drama travel

What a drama it was to get here to the UK! Flying from Sydney to Kuala Lumpur was fine. I arrived at about 3.30am and found a chair to snooze in. Then found some internet access and then had some breakfast before roaming the shops. Eventually I could go find my 10am flight. Here's where the drama began. Take off was rough--like driving over a series of speed bumps. Quite unusual. Once in the air passengers began to quiery and complain about the aircraft. Right where I was sitting it was particularly noisy and the floor was viabrating more than it should. The staff got one of the pilots to come and look and listen. After a lengthy discussion and moving passengers away from the area they announced they were turning back to KL with mechanical difficulties. The girl they moved me next to was a nervous flyer already apparently so with this drama she was in a panic. So they moved the three of us in the row to first class right in the nose of the plane. It was quite nice but I only had about an hour there before we landed again. Once on the ground we unloaded and were going to catch another plane in 1.5hrs. As the time approached it was pushed forward a bit. Then cancelled. They were putting us up for the night in a hotel. So far I wasn't too worried. Just trusting the airline staff to ensure our safety and doing what they could to get us to London. They were very nice and accomodating staff too. But I was a little nervous in the process of getting to the hotel. I wasn't really sure what was happening or what we needed to do. Mostly I just followed the crowd and making sure I could see someone who I'd seen on my flight. We had to go through immigration (a bit of a pain but now I have an extra stamp in my passport) and collect our luggage. This all took quite a bit of time with a whole aircraft load at once. They did make special queues for us though. We made it out to the buses and squeezed on and drove 1hr to our hotel--Palace of the Golden Horses.

I must admit it was a much nicer hotel than I'd expected. I even got my own room. We had a buffet dinner as well. All on the airline of course. I chatted with a number of people from my flight. There seemed to be a lot of English and Irish people heading home. I headed up early to my room and had a bath. It was nice to relax and it was nice to feel clean again. I didn't pack for Malaysian weather so I was sweating a bit. I was feeling pretty tired so I decided to sleep for a few hours. Our pick up was at 2:30am for a 5am flight. By 2am I was ready to head down. I grabbed my bags and headed for my room door and noticed a notice had been shoved underneath. Flight change again. New pick up time was 6:30am for a 9:30am flight. Your kidding. I went back to bed again. I got up at 5am and realised breakfast was down in the buffet place so I went and filled up on crossaints. Then back to the airport. This time we got on; everyone eager to get on our way. We sat there unmoving for 1.5hrs. Part of the reason were some missing passengers I think. Eventually we got in the air and on our way. Finally. Though it was April and we were excited about seeing a new list of movies on board, the ground staff hadn't changed the tape. It was ok for me. A bit disappointed at a few movies I was planning on watching that I now couldn't. Nevermind. I still watched Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 1, Inception, 17 Again and some of Where the Wild Things Are. I watched The King's Speech as well on my first flight. Plus some sitcom episodes. Mostly I didn't sleep on the flight to London and tried to stay awake for their daytime. Once I landed in Heathrow Airport and waited through immigration I was driven 1.5hrs to my new home. I had dinner with the mother and shortly after went to bed exhausted at 9:30pm. What a journey! I was very glad to finally make it.