You don't need my maths degree to know something is wrong with the above equations!
To be fair, I was surprised by the cheapness of the flights, and midday, midweek is probably not peak. Plus I didn't even book the train in advance, expecting a £80 open return, but it turns out 8.42 am IS peak. The man at the train station counter seemed keen to try and save me some money too (he couldn't), so I'm not too hateful of the train. Lots of people around are though, every single train I have seen today has been late. Luckily my first one was only 2 minutes late, and I then got on one which was 35 minutes late, but good for me. Others are not so lucky. At the ticket counter, a lady burst into tears because she was going to miss her meeting at Meadowhall. It was in more than 30 minutes, I pointed out the taxis lined up outside to her, suggesting that one should make it comfortably. What a hero.
Seeing me off is what is known round here as 'pea soup' (or fog, for the lesser informed), and 'cold' (no translation necessary, I hope). I normally like this sort of weather since the sun doesn't disturb your sleep, and today it's even better, since I can imagine that everyone at home is cold and sight impaired whilst I am basking in the foreign sunshine. Right now though, it is scant consolation. I am glad I opted for a jacket, and indeed find myself wishing I had more clothes with sleeves in my bag that I could slip on.
I got into London and onto the tube fine, I even helped an old guy get on with his 2 suitcases at one stop (what a hero mk 2), and got talking to him whilst we rolled on to Heathrow. He was a professor of statistics and anthropology who had formed a company for some kind of statistics thing, he is never going to retire, and he seemed to have been everywhere in the world! I think I surprised him with how widely travelled I am though.
There was plenty of time in the airport for lunch (wh smiths sandwich meal deal), and a coffee (pret a manger, very nice), before boarding. The seat was relatively spacious. Good. I was sat next to 2 kids who listened to Michael Jackson's Billy Jean on repeat for all 6 hours of the flight whilst doing the thriller dance and screaming "hee hoo" (or whatever the phonetics for the random noises in billy jean are), to a level where the stewardess had to tell them to shut up more than once. Bad. The film selection was good, and the display was very high quality/large for a back of seat affair. Good. I was sat in the aisle, so when the kids needed to go to the toilet 50 times each because of the 6 cans of coke they very rudely asked for, I had to get up every time (seriously, where were the parents?!? They probably ditched the kids on purpose hoping I would eventually break and enact my fantasies of choking them both out and enjoying some peace). Bad. The food was very nice, we got actual metal cutlery, and the takeoff was so smooth (thanks to it being an a380) that I didn't even notice it. Good. If not for the kids it would probably have been one of my best flights ever, as it was it was just above mediocre, through no fault of Qatar airways, who I would recommend.
The plane was a little late, and when we landed I only had 1 hour before the next flight flew! Luckily there was nothing for me to do, and I was at the gate in 5 minutes, so my stress was for nothing! Obviously I didn't get much of an impression of Qatar from the airport, but boy was it hot. 5 past midnight and 33 degrees C. Would hate to see daytime in summer (good luck footballers of 2020!)
The next flight was much more peaceful. I was on the aisle, and some adult non Michael Jackson addict with an iron bladder was by the window, with a free seat in between. It wasn't quite as luxurious a plane as the last one, but the lack of thriller dancing was golden. I even got a free eye mask, earplug, toothbrush, toothpaste, and travel socks set in a nice little pouch! Thanks partially to the extra space, and partially to my neck pillow, I managed to get a couple of hours decent sleep in, more or less a first on a plane for me.
As I do on planes, I put some of the complimentary music on as I napped(/slept), as I find it does more to mitigate the random sounds (MJ nonewithstanding) than my ear plugs. I went for Chopin as played by Lang Lang (presumably Chinese), which was very restful in the main. Unfortunately one track started abruptly, and very strongly, so I woke up thinking the plane had made some huge noise and we were going down. We did not luckily, and made it safely to Bangkok where the plane stopped on the way to Hanoi, but I was not getting off.
The flight to Hanoi was uneventful, only an hour twenty, and I more or less just napped the whole time.
Upon arrival it was 34 degrees! Way too hot for my jeans and boots, but what can a boy do? Too cold for England, too hot for here. There was a fairly hefty queue at arrivals, which left me plenty of time to sweat over my lack of visa, despite full well knowing I qualify for an exemption.
I found my taxi, and off we went. Driving in Vietnam seems similar to Indonesia, ie. lanes are optional, a beep of the horn can mean anything and everything, and scooters travel in packs complete with bizarre accessories. I saw a man with 2 drums for (probably) industrial cabling, about 4 feet in diameter, stacked on the back of his moped like a sail, and a man with a goose trapped between his ankles and the steering pillar. The goose's neck was sticking out of the side like a snake, staring interestedly at the passing cars, not afraid at all.
The architecture we passed was a weird mishmash of pretty much every style imaginable. Some buildings looked like churches, next to Mediterranean style houses with red tiled rooves and white walls, next to what I would think of as traditional South East Asian architecture, next to concrete squares.
I arrived at the hotel surprisingly fresh. It is a fairly bad looking building honestly, but the room is nice enough, and the service was very good. Now for a shower before my orientation meeting.
