The IFE system contains a comprehensive list of the food and beverages offered onboard even though no menus were given out. As you can see, KLM only serves "branded" drinking water onboard. No airplane tap water was served throughout the flight!
After all passengers had boarded, we still had a bit of wait due to ATC controls. According to the pilot, our delay was due to a faulty wheel brake which required replacement. He also apologized for the delay. Flight time was estimated to be 3hrs. I must say it would be even very tiring for the crew as they would be operating BKK-TPE-BKK sectors and with the delay, it would be almost a 12hrs shift for them!
Finally we pushed back with the safety video playing. To be frank, the safety video is rather boring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4vV57LX3H0
Starting our taxi to Rwy01R.
We had quite a long taxi to the runway as we were number 5 for takeoff abd only 1 runway was in use at that time for both takeoffs and landings. By the time we reached the end of the runway, it was already nearing 1700hrs.
Take off from Rwy01R. You can see the floodings towards the north of the airport shortly after takeoff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRtMfEy1fbA
Flooded plains.
More flooded fields.
Partially submerged houses.
Flight info shortly after takeoff.
Post-takeoff announcement by the crew.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88dZq0nIwWw
Headphones were distributed shortly after seatbelt signs were switched off. They were the clip-on-ear type and were for yours to keep. The 2-pinned prone sets can be adjusted to 1-pinned! IFE control was at the side of the armrest, similar to SQ's older fleet.
After distributing headsets, crew came down the aisle with hot towels! I thought hot towel service only existed on Asian/Middle Eastern carriers! The towels may not be the thick cotton type used by SQ but they were still relatively thick disposable very hot towels. And the towels were lavender scented too!
Unfortunately, shortly after takeoff, the interactive portion of the IFE crashed and we were all unable to access the AVOD system. Only channel that could be seen on the PTVs were the flight info/map. Video channels hanged and audio channels were not working too. The crew tried to reset the system but to no avail.
Cabin view. PTVs were either stuck on the Interactive mode welcome page or video mode. Quite an empty cabin too. The whole plane seemed around 50% full at most.
Cruising at a high 41,000ft.
Sunset
