Been back from Thailand a little over a week and still haven’t recovered. The holiday was great. Getting home requires counselling.

For those following the condo saga from my previous post, we arrived to discover the builder hadn’t finished. Now I am not naive, I know there is “builders time” and “Thai” time so coming fact to face with “Thai Builders time” was not a surprise. The new completion date is 30 November just in time for Christmas with no flights available – great choice! Based on experience, I’m confidently predicting a February finish. Just not sure which year.

Then came the flight home, which somehow made the flight over look like pure bliss.

We couldn’t get business class and had to fly via Sydney. A double whammy before we’d even left the ground.

About five hours in, a passenger suffered a heart attack. Thankfully, the cabin crew and two passengers who were nurses managed to stabilise him. A frightening experience for everyone involved, and I hope he’s recovering well.

We diverted to Jakarta, where it took about an hour to get the poor fellow off the plane, followed by a couple of hours sorting out whether we’d continue, and refuelling and resupplying. By then I was wondering whether our condo might be finished before we got home.

Eventually we headed off again, arriving in Sydney hours late and missing our connecting flight.

But Sydney Airport still had a little farewell gift for us.

We landed near the domestic terminal, which was exactly where we wanted to be. Unfortunately, we first had to get to the international terminal and clear customs. With only two runways operating and planes landing about every 90 seconds, we joined a queue of aircraft waiting to cross.

Forty minutes sitting there, looking at the general direction we needed to go. So close, yet so Sydney.

Eventually, 24 hours into what should have been a nine-hour flight, we arrived home. Even our luggage needed a lie-down.

And after that much time sharing cabin air, we apparently brought home everyone else’s bugs as souvenirs. Coughs, sniffles and penicillin now abound. We’d planned to bring back happy memories, but seem to have collected the entire plane’s medical history as well.

Despite all that, we had a wonderful time in Thailand. I took loads of photos for a couple of books I’m planning, while Maree went on a wildlife safari: patting tigers, bottle-feeding a three-month-old lion cub that was already massive and ridiculously powerful, riding an elephant and patting capybaras.

Between the two of us, we came home with some wonderful memories, plenty of photos and a deeply personal grievance against air travel.

Great trip. Sh#t flights.

Next time I might ask the builder to organise our return journey. We’d never leave Thailand.

In the next little while I will collate the photos and share some of the really “cool stuff” like battlefield memorials, prehistoric sights, statues showing Thai military uniforms etc.

Thanks again to Open AI for help with the “toon”.

Stay safe and remember never, I repeat never, never, never, – got that – travel with us!