coming

I was lucky, there is a train coming

After 20 minutes there was still no sign of any car to come pick me up. I asked our 2nd Officer via the ABs walkie talkie to call again. The car was on the way but they didn't know when he was going to arrive. We could finally leave for the hotel 10 minutes past 2.

I asked the driver how long it was to the scrap yard. He told me 3 hours but I could not go as I didn't had any shore pass. I asked about the evening cruise on Karnaphuli River and he told me that I was not a tourist. I could only stay on my hotel. I wanted the driver to take me to Radisson Blu but I could not check-in there because I didn't had any passport

All my documents and certificates are with the immigration and I will get it tomorrow when I'm leaving. So I will have to spend my time in Chittagong on my room. Yeah something I really look forward to.

I asked for a supermarket so I could buy Pepsi Light and the driver told me that this was no problem. He confirmed tha it was a nice hotel and I told him that I wanted tostay at Radisson Blu. This was not possible but he promised me the nicest room at Hotel Saint Martin.

Yeah, I had several BS alarms going off and I really didn't believed him when he said that the internet was very good at the hotel.

We ran in to a bit of road rage on the way to the hotel. 2 trucks blocking the road and one driverwas hanging from the window from the other truck trying to throw punches at the driver in the truck. Humanity's best qualities on full display on a dusty road in Chittagong. We arefor sure a fine species and who ever created us must be very proud.

Grown up man, a real role model for his children. Hanging from a truck throwing punches making a total tit out of himself. And all this in broad daylight.

And even though I was only sitting in a car it was an unpleasant experience and I'm sure that there are no future for us on this globe. We are destroying ourselves and we're digging ourselves deeper and deeper in to the shit every day. All in the name of profit.

So the last things on my “have to do” list is to swim with the humpbacks, go tothe South to see penguins in the Antarctica and to go to the Amazon River. Then I have seen what I want to see in this world.

We left the trucks behind and was pretty embarrassing, and I cannot help but thinking about the Chinese passengers fighting on a Thai Airways flight some years ago.

We arrived to the hotel and I asked about the supermarket he had promised me. Now he gave me the full song and dance about how much he had to do. I got angry, he had promised but it is alllying and BS as we are getting used to in this part of the world.

We went in to see the room and our 4th Engineer was hanging from the balcony on the floor above my room. We went in to the room and the cable TV he had promised was just noise on the screen. Internet was worse than, well it was goodfor nothing. The agent had promised Pepsi Light so we walked to a shopping place next door and our 4th Engineer joined us.

The agent was worried to let us go and he kept on nagging about that we had to go back to the hotel as soon as we were ready here at the shopping place.

Our 4th Engineer and I had a milk shake before going to explore the shopping mall or it was more like a bazar where they sold fabrics and jewellery. There were 4 or 5 levels of the same knick-knacks and we gave up on the 3rd floor and we walked back to the hotel.

As exciting as it gets in Chittagong

Back at the hotel

We went to my room and we ordered a cup of coffee and a pot of tea from room service.He asked for how many people and I said 12 people.
- How many people in your room? They asked
- Only 2, I answered

So I expect a “super” pot of tea. They were soon knocking on the door and the Waiter rolled in a cart with 13 cups. One for th e4th Engineer and his coffee.

The other 12 cups where for the 12 tea drinkers. He looked surprised to discover that we were only 2 people in my room. Anyway, he poured a cup of coffee and then a cup of tea. I tried the tea.
- What the

This was not what I had expected. This was something terrible and he left the room and he was soon back with two teabags and two pots of hot water

We killed a few hours before we called the AB in room 311. We decided to meet in the restaurant at 18:30 for dinner. The 4th Engineer left and I spent some quality time alone before I left for the restaurant.

I was for sure not having any high hopes for any fine dining at the restaurant. It was a, well, I don't know what to say. But the restaurant looked a wee bit funky. And this time not in the good sense like in funky music. I ordered fresh orange juice, spaghetti and some Indian bread. Jibata or what they call it.

AB arrives, now we only wait for the Engineer

Engineer arrives

I get hot chocolate

And as our Engineer had told me about his restaurant experiences form yesterday, they are slow, very slow. Orange juice, took 40 minutes to get. And the food, it was actually very good food when it finally arrived to the table. We were soon having a guy standing next to the table asking me if I remembered him.

Of course I did, I had been our Agent before and he had tried to set up a visit to the scrap yard for me at one of our previous visits to Chittagong.

+++++++++++++++
Wednesday 23 ^rd of November 2016 and my alarm went off at 6, the first of 2 alarms. I will meet the AB for breakfast at 7 o'clock. Our AB was having his breakfast when I stepped in to therestaurant a few minutes past 7 o'clock.

There was nothing I wanted to have for breakfast, but I tried some Indian pharata bread.

I asked for hot chocolate but they told me that they didn't had any hot chocolate
- You have milk?
- Yes
- You have chocolate?
- Yeah
- Then you have hot chocolate

He was soon back and he told me that there was no Cook. I told him that I could make hot chocolate and that pretty much anyone could make hot chocolate. I got a pot of hot chocolate just before our Engineer stepped in to the restaurant.

I was soon leaving, I had called to check when they would come to pick me up before I went for breakfast and they will be here at 8 thirty. They came to knock on my door quarter past 7, the Agent had arrived. I took my luggage and I went down to the reception.

We had to take pictures before I left for the airport

Of course, we need a picture with the General

The Agent told me that there was a lot of formalities that we had to complete before I could leave Chittagong. I told him that there were too much formalities in Bangladesh.
- Look at Sweden, no formalities and it is very clean. Less formalities and more cleaning andrepairs on the streets

Everyone in the reception was laughing, they understand what I meant. Nothing is working around here and there must be more important priorities than formalities. And it is no secrets that all these countries have a lot offormalities, an opportunity to get some bakshis.

Robbing the country while there is no basic education and health care provided for the population. We took a few pictures and we went out to thecar with my luggage. We were soon on our way towards Chittagong International Airport. I was going to the domestic terminal as I was flying with Biman Bangladesh Airlines domestic flight BG 22 from Chittagong to Dhaka. The flight is 45 minutes long so I willhopefully survive the flight. Nothing I'm looking forward to, but I never look forwardto any flight. A quick stop over Dhaka before I borad Thai Airways to Bangkok.

BIMAN, Bangladesh standard and I was not happy about the flight. BIMAN Airlines, a notorious airline and I had heard a lot about this airline, of course, I never heard anything good. But it worked good last time so this time I had no worries.

If you have the time next time waiting for your flight you can have a look at www.airdisaster.com and I'm sure that you will find enough material to PEP you for the flight.

We had not been on our way for very long before the Agent asked me if I had anything to give the Custom for gratitude.
- For a smooth handling of things
- Smooth handling? Your only job is to get me on board the flight and I really don't care how you do it. If you need to give something it is up to you so don't disturb me with this! You only need to think about on how to get me on the flight as SMOOTH AS POSSIBLE!

Many of the people I have met here are really nice, but you treat them like you cannot trust them because you run in to so much BS. The Agent, when he picked me up this morning, I told him that he had been doingnothing but lying since he came to pick me up almost one and a half hour late at the ship yesterday. And it was actually quite fun watching him explaining all the lies.

I told him that there was no internet on the room and he looked chocked asking the staff in the reception about the internet. They looked at him and the face expression said it all. I don'tunderstand Bangladeshi but I understood exactly what he said to the agent just by looking at his face “Hey Twat Man! You know exactly what kind of internet we have here so no need to pretend to be surprised making a fool out of yourself”

And it is a shame that you will have to start a new “relation” suspicious as you only expect lies and BS. Anyway, last time I signed off here there was never anything mentioned about “gratitude”

We passed our jetty on the way to the Shah Amanat International Airport and Roy Maersk had left without discharging the cargo. Well, what do I care?

Passing ships on Karnaphuli River on our way to Shah Amanat International Airport

Passing ships on Karnaphuli River on our way to Shah Amanat International Airport

Arriving to Shah Amanat International Airport

We stop at the custom

Took less than 1 minute to complete the formalities

Arriving the the domestic terminal

His last attempt to get money from me by offering me a souvenir

Domestic check-in

We arrived to Shah Amanat International Airport and the security guards just waves us through the gate and we stopped at the custom 200 meter or so after the gate. I was waiting in the car and the whole thing took less than 2 minutes. We continued towards the domestic terminal.

We got out of the car and the Agent asked if I was sure I didn't had any “gratitude” for him.
- Are you for real? I asked. You should give me a souvenir!
I brought out a 20 wooden dollar bill for me. He was desperate for gratitude and he wanted to give me the bill as a souvenir, expecting a much bigger bill in return.

There was not many people queuing up in front of BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines check-in to flight BG 22 to Dhaka. And the friendly check-in crew gave me a seat and they blocked the seatnext to me. And what a difference from last time. Back then it was only BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines but now there were several different airlines departing for Dhaka.

I had an hour to kill before the flight was departing. I checked the coffee shop, but no Pepsi Light so I justsat down and I was killing time playing a game on my “smart” phone.

I moved to the departure hall and after 10 minutes they called us to tell us we had to go to the second floor to board flight BG 22.

I took my seat and when boarding was completed they came to hand out a bottle of water and a bag of peanuts. I usually say no to the peanuts, but I was hungry as I had not had any breakfast.

The peanuts alleviated the hunger a little. I grabbed the inflight magazine and I was reading while waiting for them to take off towards Dhaka. They started with the safety introduction and we were soon on the run way ready to take off. Time to leave Chittagong with no backward glances.

BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines Boeing 777-200 waiting for us

BIMAN Bangladesh Airlines Boeing 777-200 waiting for us

Boarding BIMAN Bangladesh flight BG 22

Boarding BIMAN Bangladesh flight BG 22

On the way to Dhaka with BIMAN Bangladesh flight BG 22

Landing at Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

The flight was OK, it was just up and down and it took about 45 minutes. I had finished my peanuts before we left the gate, and the “mini” bottle of water didn't last much longer. Wearrived to the gate, by then all the passengers were standing up in a line in front of the door.

Safety first! They had two doors and I left through the forward door and I was soon in the international arrival hall. My luggage was coming to the domestic airport. When I left they told me it was the right exit as I was going to Bangkok. But as my luggage was checked-in at Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong. So, I will have to get the luggage at the domestic terminal.

So I went back on board and now they had closed the door in the middle of the plane. They had removed the stairs and the bus had left with the domestic passengers.

They had to open the door, not without problem as the car with the stairs was gone. When they finally had the stair in place I went down on the tarmac and this was of course a chance to take a few pictures of the plane.

There were no sign off any bus so they sent me a special car and I was brought all the way to the domestic luggage claim. My bag was waiting for me and there was a guy whisked me to the elevator to the international departure hall.

And as no surprise he asked for some bakshis when we reached the elevator. It is not as bad as in Egypt, but it is close. But in Bangladesh you have many nice and friendly people. Would have been like Turkey if it wasn't for all the begging. I got to Thai Airways check-in counter. Bangladesh must be a new destination for Thai Airways, last time it was only Bangkok Airways

Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

Dhaka Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

The car come to pick me up

On the way to the domestic luggage claim

I'm delivered right to the door

Thai Airways check-in

Last time I was here they sold Pepsi Light and I even took a picture of the can. I was standingoutside the departure hall smoking (I have given up smoking since)and drinking Diet Pepsi.

Seems like they have redecorated the airport a little bit since last time I was there. I walked around (well, it was more like limping than walking, looking for Pepsi Light but there was nothing. Last time I was here the airport was full of kiosks for snacks etc. But today I came up with ZIP and I returned to Immigration.

I had no departure card so they gave me a card and I went back to Thai Airways check-in desk to borrow a pen. It was pretty quick to get through immigration. Nothing much have happened here since last time I was here. For sure not anythingto improve the airport.

I went to look for Thai Airways lounge and it was on the second floor. But first I had to stop to take a picture of something I had never seen on an airport before. A cat is having a shit on the floor in the departure hall, and no one seem to be bothered. So I guess it is normal here at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

Thai Airways lounge - 2nd floor looks much better

Thai Airways lounge

I had a soda and a small bowl of peanuts in the lounge. There was really no place to sit in privacy. As we can see on the picture above it looks like a waiting room at the Dentist. I went up to the front desk and there was a corner with computers and I took my seat there. I enjoyed my soda and peanuts while sending some pictures on Line and after that it was time to go to board Thai Airways flight TG 322 to Suvarnabhumi.

I went down to the gate and there were still people going through the security and it took 15 to 20 minutes for me to get to my seat on board Thai Airways Boeing 777 bound for Suvarnabhumi.

I'm in my seat looking out over Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport

Taxi out to the runway

Taxi out to the runway

Taxi out to the runway - Passing an airplane graveyard

Taxi out to the runway - Passing an airplane graveyard

Taxi out to the runway - Passing an airplane graveyard

Taxi out to the runway - Passing an airplane graveyard

Taxi out to the runway - Last sight of Dhaka

Bound for Suvarnabhumi

I'm soon having a cup of Earl Grey tea

Bound for Suvarnabhumi

Snacks and more tea

After much trouble in the premium lane they wrote on my boarding pass that it is OK to use the premium lane

Approaching Suvarnabhumi

Approaching Suvarnabhumi

We have landed at Suvarnabhumi

Premium Lane refused to let me through, and I learned that Thai Airways have their own Priority Lane. So I learned something today. My bag was first on the belt and I was soon at AIS to get anew SIM card. While I did the SIM one of the guys from AOT Limousinewent to buy 12 bottles of Pepsi MAX and a bottle of milk for me.

We were soon on our way to DOWN TOWN Bangkok. I will drop my bag and I will go have dinner with my friend at Blue Spice. Well, back in Bangkok and it is soon time to go for some Bangkok bird watchng. Click HERE to check it out.

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