Our flight to Chiang Mai did not go quite to plan….. We did get packed (last minute as we always do, and only forgetting a travel adaptor). We relaxed back into the comfortable leather seats of Al’s, our regular driver, car and mentally prepared ourselves for the next 12 hours of transit. Internet check-in saved us over an hour in the queue and left us wondering why more people didn’t do the same thing.
The flight, our first on Thai International, held promises of the famous Thai service we’ve seen advertised so often. Unfortunately this was not to be our experience. After an hour delay due to late arrival of the aircraft we finally boarded. The flight was full, with only a handful of spare seats from no-shows. The service was effective (to some extent) but not necessarily efficient, the food was average, the entertainment system in our row broken (thank goodness for tablets), the cabin fluctuated between hot and freezing cold and there was little of the genuinely friendliness we were expecting other than the obligatory head bow over prayer-hands and the word “Namaste” – as if that magical action fixes all issues and complaints.
After more than 8 hours we started circling over Bangkok – a holding pattern – and shortly afterwards the announcement we had hoped wouldn’t happen. The captain announed first in Thai, then in poor English, that we were being diverted to Bangkok’s former international airport as the run way was closed for the next hour and we didn’t have enough fuel to continue in a holding pattern. We were told rather oddly that the runway had a hole in it that needed to be repaired, but this was revise the next morning as the truth came out that the airport’s radar had gone out for 3 hours and all flights had been diverted.
The hour on the ground at Don Mueang International Airport was chaos – the Captain failed to keep the cabin crew updated, passengers tried to disembark before the Captain announced that we were grounded and needed to remain seated for the next hour, refuel and then head back to Suvarnabhumi International Airport with fading hope of catching our connecting flight to Chiang Mai.
Sure enough, on disembarking the aircraft we were advised that we has missed our connecting flight and were standby for the 7.55am flight (non-confirmed as the flight was full) with confirmed flights at 12.55pm the following day, and that we’d be accommodated at a hotel 20 minutes away, without our luggage which was being held in transit. Not happy with missing most of the first day of our FushionHQ seminar, we went to clarify our flights with the Thai Airways ticketing office. Whilst we didn’t get any joy with respect to our flights, we were moved to the closer Novotel hotel 5 minutes away allowing us more sleep. Determined not to miss the seminar, a flash of brilliance and a Internet connection later, we’d purchased the last 2 seats on the 7.55am flight on Thai Airways from Bangkok to Chang Mai. I could now sleep peacefully.
All went well – checked out of the Novotel (and missing a great photo opportunity in their Thai Garden due to time constraints), got back to the airport, checked in to our flight, got our bags transferred, kissed our standby tickets goodbye and made our way to Chaing Mai on yet another effective but not efficient flight. The food was questionable (what was in that bread roll?) and the landing was one of the worst weve ever experienced, the aircraft lurching from side to side of the run way. I guess the “L” plates were on. But as Tony says “any landing you can walk away from is a good one!”
It’s been quite a trip getting to Chiang Mai – we are looking forward to learning lots in the next 3 days, and to the week that follows to explore some of Thailand’s sights, sounds and tastes.