No more trips to Bangkok

thuja · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 3:42 pm Post subject: No more trips to Bangkok

OK- on the list of painful side effects of Peak Oil, this isnt probably on the top ten, but man- a ticket to Bangkok (where my bro lives) costs 1500$ now. I have one kid so that would mean 4500$ just to get there. Sorry- game over. Too pricey. We ain't ever flying to Bangkok again.

And then it hit me- my daughter will likely never leave North America in her life. PLane travel will be far too expesnive to ever travel in the future. I think of where I've gone in my life- Europe, Australia, Asia, Latin America. Those were very formative experiences for me. And in just a few years its become apparent that that option is pretty much gone for most of the next generation. Us 20 and 30-somethings had the last go at it. Sorry nextgen...at least you can visit these places virtually on the web.

heroineworshipper · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:08 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

If she becomes a CEO she will. Prices R only going up for workers. Executive compensation is keeping up just fine.
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thuja · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:11 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

Yes, I will count on that lol...

KingM · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

No, it will probably revert to the costs you might have seen fifty years ago. Plenty of people still traveled to Europe. You either had decent (but not fantastic) money or you did a one-time, see Europe in six or eight weeks sort of trip and took a boat.

The type of trip that's likely to end is the "middle class jet to Paris for a long weekend" sort of excursion.

Ferretlover · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:32 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

Good thing Canaries (in the mindshaft) don't have to depend on airplanes to get around! Smile

When I went to Austin last summer to visit my sister, I knew it was the last time I would fly.
Maybe I'll just buy some coffee-table books about the countries I would have liked to see, but never will. ...sigh...
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IanC · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

I've had those thoughts on behalf of my kids, too. In my family, everyone has travelled fairly extensively and there is almost an expectation that intercontinental travel will continue to happen for us forever. Just looking at what it would cost for my family of 4 to go to Europe is already prohibitively high. It's only going to worse.

Find Yourself Where You Are, I guess...

-Ian

thuja · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 4:33 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

IanC · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:01 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

Maybe look at the bright side: quiter, cleaner skies, fewer government givaways to the airlines, not to mention localization of culture and recreation.

-Ian

PS: another job with potential for travel post peak: relief work, ie. Doctors without Borders and Mercy Corps. Unfortunately a growth industry of the future...

joeltrout · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:25 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

Im looking forward to less people being on the plane when I fly.

joeltrout
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patience · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jan 04, 2008 Posts: 817

I agree that air travel is about gone for the middle clas, or will be soon. I guess people will think I'm strange, but I never wanted to go anywhere far away. I've been to all 4 edges of the US, and to Canada, but always on business trips. I always enjoyed meeting new people from different backgrounds, but I counted the minutes until I could get HOME again! My co-workers always wanted to travel at company expense, so more than once I finagled it so THEY could go, and I wouldn't have to.

Everything unfamiliar, and hard to get the most basic things done, and expensive as all get out to boot. It boggles my mind why people want to go. My thinking was always that if there were someplace I would rather be, I would simply MOVE there, permanently, so I'd never have to travel again, and be happy there.

I recall the hassle of getting on a plane with a carry-on full of precision tools for inspecting equipment my company was buying. Once there was a Xerox repairman in front of me in line with one of those aluminum cases full of tiny tools, each in it's own slot. At 4:30 AM, the girl at the check in told him he would have to empty it to look at. His reply, "I've been 36 hours without sleep, and I'm not unpacking anything! YOU can unpack it if you want, but you'd better put each thing back EXACTLY where you got it, or me and your boss are going to have a heart-to-heart talk!!" She flipped through the layers of stuff and shooed him on through. Imagine how different that scene would be today, with paranoids everywhere! I'd guess that he is out of a job, and some guy in India is telling the customer on the phone how to fix the copy machine.
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Pops · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 5:55 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

Maybe we'll need to learn ho to write letters.

"Pops are you ever going to come back to California..."
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aflurry · Intermediate Crude Joined: Mar 28, 2005 Posts: 732

eastbay · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:13 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

joeltrout · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:16 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok

eastbay · Posted: Tue May 13, 2008 6:23 pm Post subject: Re: No more trips to Bangkok