Hello travel blog, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again. It's been a while but it's thankfully time to fire you back up, as this year we set off for 5 weeks in London, Portugal and Spain, and this time, with our little Willow Rose in tow :)
So on Friday, May 25 2018, with our luggage as streamlined as possible so that we had a spare hand each to wrangle cheeky little Willow, we arrived at Sydney Airport for our flight to Bangkok. Not knowing how Willow would fare on the long journey we thought it safest to have a 24 hour stopover in Bangkok to recuperate, or just relax, all going well. After an hour long queue at check-in, we finally got rid of our luggage and dropped our little $20 Kmart special umbrella stroller off at oversize luggage where the guy had a giggle at how different Ryan looked from his passport photo and asked me if I liked his current look. So we sped through customs where there were surprisingly no lines and the customs lady also commented (a bit more seriously) on how different Ryan looked from his passport photo, but then saw Willow’s passport photo and burst out with “Where’s Willow?!”, although Willow was in no mood for games right then.
Safely on the other side, there was barely any time to sit around and smell the roses, but as the departure screens assured us our flight had time to “relax” before boarding, we snuck in a cheeky celebratory drink before boarding. About half an hour later we were on the plane, and barely before we had sat down and organised our bags the plane was already moving. Thai Air does not muck around! Thankfully we had a spare seat next to us, so we had extra room to spread all our toddler paraphernalia around. Willow was great* on the flight - entertained enough by a tablet loaded with Wiggles for the first 2 hours before falling asleep on Dadda for most of the remainder of the flight.
Arriving at Bangkok airport late at night, we quickly went through customs (a Thai ladyboy who also took a shining to Willow), collected our luggage, and smiled at all the Thai people and fellow travellers who were smiling and waving to Willow who all seemed to agree she was the cutest thing ever. Willow wasn’t too fussed by any of this attention however. We caught the shuttle bus to our hotel nearby, and as it was about 2:30am Sydney time by this stage, all immediately crashed… at least until Willow woke up 3 hours later as she was well rested after her good sleeping on the flight.
Bangkok was impossibly hot and humid, bringing back memories of being “hit by the heat bat” in visits to Thailand in the past, but we did not plan to venture far from the hotel during our stopover. After a quick hotel breakfast (the Thais really do LOVE Willow!) we thought we would take a short walk up to the main road to the 7-11 just to pick up some bottled water and snacks to get us through the next 12 hours. With Willow packed into the $20 Kmart special umbrella stroller, we set off down the road which for some unknown reason didn’t seem to be quite designed for the wheels of such budget strollers. We reached the 7-11, with the wheels already quite rickety to the point where once inside, one set of wheels wouldn’t even turn on the smooth glossy tiles. Setting off a comedy of errors, Ryan had to “push” the stroller around the store with not all wheels turning, which kind of defeats the purpose of a stroller. Anyway, we picked up a tonne of bottled water, and realising we had no cash bahts on us and that there is a minimum spend to use card, Ryan kindly offered to fall on his sword and buy 3 big Chang beers to get us over the minimum spend. But at the counter, he was told it was too early to buy alcohol, and that you can only buy it between the hours of 11am-2pm and 5pm-midnight. Because we all know how crazy the Thais can get between 2-5pm when inebriated.
With his beer plans temporarily foiled, we went just outside to the ATM to withdraw some baht. A single 1000 baht note was annoyingly ejected, for our 60 baht purchase, and while I waited for him to pay, the 7-11 employee who happened to be sweeping around that area came over to me with Ryan’s credit card, which he had forgotten to collect from the ATM! On Day 1! Ryan insisted it was Thailand’s fault for messing with the well established system where the card is ejected before your money… It has been a while since I have travelled with Ryan and I had almost forgotten his hilarious antics. Narrow miss aside, we set off back down the rickety road to the hotel, which the $20 Kmart special umbrella stroller seemed to like more than the smooth glossy tiles of 7-11. We just hoped it would last the distance to get us to our hotel in London before we could upgrade.
After a relaxing swim in the pleasant and empty hotel pool, we all settled in for a nap together, and after a short while we were woken to an almighty clap of thunder and heavy rain! When we had left the pool it was still sunny so that was quite a surprising sound to wake up to, but that’s Thailand for you. So the rest of the afternoon was spent chilling at the hotel until our late night flight on to London. Feeling quite refreshed with showers and rest despite the late hour, we checked in, and got whisked through the priorty lane of security and customs in the priority lane because we had an infant - thanks Willow! But even the priority lane has its challenges when you have to get all your electronics out, all your liquids out, take your shoes off, put them all in individual trays, and then put your life together back on the other side in a timely manner all while you have an infant tugging at your pants wondering what the hell is going on.
We finally boarded the A380 (1am Thai time, 4am Sydney time, sigh) with Willow thankfully falling asleep in our arms moments before we boarded. We again had a spare seat next to us, so spreading out once we were in the air with Willow lying between us, we all soon fell asleep for some much needed shuteye. Willow was great* on the 12+ hour flight, which was in darkness for most of it, so when shewoke up after about 5-6 hours, we successfully* entertained her with watching Frozen and Wiggles. She was very good*, and apart from one brief scream of discontent which was uncalled for, the rest of the flight she was relatively quiet aside from calling out the names of the Wiggles every time she saw them (which I assume and hoped everyone thought was adorable).
Finally in London, we joined the infamous Heathrow customs lineup. As we snaked around the queue, Willow drew a lot of attention from the hundreds of fellow travellers, and she engaged with them by flashing either adorable smiles, or choosing to whip her head away to the other side and give them the cold shoulder. Once we were halfway into the depth of the queue, I suddenly noticed a Border Security man hovering behind my shoulder. He asked us where our passports were from, and then escorted us to the priority lane. Yay for having infants - thank you Willow! I think the rest of the queue was disappointed to see Willow go…
This time the customs guy asked me to remove my glasses when he saw my passport photo. So it’s fair to say that Ryan and I have aged somewhat in the last 8 years!! He also seemed quite taken with Willow though, bringing her to 4/4 with melting the hearts of customs officers around the world. We collected our luggage, and then went over to pick up the $20 Kmart special umbrella stroller from oversize baggage. But alas, it wasn’t there?! We waited a bit, then went to enquire. In the end it never showed up. The helpful man was very apologetic, and we must have been the most nonchalant and happy customers filling out forms for lost luggage they had ever seen, as we were all smiles and Willow was charming the other staff. They said it might arrive later, once they can track down if/when it was loaded on the plane, and we were like “Meh, cool whatevs”. And when they asked where should they send it to in Portugal if it doesn’t show up in the next 4 days, we were like “Oh don’t bother”. We were given instructions on who to call and when to try and locate it and collect it, but we really didn’t care, so, loaded up like packhorses since Ryan was now carrying Willow in the baby carrier and our 2 checked baggages and I was carrying a handbag and 3 backpacks, we headed out into the arrivals area, where Willow waved and said “Hiiiii!” to all the people lined up waiting for loved ones, giving Princess Charlotte a run for her money, and they waved and smiled back. It was hilarious. So we shuffled through the warren of travelators to the Heathrow Express, straight to Paddington Station, a walkable distance from our hotel, even though we were packhorses. Things were looking up when it was 9:30am and we could already check-in into our room!!
After some showers, we set off to Kensington Gardens in Hyde Park just opposite. The weather was uncharacteristically beautiful, and after our first English food - a ham/cheese toastie and some coffees, we took Willow to the nearby Princess Diana Memorial playground where she went on the swings and climbed some cubby houses just to see how kids play on this side of the world. Ryan was getting a workout carrying Willow in the carrier rather than a stroller, but we planned to get another one in the coming days.
Ryan had his heart set on a Sunday roast for lunch, and with Willow asleep as we walked to a nearby pub for said roast, we happily enjoyed some very tipici de la region food. Trying to adjust to UK time, we agreed at about 2pm we would go back to the hotel for a short chill time. But that turned out into us passing out into jetlag comas. I suddenly awoke at 6:30pm, and as I pottered around the hotel room, the phone suddenly rang. I picked it up, and someone said “Your baby pram is here”. I paused and asked “Where?”. “In the foyer”. So I went downstairs, and collected our $20 Kmart special umbrella stroller. So where that stroller went for 10 hours in between then and us landing in London is anyone's guess, but it’s good (and surprising) to have it back.
After that, Ryan and Willow decided to continue their jetlag induced slumber, while I sat down to write this blog. So here I am, in the dead of the night (9pm), within the sound of silence.
*mostly ;)
