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Trip Start
Apr 17, 2006
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Trip End
Aug 05, 2006
Belfast,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
We still had 2 weeks left till our flight home. Shane was heading down to Sydney and Steve was waiting to go north still.
This would have mean't hanging about Brisbane for a week, with little money.
We decided to see could we bring our flights forward a week.
After checking with Malaysia Airlines, we found out that we could change our dates for free. Only hurdle was our class on the plane (the cheapest one) was fully booked but the plane had plenty of other seats free.
The only way we could get on was to arrive at the airport and chance our arm.
So we made our preparations.
Thankfully Shane was going to look after Homer, which was a big worry off our minds as we wanted to travel down south with the van when we get back - and then maybe sell it.
As we were keeping Homer we could leave some of our stuff in the van instead of bringing it home.
On Tuesday, Steve brought us up to the airport and we went to check in to see what we could do. Already Malaysia Airlines had proved to be an excellent airline to travel with so our hopes were high.
We spoke to the girl at the check in desk and she said to us she had to make a phone call to see, and to ignore everything she said on the call.
She spoke to someone in their head office in Malaysia and said we had a family emergency and needed to get home ASAP.
We were then booked the whole way through to Belfast.. for no cost.
Although we had over 24hrs of travelling ahead, we were glad to get the flights and looking forward to coming back to see everyone (more so because they didn't know we were coming!).
As it happened, my Mum and Stepdad who are in Thailand working were actually having a few days in Kuala Lumpur, so when we arrived in KL International Airport we were only a matter of miles away from them, but we couldn't leave the airport and their mobile was out of reception.
After the 3 hour wait in KL we were on the flight to London.
Another 12hrs later we were in Heathrow and another 3hour wait. Surprisingly we met our friend Eamon in Heathrow who just happened to be going to London for the day with work.
After the short flight home from London we arrived in Belfast at lunchtime on Wed 26th - 11 days early......
We went straight to STA travel to apply for our New Zealand Visa's and have provisionally booked a flight back on 3rd September to Australia, stopping in Thailand for 7 days.
We hope to speak (and see) you all soon!
Ciara and Paul
Comments
Glad you are safe
Hi Kids, Glad you got back to Ireland safe and well. Give our love to everyone there and wish Keiran and Christine all the best for the future. It's a big month for celebration for us as you know, but we will hold back on it until we see you in September. Love Mum and Andrew X