The long way home

Well, after a marathon 74 hour journey from Melbourne back to Amsterdam we are finally home. In a nutshell, we had MAJOR delays due to MAJOR and scary technical problems with our aircraft :-/

Our flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur was uneventful and we arrived in KL bright and early (about 5.00am) on Monday morning. After a quick 3 hour power nap at the airport we headed off into the city for a spot of sightseeing and good food. We got both :-)) We managed to see the Petronas Towers, the telecom tower, the city forest AND buy yet another 2 pairs of flip flops !!! I think our combined collection adds up to about 15 pairs now!

On arrival back at the airport in KL we paid to use the services of a lounge, which included a well deserved shower, a massage, food, drinks and internet etc By that stage our flight from KL back to Amsterdam was delayed by 2 hours, 2 hours quickly became 4, and 4 soon became 6!!

Apparently the delay was while technicians were busy fixing problems related to the cabin pressure and oxygen masks (kinda important stuff!). By the time we finally took off it was 5.00am and we were REALLY looking forward to a bit of sleep on the flight. However, after only about 2 hours in the air the cabin lights were switched back on and the pilot announced we would be diverted to Bangkok (the closest available airport) due to "strange" noises heard in one of the right engines! Apparently the technicians in KL had forgotten to put a bearing back in somewhere! By the time this announcement was made we were already on the descent to Bangkok and they were furiously dumping thousands of litres of jet fuel from the wingtips (see photo below). This was amazing to see. It was like a massive fire hose had been turned on and it just kept going and going for about 45 minutes. Not really sure exactly where that fuel ends up!!

Anyway, we were all offloaded at Bangkok, our passports exchanged for a dodgy looking piece of cardboard (a "temporary" passport!), and we were all taken to the Novotel hotel. We were advised the repairs in Bangkok would take a minimum of 17 hours, so we were prepared for a nice day by the pool, a couple of solid meals and some decent sleep in a bed :-) We managed the first two easily BUT missed out on the sleep. Just after finishing dinner (at about 8.00pm) we were told our KLM aircraft was currently beyond repair and that we had to go back to the airport where we would be put onto whatever available flights there were back to Europe. For some people this meant flying even via South Korea, China or Turkey! But for us (after waiting yet another 5 hours in a queue) it meant a direct flight with Eva Airways (a Taiwanese airline) from Bangkok to Amsterdam - yay!!

Hah, don't cheer too soon! We soon discovered (on trying to check in at the Eva Airways counter) that our "tickets" were not confirmed seats and that we were on standby! Not only that, we had to wait until all the legitimate passengers had cheked in and that there were only about 20 seats available for the 40 or so people in our "queue". The "queue" by then had turned into some kind of disorganised rabble as people began sticking their elbows in and jostling to the front to get one of those 20 seats. Tears were shed and tempers were getting REALLY frayed.

We were lucky to be amongst the "chosen ones" and got on the flight, which eventually departed at 4.00am - phew! I think I fell asleep as soon as I hit that oh so comfy aircraft seat and managed to sleep for most of the flight home.

Needless to say we were both extremely happy to sleep in a bed last night after 3 days spent lying on airport floors and trying to sleep during the flights themselves.

The whole journey was made more than bearable though by the fact that we got to take advantage of the swimming pool and sauna at the hotel (almost like a mini tropical vacation in itself!), and by the lovely company of our fellow passengers Bart & Sandra (an Australian brother/sister duo) off to NL to visit family, and Tarquin (a budding photographer from Malaysia) off to NL to see his brother. Great to meet those guys :-)

More reports of the actual holiday to follow soon :-)

Alli xxx