Chapter 20
It was the day of Nina’s flight to Bangkok. She had said no to suggestions of driving and leaving the car at the airport and to Nancy giving her a lift. Instead, she’d decided to take the train to Heathrow. Now, as she stood on a chilly, windy platform on her own, waiting for the express train to the airport, she was questioning her choice as she thought about a nice warm car and being dropped off at the airport departure area. Remembering how she’d listened to an audiobook on the train and hadn’t been concerned about the traffic, she decided that she could suck up a bit of a wait and some wind as she pulled her neatly folded scarf out of her bag and wrapped it around her neck.
About an hour later, she’d queued up at the desk along with what felt like half of England, also on their way to some tropical sunshine and had checked in. After trailing through security and wondering quite how and why it always took so long wherever you were off to, she was sitting in an airport bar, gazing out the window at the huge jets taking off, heading all over the planet. She watched several Emirates jets go past, peered at a British Airways plane as it swooped up into the sky, and marvelled at the cockpit of an A350, wondering quite how the big beast ever got itself up in the air.
As she sat and peered, she felt a bit like one of the trainspotters who stood at the station in Lovely Bay, waiting for the moveable platform that fascinated them. Observing the planes taking off and landing on the runway and the waiting area underneath her, the time flew by. Before she knew it, she was queuing in line, ready to board for her mammoth twelve-hour trip to Bangkok. Once seated and settled, she looked at her phone notes, reading more about Thai food, the climate, and the so-called Thai smile, famous worldwide.
Nina leaned on the armrest with her left elbow and with her chin on her hand, she stared out the plane window, trying to ignore the hustle and bustle of the passengers in the fully loaded section around her. She was so pleased she had chosen a window seat; even though it was a twelve-hour ride, she would be quite happy sitting tucked up in the corner, staring out at the clouds and not stuck on the aisle as people trekked past on their way to the loo. She settled back and got herself ready for the holiday of her life. What was to come?
As the plane made its final approach, Nina could see Bangkok and as the runway came into clear view, she felt like a tiny little speck as she gaped out the window. The ground rushed up to meet them, and with a huge jolt and bump, the wheels touched down on the tarmac and she had arrived. The view was even better than she’d thought it was going to be. She hadn’t been sure what to expect, but she could tell it was warm, and the tropical feel seemed to almost come through the window. She watched the airport buildings come into view and the plane taxi past long lines of parked planes with the purple Thai Airways badge on their tails. The strong sunshine and warmth felt palpable, even from the plane. She could almost feel the tropical humidity in contrast to the air-conditioned interior of the cabin and she could see heat waves on top of the tarmac. Whoop whoop. Here we go.
As the plane taxied, Nina sat back in her seat, her eyes still glued to the window, and watched intently as the airport buildings loomed closer, their details becoming clearer as the area around the plane bustled with activity on the ground. Service vehicles darted between planes, luggage carts trundled along, and ground crew members signalled to pilots. The plane slowed to a crawl, turning towards the terminal and as the plane finally came to a stop at the gate, Nina felt a flutter of excitement. Now she’d arrived, she couldn’t wait to get to the hotel and get herself sorted. Her phone pinged a couple of times, indicating that her phone company had noted her location and that she had arrived in Thailand.
Just after that, a message from Robby appeared.
Robby: I’ve just seen that you’ve landed on the Flight Aware website. How was it? Xx
Nina: Good!
Robby: Did u manage to get any sleep?
Nina: Some.
Robby: Excellent. So glad yr safe x
Nina: I am. Xxxx I watched a couple of movies had a few drinks.
Robby: Sounds good.
Nina: There was quite a bit of turbulence about halfway through.
Robby: Scary.
Nina: How are u? How’s the weather?
Robby: Hot and humid, very hot. I just looked at the weather forecast; it’s the same there.
Nina: Sounds like music to my ears, hahaha. Cold and grey at home.
Robby: Yup!!! See you in a few days then. Are you sure you’re going to be OK?
Nina: Yes, fine, looking forward to having a few days to recharge.
Robby: I’ll WhatsApp u later after I finish dangling down the side of a Singapore building.
Nina: Lol. Yep. Spk later xx
Nina followed a line of passengers, including irritating children riding on suitcases masquerading as scooters as if they were in a playground, and waited in a long, fairly disorganised line to get through passport control. She held her passport nervously in her left hand and gripped the handle of her case with the other. There was always something slightly alarming and fairly intimidating about a long line of immigration desks, as far as she was concerned. Not that she’d ever travelled very far, mostly to Spain on holiday. Whenever she arrived in official-looking areas, with scary individuals dressed in uniforms with epaulettes, she felt as if she had done something wrong. Arrival in Bangkok was no different.
After a long wait, by the time she got to the immigration desk, she nervously slid her passport under the panel and felt as if she had hundreds of kilos of cocaine in her bag, even though she’d never even looked at a drug in her life, let alone thought about smuggling one.
As she stood nervously and looked at the woman behind the counter, there wasn’t much evidence of the famous Thai smile she’d heard so much about in her pre-travel sleuthing. The immigration official held up Nina’s passport from behind the screen, squinted, looked from the passport to Nina’s face, held the passport closer and then put the passport down. Nina gulped as rather than stamping it and shoving it back under the gap, the woman continued to stare at the passport and then flicked her eyes up to Nina’s.
What followed was a line of questioning in English that made Nina’s heart race. She felt as if she was a criminal about to be carted off to an inner room where an official person would conduct all sorts of body searches in places she didn’t even know about. She felt her palms get clammy as she answered the questions: yes, she was on holiday, yes, she was travelling alone, but yes she would be meeting her husband and no, she didn’t have anything in her bags that she shouldn’t have. Because she was so nervous, she nearly made a joke about not having packed her bag herself but stopped herself just in time.
The immigration officer, as if she was clearly enjoying herself, asked a couple more questions, held the passport for a few more seconds, thumped it down, squinted, held it up again, put on a pair of glasses, squinted again, and then finally slammed it down, stamped it heavily, before shoving it back under the panel and looking the other way.
Nina didn’t say a word, grasped the passport tightly, and scurried on past as soon as she could. So much for the Thai smile, but at least she’d arrived in one piece. Time for loungers, cocktails and lazing around in the sun. Bring it on.