Close Call

Have you ever missed a flight? Especially a huge, international, 11 hour-long one? I never have - I didn't even think it was possible. I am a planner, and usually before travel I am paranoid enough to check my flight details a couple times. But, on Monday, it almost happend to us - we almost missed our flight to Thailand. Somehow, we both thought our flight was on Tuesday, the 22nd - we had completely forgotten that it was a two-day flight. Our flight would leave by 3pm Monday, the 21st, and arrive in Bangkok on the 22nd, at 7am.

A gorgeous park on the edge of Bangkok -
a wonderful green relief from the city

On Monday we lazily woke up, intending to let Devlin's sore throat heal, to do laundry, and to prepare for our flight the next day. Luckily for us, Devlin got a facebook text from the friend we would be meeting in Bangkok, Lynnea, with info about the hotel she was booking. She'd accidentally booked it for Monday, she said, forgetting that we wouldn't arrive until Tuesday.

Monday? We were leaving Monday?!? Devlin told me this at about 11am on Monday - we had four hours to completely pack, pull out the laundry (that was still going in the washer), and get from the suburbs of Istanbul across town to the airport (at least a 1.5 hour trip), before our check-in counter closed (by 2pm)!

Orchids growing on a tree in the park!

It was a scramble, but we managed to do it. The wet laundry went into a bag, we hurriedly ate some of the excellent leftovers our host had made the previous night, we scribbled down instructions to the airport, and we were off. One and a half hours later, after many bus/metro bus/subway transfers, and quite a few conversations with ever-helpful and kind Turkish people as to where we needed to get off, we arrived at the airport. After that, our flight was uneventful and smooth, and we arrived in Bangkok on schedule.

As I write this, we are in Cambodia... but our journey here is another story.