The Journey

An Update For All!!!

Well believe it or not we are now in Doha, Qatar and are slowly finding our feet; but our adventure started far before then…

After selling up nearly all our worldly possessions we headed off to Mackay for 10 days. Flight was no problem and Ashur proved himself to have no problem with flying. His first trip on a plane was taken in stride, and a display of a seasoned air traveller. Actually he was far more relaxed about the whole thing than Kerry who doesn’t really like take-offs, turbulence or landings… just the plane food!

Returning to Mackay is never something I fully enjoy as it always reminds me why I left the town in the first place. It is just so slow to progress. That isn’t to say there isn’t development and change, but behind the changes is still the same lives and attitudes. I suppose 13 years in Brisbane makes me too far removed from that life and lifestyle to appreciate it anymore.

Regardless of progression within and personally from Mackay, the main reason for heading north was to spend some time with mum and Geoff before heading to the MidEast. The house still feels like home and it was nice to have Kerry and Ashur in that environment (regardless of how worried we may have been that Ashur would break something). And it was fantastic to catch up with Chris and Saxon (only the 2nd time I had seen him; last was when he was under a year old I think).

The 10 days went very quickly in hindsight! After storing away the boxes we sent to the house of essential thing we didn’t want to sell or throw out (which as we looked through them really just ended up being bits and pieces of stuff), and finding a corner of the garage to locate the Ducati, we headed back to Brisbane. Sad farewells at Mackay airport.

Our final 2 days in Australia were spent in an apartment on Roma Street. Had plans to catch up, or at least get in contact with people before leaving but didn’t realise our final day was a public holiday. So as with everything else, time just got away from us. Before we knew it we were spending our last afternoon in Roma Street Parklands, and then our last evening at Kerry’s best friends place.

Headed out to the airport nice and early on Wednesday night, as all good travellers should, to check-in and meet up with those who had come to see us off. Well that was the plan anyway. It wasn’t until the check-in counter that we discovered one of our bags was overweight, so spent many frantic minutes trying to reorganise the contents of bags to distribute the weight. That was the easy part!

Next hurdle was finding out that because we were changing airlines in Singapore, if we checked our bags all the way through to Doha they would have to charge the full excess baggage rate for the Qatar Airways leg of the journey (about $2500). Of course the other option was to go through immigration in Singapore, collect our bags, then go through the whole process again to see if Qatar would allow the bags on. Obviously not a viable option to take with only 2 hours between flights with an over-tired 4-yr old at 5am.

When then spent the next 30 minutes in the middle of Brisbane airport culling 20 kilos of contents from our luggage! Just think of Kerry and I in the middle of the departure area beside a set of scales with 4 suitcases opened picking and choosing from our worldly possessions, throwing then randomly into a big striped shopping bag… then continually weighing the shopping bag trying to get it’s weight up to 20 kilos! Now that was a photo opportunity not one person grabbed which was a shame, but it will live in our memories! Lesson learnt – weigh bags if at all possible prior to getting to airports!

But all was ok in the end… no excess baggage charge… and (we think) everything we really needed remained. Unfortunately that only left us about 30 minutes to talk and say our farewells. Was probably better that way, but still time for sad farewells. Boarded our Singapore Airlines flight about 11pm. Flight was everything you expect from Singapore – comfy, good entertainment range and food.

Arrived at a hot and steamy Changi Airport about 5am. Had a very long hike from one end of one terminal to the far end of another. We are thankful for the travelators! Getting on the Qatar flight wasn’t the easiest thing to do… much walking and a bit of waiting around. Changi was still on a high level of security so everyone on our flight, which originated in Cebu had to get off the plane and go through security, and then once that was done, turn around and go back through security with those getting on at Singapore all over again.

Qatar Airways… what to say! They are one of only three airlines in the world that have a 5-star rating. Unfortunately we have yet to experience that. I am assuming it has more to do with the flight itself and where it originated from, as most of those who travelled from Europe have stated it was one of the best (if not the best) airline they have flown with! We will wait and see and leave our verdict until another flight.

M