4 CONTINENT HOP BACK TO LONDON TOWN –THE JOURNEY BEGINS

What a Christmas Day! 

What a great way to leave, my last day in Australia on Christmas Day.  It may seem sad, especially to Tess, but I am happy to report the gifts from Santa have helped lessen the blow, well at least for her.  There were times during the day, seeing everyone laughing and sharing jokes and it tugged my heart strings.  I was going to miss this.  I would be lying if I said I didn’t.  But there are bigger things waiting for me out there and I will find new friends and know that I have these life-long friends with me forever, no matter what and this picks me up when I need it.  It always will.

We didn’t end up going to bed till 2.30am and I wanted to leave for the airport at 11am.  I figured that I could sleep on the plane and I had finished my packing the day before, so I was all set.  Besides Shelly everyone slept till 10am, and I think this was a good thing as it didn’t give the girl’s time to dwell on my departure.  The neighbours came over at 11am just as we were loading the car with my bags to say goodbye which was sweet and with kisses and hugs we were packed into the car and off to the airport.  It was Boxing Day, so the car park was full.  Well the one multi-layered one and after getting to the 5^th level and not being able to find a park, we headed back down and parked outside.  This all took an extra 20 minutes and by the time we got into the terminal I was inside the 2 hour check-in.  There was only one couple in front of me at the counters and then it was my turn.  The monster was 22.5kg and my second smaller bag was 12.2kg so I am glad that I did date change my Malaysia ticket and bought the Emirates ticket as I would have been up for 1320AUD excess baggage.  THAT is just a rip Malaysia Airlines.  I had prepaid the extra bag but it wasn’t showing in the system.  So he checked both my bags in and gave me my boarding pass and told me I had to head over to the Sales Desk.  So we headed there and 20 minutes later the payment was sorted and I was all set to go.  .  I was so focussed on my second bag talking to the check-in dude that I forgot to ask about my window seat.  It was Shelly that reminded me about the window seat, so I went back to check-in for the second time to ask about it and a different agent helped me and said there were no more windows left.  When I enquired about the secret squirrel seats that airlines usually keep, he smiled and said the flight was full.  When I asked about paying for a window seat (which I could have done 3 days ago for 25AUD) he smiled and turned his computer screen around to show me there was only one seat left (a middle) and that he was the supervisor and there were none to be had.  I even asked for an aisle, as I was in a row of 4 in the middle and it was still no, well I said you would know to him (nicely) we laughed and I left with my shitty middle seat.  Little did I know that this was going to be the least of my worries of the morning.

Now was the difficult part, the part that I had been dreading, and that was to say goodbye to my Elkins.  Tess had started to cry and we aren’t just talking crocodile tears, she was really crying her little heart out.  Zoe was brave and it was really sweet that she was trying to console Tessie.  There were watery eyes as I hugged Shane, a massive strong hug from Zoe, tears flowed when I hugged my BEST FRIEND in the whole wide world and then there was my little sobbing Tessie.  What can you say to a 5 year old that is asking you why you have to go, telling you to stay.  All I could do was give her a BIG hug, tell her I will always be thinking of her, love her and that I will be back someday.  Shelly asked if we wanted to go for a drink but for me and for Tess’s sake I think it was best that we just parted there and then.  Beside the face that it was 12.20pm and I still had security and customs to get through, I wanted to change some of the USD 100 notes I was given into smaller notes at Travelex and to get a drink before boarding.  So with a final wave as the lift doors closed I was now on my own and I could do nothing but let my tears fall.  For the friends I am leaving, the life I am leaving and into the uncertain future.  I found a bench away from everything, composed myself, packed away my jacket and then made my way to security and immigration. 

I had filled in my departure card while I was at the check-in desk, so I was feeling okay, had stopped my tears as I headed down the escalators to security when I saw that there were 2 staff standing at the entrance and they were standing next to a set of scales.  It is funny what you can notice in a split second and I just hoped that I would make it through without getting my bags weighed as I knew for a fact that I was over the 7kg allowance and then realising that there was a third staff member catching the people that tried to slink through the first 2 when they were attending other passengers (which was going to be my play).  As it worked out everyone had to have their bags weighed and I just had a dread in the pit of my stomach.  So inevitably I was stopped and asked to out my rolly bag on the scales and it was 9.9kg.  She looked at me, I looked at her and she told me I had too much.  I said my jacket was in there, so she said take that out, so I unzipped my bag and then she noticed my backpack on my back.  She said she couldn’t let me though and that I would have to head back to the check-in counters and speak to them about what I could do.  Just when I had composed myself, this just tipped me back over and as I made my way to the lift to take me back to the check-in counters for the 3^rd time I was an emotional wreck.  It may sound a little OTT (over the top) but it is a sad moment that I am happy to savour, I think you need to cleanse yourself, know and accept that you are making a massive move, a decision that has changed my life-but at the end of the day, these people are just doing their job, they don’t know my background (and probably don’t care) and I know I must look like a complete loser.  At this point all that hasn’t really sunk in and as I stood back in line and after telling yet another check-in agent my issue, I was referred to the supervisor and as I made my way down to the end of the counter and rehashed the story again I just lost it.  I was sobbing like some crazy woman, so much so that I couldn’t keep talking, and I was trying to say it was ridiculous the way I was crying, but I couldn’t get the words out and it made me sound more manic.  The guy came around to my side of the counter, rubbed my back and told me I had to check in one of my 3 hand pieces, it would be for free and asked if I needed help.  I was finally able to take some deep breathes, apologize, told him I would be happy to pay (which was waved off) and then I took out the valuables from my rolly bag, swapped some things out of my backpack and was then directed to a check-in agent to check in my 3^rd bag to a weight of 12.1kg.  This in turn made my backpack on my back heavier, but the supervisor signed off on the bottom of my boarding pass that I was allowed to take a heavy piece of hand luggage and with a watery smile, a sincere thankyou and a wave I was back on my way again.

The same ‘scale’ lady saw me coming again and I think she was just happy that I didn’t have the rolly bag with me, she looked at my boarding pass and didn’t even bother to weigh my backpack but after throwing it on the scales when I was upstairs it was just as well, even though I had the ‘ok’ on my boarding pass the backpack weighed 12.1kg and it was a relief that I was finally through the check and I wasn’t even at security.  I had the fore thought to take off all my bangles when I was checking in, so I just had my laptop to pull out, pass through the scanner and into immigration.  There weren’t too many people here and I was at the counter in no time.  Last time I passed through here in August the customs guy had to refer me with a problem with my passport.  I only remembered that fact as I stood there, and waited and waited.  This can’t be good and when I saw a supervisor looking guy come to our booth, I knew that things weren’t going to be plain sailing through here again.  Talk about a drama on my last departure from the country.  So I was escorted away to a counter located at the end of immigration and told to take a seat as they checked over my passport and he placed a call.  Thank goodness there was no TV crew and that I featured on border control-now that would have just topped off the morning!!!  I sat there for 20 minutes until I heard my flight being called to start the boarding process, so I mentioned it to the border guy and he made another phone call, spoke to some-one and then handed my passport back.  I asked him what the problem was and seriously he could have been speaking another language, what he said made no sense, as his mind was already onto the next task and wasn’t paying any attention.

As the flight had only just been called there was still a line up at the gate, so I had to abandon the drink and the currency conversion I had wanted to do and I just joined the queue.  So this is why people, you need the 2 hours prior to allow for ‘snafu’ time.  And to top off the whole drama, I was sitting on a Boeing 747 with a seating configuration of 3x4x3 and I was in the 4 seats of that in a BLOODY middle seat.  Now if that doesn’t top off the start of a 34 hour day I don’t know what does.  The upside was that I had a small child, well a 10 year old to one side and I had a small Asian guy to the other, so I had what could be possibly a really bad seat turned into an okay seat.  I guess things could have been worse.  So after dealing with a check-in guy, a sales desk chick, another check-in guy, a scales chick, a supervisor guy and a border control dude they all worked (for or against) to finally get me to my seat and finally on my way.  As I sat in my chair I received a last minute text message from Shelly and the girls and the tears that I thought I had controlled tried one last time to escape as we made our way down the runway and the last time I would see my homeland for an unknown amount of time.  It was weird not being next to a window or to even be able to see out of one, but maybe this was a blessing in disguise as I HATE crying in public and being in the middle of the aircraft gave me no privacy to shed any last tears.

The flight was uneventful and I have to say not bad.  A lot of people bag Qantas, refuse to fly them blah, blah, blah blah but I have always found their European flights/staff more than acceptable.  Maybe after all those years in the travel industry with clients telling me how much they hate them that I now have a low expectation when I fly them and I am always pleasantly surprised.  The flight was a little hot if I was to complain about something and I’m not just talking about when we were on the ground, the whole flight I had to fan myself every now and then to get some air moving (and I want no cracks about menopause thank-you).  I slept for a few hours watched a few movies and then after 7 hours and 20 minutes we came into land at Singapore International at 7.10pm.  Being in the very last row of the plane, in the middle seat, it was lucky that I was in no rush to catch my next flight.  My Emirates flight wasn’t until 1.20am-so I had 6 hours to collect my baggage, hope that the Emirates check-in counters would be open, off load my bags-see how badly I was going to get hit going through the whole stressful check-in procedure with Emirates and then be able to pass back through immigration and kill time airside.  It would have been a pain if I couldn’t check-in, as I would have to stay curb side where the facilities are not as good as the other side.  So after checking my emails at one of the 500 free terminals on my way to immigration, I collected my 3 bags weighing 46.8kg on my free trolley and headed out of customs.  I must say I had no idea on what terminal I had arrived into and no idea on which terminal I needed to get to.  Once you are through customs there are plenty of arrival TV’s that let you know where you are, but I had no idea which way I had to go from there.  I found an information brochure rack that had booklets on Changi International, so I flipped to the terminal pages that showed me that Emirates depart from Terminal 1 and for the first time out of my last 10 visits I was arriving into Terminal 1 and departing from the same one.  Woo hoo!!  So I just needed to make my way up to the departure level, find the Emirates counter and with my biggest smile, hope on a wing and a prayer that they would be nice to me with all the luggage that I have. 

Lucky for me, Emirates had flights to Australia and an earlier flight to London and the counters were open.  It did say on my ticket that check-in for my flight was 2 hours before, but I just wanted to get rid of my bags and the worry of not knowing how I would be processed at check-in.  The counters were open so I thought I would try my luck and with no-one in line I was called to the business class check-in.  So the monster was thrown on the scales and hadn’t changed weight-22.2kg and before I was asked to pop on my second bag I was asked to show my ticket leaving the UK as I had booked a one way ticket in.  I did have this-somewhere.  As I had to re-organise my bag in Brisbane, I was not sure where I had popped my documents to be able to show him.  So I looked like a right ol arse flicking in and out of my rolly, my handbag and my small backpack looking for my document wallet.  So much for trying to keep a low profile with my luggage!  Anyway I found the e-ticket and was able to them pop on my 2^nd bag and it was 13kg giving me a grand total of 35.5kg where I was allowed 30kg on Emirates.  So this is where the crunch was to come, would they let me through or would I be charged.  Well he looked at me and said that I was over my luggage restriction, to which I just smiled and nodded and he said that there was going to be a charge of 78AUD per kilo.  I just kept smiling and said well I would just have to pay it as I had no choice here making it a total of 472AUD of excess baggage and I am not sure what then transpired, it must have been my attitude as he looked over his shoulder and then said listen I’ll just pop 3 kilos on there for you!  Maybe my luck was starting to change, so instead of paying nearly 500AUD I was only going to pay 238AUD.  What a relief.  There were no questions on my hand luggage, so with my rolly bag still on the trolley and my small backpack on my back (they can’t see it properly there) I headed to yet another sales desk to make yet another payment for my excess baggage.  But I was done, literally unscathed and I now wouldn’t have to see my bags till London. 

My time at Changi seems to always pass quickly.  After passing through immigration, which I think is the easiest in all of the airports I have visited and part of that is the random security checks they do, unlike all the other airports that make every single person pass through they don’t do that here and part of that is that process is done at the gates.  Once through I found the information counter to get my free Wi-Fi password to find out that they have now changed the process of their Wi-Fi-ing and you now don’t need to show your passport and you can now connect without a password.  Brilliant.  So armed with this I made a visit to ‘my’ BK (Burger King) ordered ‘my’ usual (12 drumettes and a passionfruit Iced Tea) and killed a few hours there reading and making notes and thinking about the details for London and just how busy I was going to be the first week.  I moved on after a few hours and found a lounge area where I re-arranged my bags back to the way they were in Brisbane and then it was time to make my way to the gate at midnight when the shops started to close.  I made sure that I stayed away from the Pandora shop this visit, so it was a relief to see that closing on my way past.  That shop is just trouble with a capital T.    

The flight from Singapore to Dubai was full but I did have a window, so that is the best it will ever get on a full flight.  I was the first one to arrive in my row and after trying to put on my seatbelt and finding that I needed an extension belt; this was a good thing to lessen the embarrassment of having people in my row and then asking.  Certainly the width of the seats on the Emirates plane, the 777-300 was not as generous as the Qantas flight with a seating configuration of 3x4x3-we were all set for an on time departure and the 7 hour and 6013km flight to Dubai.  I had been on the road since 11am that morning and by the time we took off I had been on the road for 13 hours and I was asleep before we had even taken off.  I missed the cart round of drinks, but I somehow never miss the food cart and woke up for a 5am dinner service a movie and with the time difference we arrived into Dubai at 4.40am. 

Upon arrival in Dubai we had the longest walk to get us from the plane to our new gates.  Whether you were connecting or stopping we all had to trudge the distance and we divided up at the end with those with boarding passes to go through security.  The laptops etc…. didn’t have to come out of our baggage here but I did have to take off my bangles again and realised this is the first trip where I haven’t worn my Ethiopian bangles and I can’t anymore use the excuse that they don’t come off…. That was a good line and always got me through without having to de-jewel.  Once I finally made it to the gates it was so busy.  All the shops were open at 5am, there were hundreds of people everywhere and I had to walk another 300m to find the departure TV screens to find out and orientate myself on where my next departure gate would be.  I had 2 hours to kill here, so I found a waiting lounge next to one of the departure gates that had no people and paid a solid 2 hours of solitaire listening to my IPod.  I also noticed for the first time, my feet were so swollen.  I have never had swollen feet from travelling before and they looked like they belonged to the elephant woman, to some-one else, they didn’t look like my feet at all.  So as I sat there I kept them moving up, down and all around to keep the blood circulating.  They didn’t hurt, they just felt tight.  I didn’t even bother to enter any of the shops and after my 12 drumettes in Singapore and breakfast on the plane I wasn’t that hungry.  A tip for Dubai International is that the ladies toilets always seem to be so busy.  The line ups are out the doors and I checked 3 locations.  If you can wait, wait till you get to your departure gate as each one has their own set of toilets and you are pretty much guaranteed to not have to wait. 

The flight from Dubai to my final destination, London, was operated by the mighty A380.  This plane is phenomenal.  As you walk down the air-bridge and look up, you can just see the top of this massive manmade structure.  It is the size of a small house and it really makes you wonder how this thing ever takes off.  The Airbus A380 is a double-deck, wide-body, four-engine jet airliner and it is the world's largest passenger airliner and, due to its size, many airports have had to upgrade their facilities to properly accommodate it.  The A380 made its first flight on 27 April 2005 and began commercial service in October 2007 with Singapore Airlines.  The A380-800's cabin has 478 square metres of floor space; 49% more floor space than the next-largest airliner, the Boeing 747-400 with 321 square metres, and provides seating for 525 people in a typical three-class configuration or up to 853 people in all-economy class configurations. The A380-800 has a design range of 15,400 kilometres, which is sufficient to fly from New York to Hong Kong, and a cruising speed of Mach 0.85 (about 900 km/h at cruising altitude).  As of November 2012 there had been 262 firm orders for the A380, of which 92 have been delivered.  The largest order, for 90 aircraft, was from Emirates.  I was in the last row again (this never worries me) and with another 7 hours in front of me and 5504km it was a great feeling I was on the last stretch.  It felt like I had left Australia a week ago!!!!  Apparently they offered Wi-Fi on the plane and I could connect to the network (it was free) but it wouldn’t let me on to the internet.  Oh well I didn’t really need any access I was just jumping on for the novelty of it.  This was a day flight and after the last 2 flights I had done at night I tried to stay awake by watching 2 movies, getting fed lunch and finally closing my eyes for an hour before the plane was prepared for landing, finally into the UK.  As we flew in through the English mist you could see that the fields were full of water, apparently this was one of the wettest years the UK has had and it looked like it. 

We arrived on time into London Heathrow at 11.30am.  It’s all well getting 525 people on a plane, but getting them all off is a mission and took a fair amount of time, but again I didn’t have anyone picking me up so I was in no rush and being in the last row of the plane, it was just as well.  There weren’t too many people at immigration and with the line moving it only took me 10 minutes to get to my officer.  This entry was probably the most I had been questioned but I guess with this being around the 7^th time in the last 12 months I have visited I guess it is worthy of a few questions.  The upside of taking a long time to get off the flight is that the bags were out by the time we got to the carousel.  Mine were one of the first out and with a free trolley and the green channel I was out and on my way to catch the Heathrow Express.  I had changed my London accommodation and I was now staying walking distance from where the Heathrow Express terminates at Paddington Station.  I figured that the less trains and moving around I had to do with my luggage the better and it proved to me more difficult than I had anticipated.  To catch the Tube from Heathrow costs 5GBP and takes around 1 hour and 10 minutes and without looking at the map I am assuming I would have to change somewhere along the line.  The Heathrow Express is 19GBP and takes 15 minutes on 1 train to Paddington.  For me that is money well spent and there was a ticket guy at entrance selling them but there is also a counter further in if you don’t see one.  So with ticket in hand there is only so far that the luggage trolley will go before reaching the train platform, so it was now time for me to don the monster and pack up all my bags so that I could walk with them all.  It was good in theory and worked…sort of.  I just had a small issue of getting the gym bag on the wheelie bag with the small backpack on my front.  If I take off the small backpack to pick the gym bag, I then have to hold the wheelie bag to put on my small backpack and I can’t do this with one arm.  Okay, so my technique needs a little work and maybe I should have had a practice run at home before I left, but either way I will be able to manage-it just may not look very pretty-awkward.  Which is exactly how I must have looked as I had a group of 3 American guys ask if I needed help for when the train pulls in and I replied thanks, but if I bought it all I need to manage it all-but I can tell you when the train pulled in I actually did okay-awkward but okay. 

I arrived into Paddington Station at 1pm and I knew where I needed to head, I always check this information before arriving anywhere and when I orientated myself I was on my way to the hotel which was apparently 400m from the station.  Well with 60kg of luggage it felt like it was further than that, but I arrived safely and was able to check straight into my room as I had paid an extra 10GBP to have an early check-in and I am so glad that I did.  I was officially knackered.  One of the reception ladies asked if I need help with my bags, but again I declined and I made 2 trips to get everything down the one flight of stairs to my room for the night.  This was the first time I had stayed in this hotel as I normally stay at their sister property in Westminster, but with its location, for me this was a winner and being in a twin room was a lot bigger than the ones I have had previously.  It was perfect as I had to go through all my bags to get enough clothes to last me for the next 10 days as I would be leaving everything except my wheelie bag in storage as I traverse the country during my stay. 

It was nice to be in my room by 1.30pm.  It is a windowless room, you have to pay more for a window, so it is a little disconcerting to what time of the actual day it is.  I had to get some sleep, just for a few hours and I woke at 4pm with a knocking at the door with the previous guests looking for a lost cord that wasn’t there.  It was a blessing in disguise to wake me up, so I got up and went to the local chicken shop for an early dinner, came back to the room, packed my wheelie bag for the next 10 days.  It was a little hard as I was heading to Brighton tomorrow for the wedding so I needed proper shoes and a dress and makeup to the following day I would be back to London for the night and then on a train the following day heading to the country side of Scotland with a different requirement of clothes.  So without being a pain to the reception staff when I come back tomorrow and making it easier for me as well I organised a small tote bag that I could ask for tomorrow to do a swap of items and clothes and then recheck that in when I leave on Sunday.  I am not just a pretty face you know!  After sending off a messages to Kate, KWT and the Addletons to let them know I had arrived, the lights were off at 6pm and I woke at 10pm in a panic because I looked at my watch that said 10 and I immediately thought it was 10am the next morning and had a crazy second that I had missed my train at 9am.  But it was still the same day, it was 10pm and I closed my eyes and fell into a fitful and well-earned sleep, even with my elephant feet.

Welcome back to the UK!!!            

           

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED-IM HOME

WEATHER: Freak storm 45 minutes after landing otherwise its summer and 30C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Touchdown in Brisbane

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Touching down in Brisbane 3 hours late

WORD OF THE DAY: HOME

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 6158km

So I went to bed at 2.30am this morning and as I had paid for my breakfast when I checked in at midnight, I HAD to get up this morning to go, otherwise it would be a total waste.  The breakfast service closed at 10.30am, so I set my alarm for 9am, dragged myself out of bed, showered and made it down to the restaurant with 45 minutes to eat all I could.  I did well and I gave the Asian section a good crack with the mini dim sums and steam rolls-I love those things.  It was a great looking buffet I have to say, but I am not one to gorge, so I ate what I wanted with a cup of tea and then on my way back to the room I stopped to have a look at the pool area and it was amazing.  There was a wooden boardwalk around the pool, with fountains and trees in the middle of the pool.  There were sun lounges and a great view of the tower, which was pretty cool to see in itself, to think we were that close to the airport.

I switched the ‘do not disturb’ light when I got back to my room and then I spent the rest of the morning blogging and uploading photos and watching movies on TV.  I had paid for a late checkout, so I didn’t have to be out of my room till 6pm, which was perfect as my flight was at 9.25pm and it is still hard to believe that I WILL BE HOME TOMORROW.  It still hasn’t sunk in yet-but I am super excited to see Shelly and the girls and from the text messages that are flying around they are just as excited to see me.  The god-daughters have a dance concert on this weekend, so I will hit the ground running tomorrow with a drop off for the first concert and then a ticket for the second concert on Sunday.  I have earnt some brownie points with the girls telling them that I had come home early especially to see them dance in their concert.  They had been told that Zeme and I had broken up so I am expecting a barrage of questions as only children can ask and I need to work on a way to tell them that things just didn’t work out.  I’ll think about that later, I can’t be bothered at the moment rehashing ‘that’ saga and overshadowing my happy impending return home.  With room service for lunch and another movie I showered and was ready at 6.15pm.  I figured I would push the check-out boundary by 15 minutes, what will they do; charge me for the 15 minutes?  I had made sure yesterday when I packed the monster that I had kept out a change of clothes and underwear into my day backpack so I wouldn’t have to open the monster till I got home.  See I am a smart cookie, but that also meant that the sucker still weighed 26.4kg and I had one more check-in to go.  Qantas can be hit and miss at the best of times whether you get charged excess or not, so I just hoped that I would get some-one nice and they wouldn’t charge me.  

As the bell boy had bought my bag up on a hotel trolley, I had to heft that thing onto my back to get it downstairs to reception to checkout.  I kept the thing on my back as I paid the bill and the reception guy asked if I wanted an airport trolley, oh yes please that would be fantastic.  It was great that I could walk out of the hotel and find myself smack bang in the middle of T3-LOVE it as I had to make my way from terminal 3 to terminal 1 which is done via the airtrain and takes 5 minutes.  The system is so easy here, I love Singapore Changi and it is just as well as I have passed through here 9 times in the last 9 weeks!  I entered T1 and as I walked past the first set of departure boards I found my flight and the counter that I had to get to for check-in, when I saw the second set of departure boards I saw that the word ‘retimed’ was next to my flight number and when I looked at the new departure time to was for 3 hours later!  Oh no….. Are you kidding?  I probably could have extended my room for another few hours, now I have an additional 3 hours plus the 3 hours I had given myself for check-in. Ugh.  It was going to be a long day.  The Qantas check-in area was a shambles.  There were people in groups sitting on the floor, there was no roped section for a check-in line, you just picked a hind leg line and side step people and trolleys as they came and went.  I jumped queue twice as people were just all over the place and when it was finally my turn with a smile on my dial I dropped my bag on the scales and asked why the flight had been retimed.  Firstly I was hoping to keep her busy as to not notice the weight of my bag and secondly, if the flight was delayed 3 hours I was hoping that they would let my bag slide as a small compensation.  As it worked out there was an issue with our aircraft and they were getting a new one from Sydney and when I asked when they found out-did they try and notify passengers, she said it was all very last minute.  I think it certainly worked in my favor and my 26.4kg bag was checked through without a second glance.  My chick was tough, but I liked her once my bag was sent down the conveyor belt, with a small kick from her as it got stuck.  My next issue was a window seat and they were all gone!  But she said let me go and check something and she left the counter, so with fingers crossed and a held breath I waited for her to come back and she said she could give me one, tapped a few times on the computer and said that’s strange, disappeared again and then came back and with a small smile said she had found me another one.  I wasn’t going to ask what happened with the first one, as long as I had a window, my monster was checked at no cost I wasn’t going to argue.  Then for the good news, I was also given a food voucher of 20SGD for me to have dinner on Qantas due to the delay.  Why thank-you Qantas.  This was probably the biggest delay I have had all trip and yesterday was the most I had paid for excess baggage.  Talk about a patch of bad luck finishing with a small silver lining.  I was just happy to get rid of the monster-all done and dusted now till Brisbane.                  

Once I had passed through security (no scan) and customs, the first thing I needed to do was to let Shelly know I was now arriving at 10am and not at 6.40am.  I shot off a text message and wouldn’t feel comfortable until she replied with am ok.  I would hate for her to get up at 6am, get to the airport to find out I wasn’t now coming till 3.5 hours later.  So with the message sent, I decided to make a stop at the Pandora shop one last time JUST FOR A LOOK and yes I ended up leaving with One charm, which for me is a feat in itself, ONE.  I was happy with that and then it was time to buy a drink and find somewhere to sit  as I had 4.5 hours to wile away before heading to my gate.  Singapore Changi is great for finding areas that are set up for people to rest and wait and I went to one of the food courts and found a massive lounge area that was spread around some food outlets and because they offer these type of areas all over the airport, they never seem super crowded.  Before setting up all my crap, I checked my internet on one of the free computers, I went and bought a soft drink and then set myself up in 2 lounge chairs.  My laptop came out, my IPod was plugged in, my Blackberry was at hand so I could keep an eye on a return message from Shelly Belly and there I sat for 3 hours, happy as Larry, typing and people watching.  There was an oriental restaurant, Asian House, that I could see people coming and going out of there and the smell that was emanating from the restaurant was too much to pass up and decided to abandon the thought of using my voucher for some drumettes at Burger King and to have something different for a change, I mean I wasn’t paying for it anyway right! 

This restaurant was set up for the traveler.  The staff were switched on, there seemed to be an urgency with the way they served you which was good in a way, but also a little disconcerting.  I showed my Qantas voucher straight up as I wanted to make sure they knew I had one so there wouldn’t be any problems when I went to pay, a lot of people don’t like vouchers, but my waitress seemed to be okay with it and left me with a rather large menu.  It is amazing how far 20SGD goes and after looking at the menu looking at what I could have to the cost of the voucher, as I just had to spend every cent, I ended up ordering an entrée and a main and I got a coke and all I had to pay was 1.53SGD as I hadn't calculated in the tip.  I think I could handle that.  After placing my order my entrée was at the table within 10 minutes, maybe even less and then my main meal came out probably 10 minutes after that, even though I had not yet finished my entrée.  I told you they were in a snazz.  It was one of those places you could see the chefs in the kitchen and they looked as busy in there as the wait staff out the front.  I guess they just think that everyone has a plane to catch-literally and they just pump people through.  I wasn’t on such a rush and I even got asked if I wanted to pay the 1.53 as I was about to put a mouthful of food in my mouth.  I did ask if it was okay to finish my meal first and she nodded her head and I was allowed to finish my meal in peace.  I heard back from Shelly, so she knew of my new arrival time-so I felt much better that I had got through to her.  My small backpack had to be moved as some people arrived at the table next to me and the waiter guy picked up my bag to move it onto the chair opposite me and asked what I had in my bag?  Gold?  I know it weighs a ton and I still say that it has to be over 10kg in there.  So on that note after paying my massive bill, I walked out of the restaurant and found one of the small hand luggage trolleys and dumped my 22kg of bags onto it to give myself a break from carrying them as I went for a final walk around the shops  before heading to my gate.  I found some funky looking elephant statues in one of the gift shops, but firstly I had no room to carry them, secondly they weren’t cheap and thirdly I think I need to re-asses what travel ornaments I have at home before I go and purchase more.  The beauty is I am back through here in 5 weeks, so if I still do like them, maybe I will get them on my way back through.  They are handmade, hand painted and some of the proceeds go towards a woman’s co-op in Singapore.  Maybe next time.  I did buy some stickers for my diary and also a beautiful blue china necklace though and then it was time to make my way to my gate.

I checked my internet again at the hundreds of computers they have around the airport, nothing had changed, but just because I could, I did.  When I got to my gate it wasn’t open yet and most of the seats outside the gate were taken, so I found a spot at the end of the gate area, leaned up against the wall and pulled out my IPad and played solitaire.  There are a few ways to gain free internet/Wi-Fi at Changi International Airport.  There are the free internet stations located around the airport that are on a 15 minute timer.  If there is no one waiting behind you and you needed more than 15 minutes you just re-log on again-easy.  You can get Wi-Fi codes from the information counters located throughout the airport-you just need to show your passport to get them and the last way is they are starting to introduce free Wi-Fi at the gates where you don’t need to get the code from the info desks.  As I was leaning against the glass wall of our departure gate, I was within reach of the gates free Wi-Fi and was able to surf the internet for another hour when the gate finally opened.  As the aircraft was late coming in-there were a lot of transfer passengers for other flights and there would have been 10 airport staff, all ladies waiting for people with flight numbers and destinations on A4 pieces of paper.  There would have been 4 golf carts also waiting and it was cool to see them all bantering with each other while they were off the clock until the first passengers came off.  It’s funny to see what people look like after an 8 hour flight and to see what people actually wear on a flight.  It was pretty cool to see them all walk past me, like I was in some travel fashion show.  Some people looked great, others tired and majority of people were unsure where to go once they came out of the aerobridge.  I love people watching.  So knowing that our plane was finally here was a great sign and I will be glad once we are in the air to be sure that I was finally on my way.  Not that it means anything, even after you take off.  I have 2 friends that work for United Airlines and they took off from Chicago for London and after 2 hours they had to turn around due to a mechanical fault-now that would be pretty sucky.

So my gate opened at 11.25pm.  We boarded at 12.30am and we were in the air at 1.15pm.  My check-in chick had me sitting in the 3^rd last row of the aircraft which I am okay with, I am one of those people that is superstitious or thinks there is a better part of the plane than another, but in saying that I was sitting in a row that had only 2 seats of a 3x4x3 configured aircraft.  The 2 seats option is great but in those particular seats you are not directly against the side of the plane.  There is a gap of around 30cm.  So I wasn’t able to rest my head against the window to get some sleep.  This was a bummer, but I still had a window, so I wasn’t going to complain.  It also didn’t take long to wait to find out if I was going to have the seat next to me free, my seat buddy turned up early, so at least that put me out of my misery.  We were on a 747-400 and it looked like a new plane.  I checked out the entertainment options and they had Magic Mike on the movie channel and they also had 18 hours of Modern Family.  I was SO tired, but I would have to watch a few episodes of that before I went to sleep. 

After takeoff my seat buddy was all over the seating and there was a spare seat across the aisle and he jumped ship to then give me the 2 seats to myself for the next 7 hours.  You beauty and thank-you travel gods for finally coming through for me one last time, on my last flight on my World Odyssey.  The one annoying thing about the touch screens they have on the newer aircrafts is if some-one has a heavy hand while pushing the screen you can feel it in your seat and it can become really annoying.  You just hope that they quickly find a movie so that they leave the screen alone and in turn don’t piss you off any further.  Dinner was served at 2.45am, so I watched 4 episodes of Modern family and as soon as the trays were taken away, the lights switched off and the plane was put to bed for the rest of the trip.  I was tired, so this suite me to a tea and I slept like a baby for 3 hours till the plane was woken up for a crappy breakfast of yoghurt, croissant and an orange juice.  I don’t eat the first 2, so the Hostee was happy to give me the juice and I really wasn’t hungry after all the food I had consumed in the last 24 hours anyway.  From here it was just a waiting game, and I could stop checking the flight plan and seeing how many minutes we had left till we landed.  I couldn’t believe I was only 15 minutes from being home. HOME…….ahhh HOME.  I was lucky, 90% of my flights I have ever done arriving back into Brisbane come in over Moreton Island but this morning we came in over the city.  It was a shame the weather was on the crappy side, it was cloudy and looked like it was raining, so not the greatest for photo opportunities but what a great way to arrive back into Brisbane over the city, seeing the Brisbane River and The Gabba.  I was home.

We arrived at 9.40am and as I was in the 3^rd last row of the plane, there was no rush for me to get off.  Shelly was picking me up between the girls ice-skating class and dancing lessons and we were aiming for a 10.30am pickup and I think we were going to be pretty close to that.  We seemed to be the only flight in so that was the good news about coming in at the time we had rather than the 6.40am when up to 5 other planes all arrive in at the same time and customs and immigration is a nightmare.  Well not this morning.  Even though all hands were full, I managed to stop via the duty free shop and purchase a bottle of bourbon for the Elks and a bottle of vodka for me, not knowing still 100% I was doing with my shipping container that has 60 vodka bottles in it, but I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.  I have the chip in my passport, so I was able to go through the self-immigration kiosks, got my free trolley, snuck in a sneaky text message to Shelly (you’re not allowed to use your mobile phones in the baggage area-it is a 1000AUD fine) and then waited, and waited and waited for our bags to come out.  It took 35 minutes for my bag to finally pop out and after getting the wave into the bag check line, I had circled that I had wood items, I showed my Buddha head that was easily accessible in my backpack and I was waved through to the exit.  WELCOME TO BRISBANE.

I was HOME and it felt great.  I am back for nearly 5 weeks and I was looking forward to each and every minute I have here. 

The eagle has landed-I WAS HOME. 

MY JOURNEY HOME BEGINS

WEATHER: Cold in Kathmandu 5C-Hot in Singapore and 28C at midnight……

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: I’m on my way home

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Slugged for excess baggage

WORD OF THE DAY:  I’M COMING HOME

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 3554km

I’M COMING HOME-I’M COMING HOME-TELL THE WORLD I’M COMING HOME.

I start my journey home today-really it is for the second time.  I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would have extended my World Odyssey after my first return, but things happen and plans change that are out of your control and you need to adjust, re-plan and then continue forward.  I would not wish to CHANGE a thing that has happened the last 4 months- and the cliché saying of all things happen for a reason is so true.  I would not have travelled to Sri Lanka, met my awesome group, been introduced to Buddhism, attended a friend’s wedding in Phuket, visited the Philippines and seen the tarsier and the beautiful island of Boracay and my last stop the amazing and scenic country of Nepal.  Let’s not forget the new tattoo I got that means a lot more than just some ink on my arm and the incredible people that I have met along the way.  How can you out a price on all of that (besides the bank balance) but it has come at a cost to some extent-my future was thrown into haywire and a relationship that I thought would last till the end of time-didn’t.  These things happen and to use a quote I love

“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”  

So with all that said and the additional 4 months of unexpected travel was ‘life’ changing, if it could even more than my previous 15 months and I was coming home for the last time, for a while anyway as I am unsure on when I will return for a holiday.  That has a real finality to that statement and that is what makes me feel’s sad.

My flight wasn’t until midday today, so I had the morning to get some breakfast and finalize my packing.  I was up at 6.30am and I was going to be on the go till midnight tonight when I arrived into Singapore and then had an additional 19 hours to kill before my flight back to Australia tomorrow night.  I have booked the Crown Plaza Singapore Airport for the stop, I figured by the time I arrived, collected my bags, paid for 2 nights and a late checkout it wasn’t worth the extra travel into the city and time, so I was happy with the plan to clear customs, grab my bags, change terminals and be at my hotel, especially after 10 hours of travel.  I was looking at staying at the Marina Sands in Singapore, you know the new hotel that is made up of 3 buildings and has a pool connecting them all together but at 500AUD for the night and I would need 2.5 nights, it was a price I wasn’t willing to pay-yes, I do have some limits-…….sometimes!  My last breakfast was at the Florid Hotel and even though they have been pretty quick each morning so far, I headed down at 7.30am to have some ‘snafu’ time should they be busy.  They were a little busier than previous trips, but I was still fed and watered by 8.30am and with a BIG thank-you and a larger than normal tip I made my way back to the hotel to collect my bags.  There were cabs out the front, so I checked with one what the price was, he quoted the going rate of 400 pesos, so I told him I would be back in 10 minutes, grabbed by bevy of bags and packed the small metro taxi with all my crap and we were on our way to the airport. 

As it was day 3 of Diwali, there was hardly any traffic on the roads as it is a holiday, so I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.  When we arrived there was a trolley guy there immediately as I opened my door, but my taxi man had gone to get me a trolley anyway.  I felt bad I didn’t take the guy’s trolley, and if I did I would have felt bad that I didn’t give him anything, even though there are signs all around telling tourists that you don’t need to pay for trolleys.  I was tipping my taxi driver anyway, so I let him grab my trolley-I certainly needed it that is for sure.  To enter the building you need to show your passport and your ticket and the lineup took around 10 minutes to get in and then there was another security check point where your bags were scanned and you were given the pat down to gain the final access to one of the most antiquated airports for a capital city in the world.  It is like stepping back to the 60’s and considering the amount of traffic that passes through here each year it is surprising the age of the airport.  I found my check-in counters and I had arrived exactly 3 hours prior to my flight and there were about 80 people in front of me already.  Talk about everyone being early, I think it may have something to do with the traffic being so unpredictable that everyone just starts out earlier than needed to make sure there are no hold ups on the way.  Maybe the Nepalese are a ‘snafu’ kind of people when it comes to travelling?  Either way, the counters didn’t open for another 15 minutes, so I stuck in my headphones and played solitaire for the time.  There was an older lady in front of me who had 2 small backpacks, one looked like her daily one and the other was a walking pack, and when the line started to moved she had great difficulty in bending over to reach her bags, looked to be in a lot of pain and trouble walking.  She had on her North Face pants and matching jacket and her walking boots, so my guess is she was hiking and something happened to her.  I helped he move her bags twice, as she didn’t even have a trolley (I wonder how she got to the airport for no-one to be with her or at least given her a trolley) and then the third time, she said she could do it and I didn’t help again.  You wouldn’t believe when she finally made it to the counter to check-in she was at the wrong one.  She was flying Thai Airways and she was standing in the Malaysia Airlines queue.  I felt so bad for her, her English didn’t seem the greatest, and as I was trying to listen I think she was slurring her words, she was in bad shape.  I offered my trolley but one of the staff behind the counter realized how bad she was and helped her with her bags and walked her to where she should be.    

So it was my turn to check in and get the monster on the scales and I was pretty close with the weight, it was 26.3kg.  The check-in girl looked twice and I knew that I may be in with a problem.  She told me I was 6kg over, and I agreed with her and then as we looked at each other I asked how much would it cost me?  Oh yes I well and truly knew [I was in to pay when she then called over a gentleman supervisor, they chit chatted in Nepalese and then told me it would be 6636rupees.  It always sounds a lot in a foreign currency and I am not that great at my 84 times tables, so when I worked out that was 79USD I then had to check if that was per kilo or total for the 6 of them. !!!!  I was relieved when they said that it was a total amount and without a fuss I pulled out my credit card.  I did ask for a break and could they give me a little leeway and the supervisor was very generous and gave me a 1kg extra allowance.  Gen-ner-ous. Well as mentioned the airport is so old, they don’t have a credit card facility, not even the old clack clack style ones, so now we had another problem.  They told me I could use the ATM down the other end of the building and then come back, but I did put my foot down and said how much was it in US dollars, they told me 79, and I opened my purse and pulled out 40USD and said this is all I have.  So they chit chatted again, the supervisor went away, and to speed things up I pulled out another 20USD telling them that was the last of it and they accepted it.  So my free kilo turned into 2 free kg’s and I paid for 4.  I just hoped that they didn’t see the other 100USD I had sitting in my purse.  I wasn’t going to push the point because if they asked to weigh my hand luggage I would be in a world of hurt with my small backpack weighing at least 10kg, my handbag that contained my laptop and IPad, which would have to be at least 6kg and then the freckle rug and a Buddha head in the shoulder bag that also would have been around 6kg.   Yeah-60 bucks well spent and after updating my status about the event a few people came back saying that it is pretty good when you think about all the other flights where I didn’t get pulled up.  Good point.  So after getting a receipt for the payment and my boarding pass I hightailed it out of there before they saw what else I was carrying.  They were happy and I was happy.  So on my 84^th flight and my second last flight of my Odyssey I was busted for excess baggage, only the second time joining the time I was charged 45GBP for my flight from Dublin to London.  Not a bad strike rate I suppose, but also a credit to myself for my packing and travelling with stuff-right.     

There was one more passport and boarding pass check on our way up the escalators, customs and immigration was next.  I was the only one in line and I was waved over to an officer who was talking on his mobile as he stamped me out of the country.  They also had to stamp my boarding pass and as I walked away I realized I had given him my KL to Singapore boarding pass and not the Kathmandu to KL one.  So he technically stamped the wrong one.  Not thinking it was a big deal- I headed to the lounge area.  Here were the duty free shops, all 3 of them and 2 confectionary shops.  I had 245rupees burning a hole in my pocket (equivalent to 2.91AUD) and I got some lollies to suck on and I was 5rupees short for a Fanta and the cashier guy let me off.  How nice……  see things do come back around-even if it is the equivalent of 5c.  I sat down to consume my purchases as there was another security screen that had to be passed and I played some more solitaire and listened to some more tunes for another 45 minutes, before thinking I better get moving through and finally to the departure gate.  So there was a female line and a male line and once through the pat down and ready to collect my bags, the gentleman told me to take out my laptops, but I had and they were coming out of the machine, he then went back to his job and the nasty security lady asked for my boarding pass as she stamped the airline bag tags that were given to us at check in.  Well there seemed to be a massive issue that the boarding pass wasn’t stamped and she called the guy back over-he told her something in Nepali and then went back to his job again.  She then just started stamping and checking other ladies as they came through.  Um….. Hello-so I pulled out the other boarding pass to show that I did have a stamp and still nothing, so I gathered my bags and figured I would just walk off, when the guy came back and said that I had to go back to customs and get the right boarding pass stamped.  WHAT.  So I told them  was leaving all my bags with them and I walked against the flow of traffic to security, waved through, pushed in front of the queue that now had over 100 people in it and got ‘my’ guy to stamp the right pass.  Hmmmm he shouldn’t have been on the phone in the first place, but he did say sorry.  So I then made my way back to the female security line that now also had 10 women in front of me, got the pat down again, nasty security lady and finally I was given the wave through.  10m away was another security check, to make sure you had the damn stamp on the boarding pass and THEN you were finally through to the departure gates.  Talk about a security rigmarole but I made it through! 

The departure gates were busy, they were numbered but there were no boards telling you where your flight was leaving from.  There was a security guy at a table in between all the gates, so I asked where the Malaysia flights leave from and I was told gate 3.  So I entered the room, found a seat and then just watched the TV for the departing flight for that departure gate.  2 groups of people left on mass and I stalked their boarding passes as they all left and none of them were Malaysian passengers, but I figured it was time to take the tunes out and start to listen to announcements which was just as well as there was one made 15 minutes later of the gate change to my flight and we were all hoarded into a smaller room where there weren’t enough seats for all of us, so the boarding queue was automatically formed and after a further 20 minutes, security pushed past us and the boarding process began.  It was a bus boarding, and as we got closer to the exit, there were 2 lines, one for men and one for women and again we were patted down by security to be allowed to leave the building.  The bus was waiting and as my timing would have I was one of the last passengers on before the doors closed and we were driven the 300m to our plane.  Last on is great as it means you are first off.  As it was a tarmac board, we could board at the front and the rear.  Being in seat 24 I was guessing I would be closer to the rear of the plane, so without getting it checked I took the chance and it paid off.  There were 30 rows.  I had successfully bypassed the drama of boarding a plane.  As we taxied out, you could see other flights also preparing to leave.  It was busy with all the planes lined up-there were 6 other flights, no wonder it was busy at the terminal.  I was sitting on the left of the plane and without even realizing it I was to get another magnificent view of the Himalaya’s one last time and what a wonderful way to end my time in Nepal.  It was a beautiful day, the skies were clear and I got some magnificent photos, even if they were taken from my little camera.  It was a busy flight as well with not a spare seat on the flight.  We were sitting on a 737-800 with a configuration 3x3 and all buckled in for the 4hour and 25 minute flight.  Well you can guess what was for lunch-curry.  Curry chicken or curry beef-big range and I actually watched some TV on this flight with 4 episodes of Modern Family, man I love that show.  I have to get my ‘plane’ laugh on as my ‘normal’ laugh is a little scary for a confined space such as an airplane, but it makes me laugh so much.  It is probably one of the few shows I could watch again and again.

I love window seats, as you get to see some amazing cloud formations, sun reflections, sunsets, sunrises and the shades of colors ranging from the black, blues, reds, oranges and yellows.  Today was no different and probably one of the most memorable of my ‘window’ viewing experience starting with the view of the Himalaya’s and even though I was on the wrong side for the sunset, my side of the plane got a magic display of the sun’s rays bouncing off the clouds as they turned into night time and it looked like someone was shining a torch through the clouds-it is so hard to explain just how it looked, but it was amazing and I just couldn’t look away as we were moving so fast, there was always a different view.  It was dark when we arrived into Kuala Lumpur at 7.30pm.  My next flight wasn’t until 10.45pm, so I wasn’t in any rush to get off the flight, so I let everyone off and ended up being the last person off the flight.  I worked out where I was and where I had to get to and once that was established I had to catch the free airtrain to terminal D.  It is a quick 8 minute ride and once we got there; there were a lot more restaurants, duty free shops and things to do.  I saw a Burger King and with the chicken drummets in mind and the thought that of the short 45 minute flight I had coming up to Singapore and the midnight arrival, I thought I would have dinner here.  Unfortunately they didn’t have the drumettes, so with a burger and fries later I was on my way to find my new gate for my last flight of the day.  I was buggered. 

Our gate was closed when I got there, but was due to open at 9.30pm.  I took a seat further down from the entrance and played solitaire on my IPad, keeping an eye on the queue that was forming outside the gate waiting for it to open.  At 10pm, the line was increasing and I thought I better go and check what was happening and when I went down there, the queue was for the flight next door and all my passengers were inside getting ready for the boarding call.  A classic sign that you not only need to keep an eye on your fellow travelers, but make sure you are following the right ones.  The flight next door was off to Bahrain-yeah that’s not Singapore.  So I was able to bypass all the waiting people, for the other flight, rescanned and into the departure lounge where I only had to wait 10 minutes and then the flight was called and my seat row was the first one to board!  You ripper-I love getting on first and being able to store all my stuff in the overhead first and not have it taken up by people like me travelling with 3 pieces of hand luggage-well I think I deserve it, along with every other single person carrying more than they should. 

We left on time at 10.45pm for the short flight to Singapore.  There is just enough time for the hostees to serve a drink and a packet of peanuts before they come back through the cabin to collect all the rubbish and then prep the aircraft for landing.  This flight wasn’t as busy and I had the 2 seats next to me free.  It’s always the way with the short haul flights.  We were on a 737-800 aircraft again and I was in the same row I had from Kathmandu, just on the opposite side of the aircraft and the configuration was 3x3.  I had Googled where the Crown Plaza Airport Hotel was located, so I just needed to know what terminal we were flying into when we landed and I would know exactly where I was.  We arrived into Singapore at 11.50pm, and then made my way to customs.  I have a little routine now when I come into Singapore and it is generally 2 things.  I check my Facebook and email on one of the free computers throughout the terminals and with a bank of computers right near the escalators to go down to customs it is quick and easy and then I make my way down to collect my bag.  The other is getting chicken drumettes from Burger King which I didn’t think would be possible tonight with the time and being check-in side but with the time now after midnight I think I was going to be okay with that.

There weren’t too many people at customs and I only had to wait 10 minutes to get processed, which was fine as I know the airtrain runs till 2am and I also didn’t have far to travel now that I had my bag in hand.  The trolleys are free in Singapore, so after hefting the monster onto the trolley and getting waved through screening I was out and clear in Singapore.  By this time I was super happy I had made the decision to stay at the airport and as I started to make my way to the train I could see a Burger King and it was OPEN!!  Well I couldn’t pass up the drumettes, so I got a 12 pack (no fries) waited for them to get cooked and then took them with me to eat in my room once I arrived.  The Crown Plaza is linked by an internal walkway, passing 2 bars and a restaurant.  I had to catch the lift to the ground floor and then check-in to my room.  Once the formalities were done and the check-in chick managed to upgrade me to the breakfast and internet package I was told that I couldn’t take the airport trolley with me to the room.  I guess that makes sense.  So the bell boy was called and I wish I had a dollar for every face that has looked at the monster and had to lift the sucker.  I always tip anyone that has anything to do with moving my bag and tonight was no different, but he did have a hotel trolley, so it wasn’t like he had to carry it the whole way.  The hotel is actually quite nice and has a resort feel about it rather than a hotel feel.  The rooms had small entrances over bridges and I knew I was going to enjoy my 19 hours I had here.

The room was also amazing with a small sitting room, the king size bed, and a massive bathroom with a glass wall covered in frangipani’s looking out back into the sitting room.  The first thing I did was have a shower.  It actually had a wall around it, hot water and a steady flow of water for the 30 minutes I was in there.   MAGIC.   I then switched on the TV, booted up the computer, grabbed a Sprite from the fridge and then sat down to consume the 12 chicken drumettes I had bought from Burger King nearly an hour before and as disgusting as it sounds, they were delicious.   I decided to go to bed at 2.30am, as I had now paid for breakfast I had to make sure I would make it and as I set my alarm for 9am I was even too tired to think that I was ½ way home and I would be on my last plane tomorrow night to BRISBANE!!!!!

MY THREE ISLAND HOP FROM PHUKET TO SINGAPORE TO SRI LANKA

WEATHER: Plane-airport-plane-airport

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Leaving and arriving on the same day

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Saying goodbye to my Brisbane posse

WORD OF THE DAY:  

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 3688km

Man 4.45am is an early start to the day.  I had to be down in the lobby at 6am, but I had to settle my bill, wash my hair, finish packing and also leave some notes for the Elks and the Randall’s outside their doors with a few treats for the kids when they woke up.  I needed every minute and when I got down to reception at 5.45am Bob, Jen, Paul and Wendy were all ready to go.  So being early we left a little earlier which worked out to be a bit if a bummer as Shelly came down right at 6am to say goodbye and we had already left.  We were using the hotels transfer which is double the price of the normal taxi’s but when we divided it by the 5 of us it still worked out cheaper anyway and we didn’t have to do that stupid shuttle to the transfer bungalow to then get into the van, so that was a nice surprise.  I was travelling with Shane’s mum and dad, who like to be early for flights, which I am okay with, but I knew we were getting to the airport too early for check-in but just decided to go with the flow.  I would have save maybe an hour, so it really was no big deal. 

Phuket’s airport really is a long way from Karon and even that early in the morning still took us an hour to get to arriving at 6.45am.  The transfer guy dropped us at terminal 1 and we were leaving from terminal 2, but once we had passed all our bags through the security scanner to enter the airport, it was easily accessed s the 2 buildings are connected anyway.  Bob mentioned something about a departure tax, which you used to have to pay when leaving, but I was pretty sure even while I was still working that the taxes were now included in the ticket, but I guess we will soon find out.  I still had a wad of left over Baht so it didn’t make any difference to me.  So we found out check-in counter and as thought, there were no signs up and no signs of any staff just yet.  So we took a seat and waited.  We did have some entertainment though and just after we had sat down there were bags coming through the security screening.  These were no ordinary bags, they were all the same colour maroon, same style and the only difference between them was the numbers that they had on the top left of each bag.  They all had wheels on them and they were getting scooted from the security machine 20m away on their wheels to where there were guys lining the bags up, it is certainly one way to get a group check-in done and looked like they had done it before.  There was no sign of the passengers, which was good as we saw bags that were numbered 196 and 224-it looked to be a massive group of some sort.  They had an intermission which must have been the reloading of more bags from where ever they were coming from and by this time we were front of queue as we saw the Jetstar staff appear at 7.30am.  The 5 of us checked in-all given seats all over the plane, I had my window and my bag was 22.1kg, and as we passed the bags that had rolled in I took a photo and one of the bag guys jokingly asked for 5BHT.  Seriously there would have been 200 bags.  I am just glad we got to go through the check-in and security without the people that own all the bags in front of us. 

I still can’t believe who many Russians there are holidaying here in Thailand and it made a little more sense when we looked at the departure board and there was a flight there leaving 15 minutes before us direct to Vladivostok.  I guess if I lived in Vladivostok I would want to get out of there as well, especially this time of year as they head into winter.  I saw the plane that was running the route and I had never heard of the airline and it wasn’t a massive plane like a 747, which I would expect.  I wonder how long that flight actually is?  I will have to Google it and see.  They must be doing some pretty enticing advertising up there is all I can say.  Our plane didn’t board till 9.15am, so after a look around the shops, a toasted sandwich and a drink we were ready to go on time.  I thought I had a 4 hour connection in Singapore but it was only 2.5 hours and I have to collect my bag, transfer terminal s and then recheck in for my flight to Sri Lanka.  The whole process isn’t that difficult, it is just all based on time.  So it was good to know that this flight was on time-the budget carriers don’t always have a great reputation for being on time.  It was a full flight but I had my window.  We were sitting on an Airbus A320 with a configuration of 3x3.  There really isn’t a lot of room on these Jetstar planes, but I guess when you only pay 69AUD for a flight, they are going to jam as many of you in an aircraft as they can.  The flight time was 1 hour and 40 minutes and I fell asleep for half of that anyway.  I am tired already and I still have a full day of travel ahead if me!  It was nice to have a day time departure as I had arrived into Phuket in the dark of the night…..

With a one hour time difference we arrived exactly on time at 12.30pm.  My next flight was departing at 3pm.  I was towards the back of the plane; the other 4 were in the first 6 rows, so they were long gone when I came off.  That was okay as I had to haul some arse-I was even that focused I didn’t stop to check the free internet, I bypassed that and figured I can do that once I was at the right terminal with my bag checked in at terminal 3.  There was no-one waiting at immigration, I saw Bib and Jen at one of the other officers getting stamped and once I was processed I shot out of there and re-met the crew at the baggage carousel to say our goodbyes.  I was ready with a free trolley and my bag was one of the first ones off the rank-woo hoo this is all coming together nicely.  So with hugs all round I was on my way, I must have looked like I was in a hurry as the security man let me through without scanning my bags.  I needed to get to terminal 3, which I have never check-in to before, so I just followed the signs with my trolley as far as I could go, till I had to throw the monster on my back and head up the escalators to the skytrain.  The Skytrain departs every 3 minutes and the actual ride is shorter than that again and I found myself at T3.  I was feeling a lot more relaxed now that I was here, found the check-in counter for Sri Lankan Airlines and there was no-one waiting and I threw my bag on the scales and it still weighed 22.1kg to which there was no reaction from the check-in guy.  I asked about my window seat and he said you have an aisle.  WHAT.  No no I need a window, so when I asked him to check if there was a window available he said no there are none left.  Oh man…..  I think this maybe the only flight that I have not had a window and that’s a pretty good ratio when this was my 72^nd flight of my Odyssey.  Oh well if there isn’t a window, there isn’t a window.

Security is done on a random basis in Singapore and I have been waved through both times, the queue was not that long for customs and I was through at 1.10pm.  We had to be at our gate at 1.50pm-so I had 40 minutes to get something quick to eat and now I have a little routine and I found Burger King, ordered my passionfruit iced tea and 6 drummettes and I after I picked up a Wi-Fi code from the information desk I quickly checked my email and Facebook over lunch.  There was an email from Beth and my Philippines package has now been confirmed for the 10 nights I am there.  So I head to Cebu and Boracay with a night in Manila either side.  So I’m happy with that itinerary and hope that it doesn’t rain too much while I am there as there were floods there 4 weeks ago which I am assuming have receded by now! 

Changi Airport has three passenger terminals with terminal 3 being the newest.  The airport has a total annual handling capacity of 66 million passengers. Terminal 1 opened in 1981, followed by Terminal 2 in 1990 and Terminal 3 in 2008. The Budget Terminal, opened on 26 March 2006 and closed on 25 September 2012, will make way for Terminal 4 which will be ready by 2017.  In 2011, the airport handled 46,543,845 passengers, a 10.7% increase over the previous year. This made it the seventh busiest airport by international passenger traffic in the world and the second busiest in Asia by international passenger traffic in 2011. The airport crossed the 45 million mark for the first time in its history in December 2011, recorded its busiest month in December 2011 (4.53 million) and its busiest day on 17 December 2011 with 165,000 passengers handled. In addition to being an important passenger hub, the airport is one of the busiest cargo airports in the world, handling 1,865,252 tonnes of cargo in 2011. The total number of commercial aircraft movements was 301,711 in 2011.  It didn’t look too busy today but I have always been here later in the afternoon/evenings so maybe this is their lull before the storm of planes landing and taking off. 

I found the gate with no issues and it wasn’t quite ready for us yet, so I sat on some of the seats outside and just used the internet on my IPod till the gate opened.  As usual I set off the alarms and the scanner ladies can see straight away what the issue is with my silver bangles on one arm and my Ethiopian bangles on the other.  This old chook was super nice and we had a good old laugh as her hand held went off over the ‘hot’ spots.  We then made it to the gate to get out boarding passes scanned and I decided to ask one more time about a window seat.  So the lady had a quick look and then picked up her walkie talkie and asked if it was okay to take one of ‘their’ seats for a passenger.  They came back and said that was fine and my boarding pass was amended in pen and I was now in a window!! WOO HOO.  I can’t tell you how much I love my window for a few different reasons, I can lean on the window to sleep, I am not going to be disturbed by people wanting to get out for the toilets and I don’t get bumped by people or trolleys sitting there PLUS I get a window to take pictures from during day time flights.  You little ripper and thank-you travel gods for looking after me today!

Once the call was made we were ready to board they board by seat rows and I was in 26 and this was the last row of the aircraft.  I know people hate sitting down the back of the plane, but it doesn’t worry me and if it means I have a window I am doubly ok with it.  It also meant I got to get on first and get my overhead space before everyone else gets on the plane.  I love scooting past people that have been lining up for the last 10 minutes…love it.  I was all tucked in and being the last row noticed the queue for the toilets was 8 people deep, were there no toilets in gate departures?  I have never seen a toilet that busy while people are still trying to board the plane.  The Hostees were trying to get past the line, people trying to get to their seats; it was a bit of a schmozzle.  What do I care, I was tucked in and imagine my delight when the airplane doors closed and there was no-one else in my row!  I had the row to myself and across the aisle there were 3 men all packed in on the other side and instead of moving one guy, the aisle man put his bag on my aisle seat….  We were sitting on an Airbus A320 with a configuration of 3x3.  We had inseat TV’s that had a selection of movies, but I had seen them all, so I decided to just try and keep my eyes open till lunch was served and then get some shut eye, I was so tired.  The flight time was 3 hours and 35 minutes and after leaving 30 minutes late we were in the air at 3.30pm.

Coming into Sri Lanka the scenery was amazing.  There were a lot of green mountains, some of them covered in low clouds that gave it that magical look, so I got some great photos of that and then as we came into land you could definitely see the tropical look of the island with palm trees and coconut trees everywhere and the obvious tea plantations also.  It was a great aerial view and I am so glad that I had a window for this section.  The captain had made up some time on the flight as we only arrived in 10 minutes late at 4.15pm.  The welcome to Colombo call came and then following was the temperature outside which was 32C!!  I have a feeling it maybe a hot and sweaty trip and I just hope that it is nothing like the heat I had on my Morocco trip in June last year.  We got temperatures there in the high 40’sC and it was shocking!!!!!!  There is a 2 hour time change here from Singapore, so after gaining one hour in from Phuket to Singapore and then losing 2 hours from Singa’s to Colombo I am just about back to where I started time wise.  I saw the guys across the aisle had forms that mist have been given out while I was asleep, so I will just have to keep my eyes peeled when I come into immigration for them.  Being the last row, I was the last person off the plane, but I was feeling okay even after being on the go for 12 hours so far and I still had to get myself to the hotel.  I hadn’t Googled anything about the transfer information here as Intrepid had in their notes that a taxi shouldn’t cost more than 15USD.  The tour doesn’t start from Colombo but a city 25km away called Negombo.  But I had a price to go by and this is all I needed.  I have no idea on the currency either at this point but I am sure there will be a money changer in the terminal somewhere.  

As we came to the immigration I could see that you can get a visa on arrival.  There was a counter where you could buy one.  From all the information I read it was like a US visa and it had to be done online 3 days before travel so I had done mine online when I was in London and paid the 20USD on my credit card at the time of application.  I hadn’t really had a chance to print it out though, but I had a copy of the email on my IPod and I had also written my approval code on a sticky note in my passport.  I got to the counter and you did need an arrival form to fill in, so while he processed me I went and got a form and filled it in and by the time I gave him the form I was stamped, stickered and on my way through.  He was really nice and thanks for being so nice Mr. Immigration man.  My bag was already out, so I grabbed a free trolley, hoisted my monster on and then I was out in arrivals.  There were a few things I could see that I could do while I was here, and as no-one was waiting for me I could take my time.  Firstly I exchanged some cash and there were a few banks represented, so I chose one and got 100USD changed, so I know new how much I get for 1USD.  I have to say I am not that great at my 130 times tables!!!  Next I saw a mobile phone counter, so I stated to make my way there when a friendly looking man asked if I needed a taxi, he had on an ID badge so I thought he must be okay and he told me to come to the travel booth when I was done and he could organize one for me.  Well I do need a taxi, he had a booth at the airport and he had on an ID tag-I think I was going to be in safe hands.  So I got to the phone counter and asked about a Sri Lankan sim, more so for making calls than the texting and it was 10USD for the sim and I loaded 10USD on the card and got all the codes and numbers for balances.  So I now had cash and a sim and now I needed my taxi.

My little man was hovering around so I asked the whole important question on how much the transfer was and he told me 1500LKR (rupees) when divided by 130 was only 11USD.  That was fine by me, so we went to the counter, he gave me a receipt for my cash and then we walked outside to a taxi he had radioed from inside.  It was an air-conditioned Camry and a personal transfer and not a normal taxi, so worth every penny of my 11 bucks.  So with a kiss on each cheek from my taxi dude I was driven away for the 25 minute drive to Negombo and my hotel.  You wouldn’t believe that when we started to dive that Mr. Jones (one of most favorite songs ever) came on the radio I was in a good place.  I had my visa processed, some cash, a sim card and a taxi all done within 30 minutes and I was on the road.  What a great travel day.  My driver wasn’t sure of where the hotel was, but he wasn’t scared about asking people and we found it with no problems.  I am nicely surprised on how many people speak English well here and it makes a nice change and the hotel was no different.  I asked about Wi-Fi and breakfast and was then shown to my very hot room, but my porter turned on the air-con and he was worth every 200LKR I have him for carrying my bag to my room.  The ‘resort’ actually looks really nice and I could see the beach from the walkway.  The restaurant faces onto the pool and it just has a nice feel about the place.  I think I am going to like my 3 nights pre-tour here.  Today is Thursday and our pre-departure meeting isn’t until Sunday afternoon, so I am assuming sometime on Sunday I will be getting a room- mate and then we hit the road on Monday.

Dinner was at the hotel and from what I could make out I didn’t see any mosquitos during the day but down at dinner there were swarms of them.  I saw a sign at the airport saying that their mosquitos don’t carry malaria, which is nice, but when you can see them flying around and feeling them land on you is still too much for me.  As an after-thought before heading down I did spray my feet and my legs, but I didn’t do my arms and not much care was taken.  I will make sure I lube up better for tomorrow night’s dinner.  The food was amazing, like 5 star qualities and I will enjoy eating my meals here for the next 3 days and the prices aren’t too bad either.

Welcome to Sri Lanka.