17 September 2024
(Tuesday) - Travelling Hopefully
Home
to Airport (Taxi) – 80 miles
Airport
to Tashkent (Flight) – 4000 miles
Airport
to Tashkent Wyndham Hotel (Coach) – 7 miles
In
the past we’ve fannied around when going to the
airport with the park and ride. This time we had a taxi collect us from home
and take us there.
We got to Heathrow airport and did the standard
farting about. Checking in bags, passport checks, body searches… eventually we
were through and with some time to spare we went to the Prince of Wales – the
pub in terminal four. “er indoors TM” had
fish and chips; I had the full English breakfast and a pint of Camden stout.
It wasn’t the best pint of Camden stout I’d ever had;
it was a shame that the barman let slip after the meal by asking if I wanted a
second pint of Guinness.
Pausing only briefly to get “er indoors TM” a
new handbag (she somehow destroyed her old one) we sat around waiting to
be called, and eventually we were on the plane. It has to
be said that Uzbekistan Airways put on a good show. The plane was spacious and every passenger had their own monitor on which
they culd play games and watch films and music. I
watched a “Ghostbusters” film. As I watched the air hostess came round
with wine and with a rather good bit of dinner.
We took off at mid-afternoon, but what with the
vagaries of time zones it was three in the morning by the time we landed. And
then we started the tedious process of passports and luggage. As I watched
loads of other people milling about I slipped off to
one of the nearby stalls and in less than ten minutes my old mobile was running
on Uzbek mobile data.
As the clock stormed past four am we realized we had a
minor hiccup in that no rep from the travel company could be found. Eventually
we found him outside the airport; it transpired that he wasn’t allowed inside
the arrivals area… if only we’d been told that.
The chap told us on which coach to get, and just as I
sat down so some random voice announced that she was very sorry
but she had lost all her luggage and had sent her husband to find it. Commotion
ensued, and then two minutes later the same voice announced that her luggage
was on the coach where her husband had put it, but her husband was now off in
pursuit of the luggage he’d put on the coach, and was
himself now lost.
With travelling done we rolled into bed as it got
light at six o’clock in the morning.