When I travelled to South Africa in September '01, the domestic and international flights with SAA were really enjoyable, and the crews (both in the cabin and over the PA) seemed really enthuastic and very chatty - "Always a pleasure to experience the ATC at Heathrow" (on the way out) "This is Toulouse where they make the Airbuses", "This is Bloomfontein where they make great wine" etc. The domestics were similar, with the Captain smiling and waving as people walked to the terminal past the nose of the aircraft.
I too felt a bit self-concious thanking the crew as nobody else seemed to give a toss, but it's nice to see people enjoying what they're doing.
Returning to Gatwick recently with Britannia, 25 minutes early, the crew got a pretty loud round of applause They looked pretty surprised, in the cabin, and I thought it was a bit of a shame they probably couldn't hear anything up front.