Day 129 – Chiang Rai to Bangkok.

One last free breakfast at the early hour of 7.30am, well early for us anyway! We got a taxi to the airport and once again the guy wanted to charge us X amount for the journey but we made him put the metre on and guess what? It was cheaper! We were flying from Chiang Rai down to Bangkok as it was cheap and only takes an hour compared to a 10 hour bus ride and we all know it would be waaaay longer than that. Our flight was with Bangkok Airways and what a fantastic airline. We checked in with no hassle and as we walked through to sit by the gate we were given complimentary drinks and snacks, I’m pretty sure we could go back more than once too! As well as this we were given a snack on our plane, it makes me laugh when they give you food for such a small journey. The time from when the seatbelt sign goes off to back on again is so short you don’t feel like you have time to do anything.

I booked us into a hotel that is a short drive from the airport to make it easier for us. I ended up booking a place with a rooftop pool and complimentary shuttle bus to the airport, great deals! We arrived and could check in straight away, which was awesome. We dumped our bags, chilled out for a little bit and then went upstairs to chill by the pool and catch some rays on Chissy’s last day. Her flight got changed a few weeks ago so she leaves tomorrow morning instead of the same day as me, which is why we are in Bangkok a day earlier, it’s worked out for the best though.

We didn’t really do much else apart from chill out at the hotel and walk down to 7eleven on the corner for some snacks.

Day 93 – Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi.

I woke up when Steph and Lucy were leaving to say goodbye, one of the worst things about travelling is saying farewell to people you meet! I then got up and caught a taxi just gone 9 to take me to the airport. Today was mostly spent in airports and on planes… WOO!

My flight from Langkawi was supposed to leave at 11.25am but didn’t end up leaving until just gone midday, which for once I wasn’t bothered about as my flight to Hanoi wasn’t until 7.10pm. That flight landed in LCCT so I then had to get on a shuttle bus to take me to KLIA. I arrived over there just gone half 2 so I had about an hour until check in and 4 hours until my plane. I wrote some more of this blog and updated Facebook. Once through immigration I then had to get on a train to my gate. Luckily the wifi in the airport was pretty good, giving me something to do!

I’ve become one of those people who wait to the last minute to board the plane. Well, I sit by the gate and don’t join the queue until there are only a few people in it. I don’t really see the point in queuing when I don’t put my bag in the locker and I have a seat number anyway. My flight was with Vietnam Airways and I didn’t realise until I looked yesterday that the flight included a meal! It’s only 3 hours long and cost me about £40, winner! It was some chicken and rice dish and is probably the first plane meal on this trip where I’ve eaten all of it. We had little turbulence and overall was successful journey.

My visa was really simple to do and I don’t really know why I was worried about it. As soon as I walked out there was a guy waiting for me and within 40minutes I was at my hostel. Absolutely cream crackered I went over the road for some water and then just crashed out. I’ve gained back an hour though! WOO!

Day 24 – Leaving Melbourne/Arriving in Auckland.

RISE AND SHINE IT’S 4.30AM! Yes, this is the time I had to wake up as my flight out of Melbourne was just gone 8am… well that’s what it was supposed to be but we all knew that was never going to happen! Anyway, little ol’ me decided to walk to the bus station with all my bags because I’ve done it before (without bags) and it wasn’t that far… I’ve just googled and it’s 2km, which took me about 20mins and I wanted to die when I got there, why didn’t I just take a taxi?

On arrival at the airport the woman told me there was a ‘slight delay’, of course there was, to be honest I’d be surprised if there wasn’t with my luck so far! I tried to Skype my parents but the free wifi in the airport was shocking so we soon gave up. The delay was only an hour, which wasn’t too bad, and the flight took just over 3 hours. I watched a documentary about Andy Murray so if you can find it I totally recommend it!

I’m staying with a relative called Stuart who lives in Titirangi, which is just west of Auckland. His partner Lizzie came and picked me up from the airport. For the first time ever the sniffer dogs tracked me down in the airport so some woman emptied all my bags and gave them the once over. It was like being in one of those TV shows. She asked me if I had carried any fruit or flowers recently and so I told her I had a Kiwi fruit in my small bag a few days ago and she said it could have been that. After she ruined my very neat packing she repacked and sent me on my way. Finally I was free!

That evening we had dinner at home and chilled out by the TV, I went to bed pretty early as I was knackered from my long day!

Day 5 – Leaving Dubai

My flight out of Dubai was 10.25am, so I left my hotel just after 7.30 to make sure I had plenty of time that clearly I didn’t need! Eventually finding the right check in desk the lady told me that my flight had been over booked and I needed to go to another desk. When speaking with someone else, they said the same thing. Emirates had overbooked the flight and I needed to wait until 9.25 to be told whether I would be allowed on the flight. It wasn’t just me in this situation, there were a good 100 or so people around booked on about 5 different flights. It was ridiculous, they said people had checked in online and may not show which means I could go on… my ticket has been booked since the end of July, I get that people don’t always turn up but it’s just stupid. Also, I was told I wasn’t allowed to check in online because of the type of ticket I had, so it’s not like I could have done it any other way. Anyway, they said I could go on my flight which meant a quick run through security to my gate which was already boarding…don’t worry a stern email of complaint has been written on this flight. So that leads me to now. I am currently sat at 44C with no one next to me… which is a good thing but also makes it feel like they just enjoy stressing people out and this seat was free all along. I have 7 hours out of 10 left to go, see you down under!