Travels in London - Day 25: Now With Bonus Extra Day!

Of course, it was not that simple.

Getting to the airport a couple of hours before my flight, I wandered the shops for awhile, was tempted by some blu-ray and PS3 games, but decided if I were flying out I would behave and not purchase anything. The minutes ticked closer and I eagerly awaited the announcement that the plane would begin boarding.

8:35 came and went. After a few minutes the board was updated. "Delayed until 22:30. Gate will open at 21:30".

So I waited. Again I was tempted to go blu-ray shopping, but again I resisted.

21:30 came and went. 22:00 came and went. Eventually the board updated again.

"Delayed until 22:30. Gate will open at 17:00."

This struck me as a little odd.

I decided someone was playing silly buggers and went to the information desk to see if they had any information, and found a very large group of people demanding to know what was going on, so I decided I was probably in the right place, though feeling a little too well behaved for the situation at hand. We were advised to head down to baggage collection (not to collect our bags, which were locked in the plane). What they neglected to mention is that between us and baggage collection was passport control. Me and a few other non british or europeans looked despondantly at the "All Other Passports" line which stretched most of the warehouse sized room.

The British/EU people had a single small straight line to walk. They responded to this by yelling, grumbling how they weren't going to stand for this, and eventually, storming customs. In response to this they especially set up a special line for our cancelled flight, which I took advantage of. Down in baggage hall they loaded us to on buses and took us to various hotels around London. I ended up at the Thistle Hotel, which was quite flash indeed. After feeding us breakfast and lunch, and after Lexi very kindly coming to visit and bringing me a toothbrush and some deodorant, they bundled us back on a bus and took us to the aiport. This was about 4:30, and our flight was at 9:35 that evening.

This time I decided I darn well was going to buy myself something and got a couple of blu-rays in a 2 for 1 deal.

The flight was an hour late to take off but actually took off so I counted that as a win. Bangkok flight was on time to depart and was actually early to land. Customs was, much like my arrival into the UK, bafflingly easy. "Anything to declare?"
"Um, some tea."
"Is there fruit in it?"
"Um, maybe?"
"Ok, off you go!"

This strikes me as a slightly lax approach to customs, but perhaps I'm missing some of the hidden steps and anyway it got me out of the airport quickly so I'm not complaining.

Just outside customs was MY DAD!!!!! whom I hadn't seen in a while, and would have been more visibly excited if I wasn't nearly asleep from jet lag.

I had successfully made it out of the UK.

I was in Australia again.

But holiday wasn't over yet!