My trip to Myanmar had been a remarkable odyssey. I'd met so many kind people, seen so many sights, both familiar and new, that I could hardly believe the experiences I'd had. Finally, I faced the journey returning to England and, even with a ticket for Emirates Business class, the prospect was a little daunting. Emirates had changed their schedules since my previous visit to Myanmar so the first leg of the flight, from Yangon's modernised Mingalardon airport, left at 02:10 hours, early in the morning. I was able to use my comfortable room at the Belmond Governor's Residence until 11.30 p.m. when the hotel provided their car (an Executive model 'Alphard' in black) to take me to the airport. At that time of night, we made good time to the airport and the spacious facilities in Terminal 1, only open a few months, were quiet so check-in and security were swiftly completed. There was an extensive new lounge shared by a number of airlines I'd not visited before. I enjoyed a thick pea soup as I'd not had much to eat since breakfast but I didn't take any pictures of the new lounge.
We boarded the aircraft, a Boeing 777-200, on time, and I was settled in an unusually-empty Business Class cabin by the friendly cabin crew. I couldn't remember flying on a 777-200 before and I found the seating arrangements in the row I'd been given a little odd compared with the Boeing 777-300ER that I'm more familiar with.
Up, Up and Away: Boeing 777-200 Yangon to Dubai.
During the flight to Dubai, I watched a little 'Doctor Who', slept and then watched more 'Doctor Who' until we neared Dubai.
Our arrival at Dubai was scheduled for 5.55 hours local time, but, with my body still on 'Yangon Time', it felt much later to me. That, together with the enforced activity of leaving the aircraft and having to negotiate the transfer through the airport to my connecting flight meant that I didn't expect to sleep again. A number of my more recent flights into or out of Dubai have involved transfer buses to sometimes remote areas of the huge airport. But this arrival was at Terminal C and we disembarked through an airbridge into the not-yet-completed building. A reasonably long walk aided by some moving walkways took me to a transfer area where, having passed through security, I was able to discover from the passenger information screens the gate from which my connecting flight would leave, requiring another long walk, again with some assistance from moving walkways. As I plodded through the huge terminal, I realised that the departure gate was actually very close to the arrival gate, but one floor down.
Dubai Airport: Walking to the departure gate for Birmingham at incomplete terminal C. The 'palm trees' are fully electrified with uplighters.
There was a very smart Emirates lounge near the gate. Rather than unpack my laptop, I attempted to log-on to one of a series of 'Lenovo' desk computers provided for travellers. I was either very tired or very unlucky because it was not until I tried the third computer that I succeeded in connecting to my e-mail.
Dubai Airport: IT problems in the Business Lounge - "No operating system found".
I then typed part of a draft blog post before moving to the departure gate and boarding my connecting flight. This time, the aircraft was the familiar Boeing 777-300ER.
It took our aircraft a while, with various stops, to negotiate the taxiways to reach the departure runway. Looking back, I could see the usual row of Emirates wide-bodied aircraft lined up at the terminal we'd left.
Dubai Airport: Looking back to the terminal we've left, showing Emirates 'wide-bodies'.
On the flight to Birmingham, sleep eluded me but I was fairly comfortable as I monitored our journey across the Middle East and Europe, taking occasional pictures of the changing scene.
From Dubai to Birmingham: Germany from five miles above.
The winds had been in our favour and we arrived at a rain-swept Birmingham about 20 minutes early. I had to wait a few minutes for my transport home, but I was quite content just to be safely back. It's nice to go travelling, but it was good to be home.
Birmingham Airport (BHX) in the rain.
Related posts on this website
This is one of a series of posts describing my 12th visit to Myanmar. The post Starting out is the first post in the series.
This is the last report on the trip.
Alternately, clicking on the 'All my Burma-2017(2) reports' link displays all the posts on this trip in reverse date-of-posting order.
All my Burma-2017(2) reports.
My photograph albums
Where necessary, clicking on an image above will display an 'uncropped' view or, alternately, pictures may be selected, viewed or downloaded, in various sizes, from the albums listed:-
Yangon Airport.
Up, Up and Away.
Dubai Airport, U.A.E.
From Dubai to Birmingham.
Birmingham Airport, England.
