Garuda Airlines is the Indonesian national airline. No doubt y’all know it already, but me, I only just found out the origin of its name, although I did know that its logo was a bird.

In Vedic mythology Garuda is king of birds, destroys serpents and is a brave and wise hero figure with a number of stories told about him, including his mission to free his mother from slavery. He has an eagle's beak and red wings, with a golden human male body. Garuda is often shown carrying the Hindu deity Vishnu and his wife Lakshmi on his back.

Garuda is a national symbol of Indonesia and of the Thai monarchy.

For more on this powerful figure and a picture try:

http://www.usmta.com/MYTHS & LEGENDS-3.htm

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.

The request line contained invalid characters following the protocol string.

try this:
http://www.usmta.com/MYTHS%20&%20LEGENDS-3.htm

there are spaces in the url... sorry, I can't make it hot, because the browser will parse those %20's right outta there...

I remember when parsing was a *good thing. Thanks, eta.

dixbie, thanks for the fascinating link. I know very little about Eastern (Asian? Oriental?) mythology.

Look at the pretty pictures, by all means. Don't, for the sake of whatever god you propitiate on a regular basis, fly on the airline. It's right at the top of the "don't fly on this airline whatever the circumstances" black list for pilots and diplomats. Even above Aeroflot, and that's saying something. They don't so much maintain their planes as wave them off tearfully in the hope that they'll eventually come back. One Garuda plane was stranded with mechanical failure at Auckland airport for over two weeks. NZ's CAA wouldn't let them take it off the ground ...

Oh pooh, Capfka. I've flown on Garuda lots of times and not had anything untoward happen, except them being late from time to time.

Bingley

You may have done so to date, Bingley, but that doesn't change the facts ... they are regarded by other airlines and the airline manufacturers as riskier than Aeroflot. You pays your money and takes your chances, I guess.