FInally Packed now Home -> Heathrow

After what has seemed ages I am finally on my way. All gadgets packed plus cables I hope, now to sit back for destination Bangkok. I have taken quite a large suitcase, because I seem to be packing loads of things. Sorting out what to pack on this trip has been much more difficult than a business trip or a holiday trip. I pack the minimum for business and try never to check luggage in, it is much quicker to be able to nip off the plane and straight out of the airport. Whilst when going on holiday there is more to pack, but only holiday clothes and very few gadgets. This time around I have gadgets (Laptop, Phone, GPS, Cameras x2) ,cycling gear (shoes, pedals, saddle, helmet, cycling clothes) and holiday clothes, oh yes and several packets of important cycling nutrition (Jelly babies - which seems to weigh quite a lot). I started getting worried about the weight of the suitcase and ended up weighing it on the bathroom scales. It is quite tricky weighing a suitcase as it either covers the display or wobbles and then the weight appears to vary quite significantly.

Fortunately the suitcase was within the proscribed limits and I set off at 1.30pm to allow extra time for delays on the M25. (18:40 take-off, 16:40 check-in, 14:40 leave home 13:30pm an extra hour for problems). I am not normally cautious on business trips, but am for holidays. When the kids were young we set of to Heathrow several hours early so that they could have a look around and enjoy the experience. In the end lorries closed both directions of the M25 and we ended up diverting through a bunch of country lines inside the M25. We just made the flight, because we had planned on being early. Before I left I took a picture from the Front Door - when I return the leaves will have dropped. As a boy I used to climb a huge Copper Beech in a field next to our house, it was a great tree for climbing, open, pretty strong and I could virtually get to the top.

I checked into my flights from Heathrow to Hong Kong and then Hong Kong to Bangkok on-line before leaving the house, which seems odd, but works well to smooth out the wrinkles of flying. There were no problems with the M25 today, leaving early avoids the rush-hour snarl up. I am flying from Terminal 5 and so far so good. Baggage drop was fast, no queue, security was reasonably fast about 10 people ahead of me and so I am sitting in BA's lounge courtesy of mis-spent youth, actually too much flying last year. The good thing is there is free wi-fi so I can continue to use my laptop and loads of nibbles to pass the time - nibbling. I am sitting next to the window watching to planes come and go. I managed to pick up some Baht for Thailand but not money for Cambodia or Vietnam, I will have to rely on the ubiquitous $ which is much more expensive nowadays.

The reason I am flying to Hong Kong first is it is cheaper to get a "return" flight to Hong Kong with the extra three flights (HK to Bangkok, Saigon to Hanoi to visit my brother and then Hanoi to Hong Kong) on top. Hong Kong has loads of flights from Europe and seems to be competitive, I counted around 7 leaving within 2 hours the last time I flew from HK. However Bangkok is a popular route for tourists to and from Australia and so seems to be quite a lot more expensive.

All for now the next post will be from Hong Kong assuming I can get wi-fi there.