Airport Drama

I was going to attempt to write a full 3 days of Bangkok in this post, but then I realised how much I was talking about our airport experience. So, this is the story of us leaving England for our 3 month travelling adventure.

Monday 1st May

Today was a long day. Our first flight wasn't until 9.45pm, which meant the day was spent at home just waiting and letting the nerves grow. My family and I went on a walk at a local National Trust reserve to see the annual bluebells and then stop at the cafe for a scone and cup of tea. Once we got home I began to pack my rucksack while my Mum made my requested last dinner (toad in the hole with roast potatoes and carrots). It was hard to say my goodbyes, it's still very difficult to think that I won't see my family for a whole 3 months. I think the hardest part is that I couldn't really explain to my younger brother and sister just how long I will be gone for, because they are so young, we just referred to it as my "long holiday".

Our first flight was 6 and a half hours from London to Dubai on a HUGE Emirates Airbus A380. Seriously, this thing was huge, so big I didn't quite believe it would actually fly. We only had around an hour stopover before our second flight would be taking off, which was a tight squeeze by any means, but even tighter when your plane gets held up on the runaway for 15 minutes and then all the passengers have to get off the same exit. This meant Economy class had to wait until all the First class and Business class passengers had left the aircraft before we could being to leave, giving us even less time. We rushed out of the plane (once it was our turn of course) and found the flight connections part of the airport. Waiting for us there was a machine, which scanned your boarding pass and told you where to go for you next flight. Only, when we scanned our boarding pass, it told us our flight had already departed...

We waited in the queue for the help desk preparing to ask what we should do, when the next flight would be, what would happen to our bags etc etc. However, once we told the woman we had missed our flight she was confused where this information had come from. After speaking on the phone to confirm the plane hadn't left, she looked at us and told us to RUN.

Fun fact: Dubai airport is RATHER LARGE!

We had to try our best to go through security quickly and then proceed to bomb it (probably not the best choice of words) through what seemed like the whole airport. This included multiple ridiculously tall escalators, an elevator AND a bloody airport shuttle. It was about 5am on our body clock and we had only managed a few hours sleep on the plane. Once we got to the check in I was nearly having a full on ashtma attack, but despite all that, we did manage make it in time. On the plane, the lovely air host gave us some water when he saw how hot and out of breath I was. Lucky for me, my boyfriend had just done the London Marathon a week before, so next to him I looked like I was full on about to die.

Once we had cooled off and sat down, the Captain announced that take off would be delayed because many people who were supposed to be on the flight had'nt made it, which meant they had to take their bags out of the hold. We couldn't believe that we had been the only ones who had sprited our way to the gate on time, nobody else around us seemed to be hurrying like they were about to miss a plane. This made us pretty proud of ourselves, but not for too long, we had to get some well deserved sleep.

Well that was the first experience of our travelling adventure, but nothing can ever go smoothly can it. If it did, there would be no stories to tell.

All travelling posts will be coming shortly,
Lon x