London – Bangkok

London – Bangkok

London

I debated for some time on where to begin this post but eventually decided that, despite the short period of time we’d spent here, the most fitting place would be our first stop – London. A moment of truth here; for a long time I was not a fan of London. I’d spent short periods of time there where I’d quickly grown to dislike the general attitude and behaviours of both its citizens and the city itself. That all changed a few years ago when I’d spend a lovely few days getting to know the city a little better with Robbie Hurst (namecheck), as we explored the more positive aspects of our nation’s capital. This perspective continued again earlier this year as Jane and I had a fantastic weekend staying with the generous and genuinely lovely people that are Bronnie and Will Cloke. With Jane a former native of ‘Laaandaan’ she performed the role of exclusive tour guide, showing me the true face of the city that I’d never really appreciated before and I realised that upon leaving at the end of the weekend, I truly wasn’t ready to go.

Unfortunately on this occasion we were unable to spend a prolonged period of time exploring the city, mainly due to the weight of the backpacks we are currently hauling around and my desire to arrive at Heathrow promptly.  We did find that getting from Kings Cross to Heathrow can be an adventure in itself as we spent what seemed like an eternity in Paddington station, searching for any direct route to terminal 2 at Heathrow. As we were getting nowhere, I decided to approach a member of the public who was standing alone (bear in mind that they had with their back turned to us) with a friendly “Excuse me mate, could you tell me which platform I need for Heathrow?” As they turned around I instantly recognised him as former Arsenal footballer Martin Keown (namecheck #2). This was one of those moments where I realised that Jane would have absolutely no idea who this was and I would have to refrain from telling him that Gary Neville is a better pundit than him. Anyway after some awkward discussion about which platform we required we set off and on Martin’s (we’re now on first name terms) suggestion we arrived at platform number 6, which doesn’t go to Heathrow. Martin seems like a lovely chap but based on his sense of direction I can’t believe that he won 43 England caps (Thank you Wikipedia).  

Did you know that Heathrow has 5 terminals?! And you need different train stops to get to different ones. Incredible!

We eventually arrived at Heathrow with several hours to spare; several in this case meaning 4 hours to spare, therefore we decided to get checked in straight away and then spend the rest of the time going around the terminal, checking out what I expected would be a huge duty free section. If I’m honest I was hopeful that there would be a cinema so that we could go watch Interstellar before we took off - No chance! Terminal 2 has probably less shops than Newcastle Airport from what I can tell (and 2 of the shops are ‘Boots’). This led to a very long wait which I shall skip over briefly with one sentence; we read Thailand’s ‘Lonely Planet’ and ate chocolate whilst an Irish family argued about being late for their flight.  That. Was. It.

Jane is not a fan of flying while on the contrary I absolutely love it. Having said that 11.5 hours on an aeroplane is a long time for anyone. Our flight was with the little known Taiwan airline ‘Eva Airways’. Their main selling point is that they offer the only ‘Hello Kitty’ range of aeroplanes in the industry, which was of course the reason why we booked with them. There were several reasons why I was looking forward to this flight, mainly due to the fact that it was a long haul and we would get food and films, 2 of my favourite things in the entire world. I know a lot of people don’t like airline food but you people are nuts. We had an evening meal of beef stir fry with noodles, some mixed vegetables, a classic bread bun with butter and a selection of fruit (including Kiwi fruit). I enjoyed this whilst watching Guardians of the Galaxy for the third time and probably dancing a little too much to the soundtrack in my seat. We both managed to sleep for several hours after this and awoke just in time for us to be given our breakfast which was a delicious egg and sausage number, with a croissant. This is better than any breakfast I’ve made myself in the last year alone.

Several hours of listening to music and Jane watching the film Lucy (her in-depth summary: “It was good, a bit silly”), we landed in Bangkok with no problems and ready to start our trip.