Stuck Abroad

29 April 2010

You might have read our previous blog about the now dubbed Volcano crisis. When this was all happening I was on the stunning Island of Raileh in Thailand. The first time I heard of the crisis was through a Facebook alert received on my iPhone (one of the restaurants I ate at on the island had wireless internet) from a friend urging me to join a group called ‘Petition to have Iceland's volcano taken off them’. I laughed out loud upon reading this not realising the volcano eruption in Iceland would hinder my travel plans back to the UK. With no access to a TV, internet or news, I had no idea of what was really going on and thought it would blow over quickly (no pun intended!).

It was only after hearing from a fellow traveller through a text message she had received that I started to worry about returning home. Had I been at home I would have gone on the internet straight away using my phone, but with expensive data roaming charges on my network , I chose not to do this straight away and opted to try to call Emirates (who I was flying with) to find out. Not surprising I did not get through and opted to deal with this when I could access the internet again the following day.

When I accessed the Emirates website, there was actually no specific information on what was going on, just a link to the Met Office website and then to VACC (the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre), but neither had any useful information at all. It actually did not cross my mind to check the foreign office website as I thought that the airlines website would be the best place to consult on whether my flight was departing or not. Until a few hours before my flight was due to depart, it was still scheduled according to the Emirates website and having spoken to their customer services team twice that morning and confirmed my flight was going, I set off for Phuket Airport and left the beach behind!

Arriving in Bangkok, the messages from the airline were quite different. “No flights are going, how were you not aware of this? It was all over the news! Go to the customer service desk to rebook your flight,” I was told by very bolshie Emirates staff. 30 April was the return date I was given, when I was due to be back in London on 20 April! Most of the people around me were accepting their fate, some were irate, some just hung around hoping for a miracle. Surprisingly none of the staff were urging me to go to the crisis centre that had been set up on the ground floor for stranded travellers, which boasted free internet, mattress, food and water.

I was thinking if only I could get to somewhere in Europe, I can make my way home overland. With next to no wireless access at the airport and until I could actually find an internet cafe or knew about the crisis centre, I was liaising with my family and friends to try and find safe passage. As my flight was connecting in Dubai, I decided that my priority was to get there as I knew those stuck there would leave ahead of those stuck at other connecting destinations. I was also lucky enough to have friends I could stay out there with until the European airspace re-opened. But getting Emirates to fly me to Dubai was no mean feat. I had to provide a copy of my friend’s passport, resident visa and an invitation letter before I could be allowed on the flight. 3 hours of back and forth discussions with Emirates agents and 400 Baht later - nearly £10, accessing the internet is expensive in Thailand, I was on my way to Dubai.

After clearing customs in Dubai I thought I would try my luck to get on a waiting list for the next flights leaving. I had very limited hope that I would manage to leave but thought I would try anyway. After speaking to another set of not-so-helpful customer service staff I spoke to a miracle worker. He simply said: “Are you sure you want to go to Heathrow? I can put you on a flight to Paris!” When I said I would go anywhere in Europe he marched me to a check in desk and 30 minutes later I had a boarding pass for Paris. I could not believe my luck as most of my fellow passengers boarding the flight had been waiting for the opportunity for 4 days! Being blessed by a Buddhist monk while visiting Phrathat Doi Suthep temple in Chang Mai (Northern Thailand) had paid off.

The rest of my journey involved a train ride from Paris to Caen, a ferry from Caen to Portsmouth and another train ride from Portsmouth to London. Total journey time from Phuket to London: 65 hours.

My adventure made me reflect on how dependent we are on modern technology and modes of transport. It was only after I got back that I started thinking that I could have made it back to the UK overland. Phileas Fogg went around the world in 80 days, but I’m sure with a week to spare I could have travelled by train across China, Siberia, Europe and caught a ferry when I reached Northern Europe to get back to London. But without access to the internet on my phone I was all but lost!

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