And they're off...

Ok, so it's not quite the same as BBC's "Race Around the World", but it's more our version and at our pace!

So we left home early on Tuesday morning when the temperature was 3°C (but feeling like -3°C) and there was a gentle frost on the ground and a wintery chill in the air.

We headed to our local train station and got an Uber from there to the airport (no need for the taxi driver to know we were going to be away for a while). Of course, his nibs had also concocted a story as to where we were going, for how long, and in case we were asked. Thankfully, we had a very quiet driver, so no storytelling was needed.

Our first flight was to London Heathrow, then from London Heathrow to Doha and finally from Doha to Bangkok. Doha airport looked amazing and we planned to get some seats and take it in turns to have a quick look around the place. However, it was a long way to the Gates and by the time we had got there, discovered there were no seats, we decided it was not worth the effort to try and retrace our steps. Maybe on the return trip, we will get a chance to explore the airport a little.

Also important note: when the taxi driver asks you to send a photo so he knows exactly where you are when he comes to pick you up, don't send him a selfie of you and your wife beside the big teddy statue from Doha airport (yes my muppet of a husband did do that until I said "no.... it's a photo of us here he's looking for, so he can find us!" - I'll attribute that faux pas to R's sleep depravation).

It was a fairly long travel day lasting about 27 hours from leaving the house until we arrived at our accommodation, with the flight section of it lasting about 21 hours long. The temperature on arrival was 30°C, so quite a change from what we had left back home.

P.s. The middle photo was the flight from London to Bangkok that was flown by Captain John (and his mum, Mrs P).

After arriving in our apartment (which is fabulous by the way and I will cover a bit more in another post later), we quickly showered, changed and went out for a wander to try and adjust to the new time zone (Bangkok is 7hrs ahead of UK time) as we had read this is what you should do to help with the jetlag.

Nighttime view from our apartment

We are living in lovely residential apartment in the Thonglor area of the city, and it's about a 13 minute walk from the apartment to the Thong Lor BTS (Bangkok Mass Transit System) on the light green (Sukhumvit line). We can also use the complimentary shuttle bus from the apartment to the BTS but we haven't tried that yet.

We walked around the area for a bit, then grabbed a bite to eat in one of the many nearby restaurants. The one we tried was called Ramen Tenyo and we both enjoyed a very tasty meal there consisting of Katsu curry and Tori Shio Lemon with a couple of cold drinks for 670 Thai Baht (£15.29) and then headed home for some much needed Zzzzzzzzz.