Home Again

My flight from Hong Kong left around midnight and took about 13 hours, which got me into England at around 5am - I was back home before 7am.

When I was travelling a lot I sometimes used this route when returning from Japan. I found that I could either leave Japan in the morning and get to the UK in the evening or I could leave Japan mid-day fly to Hong Kong and get to the UK early the next morning, then pop home have a shower and be in the office first thing. That way I could get a little extra time in the Japanese office without losing any time back in the UK, apart from "sleeping in a bed time"!

The other great thing about getting to Heathrow early is that it is fairly empty and so baggage comes off more quickly, there are barely queues for passport control and even better the M25 is not the car park it can be. At that time in the morning it is also quicker to go through the manned passport check rather than the automated retina scanner.

Unfortunately my wife thought I was arriving that evening so when I got home I was locked out and had to wake her to open the door. Still it could have been worse it could have been 3am! I had left my brother's apartment at 7am the previous day so allowing for timezone differences the overall journey home had taken 31 hours, door to door, only half was actual flying time and there were no problems, if I had flown through Bangkok - well, I would not have been, flying that is, I would have been stuck in Bangkok.

My first impressions on returning to England were of how wintry it had become. I got onto a plane in Ha Noi in t-shirt and shorts, with temperatures of around 25C having cycled in temperatures of 35C+ Here it was grey and the leaves had blown off the trees, it is surprising how much the seasons change in 3 weeks.

One of the last pictures I took in the UK was of the tree outside my front door - a lovely autumnal (fall) picture. It was now pretty bare.

Before

After

It was good to be home although having been in a different timezone for 3 weeks and getting up early and exercising outdoors in that timezone I was well and truly time shifted. At around 5pm on the first day back I just had to have a "short" nap. I dreamt that I was back cycling and that we had stopped at a back-packer hotel/hostel somewhere for a rest. When I awoke I was a bit surprised that the rest of the cycling group had gone without me and that it was dark - how was I going to find them, where was I supposed to be staying. I wandered through the hotel (which was really where I had lived for the last 8 years or so) without recognising anything, then my wife called me - that was a bit of a surprise, what was she doing here - had she come out to meet me? She must have thought I was going mad (she knows I am!) I asked her where were the bikes and where are we sleeping? I still did not recognise that I was at home. I then noticed some post-its on a notice board and said what a coincidence we have these at home. Then normality gradually reasserted itself and I realised that I was at home and it was our noticeboard.

Even now I can remember walking through my house as if it were completely new to me. Perhaps the anti-malaria tablets were more potent than I thought.

As I had been cycling and already carrying too much stuff I left my present buying until Hanoi airport, with the exception of some Cambodian scarves (Krama or Kroma) and a piece of handicraft from the Charity - Friends, in Phnom Penh and oh yes a bamboo vase on the way back from Halong Bay. I used all my remaining dong and a few dollars more buying t-shirts and other trinkets. When I got back I brought them all out, unpacked my suitcase, including a mountain of dirty washing, various bicycle bits and various gadgetry (chargers, connecting cables). Here is a present I bought for myself as a souvenir. It seems fitting that I remember my cycling trip with a model of a Vietnamese bicycle. Clearly if the chain I had had on the first bike had been quite as strong it probably would not have broken.

I also gave my Brooks leather saddle a polish before replacing it on my Longstaff bicycle. It has definitely aged a bit during the Challenge, it has also nicely moulded itself to my contours and is remarkably comfortable. I will have to buy a new seat cover though as the old one got torn when the bike was in transit in Cambodia whilst we were taking the easy way on a boat. The picture does not really show the wear but if you look at an earlier picture you will see that it was a honey colour originally.

I am still wearing my shorts - although I do get some strange looks, I have also managed to get out and about on my bicycle. It is much harder to work up the enthusiam when it is cold though. My first longish ride (32Km/20miles) was for a meeting in Cambridge. (Long trousers for that). I made the mistake of wearing too many layers of clothing to combat the cold, of course by the time I got there I was a sweaty mess. During the meeting I also realised that I had not set my watch to the UK timezone.

I also find it harder to pay much attention to the TV, it seems a bit of a distraction. I have downloaded the four weeks of the radio series the Archers that I missed (6 hours 30 minutes) and am catching up on that when I go out on my bike. Speaking of which I have managed to drag myself around the Fens a couple of times, despite the cold there has been some wintry sun.

Judging form the amount of water and how sticky with mud some of the paths are there has also been quite a lot of rain. In this picture the sun is reflecting off water that wasn't there three weeks ago.

I have also reverted to cycling in the afternoon and my goodness it gets dark early. I have had to take my lights with me on my rides and instead of a cold beer I have a hot bath on my return. Having taken a few pictures of bridges on my travels here is one in the Fens that features quite a lot in my pictures.

I have also managed to catch up on my blog - the next one will be my reflections on the trip. For those of you that are interested I have also uploaded some of my pictures onto the web:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/jme.photo.albums/B2sPictures?authkey=U0yTvXyfzrQ

I did start sending them out in 6 chunks as email but after exploding a few email inboxes this seems to be easier and less anti-social.