Why does it seem further coming back than it does going? Our journey home took about 24 hours but seemed longer but we arrived home safe ... very tired.
Our driver arrived ahead of schedule to collect us from Imagine Villa and so after a final lunch by the crashing waves we paid the bill, said our good-byes and thank yous and headed towards Colombo. The hotel owner was delighted to give us a leaving gift of.. a branded mug..just what I need to add to my already overpacked bags. I'm afraid it didn't make it onto the plane...hoping the cleaners at the airport liked it enough to give it a home.
After all the over crowded, potholed, winding roads that cover most of Sri Lanka it seemed very strange to be driven onto an almost empty two lane expressway. After an hour or so I was a bit concerned that our taxi driver might fall asleep at the wheel as it was a monotonous drive and he did look a bit jaded. I therefore tried to keep him alert by chatting about the Sol road system, areas of interest, his work and anything that came to mind... I was pleased when he asked if he could stop for a cup of tea - I thought some caffeine might help with his concentration. Rather embarrassingly we had to ask for some money from him to be able to use the washrooms as we only had a 5000rps note. After about 2 hours the motorway came to an abrupt end - if you miss the slip road you'd get a shock as the road just stops high up on a bridge (big drop down). Apparently it will eventually link to the only other expressways (Colombo - Kandy and Colombo airport ringroad). Interestingly, the southern expressway seems to be conveniently placed to link the president's house in the south with the capital Colombo. Wonder why it was built on that route?
Anyway, back on the more usual overcrowded roads to play dodgems with the tuk tuks, street dogs, motor bikes and push bikes..and people (lots of everything) for the final part of the journey and arrived in one piece at the busy airport.
Bags are scanned at various points - the first scanner seemed to object to my suitcase because of aerosols in my washbag..I was asked to open it but I was obviously taking too long to do that as they then changed their mind and waved me through. I must remember to wear a non-wired bra next time I travel by air as I seem to set off all the body scanners and have to get frisked each time.
Because of the work they are doing to improve the airport at Colombo we had to check in 5 hours early. Emirates check in chap very moody and as I am "only a blue member of the Emirates skyward club" he was not at all interested in giving us an upgrade..I decided to give up on that challenge - just hope the flights are on time and we get a seat.
After making our way through emmigration and more security checks we found some rather uncomfortable seats near the duty free area to sit and wait..and wait..and wait.. To pass the time away a little retail therapy resulted in some gifts to take home (lots of tea ...and a t-shirt for Charlie).
Flight left Colombo on time but was a few minutes late getting to Dubai. Dubai airport is massive and usually you have to get a connecting flight from the opposite end from where you land. This usually involves lots of walking, escalators, lifts and a tube-like train. The trains must have been out of action as instead of us making our own way to our connecting flight's departure gate we were chaperoned by Emirates staff through various security checks and at least two long bus rides. As this involved waiting for groups of confused and tired people to be rounded up from time to time I could see that we were going to be late for our connecting flight. Emirates obviously knew this and held the flight until all passengers were on..what they didn't tell us was that not all the bags made it.
So at Birmingham, we waited for the bags..and waited..and waited..we got hopeful when mine arrived on the carousel..and waited..and waited.. as the baggage area emptied of people we realised that D's bag was not going to appear. Joining the queue to lodge our "property irregularity report" we realised we'd got off quite lightly only losing one bag on the return trip. Other people had missing bags on both the outward and return trip and had suffered long delays (either sitting on a plane for hours or having to stay overnight).
The logistics of getting luggage to the right destination with some many connections going to so many locations can't be easy but it looks as if the lost luggage delivery service is kept very busy. numerous bags were left on the carousel with no-one there to collect them..apparently those were the lost bags from yesterday - the owners having gone home the previous day bagless. To be fair to them we got a text message later to say the bag had been located and a phone call to Emirates confirmed it was on a plane from Dubai and would be delivered to us on Thursday. Which it was. Delivery guy explained that he was being kept very busy as the new very expensive IT system that Emirates have put in at Dubai doesn't actually work very well.
So home at last. My bag unpacked and washing in the machine. Quick bath and bed for a couple of hours for me. D tried the alternative way to beat the jet lag and stayed up to go through his post and emails. He was falling asleep by 7pm so gave in and went to bed expecting to wake far too early but we were both woken at 7am by my alarm.
So back to normal routine on Thursday. Long day at the office for me. D working from home and multi-tasking dealing with the tesco delivery, his washing (after his bag arrived) and cooking a very welcome spag bol for dinner.
So bags are now unpacked, clothes clean and we are back to the normal routine. Just a few gifts to distribute when we see the family.
Now looking forward to the arrival of baby bump Mellor next month..and maybe a puppy for the summer..then where shall we go next year? It's going to have to be very good to beat Sri Lanka.
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