Phileas Rides Again

The clocks have gone back. The leaves are cascading from the trees. Reminders of the more commercial aspects of Christmas are emerging everywhere. So it’s time for my winter hibernation.  Unfortunately, though, my journey hasn’t started. well. I should be in The Hot in Bangkok by now, courtesy of Turkish Airlines but I’m stuck in Istanbul. All started well enough until Turkish air traffic control put us on the ‘stacking’ merry go round. And round and round we went until low fuel prompted a diversion to Izmir. By the time we got back to Istanbul, having flown through a quite spectacular rain storm, my onward connecting flight to BKK had gone.

Airports are not really my favourite places and certainly not at 0330 in the morning! The staff on the plane didn’t seem to know what my next step should be but I was hopeful that a few ground staff  would be in evidence when we disembarked. There were none. The cleaning lady with her bucket and mop, though, was very accommodating and guided me through seemingly endless deserted corridors until, around one more corner, I found the transfer desk – not easy to miss as the two or three staff were trying to pacify a baying mob of literally hundreds of dissatisfied customers who were, clearly, in the same position as myself! I reckoned that with luck it would take me a good 3 hours to get to the head of the queue. So, in typical Phileas style, when everyone is turning right, I turn left. In short, I bought a £20 entry visa, went through passport control, found a hotel agent and got conned into spending far too much money on some accommodation and finally got to sleep at around 0530.

Being the tight bastard that I am, as breakfast was included in the exorbitant hotel price, I was determined to take advantage. So, after a fitful 4 hours kip, not knowing when my next meal would be,  I gorged myself on eggs, sausages, cereal, croissant and a few local dishes with unpronounceable names and then set about trying to not only get myself on the next available flight to Bangkok but, equally importantly, find out where my check in luggage is! Being without toiletries and a change of clothes is not something I’m used to.

The net result is that I depart to Bangkok at 2050 this evening but whether this is with or without my suitcase remains to be seen. And one of my first tasks on arrival will be to go to the Turkish Airlines office and set about claiming some compensation for this expensive disaster. In the meantime, I will try and grab a few more hours sleep and hope for a better tomorrow. At least the weather has improved already.

But not the view! Oh, the joys of travel.

Until we get there,

Phileas.