Remind me to never fly overnight again. It’s torture. One has to sleep, or at least try to. After all, when you arrive, you have to deal with all sorts of inconveniences like a foreign language, different money, and finding transport, all while dealing with a vast change of temperature and a different time zone. Add sleep deprivation to that and you’re faced with a hell of a first day at your destination. But how to sleep in a chair that is so close to the one in front that you can’t stretch your legs, so close to the one next to it that your elbows must remain tucked at your sides, and reclines so little that you’re still basically upright. Can you sleep sitting up? Some people can, but not me. To make it worse, on this Air Asia flight from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur, my seat happened to be next to a wall without a window. It curved inwards more than the rest of the plane, and I had a wall at my back as well. If I hadn’t been able to school my mind, I could have easily succumbed to … [Read more...]