Paperless and ticketless bookings made more attractive by incentives, discounts and offers of air miles are fast becoming the way to travel. Airlines are planning to stop issuing paper tickets in the next three years, a move that could save the industry up to $3 billion a year in running costs, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). Some carriers are already ahead of the game: In the past year, more than 18 million customers have used e-ticketing services on Continental Airlines. The move isn’t limited to airlines, hotel chains such as the Hilton, InterContinental, Sheraton, and Hyatt, are starting to automate processes too. In Malaysia, you can make air ticket enquiries by SMS to a travel agent and in the case of budget carrier AirAsia you can book tickets by SMS.
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Then next day went to
Banteay Srei, 30km from Siem Reap, quite interesting,
especially with a musical accompaniment provided by a band of
land mine victims. Also took in some other temples as
well Ta Keo and Banteay Samre. A free afternoon after
that, so I spent it exploring Siem Reap, a typical backpacker
town, good fun and they have cheap CD shops. Lots of
souvenirs available, but only bought a few.
The ceremony over, it opened to the public and
suddenly it became what it was meant to be. The sun
shone, the temperature soared, the people filled the
memorial, people from all walks of life and different parts
of the world; dipping their feet and walking in the cool
water.
The ringing of metal hitting metal in the early evening sunshine rang across the stillness of the Fiord as we moored for the first night on our Norwegian sailing trip. Driving a steel stake into the rock that had a ring attached allowed one to pass a warp through the ring and back to a cleat on the boat – Thus enabling any one to explore the shore easily by just jumping on to the rocks from the bow or stern, have a BBQ or merely to stretch their legs in the evening after a day at sea. The locals used this way of mooring up for the afternoon or night, and this was only possible because of the lack of tides in this part of the world. This was a very pleasant surprise after the difficulties with tides and mooring in the UK. 
We had set out in ‘Turid’ a 35 ft Halberg Sailing sloop, from Kragero in the south of the country to enjoy a few days break from tackling the stresses and strains of life in London. The Norwegian Skipper had an old 1780’s house overlooking his mooring and was just back from sailing round Greece. David and I have been friends since way back when we were nearly young. He has a wooden Folk boat on the south coast of England and I once had a four berth sailing cruiser moored in Conway. The second piece of luck was that as we boarded the sun came out and for the rest of the trip we had sunshine until about 2130 hours at night with a temperature of 26 degrees Centigrade at sea during the day. People expect it to be cold but in the summer this place can be extremely warm, in fact the week after we left the temperature rose another five degrees.
We started our trip around this wonderful coast with fir trees on the rocks and the houses right on the waterside. Rocks and inlets all around the place, so be careful if you’re not with a local skipper who has a good knowledge of the area. It seemed that everyone in Norway had some sort of boat and they were all making the most of the summer either in their holiday homes right by the sea or on the water.
We only docked to take on provisions, but we still had time to visit some of the excellent little ports – Risor, Arendal, Grimstad to name but three. Grimstad was my favourite with some of its wooden houses, in the old town, going back to 1729. I even encountered two Dutch cycle campers that were on a cycle way that took in six north European countries.
Seeing the Boma, (see photo by the Beetle,) now a fully restored small hotel is even more amazing than any of the photos I had seen, such a dramatic transformation from the derelict building here on my arrival, which was only just nearing completion when I returned for the millennium festivities. It now stands in grounds surrounded by all manner of vibrant vegetation, attracting varied animal life – from butterflies to lizards to the occasional monkey.