Since we booked our trip to Thailand so late, just started new jobs and had to limit our leave to the main holiday period we ended up with some most certainly less then optimal travel plans. The trip out to Bangkok itself was simple but bad enough thanks to a very bad experience in Mumbai airport where all proceedings with customs souped up 100% of our 2.5 hr lay over there (between 12:30 and 3am!) meaning that we would have missed our flight if they would not have been kind enough to hold the plane for us for a few minutes and if Rick, despite the horrendous hour and fatigue would not have been so amazing & cooperative at the right times. All in all pretty traumatizing – making us all the more nervous for the ordeal that would await us on the way back – when our travel itinerary would by worse – much worse.
We left our paradise on Coconut Island around 8am. Saying goodbye to the Reinders family and the peace and quiet of the island. First we had to all get loaded in a TukTuk (scooter riksja) as the tide was too low to use the normal hotel pier. After a short bumpy ride over the Island we got loaded onto a little local wooden boat to make the short trip to mainland Phuket.
From there it is still a 10min walk along a very long pier to get to the taxi stand…..with Rick at low tide and plenty of crabs and other creatures to see that is more like a 20 min walk. Then followed a debate among the taxi drivers present, all in friendly style, about who of them should take us in what size car. After that as sorted we took the 60 min drive to the small airport in Phuket.
Once in the airport it was very obvious it was January 2nd. The place was packed and check-in was absolute chaos. So despite the fact that we had arrived at the airport almost 2 hrs in advance, by the time we were checked in, Kaat had cleaned the airport floor with her feet & ‘dekentje’ (blanket) and we had to proceed to departures. No time for some good coffee - boohoo. Departure of our flight to Chiang Mai (in North Thailand) was announced but once we stood at the gate it turned out they were still frantically loading the last flight (which should have departed 20 min ago), and so our departure time came and went and 20 min late we started to get on the plane (Thai Airways). The flight to Chiang Mai was nice, brief and uneventful with good seats and friendly service.
Once in Chiang May we only had limited time to make our next flight (little over 1 hour reduced to just over an 30 min due to the delay) so tried to get off the plane fast. Once off the plane all the signage was pretty poor and the only way to go appeared to be to arrivals. So we went out all the way….and then back into departures, through security screening, only to be told we had to wait because there was no gate number on our boarding passes yet (?!?!) from where we stood we could see the big screen announcing the departure gates….. Anyway – after us explaining some basic principles of flight logistics in a nice way to the lady she let us through with a lot of head nodding (bad or good?). Fortunately our next flight was also a little delayed so we had some time for Popcorn, drinks and diaper changes as well as some running around (and running away behind some of the gates past security) for the kids. Unfortunately not much last chances at nice western food or good coffee in the domestic departures hall for my cravings. The flight from Chiang Mai to Bangkok was again brief and uneventful and a nice enough airplane, with food service and nice staff (Bangkok Airways).
The airport in Bangkok is not bad at all other then that the airport is HUGE and so you always need to walk quite a bit. Considering the length of our trip we had substantial amounts of hand luggage to drag around – diapers for an orphanage, spare clothes for all, toys, books, iPad’s, DVDs, drinks & snacks, and two kids who sometimes want to sit in a stroller or run but somehow develop on airports immediately a need to be carried around and then me with a sizeable belly by now and a bladder the size of a peanut. On top of all that hand luggage we went all the way through arrivals to pick up all our luggage as we now reached the 2nd part of our booking it had been impossible to send our luggage all the way through to Bangalore.
After that we made our way from domestic arrivals to international departures and found our Indian check in desk with as expected the first queue of Indians already lined up with over loaded luggage trolleys. May not sound so strange but not so likely anywhere else considering it was still 5.5 hrs before our flights’ departure…and the check in desk was not open.
We had hoped to at least be able to dump our check in bags but no such luck so a few hours to kill with even more luggage at the airport without access yet to the magnificent shops & restaurants after security which I had been planning to spend 5 hrs at -;). Despite the fact that BKK airport has plenty of western chain restaurants to satisfy my cravings before going back to Bangalore, none of those are before security and so we landed in yet another variation to an Asian noodle house to sit, wait & refuel. After a stop at Starbucks, which lifted my moods considerably, it was time to make our long way back to our check in desk (yes BKK airport is really really big) which would open 3hrs before departure. When we got to the check-in desk though the queue had grown considerably frm the above picture and any appearance of a system had vanished with that. Lots of TV’s and other electronics on all the trolleys and a lot of chatter and gesturing as to whom was allowed in which queue etc etc. We had learned from the transfer in Mumbai that any priority queue sounds nice but attracts 60% of the people, 50% of whom do not belong there but are willing to argue that case for 30 min and hence hold everyone up, and hence is not fast at all. So we opted for the normal plebs queue which was moving along slowly & steadily. Still it took 60 min at least to get checked in and trough from Bangkok to Mumbai to Bangalore after which the floor in our part of departures hall again looked meticulous (thanks Kaat & her blanket) and Rick had had a nice kip on top of the bags on the luggage trolley – lulled to sleep by the endless debates going on at rapid pace around us at the check-in desks & queue.
With another 30 min or so for security (which means in Thailand you can take ANYTHING through under the excuse ‘it is for the baby’ - which was curte but super dirty bond & blue eyed Kaat) and the long stroll through the airport we were left with only 90 min for shopping, dining & boarding at what to me had looked like the best shopping opportunity of the holiday (on paper a 6 hr layover at the sparkling BKK airport). By then we had an iPad emergency as it had not charged far enough and so we went in search of a place to plug it in. We found an abandoned gate desk fortunately reasonably fast and plugged it in hoping we would not get in trouble and so I left Eelco, a sleeping Rick and a Kaatje temporarily calmed by Mickey ‘Muckhouse’ (= Mouse + Clubhouse) on my laptop for some very hasty last minute shopping and maybe my non Asian food fix. Once upstairs in the shopping arena I felt a bit like I felt in Houston’s fanciest mall after I had just moved from Sakhalin – I had plenty money to spend and a big enough shopping list but was too overwhelmed to start anywhere. So after 3 shops and 1 present for the new baby I gave up and headed for the food court. On my way there I checked the departure screens and saw our flight – with a flashing red sign next to it…….ooops. Forget about the food – back to the gate!
Turns out any flights to Mumbai are still subject to lots of extra security checks and some with more security scans & bag checks to go through it was time to board. The flight and airline (Jet Airways) from Bangkok to Mumbai where fine. Most of us slept some (flight left 21:40 local time in Thailand), no unusual events and 4 hrs is too short to get really bored or uncomfortable. We were getting more nervous though. The mayhem of Mumbai airport was awaiting us!
Upon arrival in Mumbai it was 2am for us and 12:30am local time, wheech. First of all we had to be bused to the terminal which takes forever and is a smelly, sticky and uncomfortable affair as they stow as many people in the bus as possible and there is really NOTHING in the bus you would want the kids to touch, and we are not really people with the highest cleanliness standards! After the bus we got into the customs queue – knowing the trick by now we bypassed anything that said priority, mothers & baby’s, special assistance or business class and got in the normal snake shaped queue to be awarded with a friendly customs agent and a reasonable swift passage & entry stamp in much less than the 90 min it took us to get our ‘departure’ stamp in similar queues 10 days earlier. Then we had to go and collect our check in luggage, get it scanned for arrival, pass a customs agent to give him our 1 piece of paper, and then get in a new queue around the corner to re-check our luggage to Bangalore. After that another queue – this one to get us onto the bus to the Domestic terminal – which we found out can also take forever! By then it was past 2am local time and the kids and we started to feel bad & worse. After what appeared to be another endless wait but again was reasonably swift compared by the 1st time we were allowed to proceed to another security check and board a somewhat reasonably clean coach – in which NOBODY got up for us so we, carrying all hand luggage, 2 strollers & 2 kids + belly had to find our way to the back bench -:(.
The bus trip over the airport reminds us somewhat of Moscow as we have only done it in the dark and it takes almost 30 min. It feels like endless laps around the airport, in this case also along the airport wall and behind it the shanty towns, to then finally arrive at the domestic terminal. Which is the old international terminal, most of which un-upgraded. In the middle of the night it was far from empty but not a lot of the services & shops where open. After another security check we ended up in the departures hall with another 3.5 hrs to spare. 2 coffee stalls with a very limited assortment, and only Indian too sweet coffee, 1 open book store, 1 open bar, lines & lines of uncomfortable seats stacked close together; by far still not enough for the amount of passengers and the dirtiest bathrooms I have seen in a long time. Rick watched a movie, Kaat played, nagged & slept and Eelco and I took turns ruining our necks and getting a little sleep too.
After 3 hrs we decided to figure out why every flight was called except for ours. We moved to the gate desk and where immediately whisked behind it together with 3 obvious wealthy Indians. On the but platform outside we found 200+ other people all trying to get to their planes . As we stood out, a lot, the lady never lost us in the chaos and we got put onto a bus, with the 3 Indians, which was kitted out with vans & red leather couches (really!) which again reminded us much of Russia. Thinking we maybe got into the VIP bus or something we settled in and waited for what happened, wondering where all the other passengers where with only 15 min to go. The bus drove a while, appearing to try and find the right plane. It dropped us at the bottom of stairs leading up to a bridge connecting a plane to a ‘normal’ looking terminal building with what appeared to be a very full plane. Once upstairs we realized we where the last to board and probably had been waiting in the wrong terminal area. With regret I looked out of the window into the shiny new piece of terminal building with a nice looking coffee shop (starbucks style) and probably less crowded and nicer seating where we could have spend the last 3 hrs…….oh well. We should have known that a reasonable high end local airline, flying to probably the hippest & wealthiest city in India would reserve some of the new terminal for that flight. The last flight was not so nice, not because of the airline or the plane, but because the kids where more than fed up but awake and we were too tired to deal well with them or ourselves. Fortunately it was over in less than 1.5 hrs.
Finally in Bangalore the kids had found a last bout of energy and decided they wanted to play, rather than leave the airport, so it took us a while to get our luggage, get it checked again and get out. We met our driver who was patiently awaiting us, frantically roamed the airport stalls for some milk for Kaat, which she was loudly demanding, and settled into the car. The good news was that in daylight we were allowed to take the back road, seeing some very pretty local country side, the bad news that without car seats we had sticky kids sleeping on our laps for the 1h15min drive.
By 10.30am local time, exactly 28hrs after we had left our coconut island paradise, we were back in Palm Meadows – our hotel room was sort of ready, on the ground floor, 2 connected rooms and all our other stuff appeared from storage. Super black, dirty, dusty & smelly the kids and I all buried our nose in a pillow and slept away a good 4 hrs of the day (Eelco snuck out after a few to make an office appearance). Maybe wanting Western (Fast Food) or doing some shopping whilst abroad are just things I should not want – we consumed some Indian curry’s and I stocked up on diapers, milk, nutella & bread at the local store instead. The journey from hell was over and by this morning we all felt human again and remember now the good things about our holiday again.
