Flying home - by bus
And so the adventure draws to a close...well for a couple of weeks at least. But before we
can get back to England, we've still got a fair bit of travelling to do. From Kuala Lumpur we're booked on the express bus down to Singapore.
This departs at 12.00, but we nearly don't make it, as the taxi has a hard time squashing all of our luggage in - and the bus driver has an
even harder time! Apparently 'executive coaches' aren't meant to be carrying people with serious luggage, and we only manage it by putting our
rucksacks behind our seats.
The uneventful 5-hour trip was interrupted by the coach breaking down at a toll-gate on the motorway, where it sat for 25 minutes while the driver tried to coax it back into life. Although we had loads of time spare, we couldn't help but wonder if this was a bad sign, and what we could do if it didn't start again. Hitch (with our luggage hidden in the verge)? Call a taxi from the nearest town? Fortunately, after a lengthy application of the hammer, it started again, and onwards we went, further south. It got a bit fraught when we had to carry all of luggage across the border at Singapore - loads of stairs and queues, but no trolleys. Somehow the little things we'd accumulated as we travelled had filled out two sturdy bags. With my rucksack on my back, and the two bags in my hands, I was carrying and dragging more than 120 pounds of luggage. If I don't get fit from this last bit of the trip, then nothing the gym can do will make any difference!
And finally, around 7pm, we checked into our flight at Singapore's Changi Airport. If there's ever a place to check in four
hours early for a flight, this is it! Good food, nice shopping, great play areas for the children, and for S$8 (about £3) a
post-luggage-workout shower. In fact, there seemed so much to see and do, we had to rush to the gate when we heard the last call for our
flight. Although it was midnight, the girls stayed awake to eat their meal, watch a film on the seat-back video, and only then did they crash
out, and sleep until we arrived over Europe.
And then, suddenly, it was all over - 11 months ago seemed like only yesterday, as we came through immigration and had a joyful reunion with Sarah's parents and brother. We'd been having breakfast on the plane, as they'd been getting up at 4.30 in the morning, to get to Heathrow for 6am to meet us. Made us feel like we'd had a lie-in!
But its not actually all over yet - we're home in England for a couple of weeks, but then we're finishing off our trip with 2 weeks in France. And only then will it be "over", and we'll be able to move back into our own house and pretend that we lead normal lives again.
The uneventful 5-hour trip was interrupted by the coach breaking down at a toll-gate on the motorway, where it sat for 25 minutes while the driver tried to coax it back into life. Although we had loads of time spare, we couldn't help but wonder if this was a bad sign, and what we could do if it didn't start again. Hitch (with our luggage hidden in the verge)? Call a taxi from the nearest town? Fortunately, after a lengthy application of the hammer, it started again, and onwards we went, further south. It got a bit fraught when we had to carry all of luggage across the border at Singapore - loads of stairs and queues, but no trolleys. Somehow the little things we'd accumulated as we travelled had filled out two sturdy bags. With my rucksack on my back, and the two bags in my hands, I was carrying and dragging more than 120 pounds of luggage. If I don't get fit from this last bit of the trip, then nothing the gym can do will make any difference!
And finally, around 7pm, we checked into our flight at Singapore's Changi Airport. If there's ever a place to check in four
hours early for a flight, this is it! Good food, nice shopping, great play areas for the children, and for S$8 (about £3) a
post-luggage-workout shower. In fact, there seemed so much to see and do, we had to rush to the gate when we heard the last call for our
flight. Although it was midnight, the girls stayed awake to eat their meal, watch a film on the seat-back video, and only then did they crash
out, and sleep until we arrived over Europe.And then, suddenly, it was all over - 11 months ago seemed like only yesterday, as we came through immigration and had a joyful reunion with Sarah's parents and brother. We'd been having breakfast on the plane, as they'd been getting up at 4.30 in the morning, to get to Heathrow for 6am to meet us. Made us feel like we'd had a lie-in!
But its not actually all over yet - we're home in England for a couple of weeks, but then we're finishing off our trip with 2 weeks in France. And only then will it be "over", and we'll be able to move back into our own house and pretend that we lead normal lives again.