Italian tourists

Everyone seems to have it in for Japanese tourists. Ok, so they do generally travel in large groups and lurch into every landmark photo en masse, standing hands on hips and exclaiming "waaah" (translation: "wow"). But that old cliche about them carrying loads of camera equipment isn't relevant anymore - almost everyone we've seen is carrying a ton of it.

A big group of Italian tourists were pissing everyone off on our flight last night though. They pushed to the front of the check-in queue, then - dragging their Louis Vuitton luggage - piled in front of the departure doors to make sure they were the first on the plane. Then the botoxed old hag who sat in front of me refused to put her seat forward for the duration of the flight, depite me having hardly any room to juggle the numerous drinks Bangkok Airways plied me with.

I would have caused a fuss, but knowing my luck they were probably Mafia. Incidentally, I saw a Japanese man with a finger missing, which either means he's a member of the deadly Yakuza clan, or once had a run-in with a big dog.

Where are we? At the airport again, waiting for our flight to Chiang Mai. We've just returned from Cambodia, but will try and tell you about that some other time.