Andiamo!

Thursday, 

30 August 2018

We’re on the way. Many hours since we left home, and at last, here we are… sitting in Bangkok airport, still with three hours to wait until the flight. But at least we had some complications, to heighten the excitement and fill in some time.

Our flight out of Ho Chi Minh was at 5-ish, which gave us the whole day to prepare and tidy the house for the house-sitters. But it also had the effect of making me feel more stressed, because I already had prepared pretty much, so mostly I was sitting around stressing about how I must have forgotten things I was supposed to do. Whittaker (the cat) was also a bit nervous, but he was reasonably calm after we got to a point when we were ready to go, and just sitting watching TV, waiting for time to tick down.

Getting to the airport and queuing at the counter went well, but the words “Hmm, that’s strange,” are never good to hear from the other side of a desk. The check-in guy couldn’t find our follow-on flight. That tied in with our having been unable to complete an online check-in in the morning. He suggested that maybe the flight had been changed, and we could have been put on an earlier flight from Bangkok to Dubai. But all he could do was check us (and our luggage) in as far as Bangkok and then we’d have to pick up our bags, clear immigration, and then check in again. Unless something horrendous had happened to our booking, it was not a huge deal, and we just had to go ahead and find out what the story was as it evolved. 

The flight was on time and uneventful; at Bangkok we found some people to ask and were pointed in the right direction, and although the people behind the immigration and check-in counters were a little confused, they accepted our explanations and let us do what we needed to do. And queuing to get out through Bangkok immigration, and then 30 minutes later, get back in through Bangkok immigration, filled in an otherwise useless hour. We still don’t know what the problem was. Although we were way early, we were able to check in at the counter without any hassle. In fact, the queue of people at the ‘Online Check-in’ counter was about 30 people long, and the normal check-in queue was non-existent!

We have now wandered through the airport, back and forth, had dinner and some cake, helped an elderly Japanese couple get from the wrong end of the airport to their gate, and now we’re sitting and waiting. Two and a half hours until departure. Then six hours flying time, four and a half hours in Dubai, then another six hours to Rome. Arrival time there should be about 1.30pm, I believe. If I weren’t so sleepy I’d be quite excited, I’m sure.

…Now we’re on that third leg to Rome. I was thrilled to have managed maybe 4 hours’ sleep on the Bangkok-Dubai flight, and after a 5am breakfast at the airport I even got a bit of a doze before boarding the next flight. I was nearly asleep when we left Dubai, but the take-off was so hairy (alarmingly long run-up, very bumpy at the end, juddering when we got in the air, and at least a minute until the wheels were safely tucked away) that thoughts of sleep were banished for some time, while I started watching a movie. In the middle of that, though, I had a jolly good shut-eye. I thought it might have been at least an hour, but it must have been only 20-30 minutes. We’re halfway through the flight now, three hours to go, and the lunch service will take up a lot of that. And then it’s Rome! I’m looking forward just to the drive through the city to get to the accommodation.  See you there!