80-hour odyssey of flying chaos

We left our hotel at 6:30 am on Thursday the 15th, bound for the Bangkok airport for our flight back to Germany and our new home. Unbeknownst to us at the time, we were in for an experience unlike any we had before. We thought that our travels were story enough for friends and family awaiting our arrival. Who knew that one of our biggest was to come at the end of our trip? But it did and here's how it went...

We boarded our Moscow-bound Aeroflot jet full of sunburnt Russian tourists in vacation garb eerily reminiscent of the late 80s. With a 10-hour carefree flight behind us, we bunkered down for our planned 15-hour layover at the Moscow airport, a bit tired but excited at the prospect that we would soon be home.

When we arrived, we were guided to the new international terminal, a short bus ride away from where we had landed. Expecting to be impressed by pristine surroundings and posh amenities, our hopes were quickly dashed. This supposed international terminal doesn't have much going for it as we soon realized. The handful of eateries, which were pretty limited in choice, didn't accept any foreign currency or credit cards. If you didn't have Russian rubles in cash, you were out of luck. One would think that a logical solution to such a problem would be to frequent an exchange booth, but that would have been too easy. There were none around. If you played your cards right, you could change a bit of money at one of the two small duty-free shops, but that wasn't always a guarantee. Interesting...

We spent a night attempting to sleep on chairs not designed for such a purpose (immovable metal armrests make the ability to recline or sprawl oneself across them virtually impossible). Regardless, we made it through and eagerly waited by our gate for our boarding call. We looked up at the departures screen and couldn't believe our eyes. Our flight was delayed by nine hours. But, passengers were still arriving to discover the news, which seemed strange to us. One exclaimed that the volcano was really affecting all of the major airports in Europe. What volcano, we wondered. We focused our news junkie 'tudes on the Bangkok protests and we were oblivious to what was looming in Iceland. But, it was soon to affect us all.

Knowing that our 15-hour layover had now turned into 24, and then 28, the few snacks we had brought just wouldn't cut it. But, what's a foreigner have to do to get a meal voucher in this airport? Apparently, you have to wait 19 hours, ask four airport staff, be mocked by a passport control official for being "in transit" passengers and finally relinquish your boarding passes so that they can be taken out of sight and returned with the coveted meal vouchers. Fortunately, it only took another five hours until a more official meal voucher desk was set up for all stranded passengers.

Once Hour 28 came and went and we knew we were in for another wonderful night in terminal "nowhere", we found a lovely section of cement floor to rest our heads. Being "in transit" passengers without Russian visas meant that we couldn't leave the departures hall, a bit of a scary thought once you've spent over a day there without any end in sight. To make matters worse, none of the brand new flat-screen televisions actually broadcast anything but Samsung ads, and there is no Wifi or computers with Internet in sight. If that wasn't enough, no official announcements were conveyed regarding the current situation and the prospects of getting out of this place. The little information we did receive came from the battery-dying cell phones of fellow passengers.

We were awoken in the middle of the night by the PA system announcing the possibility of exchanging boarding passes to go to a limited selection of airports in Southern Europe that were still operating. With only a handful of flights still operating and nothing heading to anywhere in Northern Europe, we wasted no time and quickly changed our Dusseldorf-bound passes to Milan. Sort of hopeful, we tried to catch a few hours of sleep, enjoyed a meal voucher breakfast, and much to our pessimistic surprise, boarded the flight to Milan. But, our story doesn't end there. After 15 minutes, the pilot sadly announced that the Milan airport had just closed and asked us to deboard. With shoulders slumped, we disembarked the aircraft. Disillusioned and deflated, we mentally prepared ourselves for a week of Russian "hospitality."

One hour later, our hopes were revived with the prospects of rerouting to Rome. Waiting by the gate with bated breath, we eventually boarded the same aircraft again. After sitting on the tarmac for over an hour, we thought that our window of opportunity to leave Russia and land in Europe that day (or possibly ever) was gone. But, this story does have a happy ending. Believe it or not, 30 minutes later we were airborne and on our way to "Bella Italia." At this point, our odyssey was only in Hour 45, just over halfway through.

The entire cabin clapped when we touched down on the runway of Rome's airport. We soon found out that we were one of the last flights, if not the last, to land before the airport was officially closed. With the flight portion of our trip behind us, we focused our attention on our next mode of transport to take us to German soil.

To say that the Rome airport and its nearest train station were packed with people was an understatement. Were it not for the quick thinking and access to Internet of our German co-stranders, we wouldn't be writing this blog but rather be standing in a 200-metre line waiting for the only ticket booth at the Rome central station to serve us.

We caught a train to Bologna, waited an hour and jumped on the overnight train to Munich, knowing that it was likely fully booked considering the situation. Luckily, we found seats and passengers with a bottle of vodka ready to be shared, which helped to induce a record-breaking four hours of sleep.

Arriving a little groggy in Munich at 6:30 am, we staggered to the platform to hop on the next train heading to Köln. What a relief! Five hours later, one transfer to the Grevenbroich train and another short 30-minute ride, we were home. What a beautiful sight it was to see Axel's parents, Gudrun and Gerd. And if they weren't enough, Axel's sister Julia and nephew Tommy were also awaiting our arrival and we spent a happy, relaxing day together.


It's good to be home.

Happy Songkran!

We are enjoying our final days in Bangkok relaxing in our air conditioned hotel room as we closely monitor the political protests taking place in this city. We arrived three days ago to the sounds of protestors in the streets, grenades, gunshots. As the area where all of the tourists go was blocked off, we found another safe hotel for the night. Watching the scenes unfold outside on the news and the Internet from the comfort of our room was enough action for us. In all, 21 people died and the negotiations between the government and the Red Shirts is far from over. We just hope that violence isn't the only way that these issues will be solved. Before coming to Bangkok, we had a wonderful, albeit hot, three days in Battambang, enjoying both the cityscape and the countryside. Even though Battambang is the country's second largest city, you'd hardly know it, as we find it very walkable and much less touristic than Siem Reap. We rented a tuk tuk to take us to two beautiful temples. One is perched high on a hill and requires visitors to climb 359 steps to reach the top where some temple ruins from the 12th century can be found. The second temple also sits on top of a hillband provides gorgeous views of the Western Cambodian landscape which is very dry this time of the year. As so many religious sites during the regime of the Khmer Rouge, this temple was used as a prison and the nearby caves were used as execution sites. It is impossible to imagine what it was like to live in Cambodia from the mid to late 70s. One of the highlights in Battambang was going to the Phare Ponleu Selpak circus. The artists are all vulnerable children and teenagers who have been given the opportunity to excel in the performing arts. This enables them to support themselves and their families. The show was fantastic and featured amazing trapeze artists, contortionists, jogglers etc... This group is part of a larger organization that provides fine arts education to the local community, runs an orphanage and offers a daily free street kitchen for families in need. The circus always brings joy to our hearts because it makes us feel like kids again. Speaking of being a child again, today was the first day of the Thai New Year celebration called Songkran. Essentially, it is a three-day waterfight in cities all over the country. As soon as you set foot on the street, you are 'baptized' with a bucket of water. People armed with waterguns stand on the back of pick up trucks and spray the crowd, which, armed with water as well, strike back. The nice thing is that it is not just kids participating, but people of all ages. We even saw a woman in her 80s wielding a bright plastic water pistol. Everyone joins in the fun. And that is exactly what it is: pure fun. It is a fantastic way to ring in a new year especially when the thermometer reads 36 C. Tomorrow, we will head to a hotel close to the airport because we will fly to Germany early Thursday morning. It is hard to believe that our 100 days in Southeast Asia are coming to an end. It was an amazing adventure and one we won't soon forget.

Angkor Wat is the What!

Cram several dozen spectacular thousand-year-old temple complexes into an area the size of a small Canadian city and you've got Angkor. We've just spent three days (far too short) to behold the remnants of these Angkorian capitals that were built between the 9th and 12th centuries AD. Alone, each of these complexes takes your breath away, but to see that one country houses such historic relics is astounding. Even though the temples are spread out over a vast land area, the majority are accessible by bicycle and that's what we used for two days. What's nice about bicycle travel is the chance to go at your own pace and stop where you like. The park is lush and green, even in the dry season, which makes for lovely surroundings. The only issue is the intense heat, unlike anything we've experienced before on this trip. With temperatures approaching 40C by midday, temple visits in the hot sun leave you drenched with sweat and in desparate need of water. But, it's a small price to pay for such beautiful sights. We hope to post photos soon.


We've stayed in Siem Reap for the last five nights. It is a town centred around tourism due to its proximity to the Angkor Archaeological Park. For this reason, it boasts tons of Western restaurants and five-star hotels, which probably detracts from its original charm. But, it has been a very relaxing place to rest our heads for a few days. We've taken advantage of the cheap price of cocktails and beer, visited the handicraft markets and even took in a traditional Khmer dance performance. We've had the opportunity to stay at a lovely family-run guesthouse called Bou Savy, which has a peaceful central courtyard and complimentary breakfast.


With only nine days left in our 100-day journey, we are having nostalgic feelings of the beginning of our trip and wish we could go back to that level of excitement. But, we're also looking forward to what lies ahead.

Today, we head to Battambang for a few days before continuing onto Bangkok for our final week.