The next day we flew back to Bangkok. We had a few things we had to get which included getting the kids names written in Thai in wooden blocks and a final trip to backpacker land Khao San Rd.
It was then time for a final swim in the pool at our hotel and we were going to watch our bootleg copy of Kung Fu Panda 2. I don't mean to complain about the quality of bootleg videos but come on. We only got one viewing before it went kaput. B*stards
It was then another opportunity for Delia to display her extraordinary packing skills. She turns every bag into a Tardis. She has managed to pack all our clothes, shoes, gifts, rain jackets for 5 people AND a pram into 3 bags.
We bid farewell to our much loved hotel and caught another taxi to the airport. This time a normal one and with the meter running instead of an agreed price. Now we'd paid 800 Baht for the trip previously and with the meter running we ended up paying 200! Ahhh no matter how much we travel (and we've travelled a fair bit) and think how street smart we are we will always get done over.
So being super organised we got to the airport 3 hours before our flight which was great and there were hardly any queues to check our luggage in (we could have taken 130kgs but we only had 50kg for all five of us), go through passport control and go through the scanners. Speaking of which we foolishly forgot to put our pocket knife in our checked in luggage and so they took it off us and I lost the Swiss Army knife I have had for 20 years, the one I had when I first went backpacking in 1990. Sob. The one saving grace is we are going to Switzerland later in the trip and we had already promised to buy the kids a Swiss Army knife each, so we will just have to get one for me as well.
The downside of being so organised and there being no queues is that we had got through all the checks and we still had over 2 hours to go. A LONG time to entertain 3 kids. Delia decided it was the perfect time to do more of her animation of the trip (have I talked about this? It's not enough to drag 3 kids around the world for Delia, she has to give herself homework as well and document the whole thing via stop motion animation! Pat Sarell I'm looking at you!) So she merrily went along with her little figures and felt scenery whilst I tried to stop the kids destroying things. With 30 minutes to go I said, “we better go to the gate now”
“Hang on I just have to finish this scene”
You can't rush art apparently.
Even if you're a pilot of a jumbo jet and have 400 passengers.
After arriving 3 hours before our flight we ended up running to catch the plane! They had even sent out a search party for us!
Barely after stowing our bags in the overhead compartments and absorbing the looks of horror from our fellow passengers who realised they would be spending the next 12 hours in a confined space with 3 children under 7, we took off!
Phew.
It was a midday flight so the kids were going to be awake for most of the flight. Ouch. We had VERY understanding flight attendants. We had 4 seats in a row together and there were spare seats and they let us take up the entire row behind. We had 8 seats for the 5 of us. Luxury!
The kids were really good, no screaming sessions but it was exhausting and lots of musical chairs. The movies were entirely inappropriate for kids so it was a lot of drawing, puzzles and reading. After 8 hours Ben and Maja crashed, Finley lasted another hour and we got to doze for 2 hours before we landed in Ole Blighty and my old boss and friend from London, Rani, picked us up at the airport. How wonderful. As we drove in to London we watched the planes which entertained Maja and the route we took was a lovely way to come in to London.
It was good to be back.
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