Well Sarah and I left on Saturday morning at 10am by shuttle bus, a complimentary service from the motel to Melbourne airport. It was a pretty straight forward journey taking roughly 10 minutes.
We then headed towards the international terminal to check our luggage in which again was was pretty easy. The attendant was incredibly helpful with us checking in and tagging our bags.
Then off to the security screening and customs with no issues. Sarah had a little hiccup with the chip in her passport being read so they took her to a counter to have it read again which was fine. Phew!!!
The international concourse heading towards the boarding lounges was a long walk. We took our time getting to our gate and being early, we just sat and relaxed and watched the 100s of people fill up the two boarding lounges. The terminal next to us was bound for Singapore and ours to Bangkok.
It's interesting to see the way people move and interact with each other. The majority of people had their faces in their phones and were not communicating whereas the older passengers were chatting and watching what was going on around them. The age of technology has definitely changed people, I dare say, for the worst.
Finally we boarded the plane, being part of the last few passengers. Again people all flock and rush to be the first ones to get to the gate and be on the plane. The same can be said for the way people rush to get up out of there seats to get off the plane when the doors haven't even opened yet. Where do they think they're going? We just decided to take our time and get comfortable. The plane wasn't taking off without us.
In spite of the fact that the flight was 8 plus hours, we survived it fairly well. I had to get up a couple of times to use the bathrooms and stretch my legs. I was wearing compression socks to prevent DVT and blood clots forming. They were very firm and by the time we were about 20 minutes from landing, I had to get them off. They are definitely worth the investment though.
After we landed in Bangkok, we had no idea just how big the airport was. It felt like we walked for miles from the plane to customs. Thank god for the travelators along the way to save our legs.
Just before we arrived at customs, we could see the mass of people waiting to get their passports checked and stamped before collecting their luggage. That process took us about an hour before we finally reached the counter to have our passport checked, stamped, our photos taken and our fingerprints scanned. Was it customs or a detention centre?? lol
Then we had the joy of trying to find our luggage. The screens listed the flights that had landed and the belt number where our bags can be found. After a couple of searches on the screen, we found our luggage would be on belt 10. Simple? Not really because when we arrived at belt 10, there was no luggage and the carousel was not moving!!! My first instinct was to question what happened to our bags and how did we get it wrong. Little did I realise that once I walked around to the other side of the belt, there was our luggage sitting in the middle of the concourse and thankfully, still in one piece!!!
After breathing a sigh of relief, we had to make our way to gate 4 to meet the driver from the PAI. After some more walking, we found the driver with a sign with my name on it in bold. Saman was very friendly and accommodating and took us to his car. More walking and escalators and then as we walked out into the carpark, BAM!!! the heat hit us!!! It was something like 29 degrees celsius and this was 9.30pm!!!
It was great to get into the car and to be chaffered to our hotel which took approximately 30 or so minutes.
By this time, we were absolutely exhausted. When trying to check in an pay for the room, my brain went to mush and could not think straight. If it hadn't of been for Sarah to be an extra set of ears, I probably would have crumbled.
Finally after paying for the room, the lovely young porter put our bags onto a trolley and escorted us up to our room. He was also incredibly helpful and accommodating. Our suite is a twin room with everything we could need and is incredibly spacious.
After all that was said and done, we both showered and changed for bed. It was a very long travel day but considering it being the first time we both have stepped into a foreign country, it went surprisingly smooth!!
More to come.... xx
