'Leaving England'? No, not for ever (I hope) but another Far East Trip. After the cold of this winter, a little warmth would be nice.
Events of Thurday, 31st January 2013
I normally try to avoid Heathrow but, this time, Tim from my travel firm recommended the Thai flight from London so that brought me to Terminal 3 at Heathrow at 9.30 a.m. I had to travel to the airport without a passport because my passport, endorsed with suitable visas, did not get to Tim until the previous afternoon so he said he'd meet me at the airport and hand it to me. And, that's what happened.
Well, the attentions of the security staff at Heathrow got the trip off to a poor start (as often happens). They X-rayed my carry-on bag and everything I could with modesty remove, although this time they let me keep my shoes. The rest of me passed the metal detector but they decided the carry-on bag needed a hand search. They had neither the space nor the staff to do this decently. Soon there was a short queue of us waiting for inspection. We couldn’t avoid being spectators as the lady in front of me had the indignity of watching most of the contents of her case, including her spare underwear, laid out on the metal table while the security girl either passed the items as 'fit to travel' or piled them in a series of trays to be X-rayed again. The man behind me was worried the delay might cost him his flight. Eventually, a second security girl appeared but there was no room where we were waiting to do a second search so she led me off across the floor to another line where there was a desk spare. I went through the same treatment (at least my undies were in a plastic bag) then, to add insult to injury, she offered to help me re-pack, which I declined. As I slowly attempted to put things back where I’d originally put them, I could feel another security guy urging me on, as he was looking for a table too. Did I feel safer for all this security? No.
I made my way through the large Duty Free and found the lounge which Thai share with other Star Alliance Members. The disappointment here was that, despite a large number of Apple workstations with free internet, I couldn’t get a reliable connection, although I tried three different workstations. One problem was that they were right-handed workstations, with the mouse physically on the right of the keyboard and I'm left handed. Usually, I can cope by dragging the mouse towards the left (although there’s often insufficient slack in the cable to do the job properly) but in this case the worktop was shiny and white, with an inlaid black disk on the right for the mouse to sit on. The Apple infra-red mouse refused to work at all on a white background. I couldn’t reach across to the black disk on the next workstation to my left, so I ended up finding a folder in my bag with a texture/colour the mouse was happy with. I still experienced erratic performance (possibly network loading) so I pulled out my own Notebook computer and managed to get that to log-on. Sadly, the performance was still so erratic that I gave up and sulked.
They’d told me to allow 30 minutes to get from the lounge to the gate. Although it didn’t take me that long, it was a longer walk than I would have wished and I was quite relieved to clamber into my seat on the aircraft. The A340-600 was alright but not state-of-the-art and slightly careworn. Although the cabin crew were friendly, they didn’t strike me as meeting the standard I used to associate with Thai. Perhaps my judgement was coloured by my earlier experience with security. My seat allocation (18K) was immediately behind a bulkhead, which gives extra space. The only drawback was the T.V. screen was fixed to the bulkhead and a bit too far away, with a narrow angle of view and bad in sunlight. The aisle seat next to me remained empty so I travelled in splendid isolation.
There are a few more pictures around Heathrow taken on this and previous flights here. We were a little late departing from runway 27 Left (I remember when it was 28 Left – magnetic variation of the poles is a remarkable thing). About a dozen aircraft managed to get away before us but then we were soon crossing the Channel and overflying Belgium. Where there were breaks in the cloud, it looked as if the snow was widespread on the Continent. They served quite a reasonable meal and by that time it was dark outside. The entertainment system was ‘video on demand’. I tried ‘The Bourne Legacy’, a bit of ‘Ted’ (quite funny but rude) and ‘The Candidate’ (intermittently funny or rude or both but very predictable). I managed to sleep a little, although the seat only provided an inclined sleeping position which doesn’t suit me too well. A couple of hours before getting to Bangkok, they served a hot breakfast. We arrived around 10.00 p.m. London time, but I’d already switched to local time – about 6.00 a.m. on an overcast but warm (about 23 degrees Celsius) morning.
Events of Friday, 1st February 2013
At Bangkok I transited to another Thai flight – the TG550 to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon as was). I still have trouble with the signage at Bangkok airport. First, I had to go up one floor from the arrivals level to the departures level. But before you’re allowed out, you and your luggage are processed by security. This time, my hand baggage passed, but they insisted on X-raying my shoes. I was processed by their body scanner – a cubicle with power doors where you stand, feet apart, with arms in an ‘I surrender’ pose. At least the man and women manning the body scanner gave me a smile as they beckoned me out.
As I feared, gate E1a for my flight was a long, long walk. There are a number of moving pavements but it’s still a long way. Right time, I boarded the aircraft along with around 300 passengers, this time an A330 but I don’t know which of the three variants in service with Thai we flew in.
This flight was full and I didn’t get a window seat but the flight was only an hour and bit (although we must have taxied for best part of half an hour before we followed a 747 into the sky). They served a very basic lunchbox (this leg and others to follow were Economy) so I was fairly content by the time we arrived at the airport for Ho Chi
Minh City which is often identified simply as 'HCMC' although the airline ticketing code remains 'SGN' for the old French name, Saigon.
As I expected, the airport at Ho Chi Min City seems to have developed since my previous visit (described in the post Far East Tour, 2005). There was very little delay at immigation and my checked bag arrived quickly. Customs formalities comprised X-raying my bags, then I was disgorged into the Arrivals Hall, packed with ‘meeters and greeters’, a few of which held name labels. I wasn’t expecting to be met here as I was booked to transfer onto a Vietnam Airlines domestic flight to Da Nang, but I scanned the signs quickly before going outside. I think the temperature was in the low twenties. The pavement was also thronged. I guessed the direction to walk for the Domestic Terminal (and got it right). Although I had some hours before my flight left, I managed to check in and 'lose' the big bag, then I set off on foot for a little walk. One of the many security guys watching the traffic coming and going was worried to see me wandering around on foot but suggested a visit to ‘The Market’, actually a department store selling many famous names plus some others. He kindly conducted me across the busy junction and the store doorman opened the door for me. I made my way through five floors connected by escalators.
I spent at least an hour on the top floor which was mainly an eating area surrounded by lots of different cooked food vendors including a 'KFC' - a bit like motorway services in Britain but there must have been at least 15 vendors. I passed the time with a drink whilst taking in the view of all the coming and going road traffic at the Domestic and International Terminals and writing part of this post. Getting back to the domestic terminal on foot was quite tricky with all the traffic but I was too stubborn to accept any of the numerous offers of taxis or motor bike taxis, although I was a bit tempted by the motor bike taxis who even provided a crash helmet for the passenger. I arrived back at the domestic terminal under my own power safely but exhausted. I went through security and did a bit more on the computer, finished reading my Thursday 'Telegraph' or dozed.
We boarded our flight exactly on time, somewhat to my surprise. Again, the flight was full (or it was where I was, in economy). This time, the aircraft was an A341 (this one second hand but Vietnam Airlines are partway through accepting delivery of a small number of brand-new aircraft of this type). The flight to Da Nang took about an hour and we were soon in the Baggage Hall of the new terminal. I didn't have very long to wait for my checked bag and, being a Domestic flight, there were no immigration or customs formalities. There were quite a few 'Meeters and Greeters' in the arrivals hall, but my taxi driver was displaying a board with the name of the tour company and my name so we were soon driving to my hotel for one night in the historic city of Hoi An. Within about an hour, I was checking in at the 'Hoi An Historic Hotel'. I haven't found out yet how they justify the 'Historic' in the hotel's name - there are three wings and they all look pretty modern.
I was glad to get to my room (third floor and no elevator as they call 'lifts' in this territory) and have a bath. I abandoned my initial idea of exploring the area before it got dark and decided to sort out this post and my photographs. That's when I discovered that my 'preferred pointing device' (a tracker ball) would not work at all. After a half-hearted attempt at a repair, I decided to continue on the computer's touch-pad and buttons (which I don't find as convenient).
Provided we don't suffer any more technical setbacks, I'll tell you more when I can.
Photographs
Photographs taken on the dates given above either form new sets, or have been added to existing sets, as listed below:-
Heathrow Airport.
Bangkok (Suvarnabhumi) Airport.
Ho Chi Min City Airport.
Ho Chi Minh City Shopping Plaza.
Around Da Nang.
Hoi An Historic Hotel.
Hoi An.
[Revised 25-Feb-2013]
Friday, 1 February 2013
Leaving England
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