I didn't fight the bloke on the plane, but I'll keep fighting for Tassie's rights

I don't know why.

Perhaps some sort of macabre pursuit.

The penance through which air travellers must pass, like a fuel stop in hell, on your way to heaven.

Anyway, l remained locked in my seat for fear of creating a fossil on the ceiling when we hit turbulence and dropped 100 metres, but I managed to safely transit the loo and do some Deep Vein Thrombosis warm-ups.

Overseas travel is fabulously exciting until you do it.

Then you have to do something you normally don't, sitting in an uncomfortable seat for several hours, trying to read, watching the travel map like watching grass grow, listening to music, playing the same old computer games associated with staying home and then trying to fill out an immigration card while your hand shakes and the pen won't work.

Then the elderly gent in front puts his seat back, and said he had no alternative because the elderly gent in front of him put his back.

So I approached the elderly gent in front of us two and asked if we could strike a compromise and he put his half way back.

Well, elderly gent in row 24A invited me to a cage fight.

I said that would be childish, to which he crowed I would be the only one eating food through a straw by the time he finished.

He was in his mid to later 80s.

So I said okay let's go, when I had no intention of going anywhere, and thankfully a flight attendant excused his way into the ring and called off the fight.

I exchanged cold smiles with the cage fighter on our arrival.

We both must have looked terrified.

So here I was in the Far East.

The heat, the poor white and rich white trash alighting from the plane.

The ultra-superior technology of modern immigration processing and with the click of a camera, with your glasses off and your feet planted on floor feet marks, and suddenly you're in, and some taxi awaits.

I know I'm not narrating moon travel and most of you have probably done this before, but I find overseas travel to be a tonic of resilience and exuberance, as you watch your funds deplete rapidly and the exotic nature of Asian food plays catch up with your stomach.

The putrid smells of markets and rotting vegetables lingers long after you have left, and I am quite addicted to it and suck it in rapidly for a hit.

You can get high on this rubbish.

I bought a reconditioned Lenovo Thinkpad for $300 but of course discovered the power supply won't work here so I will have to shop for a local power supply.

It's like buying a small boat which you assume has a keel until you discover it doesn't.

I could write about the anecdotal experiences forever, but I have to get parochial and whinge about the invisible costs of my travel from Tasmania.

So my insurance came to about $700 which is my problem, no one else.

I had to fly to Melbourne to catch the overseas flight, which added $350.

In Melbourne I had to stay at the airport hotel because my flight departed early, another $350, and I had to leave my car in an airport long-term carpark, which cost $228.

So for living here in Tassie the flag fall for an overseas flight costs more than $1000 on average while mine cost $1628.

Even if you discount the insurance premium, you're still up for almost $1000.

It's why I keep harping on about the Bass Strait passenger subsidy being extended to airline travel, because 90 per cent of arrivals and departures are by air.

Resident Tasmanians should be afforded some type of concession, so that once you have completed your trip you can apply for a concession with appropriate documentation.

You may not get all of it.

They may point out that you could have chosen alternatives here or there, but at least you may get some relief.

I think we should not be unfairly penalised for simply choosing to live in one part of Australia.

Tasmania is a state of the Commonwealth it is not some tiny island off the coast where they hold dual-citizenship.

Federal governments have been hostile towards Tasmania in the past and rarely spend more than they have to.

We get a fraction of the defence spending enjoyed by other states, they keep trying to cut our GST share, and even when they come up with funds for major projects like the Mac Point stadium in Hobart and the Royal Hobart Hospital redevelopment, sure enough they take it off our annual GST share.

I suspect the Launceston York Park redevelopment will be treated the same way by these Indian givers.