Ik ben Kelly
Ik ben een vrouw en woon in Antwerpen (België) en mijn beroep is Freelance HR Consultant.
Ik ben geboren op 22/06/1981 en ben nu dus 43 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Bootcamp Pilates, Spinning, Bodypump, Bikram Yoga, travelling, cooking, reading.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained
Follow us on our trip around the world!
17-01-2011
From Antwerp to Bangkok in 56 hours...
Hello everyone!
It has been a while since we`ve updated our blog so here is a short summary of the first couple of days.
While I am writing this, I am sitting in Cloverdale (suburb in Perth) where we are staying with 2 brothers we found via Couchsurfing.com and while I am updating our blog, Bart is watching `That 70s show`:-D
First things first; our departure on the 24th of December didn`t go as planned.... We left our place at 6 am and arrived at the airport in time, so far so good. We checked in our luggage, grabbed a Starbucks (they gave me a Tea Caramel Macchiato instead of a Coffee Caramel Macchiato which was interesting:-) and waited to board the flight. 15 minutes before departure they announced that the airport would be closed until noon due to the heavy snowfall of the previous night... at that moment we knew that we would miss our connection flight in Frankfurt :-(
I called Singapore Airlines to see if they could help us but the only thing they could do was rebook us onto the next flight to Singapore which would leave in Frankfurt at 10 pm but it meant that we had to find a way to get to Frankfurt by ourselves....
We tried calling all the car rental agencies in Belgium but there were no cars available and then we called the NMBS; they had tickets left for the train that would leave at 2.30 pm which meant that we would arrive in Frankfurt at 5.30 so we decided that was our best (and only) option so we booked the tickets, went looking for our luggage and then took the train to Brussels Midi. We arrived there at 10.30 so had to wait 4 more hours in a freezing trainstation but somehow, we survived :-) Our train did not arrive at 2.30 but we didn`t worry because we had plenty of time.... it arrived 1 hour later so we left Brussels at 3.30 and we thought that we would arrive in Frankfurt by 6 pm... That didn`t happen. We arrived in Frankfurt at MIDNIGHT!!! Our train had to stop several times because during the heavy snowfall and the cold, the rails were frozen... then they told us that we had to leave the train in Keulen and that another train would bring us to the airport. We arrived in Keulen at 8 pm and still thought that we would make it to the airport in time (it`s a 45 minute drive to Frankfurt) and the next train was supposed to arrive within 10 minutes but it didn`t.... we waited for more than an hour and by the time the train arrived, my feet and hands were numb because it was so cold and we had been waiting outside the whole time... They then told us that the train would bring us to the airport but it was a `stoptrain` so it would have 14 stops before arriving in Frankfurt!! At that moment we knew that we would miss our connection flight and I got a bit worried... When we finally arrived in Frankfurt, we found a hotel close to the airport where we stayed for exactly 5 hours before we went back to the airport because the Singapore Airlines helpdesk would open at 6 am and we wanted to be there first. When we arrived there, they told us that there were already 8 people on the waitinglist for the next available flight to Singapore which would leave at noon, so we were number 9 and 10 on the list.... At that stage, we lost all hope and assumed that we would leave Frankfurt until 10 pm (the evening flight had a few available seats) so I prepared myself for a day at the airport. But then half an hour later, the ticketing agent told us that she found a way to get us on the next plane:-) She also told us that we would be on the waitinglist for the flight to Bangkok, but we didn`t mind, we just wanted to get out of there asap! So we left Frankfurt at noon and arrived in Singapore 13 hours later.... we immediately went to the Thai Airlines desk and they told us that the next 2 flights to Bangkok were fully booked and that we could only get on the 6.30 pm flight which meant that we had to stay at the airport for just over 9 hours.... I didn`t like this news but there was nothing that we could do so we walked around in the airport and sat a couple of hours in the sunflower garden (at least the weather was nice :-D
So we finally arrived in our hotel in Bangkok at 9 pm on Sunday instead of at 11 am on Saturday.... it was an adventure and we met some nice people on the train but I wouldn`t want to go through it again!
Our 3 days in Bangkok became 2 nights and 1 day so we made the most out of it and had a nice day beside the pool, went for dinner at an Indian restaurant and had a few cocktails in the most impressive open-air bar in Bangkok, which was nice :-)
On the 28th of December we flew to Chiang Mai for 8 nights and I will tell you all about it within the next couple of days; it`s beachtime now :lol:
I was actually thinking about you guys on the 24th because our flight to England got cancelled and I thought 'Hope Kelly and Bart make it smooth sailing!' Sorry to hear you guys had a tough journey but sounds like you are enjoying your time now! Have a fabulous trip and we look forward to keeping up to date with your adventures! xx
26-01-2011 om 20:51 geschreven door Layal from Pilates Nation
xx
