the final 36 hours

Ever since we first booked our holiday we knew the last 36 hours were going to be long.

1. Plane leaves Hanoi at 9am, doesn't sound too bad but it takes an hour to get to the city to the airport, hence leaving our hotel by 6:15 - erggh.

2 flight to Kuala Lumpur - 3.5 hours - not too bad. Meaghan and I watch 'Chocolate' - Johnny Depp - mmm

3. Arrive Kl at 1:30 pm local time, our plane back to Melbourne doesn't leave until 11pm. we had planned to drop our luggage off at the luggage storage place (advertised to be open 24/7) and head off to a nearby water/amusement park and get back to the airport by 7 ish. Except luggage storage is closed until 4... Ok stuck in the low cost terminal with half a tonne of luggage for an eternity. Until our brilliant son comes up with the idea of getting a hotel room for the afternoon. genius. Conveniently located on the other side of the carpark is a hotel that rents it's rooms in 3 hour blocks. Best move ever. Although the room is tiny, there is just enough space for us and our luggage. Also have a couple of eating places and a 7/11. Bonus is most comfortable bed for the entire trip and easily the best shower. Luckily we weren't at the water park because an enormous electrical storm rolled in.

4. after a very pleasant meal, we sauntered over to the airport at 9ish, luggage straight into check in and do some last minute souvenir shopping - so far the day has gone better than expected. Then the flight...

5. It was only an 8 hour flight but it took an eternity. They didn't turn the lights off until 1am, there were no little individual air vents (and I need to feel air on my face) and the normally over cooled cabins just weren't cooled at all. As a result Henry over heated and got very stressed (not loudly though). So he didn't sleep until a couple of hours before the flight landed. It meant Meaghan and i who were either side didn't sleep at all. There was a bit of turbulence so the seat belt sign stayed on just about the whole time, so no getting up to stretch your legs. Such a long night.

6. Melbourne airport, just a nightmare. over 2 hours of queuing to get through passports and customs, only to get near the end and have an official pretty much take one look and a couple of questions about dangerous weapons (we would make excellent smugglers) and let us out a side door.

7. Last flight at 3 back home. after pigging out at McDonald's, we discovered that Virgin Blue had been allowing free flight transfers and we could have got an earlier flight if we hadn't had taken time out to eat - damn. But we found a quiet corner of the airport, got the latest edition of Frankie (I was forth in line to get hold of it..) and had some nice down time. Luckily the flight back home was only 45mins and we got ahead of the summernats boys to nab a large cab home. yay.

So lots of ups and downs but will avoid a night flight if possible in the future.


And best of all getting home to a not stressed cat (thank you local friends Jane, Jo and Katie and various offspring of my wonderful friends) and a lovely pilke of goodies (thank you international friends, Julie and Irini for my lovely RAK's that made me smile) and a nice big Cocoa Daisy package, hooray.