Inexperienced Wanderlust: A novice traveller's exotic encounter on route to a long-awaited dream

Photo courtesy of Adventura

Flying is an adventure in itself, especially when you've only flown once before, and that trip was a two-hour flight to Guernsey. At the time, I was alone on an eleven-hour journey to Bangkok, although I was not travelling entirely solo. I was one of 39 BUNACers travelling to Australia on a BUNAC-organized Work Australia tour, I'd just never met any of them before. To put this into context, my first trip beyond the shores of Blighty was a school trip to Dieppe, Rouen and Paris for a week in 1987. Then this was followed in 1996 by the aforementioned first flight to Guernsey. In late September 1997, after a brief Interrail trip, I departed the United Kingdom for Australia. I was inexperienced and relatively wet behind the ears back then, but I've never regretted taking that huge step for me.

Aside from the descent, which was excruciatingly painful, the flight itself was enjoyable. The airline meals were a learning experience, with the food on the plane being somewhat suspect. There was plenty of space to stretch out, however sleeping was quite uncomfortable, so I did not sleep. Furthermore, my body clock indicated that it was still 11.30 pm Monday when we landed, although we had crossed six time zones, and it was 05.30 am Tuesday!

Individual screens in the back of the seat in front of you were not available back then. The plane had a few major screens that displayed a variety of information, including local time at departure and arrival destinations, local time at the current position, flight height, outside temperature, and projected time of arrival. The route we took was via Amsterdam, Moscow and the Himalayas. We passed over the Himalayas at 7.10 pm local time, flying at 37,000 feet. Virtually the entire flight was in darkness as we flew towards the night.

We arrived in Bangkok absolutely shattered. Once we had managed to crawl through customs, confronted with quite unpleasant customs officials, we were met and greeted by Mr Abdul Yes-Yes. That wasn't his real surname; he got nicknamed that for his habit of saying yes at the end of each sentence. Credit where it was due though, as he spoke excellent English, and gave us a running commentary while we were transferred from Bangkok Airport to Bangkok Centre Hotel in a private air-conditioned coach. Compared with the relative coolness of home, it was soooo hot outside. We'd arrived during the Thai rainy season; Thailand has three seasons, we were informed: Winter, Summer and Rainy. We'd chosen rainy, and it was still hot, whether it rained or not, because the humidity was incredible.

Then we were twinned up after a free glass of ice-cold Coke, with ice in it that no one dared to touch. I was put in with a girl named Anna who reminded me of someone from Uni—actually, the Uni girl and someone else—but I never did put my finger on whom the other one was. We were left to spend the remainder of the morning and the afternoon at leisure, but most of us fell asleep until mid-afternoon. Then we showered and did venture out a little way but thought better of it because of the heat, bought some litre bottles of water for 25p, and headed back to the hotel to try and fathom out the curious Thai TV. I'm glad to say that an appreciation of other cultures and how to better embrace them has grown on me over the years since then.

At 7 p.m., we set off for a traditional Thai dinner and classic Thai dancing at the Baan Thai Restaurant. There were five bowls with different things in them. First up was a vegetable soup—a bit watery but definitely edible. Next was pork, I think, or maybe chicken, or one of the swans from their lotus-laden pool in their old-world garden, or perhaps some rat out of the gutter mixed with onions and peppers and boiled up, tasting a bit like chicken chow mein without the spice. The third dish was a Thai curry; they said it was mild, but it was a vicious piece of work. It tasted nice, though, when the fire had stopped raging in your mouth, especially the meat, though I was a little dubious as to what meat I'd just eaten. A seafood salad to follow, I think. It made me cringe for ages afterwards just thinking about that. Lastly, the meat and vegetables thing in batter. Whatever it was, it tasted awful. Then it was onto the dancing. It was grand for the first one or two, and the mask play was actually very good, but the rest became quite dull. It wasn't just me; all the others said the same. The worst sight of the night, though, was the filthy canals with what I could only describe as sheds with people living in them, partly overhanging the canal, appearing to virtually drop into them.

I awoke the next morning feeling ruddy awful. There were several things that might have caused that, but my main suspect was the previous night's meal. That and the not-so-wonderful breakfast selections were enough to immediately stop any kind of hunger pangs.

We left at 8.30 a.m. for the Grand Palace Tour, which was quite good. It was the famous palace featured in the film 'The King and I'. We even saw the schoolroom where Anna taught the young Prince Chulalongkorn. At secondary school, I'd taken part in a 'King & I' play that had teachers, pupils, and the nearby primary school kids involved. I was too small to be one of the king's wives, so I ended up being one of the bigger children, though some of the primary school kids were nearly as tall as me! I was a super short-arse in those days, and not much has changed!

The day was hot and humid, and we were glad to return to our air-conditioned coach. It was back to the hotel for a not-impressive lunch before onward we went for a City and Temples Tour in the afternoon; the temples and their Buddhas, including a sitting Buddha, a leaning Buddha, and another Buddha. After the tour, we were transferred to Bangkok International Airport.

After checking in, it was tea at Burger King; never before had a cheeseburger, fries, and coke tasted so good! We all agreed that Bangkok was definitely an eye-opening experience, but we were glad to go! Nice to visit, but even better to leave! I do wonder how I would feel about the place if I visited it now, nearly three decades later.

And so, glad to be out of there, at 20:35 hours, we enthusiastically waved goodbye to Bangkok and Thailand, which looked much better from the air than on the ground. Then it was another long-haul flight of 8 or 9 hours. The film 'Gone Fishing' was shown, and afterwards I slept. Gone Fishing was cack, by the way.

A sense of timelessness ensued. We crossed the equator at midnight local time, and then we crossed three more time zones. After another night on the plane and more strange, but a bit more edible, Thai food, it would soon be time to arrive in Sydney. I remember looking out of the window and seeing the Stuart Highway for the first time. Looming over the Northern Territory, we were tantalisingly close yet still 2,500 miles and nearly four and a half hours of flight time away.

The descent wasn't as bad as the previous flight, mainly because I sucked several trillion sweets to aid pressure equalisation. But all of a sudden I was excited. We were flying over New South Wales, and we were close to landing on Australian soil. I remember thinking:

“I've done it! I've made it, I've actually made it. The day I could only dream of has now arrived!” 

There was no doubting the 'Wow' factor and that this was a very magical moment for me. After starting out without much experience, I proceeded to seize the opportunity with both hands and flourished on a 15-month odyssey to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Rarotonga in the South Pacific. I was given a whole new perspective on life, gained confidence, learning independence, tolerance and self-reliance. The Travel Bug had bitten and I was hooked!

Since then, I have been incredibly lucky and privileged to have experienced many 'once-in-a-lifetime' adventures.Travelling is the opportunity to step out of one's little world & glimpse someone else's, take a thoughtful insight into other cultures & customs, embrace new experiences and open your eyes to the world beyond your doorstep.