Planes, trains and automobiles
I spent four days in Bangkok seeing the sights that I missed first time around (National Museum, Jim Thompson’s house, Design Museum, BACC…) and generally chilling out.
I then spent four days travelling home. I hadn’t planned on it taking so long… It should have taken around 24 hours. Which was a depressing enough thought when my taxi picked me up from my hotel in the early hours of Saturday morning and took me to the airport.
I was flying Oman Air via Muscat and the first leg of the journey was very very smooth: a lovely modern A320 with a great inflight entertainment system and very decent food. Nothing to complain about. The onward flight from Muscat seemed to be going very well too. We nearly made it to Heathrow before snow stopped play and we were diverted to Frankfurt.
The airline managed to lose two busloads of passengers (including yours truly) in the maze that is Frankfurt airport but once we were found we were taken to a very nice hotel on the outskirts of town. Most of us that is: those who didn’t have a European passport had not expected to need a German visa and were forced to stay in the airport overnight whilst emergency visas were arranged.
I had had a whole host of plans to see friends in London on Saturday, Sunday and Monday before heading to my parents’ for Christmas on Tuesday. Those plans came to nought, as I was stuck in Frankfurt until Monday afternoon when the airline gave up on trying to fly us to Heathrow and arranged for buses to pick us up and drive us there. Again, most of us that is: the bus route went through Belgium and France which would have caused yet more visa issues for the non-Europeans. I am now even more of a fan of Britain’s EU membership.
It took about 16 hours for the Brits and other Europeans to be driven and ferried to Heathrow. I followed this with a very expensive black cab ride to my flat where I quickly switched the shorts and t-shirts in my backpack for jeans and jumpers, before bussing it to King’s Cross to catch a train home that I had booked months ago. The train was cancelled about two minutes after I arrived at the station and I was told that it would be best to head to Sheffield from St Pancras. Oh joy. At least I did not have to join the two kilometer long queue for the Eurostar which I walked past. It did not look fun waiting outside in -5 degrees…
In all, it has taken six buses, three trains, two airplanes, two taxis, one ferry and a Ford Focus a total of 93 hours to get me from Bangkok to my parents’ for Christmas.
I’m here now though. My Mum’s happy, and so am I.
Have a great Christmas everyone!
