It feels like I've spent a lifetime organising this - Where to go, how to get there, how to do it .... but I'm not sure there was any way to plan for the moment where I suddenly realised that it had finally begun. Standing in the entrance of Manchester airport I found myself eerily alone, and if things were to go as expected, I wouldn't see another familiar face for 12 months! It was now and it was real. But after all, what could really go wrong?
As it turns out, quite a lot could go wrong. The following 15 hours involved a phone call with a tired man at STA Travel telling me they had forgotten to issue my flight and that I couldn't travel, one very clever woman at BA somehow swindling me onto the flights, one delayed flight, one madcap rush to get a second flight, and finally a visit to a Bangkok arrivals desk informing me that my luggage was currently sitting in Heathrow airport. Without going into the grinding details of all that, I eventually found myself sitting in my Bangkok guest house with little more luggage on me than the clothes on my back, a couple of guide books, and some nibbles from the plane. I had arrived.
I always intended my first evening away to be very low key. Just a light stroll around the backpacker corner of Bangkok. The aim of this was to take things easy and try to relax. I always expected, however, that any nerves or fears or home-sickness would strike at this very point, and I think they did. Strolling round the manic streets of Bangkok in the humid evening heat was slightly more strenuous than I anticipated. The only redeeming feature, however, was that in many ways I wasn't the only one. Dotted amongst the crowds of Thais and foreigners were other reflections of myself; first-time travellers looking daunted, lost, lonely, and possibly thinking the words 'What on earth am I doing'? And those exact words came back to haunt me on my first night in Bangkok too.
My second day, however, appears to show that things are starting to turn round. I had a good trip around the Grand Palace and Leaning Buddha, my luggage is due to arrive at my guest house at 8pm, and I had a very random meeting with a guy who 24 hours earlier had refused to join me in a sprint through Heathrow airport in a last gasp bid to make our connecting flight. Quite clearly he made it. I'm due to meet up with him for a drink later, possibly even with the luxury of a new and clean set of clothes!
As it turns out, quite a lot could go wrong. The following 15 hours involved a phone call with a tired man at STA Travel telling me they had forgotten to issue my flight and that I couldn't travel, one very clever woman at BA somehow swindling me onto the flights, one delayed flight, one madcap rush to get a second flight, and finally a visit to a Bangkok arrivals desk informing me that my luggage was currently sitting in Heathrow airport. Without going into the grinding details of all that, I eventually found myself sitting in my Bangkok guest house with little more luggage on me than the clothes on my back, a couple of guide books, and some nibbles from the plane. I had arrived.
I always intended my first evening away to be very low key. Just a light stroll around the backpacker corner of Bangkok. The aim of this was to take things easy and try to relax. I always expected, however, that any nerves or fears or home-sickness would strike at this very point, and I think they did. Strolling round the manic streets of Bangkok in the humid evening heat was slightly more strenuous than I anticipated. The only redeeming feature, however, was that in many ways I wasn't the only one. Dotted amongst the crowds of Thais and foreigners were other reflections of myself; first-time travellers looking daunted, lost, lonely, and possibly thinking the words 'What on earth am I doing'? And those exact words came back to haunt me on my first night in Bangkok too.
My second day, however, appears to show that things are starting to turn round. I had a good trip around the Grand Palace and Leaning Buddha, my luggage is due to arrive at my guest house at 8pm, and I had a very random meeting with a guy who 24 hours earlier had refused to join me in a sprint through Heathrow airport in a last gasp bid to make our connecting flight. Quite clearly he made it. I'm due to meet up with him for a drink later, possibly even with the luxury of a new and clean set of clothes!
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