International Travel

19/5 Launceston - Melbourne

Airbus A320 - Jetstar

Flight to Melbourne was good, very short.  Had subway for lunch at Tullamarine then went straight to International Departures.  Wandered aimlessly around the duty free shops as I'd be sitting down for the next 20hrs - as much as I would rather have sat down...

19/5 Melbourne - Kuala Lumpar

Boeing 777 - Malaysian Airlines

Almost 6PM KL time; started writing this journal.  By my calculation that makes it 5hrs in the air - the longest I've ever spent in a plane (record soon to be broken ;)  Plane is very impressive, spacious and great service.  Got an aisle seat which is great.  Although the guy in the middle 5 seats has the whole thing to himself.  So he's been lying down asleep for the last 5hrs the bastard.

Watched Seven Pounds on the tiny screen and I thought it was fantastic.  Not sure what the Indian guy next to me thought when I got a bit teary :)  I'm glad my spirits are still high as they're only going down from here...  The sun has just overtaken us and night has descended.  I imagine the 12hr flight is going to suck balls.

I'm pretty tired from not sleeping well before I left.  But putting my optimistic hat on: the 12hr flight will be 11PM (KL time) till 6AM (Amsterdam time) which is 7hrs.  The point?  It's like extended daylight savings, an extra 5hrs of night.

20/5 Kuala Lumpar - Amsterdam

Boeing 777-200 - KLM

Slightly delirious at KL airport, stumbling around and all from lack of sleep.  Got given a yellow health card saying I'm a possible carrier of swine flu from people in white suits and masks.  Whatever.  Checked back in and lay down in the departure lounge, trying to getting some rest while stretched out.

The flight sucked a bit.  Like I said, I was already out of it getting on to the 12hr flight.  The flight was packed, the guy next to me was some weird fat italian looking bloke who was as good as a mute, making hand signals and such to a malaysian women some 4 seats away.  It's my theory he's some dirty bastard who took a flight with his mistress and they caught the plane back in different seats so as not to raise suspicion.  In any case I didn't talk to him cause I got bad vibes from him.  

Then the guy in front of me fully over-reclined his chair for the entire flight so I took care to bang his seat whenever I moved around - which was every 2 minutes :P  I dozed horribly for the first 6 hours, it passed the time but that's all.  I didn't read any of my book, but did watch the first 30 minutes of Inkheart (which was rubbish), Changling (which was also rubbish, I think they were trying to break a record for saying "he's not my son") and most of Casino Royale.  I ate whatever was put in front of me and drank whatever was offered and got up every 1/2hr to wander aimlessly down the aisle.

20/5 Amsterdam - Norwich

Focher 50 - KLM

Short 45min flight over the water in a propeller plane.  Still queasy.  Still no sleep.  Turbulence coming in to land made the rehydrated plane food creep slowly back up - luckily its gone back down now :)  Norwich airport is even smaller than Launceston with weeds sticking out of the runway.  Had passports checked by a balding middle-aged portly bloke who looked like he should be a country policeman in Heartbeat or something.  Or down the pub for a couple of afternoon pints...

And here I am, staying with family in the country.  It's incredible what the sun feels like, and a fresh breeze in the warm afternoon.  I've been awake for the last 48hrs and now it's time for bed.  Does this make you want to travel?  Me neither ;P