Across the world

The ever-increasing, exorbitant cost of airfares generally combined with our somewhat extravagant preference to undertake long-haul flights at the pointy end of the plane meant that we had to make some concessions. The concession was that rather than fly either direct to France or even our normal Perth-Singapore kick-off on Qantas, we chose the somewhat convoluted route of Perth-Kuala Lumpur-Bangkok on Malaysian to pick up Finnair to Helsinki and then onto Paris. The Finnair leg is not all that uncommon; we’ve done that many times now (but more of that later).

Including a 17-hour layover in Bangkok it’s something like a 47-hour trip – actually, I can add another 9 hours or so to that allowing for the bus trip up from home to Perth international airport, and then waiting time at the airport. So over two days from when we were kindly picked up from home and driven into town (thanks Chris) until we touched down at Charles De Gaulle.

Some people might shudder at that, but for me that’s all part of the fun of it. The journey. Not just the destination.

And whilst I’ve never done it (well not yet, anyway), I’m not sure that I’m all that keen on the non-stop “Project Sunrise” type non-stop trips of 17/18+ hours.

The first legs were uneventful. Leave Perth at 2am, arrive at KL at 8 am for a few hours there to explore the airport terminals and visit both Golden Lounges, and then onto Bangkok. Suvarnabhumi airport is a seriously bustling place; it’d be interesting to find out how many flights arrive and depart every day, or how many passengers pass through the place. I’d booked a room at the nearby Hyatt Suvarnabhumi, a seven minute walk from the terminal if you know how, or a complimentary shuttle ride if you don’t. Just for fun, here's a couple of Suvarnabhumi shots:

Just out of the terminal are these sleeping pods. When we went back early the next morning they were all full judging by the many pairs of shoes/sandals outside!!

Because we had a 7am flight today (Saturday, 13^th), which meant a 3:30am wake-up for a 4:45-ish arrival back at the airport (I’m cautious/conservative in airports I’m not all that familiar with, making allowances for delays through immigration and security), we had an early dinner. Excellent (grand) buffet at the Hyatt, with an almost endless array of Thai dishes, complemented with a few western ones. One of the staff took a liking to us – a young man called Nonni – and we were each given an Eiffel Tower keyring from him/the hotel. Think about that for a moment.  He was a lovely young man, and I’m not really sure what we did to deserve the attention (or the 15% discount on the meal bill, that I think because their automatic coffee machine wasn’t functioning properly and I went and told them – not a complaint, just an advice). Whatever the reason, it was a lovely touch on both accounts, and of course we will remember the hotel fondly (and of course it may not be our last time there).

Which brings us to today. We’ve flown the Finnair A350 a few times now, and at both a service and comfort level it’s pretty well faultless. The business class AirLounge seats (they’re not normal airline seats, and they’re not pods) are a testament to Scandi design. You have to experience them to know them. They are a sort of wrap-around lounge chair at heart, but with a couple of buttons they turn into a lay-flat sleeping pod with more than enough room for someone my height. The plane itself is whisper quiet. Janet and I had adjoining seats in the middle row (1-2-1 layout), with a lowerable privacy screen so that we are more or less sitting together, and can easily converse; no need to yell above the engine noise.

Most modern airlines have some sort of flight map facility, and this one is very good. I’ve included a few screen shots to show the somewhat angular route we flew (thanks to Donald and his equally crazy mate Vladimir for creating all sorts of no-fly zones). Interesting though that we flew right over Kabul; I happened to look out the window at that point – fascinating landscape.

I had been concerned that the connection time at Helsinki would not be long enough for us to get through European immigration under their new, tighter rules, and move from the non-Schengen to the Schengen zone, but at I write this the travel gods have again been kind to us and we are running some 40 minutes ahead of schedule, so assuming that there’s no last minute holdup, that connection will be fine.

Indeed it was good that the travel gods were kind, because without that extra 40 minutes there’s no way we would have got through the assorted processes in time. Passengers coming off flights were subjected to another round of airport security (which I found odd given that we’d gone through all of that in order to get onto the previous flight in the first place), and then the queues at the European immigration control were extensive. That combined with a process which seemed to take several minutes per person added up to a rather stressful encounter. In their favour, they had a sort of “jump the queue” system for people whose connecting flights were departing shortly, which we took advantage of. My guess is that in normal circumstances one would have to allow two to three hours to get through, a far cry from the efficiency we’d experienced in previous trips to Helsinki. But we made it, just.

I had read that travellers were experiencing lengthy delays as a result of the new European entry systems, but that such delays were mainly restricted to the very busy airports, and that Helsinki being smaller and more efficient wasn’t experiencing such problems. Well, hmmmm, I say.  

I write this not to complain, after all it is one of the hallmarks of international travel, but to forewarn anyone who might be reading this and who is travelling to Europe from outside to ensure that they allow enough time for any transit activities.

But here we are now, approaching Paris, the end point of this part of the journey. I’ll sign this off shortly, add a couple of photos, and give another update either on our way to or at Cahors.

And to close, and because I'm a bit geeky, here's a shot of our plane landing in the rain at Helsinki